U.S. – Time Rewind

On This Day April 25

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On This Day March 24

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Celebrity Birthdays

1874 – Magician and escape artist Harry Houdini, born Ehrich Weisz (d. 1926)

1930 – Actor and auto racer Steve McQueen, nicknamed the “King of Cool” (“The Magnificent Seven,” “The Great Escape,” “The Sand Pebbles,” “Bullitt,” “The Getaway,” “The Towering Inferno”) (d. 1980)

1951 – Fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger

1970 – Actress Lara Flynn Boyle (“Twin Peaks,” “The Practice,” “Men In Black II”)

1973 – Emmy-winning actor Jim Parsons (“Garden State,” “The Big Bang Theory,” “Hidden Figures”)

1974 – Actress Alyson Hannigan (“American Pie,” “Buffy The Vampire Slayer,” “How I Met Your Mother”)

1976 – Retired star NFL quarterback and actor Peyton Manning, who set records for most career passing yards and most career passing touchdowns while playing for the Indianapolis Colts and Denver Broncos

History Highlights

1965 – NASA’s Ranger 9 spacecraft beams the first video images of the moon down to Earth before making a planned crash-landing on the lunar surface.

1977 – For the first time since severing diplomatic relations in 1961, Cuba and the U.S. enter into direct negotiations when the two nations discuss fishing rights.

1989 – The tanker Exxon Valdez runs aground in Prince William Sound off Alaska and spills 11 million gallons of crude oil into one of nature’s richest habitats, eventually contaminating 1,300 miles of coastline. This was the largest oil spill in U.S. waters until the 2010 Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico caused a 168-million-gallon spill.

1996 – Astronaut Shannon Lucid begins the first full day of a five-month stay aboard the Russian space station Mir. She transfers from the space shuttle Atlantis, becoming the first female American astronaut to live on a space station.

2002 – Halle Berry becomes the first African-American performer to win a Best Actress Oscar (for “Monster’s Ball”) and only the second African-American actress ever to be honored by the Academy (the first was Hattie McDaniel, who won for her supporting role in 1939’s “Gone With the Wind”).

Musical Milestones

1958 – Elvis Presley swaps his blue suede shoes for military boots as he reports for duty in U.S. Army as a private at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas. The King achieves the rank of sergeant in February 1960, and a month later, is honorably discharged from active duty at the age of 25.

1962 – Bruce Channel wraps up his three-week run at No. 1 on the pop chart with “Hey! Baby.”

1973 – “Love Train” by the O’Jays steams its way to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

1979 – The Bee Gees have the No. 1 single on the radio with “Tragedy,” off their “Spirits Having Flown” album.

1986 – Howard Jones releases “No One Is To Blame” in the U.S. It goes on to become his biggest-selling single.

1992 – A class-action lawsuit against Milli Vanilli’s record label is resolved when a judge approves a plan to refund up to $3 to everyone who bought the pop duo’s music before November 27, 1990 — the date they admitted to not actually singing their songs. Fans who bought tickets to a Milli Vanilli concert could claim a rebate of up to $2.50.

2001 – One-hit-wonder Crazy Town has the No. 1 single for a week with “Butterfly,” which features a sample of “Pretty Little Ditty” from the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

On This Day March 21

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Celebrity Birthdays

1685 – Classical composer Johann Sebastian Bach (d. 1750)

1944 – Actor Timothy Dalton, who played James Bond in two films

1949 – Singer-songwriter Eddie Money, born Edward Mahoney (“Baby Hold On,” “Two Tickets to Paradise”, “Take Me Home Tonight”) (d. 2019)

1958 – Actor Gary Oldman (“Sid and Nancy,” “JFK,” “Bram Stoker’s Dracula,” “The Fifth Element,” “Air Force One,” played Sirius Black in the “Harry Potter” series, “Batman Begins” and “The Dark Knight” trilogy, “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,” “The Book of Eli,” “Darkest Hour”)

1962 – Emmy-winning comedian-TV host-actress Rosie O’Donnell (“The Rosie O’Donnell Show,” “The View,” “A League of Their Own,” “Sleepless in Seattle,” “Now and Then”)

1962 – Tony-winning actor Matthew Broderick (“War Games,” “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” “Biloxi Blues,” “Glory,” “The Freshman,” “Inspector Gadget,” “The Producers,” “Tower Heist,” “Rules Don’t Apply”)

History Highlights

1947 – With fears about communism swirling across the U.S., President Harry Truman signs Executive Order 9835. It creates a Loyalty Program to investigate federal employees to determine if they demonstrated “complete and unswerving loyalty” to the United States.

1965 – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. leads some 3,200 civil rights activists on a five-day march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. Federalized Alabama National Guardsmen and FBI agents supervise the procession, which Alabama state police had previously blocked at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma.

1980 – President Jimmy Carter announces a U.S. boycott of the Summer Olympics in Moscow to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

1980 – In the Season 3 finale of CBS’ hit prime time drama “Dallas,” an unseen assailant shoots bad-boy J.R. Ewing (played by Larry Hagman), who falls to the floor of his office before the scene fades to black. The episode, entitled “A House Divided,” becomes one of the most talked about season finales of all time, sparking the “Who Shot J.R.” craze. Some 160 million fans wait eight months to learn the identity of the shooter in Season 4.

1994 – Eleven-year-old Anna Paquin is stunned when actor Gene Hackman announces that she has won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in “The Piano.” Paquin becomes the second youngest Oscar winner of all time.

1999 – Aviators Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones complete the first non-stop around-the-world flight in a hot air balloon, making aviation history.

Musical Milestones

1953 – “(How Much is) That Doggie in the Window” launches Patti Page on an eight-week ride at No. 1 on the singles chart.

1964 – The Beatles rule the Billboard Hot 100 with “She Loves You” — the second of three consecutive hits that keep the Fab Four on top of the singles chart through early May of that year.

1970 – Simon & Garfunkel remain suspended at No. 1 on the singles chart with “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” The track holds there for a total of six weeks.

1981 – REO Speedwagon clinches the top spot on the singles chart with “Keep On Loving You,” the group’s first Top 40 hit and No. 1.

1992 – Vanessa Williams kicks off five weeks on top of the Billboard pop chart with “Save the Best for Last.”

1994 – Bruce Springsteen performs “Streets of Philadelphia” during the 66th Academy Awards, and a short time later, is handed a Best Original Song Oscar for it. It’s from the movie “Philadelphia,” for which Tom Hanks won Best Actor. The track goes on to capture four Grammys.

1998 – Will Smith maintains his hold on the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for a second week with “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It.”

On This Day March 2

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Celebrity Birthdays

1793 – American statesman Sam Houston, best known for his role in bringing Texas into the United States as a constituent state (d. 1863)

1904 – Children’s book author and illustrator Theodor “Dr. Seuss” Geisel (“If I Ran the Zoo,” “Horton Hears a Who!” “If I Ran the Circus,” “The Cat in the Hat,” “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” “Green Eggs and Ham”) (d. 1991)

1917 – Actor Desi Arnaz, best known for playing Ricky Ricardo in the sitcom “I Love Lucy,” which starred his wife, Lucille Ball (d. 1986)

1931 – Former Soviet President and Nobel laureate Mikhail Gorbachev

1942 – Rock-punk singer-songwriter-guitarist Lou Reed, originally of the 60s band Velvet Underground and solo artist (“Walk on the Wild Side”) (d. 2013)

1950 – Pop sensation Karen Carpenter of the 70s sibling duo Carpenters (d. 1983)

1962 – Bon Jovi frontman Jon Bon Jovi (“Dead or Alive”, “Livin’ On A Prayer”, “You Give Love A Bad Name”, “Blaze Of Glory”), born John Francis Bongiovi, Jr.

1968 – Actor Daniel Craig, best known for playing British spy James Bond

1980 – Actress-comedian Rebel Wilson (“Bridesmaids,” “Pitch Perfect,” “Pitch Perfect 2,” “How To Be Single”)

History Highlights

1836 – The Republic of Texas declares its independence from Mexico. A convention of American Texans meets at Washington-on-the-Brazos (today commonly referred to as “the birthplace of Texas”) and confirms Sam Houston as the commander in chief of all Texan forces.

1925 – State and federal highway officials create the United States’ first system of numbered interstate highways.

1933 – The horror film “King Kong,” about the giant ape that runs loose across Manhattan, opens at New York’s Radio City Music Hall. Screenings sell out for the first four days.

1949 – The first automatic street light is installed in New Milford, Connecticut.

1955 – Nine months before Rosa Parks’ famous act of civil disobedience, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin is arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated Montgomery, Alabama bus. Colvin was traveling home from school when the driver ordered her and three fellow Black students to give up their row of seats to a White passenger.

1962 – Wilt Chamberlain sets the single-game scoring record in the NBA by scoring 100 points for the Philadelphia Warriors in a match against the New York Knicks.

1965 – “The Sound of Music,” starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, based on the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical about the Von Trapp family, opens in New York. The movie goes on to capture five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director (Robert Wise).

1972 – NASA launches Pioneer 10 — the first spacecraft to pass through the asteroid belt and the first to make direct observations and capture close-up images of Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system.

1978 – Three months after his death, grave robbers steal the corpse of silent film legend Charlie Chaplin from a Swiss cemetery and demand $600,000 for its safe return.

Musical Milestones

1963 – “Walk Like a Man,” by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, starts a three-week run at No. 1 on the Billboard singles chart. It is the band’s third chart-topping hit.

1967 – The Beatles win three Grammys for records issued the previous year: Best Song for “Michelle,” Best Vocal Performance for “Eleanor Rigby” and Best Cover Artwork for the album design of “Revolver” by Klaus Voormann.

1974 – “Seasons in the Sun,” by one-hit wonder Terry Jacks, claims the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 and stays there for three weeks.

1974 – At the 16th Annual Grammy Awards, Stevie Wonder captures five honors: Album of the Year and Best Engineered Recording for “Innervisions,” Best R&B Song and Best Vocal for “Superstition,” and Pop Vocal Performance for “You Are The Sunshine Of My Life.”

1974 – Roberta Flack wins Record of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance Grammys for “Killing Me Softly with His Song.” The track also garners a Song of the Year Grammy for its writers, Norman Gimbel and Charles Fox.

1985 – “Careless Whisper,” by Wham! featuring George Michael, begins its third and final week at No. 1 on the singles chart.

1985 – Sheena Easton becomes the first musical artist ever to land Top 10 hits on the pop, R&B, country, dance and adult contemporary charts when “Sugar Walls,” written by Prince, reaches No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100. That is the song that sparked the Parental Advisory music labeling system (listen carefully to the lyrics and you’ll know why).

1999 – Acclaimed British pop vocalist Dusty Springield (“I Only Want To Be With You,” “You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me”) dies at the age of 59 following a five-year battle with breast cancer.

2002 – “Always on Time,” by Ja Rule featuring Ashanti, enters its second and final week as a No. 1 single.

On This Day February 22

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Celebrity Birthdays

1732 – First U.S. President George Washington (d. 1799)

1907 – Actor Robert Young (“Father Knows Best,” “Marcus Welby, M.D.”) (d. 1998)

1932 – Massachusetts Senator Edward (Ted) Kennedy (d. 2009)

1944 – Oscar-winning director Jonathan Demme (“Melvin and Howard,” “Swing Shift,” “Married to the Mob,” “The Silence of the Lambs,” “Philadelphia”)

1950 – Retired NBA legend Julius “Dr. J” Erving

1959 – Golden Globe-winning actor Kyle MacLachlan (“Dune,” “Blue Velvet,” “Twin Peaks,” “Sex and the City,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Portlandia”)

1966 – Comedian and “Saturday Night Live” (“SNL”) alum Rachel Dratch

1975 – Golden Globe-winning actress, producer and director Drew Barrymore (“E.T.: The Extraterrestrial,” “Boys on the Side,” “Charlie’s Angels,” “50 First Dates,” “Grey Gardens,” “Blended”)

History Highlights

1959 – In a photo finish, Lee Petty emerges as the winner of the first Daytona 500 auto race.

1980 – One of the most dramatic upsets in Olympics history takes place in Lake Placid, New York. In what is known as “The Miracle on Ice,” the underdog U.S. hockey team, made up of college players, defeats the four-time defending Gold medal-winning Soviet team 4-3 at the XIII Olympic Winter Games.

1987 – Pop art pioneer, filmmaker and cultural icon Andy Warhol dies at the age of 58.

2014 – One of the world’s most-wanted criminals, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera — head of the Sinaloa cartel, the world’s biggest drug trafficking organization — is arrested in a joint U.S.-Mexican operation in Mexico, after outrunning authorities for more than a decade.

Musical Milestones

1960 – Percy Faith starts a nine-week run at No. 1 on the singles chart with “Theme From A Summer Place.”

1975 – The Average White Band scores No. 1 on the singles chart with “Pick Up The Pieces,” while the album containing that track, “AWB,” tops the Billboard album chart.

1989 – Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Tina Turner, wins the Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocalist for her “Tina Live in Europe” album.

1990 – Milli Vanilli (Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan) win the Grammy Award for Best New Artist. Nine months later, they are stripped of the honor after they are caught lip-syncing and admit they never sang a single note on the acclaimed “Girl You Know It’s True” album.

1992 – “I’m Too Sexy,” by British band Right Said Fred, marks its third and final week as a No. 1 single.

1997 – The Spice Girls begin four weeks as Billboard chart-toppers with “Wannabe,” the band’s debut single.

1998 – Madonna releases the Grammy-winning “Ray of Light.” With its use of electronica and techno-pop, the album represents a departure from Madonna’s traditional sound. It contains the hits “Frozen,” “Ray of Light” and “The Power of Good-Bye.”

2003 – “All I Have,” by Jennifer Lopez featuring LL Cool J, rules the Billboard Hot 100. Lopez goes on to name her 2016 Las Vegas Residency Show after the song.

On This Day February 15

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Celebrity Birthdays

1564 – Scientist Galileo Galilei (generally referred to as Galileo), a major figure in the scientific revolution, who made pioneering discoveries that advanced the study of astronomy, physics and philosophy (d. 1642)

1820 – Suffragette reformer and women’s rights activist Susan B. Anthony (d. 1906)

1927 – Emmy-winning comedian Harvey Korman (“The Carol Burnett Show,” “Blazing Saddles”) (d. 2008)

1951 – Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Melissa Manchester (“Midnight Blue,” “Don’t Cry Out Loud, “Through the Eyes of Love”)

1951 – Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actress Jane Seymour (“Somewhere in Time,” “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman,” “Wedding Crashers”)

1954 – Cartoonist Matt Groening, best known for creating “The Simpsons”

1964 – Actor-comedian Chris Farley (“Saturday Night Live,” “Wayne’s World,” “Tommy Boy,” “Black Sheep,” “Beverly Hills Ninja”) (d. 1997)

History Highlights

1879 – President Rutherford B. Hayes signs a bill allowing female attorneys to argue cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.

1898 – The battleship USS Maine explodes and sinks in Havana (Cuba) Harbor, killing more than 260 crewmen. The incident prompts the U.S. to declare war on Spain.

1903 – The first teddy bear, named for U.S. President Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt, goes on sale. Toy store owner and inventor Morris Michtom places two stuffed bears in his shop window after personally getting Roosevelt’s permission to name them after him.

1933 – Two weeks before his inauguration, President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt is fired upon by a would-be assassin after giving a speech in Miami. FDR is unharmed, but a bullet strikes Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak, who dies three weeks later.

1965 – A new red-and-white maple leaf design is adopted as the flag of Canada, replacing the old Canadian Red Ensign banner.

1978 – Leon Spinks takes the heavyweight boxing champion title away from defending champ Muhammad Ali in a split decision in Las Vegas.

1985 – “The Breakfast Club” opens in U.S. theaters. Directed by John Hughes and starring Molly Ringwald, Emilio Estevez, Judd Nelson, Anthony Michael Hall and Ally Sheedy — members of the so-called “Brat Pack” — it becomes an ’80s movie classic. In 2016, the film is selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by The Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

1998 – Racing great Dale Earnhardt, Sr. wins his first Daytona 500, the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) season opener and an event dubbed the “Super Bowl of stock car racing.”

Musical Milestones

1964 – “Meet The Beatles!” reaches No. 1 on the Billboard album chart, becoming The Beatles’ first chart-topping album in the U.S. It holds the top spot for eleven weeks and sells more than four million copies by the end of that year.

1965 – The Beatles record “Another Girl” and “Ticket to Ride” for the “Help!” album. Earlier that day, John Lennon earns a personal ticket to ride by passing his driving test.

1965 – Entertainer Nat King Cole (“Unforgettable,” “Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer,” “The Christmas Song,” “Mona Lisa”), who earned early acclaim as a jazz pianist and became the first African American performer to host a network TV variety show, dies of lung cancer at the age of 45.

1969 – Sly & the Family Stone rule the Billboard singles chart with “Everyday People,” which remains at No. 1 for four weeks.

1975 – “You’re No Good,” by Linda Ronstadt, is the No. 1 single.

1984 – Beloved actress-singer Ethel Merman, best known for her rendition of “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” from the musical “Annie Get Your Gun,” dies at the age of 75.

1986 – “How Will I Know,” by Whitney Houston, becomes the most popular single in the U.S. for two weeks.

1992 – One-hit-wonder Right Said Fred is in the middle of three weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 with “I’m Too Sexy.”

2003 – “All I Have,” by Jennifer Lopez featuring LL Cool J, is midway through a four-week run at No. 1 on the singles chart.

On This Day December 20

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Celebrity Birthdays

1881 – Baseball Hall of Famer Branch Rickey, the Brooklyn Dodgers coach who introduced Jackie Robinson, the farm club system and the batting helmet to baseball (d. 1965)

1898 – Actress Irene Dunne (“Showboat, “Anna and the King of Siam,” “Love Affair”) (d. 1990)

1932 – Actor John Hillerman (Higgins in the 1980s “Magnum, P.I.” series) (d. 2017)

1945 – Peter Criss, founding member and original drummer for the rock n’ roll supergroup, KISS

1946 – TV producer Dick Wolf (“Miami Vice,” “Law & Order”)

1957 – Singer-songwriter Billy Bragg (“She’s Leaving Home,” “We Laughed”)

1970 – Director-producer Todd Phillips (“The Hangover” series, “Due Date,” “Road Trip,” “Starsky & Hutch”)

1983 – Actor-comedian Jonah Hill (“Superbad,” “Knocked Up,” “21 Jump Street,” “This Is the End,” “22 Jump Street,” “Moneyball,” “The Wolf of Wall Street”)

History Highlights

1803 – One of the greatest real estate deals in history is completed as France turns over more than a million square miles of the Louisiana Territory to the U.S. for a price equal to about $20 per square mile.

1963 – More than two years after construction of the Berlin Wall by East Germany to prevent citizens from fleeing its communist regime, the wall is temporarily opened for the holidays. Nearly 4,000 West Berliners are granted one-day passes to cross into East Berlin to visit relatives. The wall is sealed off again on January 5, 1964.

1968 – Pulitzer Prize-winning author and Nobel laureate John Steinbeck, best known for works like “East of Eden,” “Of Mice and Men” and “The Grapes of Wrath,” dies at the age of 66.

1989 – Michael Moore’s documentary “Roger & Me,” about the economic toll General Motors’ factory closings and layoffs had on his hometown of Flint, Michigan, opens in theaters. It launches Moore’s career as a filmmaker.

1989 – The U.S. invades Panama in an effort to overthrow military dictator Manuel Noriega.

Musical Milestones

1957 – Rock and Roll legend Elvis Presley is served his draft notice by the U.S. Army. Three months later, he ships out to the Company “D” 1st Tank Battalion 32nd Armor Corps based in Germany.

1969 – Peter, Paul and Mary top the Billboard Hot 100 with “Leaving on a Jet Plane.” The song, written by John Denver, becomes the trio’s only No. 1 single and final hit recording.

1973 – The talent behind hits like “Dream Lover,” “Mack the Knife” and “Beyond the Sea” — teen idol Bobby Darin — dies at the age of 37 following open heart surgery.

1975 – “That’s the Way (I Like It),” by KC and the Sunshine Band, is the No. 1 single.

1986 – The Bangles start a four-week run on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “Walk Like an Egyptian.” That makes the track the final No. 1 single of 1986 and the first of 1987.

1997 – Elton John’s updated version of “Candle in the Wind,” a tribute to Princess Diana, maintains its hold on the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100.

On This Day November 8

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Celebrity Birthdays

1847 – Bram Stoker, author of the legendary horror novel “Dracula” (d. 1912)

1900 – Pulitzer Prize-winning “Gone With the Wind” author Margaret Mitchell (d. 1949)

1927 – 1950s pop sensation Patti Page (“Tennessee Waltz,” “(How Much Is That) Doggie in the Window,” “Old Cape Cod”) (d. 2013)

1931 – CBS “60 Minutes” correspondent Morley Safer (d. 2016)

1949 – Grammy-winning blues-rock singer-songwriter Bonnie Raitt (“Something to Talk About,” “Love Sneakin’ Up on You,” “I Can’t Make You Love Me”)

1950 – Mary Hart, born Mary Johanna Harum, who hosted the syndicated TV show “Entertainment Tonight” for nearly 30 years

1952 – Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actress Alfre Woodard (“Hill Street Blues,” “St. Elsewhere,” “Passion Fish,” “Crooklyn,” “How to Make an American Quilt,” “Miss Evers’ Boys,” “The Practice,” “12 Years a Slave”)

1961 – 1970s teen heartthrob Leif Garrett (“Runaround Sue” and “The Wanderer,” “I Was Made For Dancin”)

1968 – Actress Parker Posey (“Kicking and Screaming,” “Waiting for Guffman,” “The Daytrippers,” “You’ve Got Mail,” “Scream 3,” “Superman Returns,” “Irrational Man,” “Café Society”)

History Highlights

1895 – German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen discovers the X-ray, a scientific advancement that would revolutionize the fields of physics and medicine. He is awarded the first Nobel Prize in physics in 1901 for his discovery.

1939 – Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler survives an attempted assassination when the bomb intended to kill him during a speech at a Munich beer hall goes off 13 minutes after he leaves the building.

1960 – At age 43, John F. Kennedy becomes the youngest man ever and the first Catholic to be elected president of the United States, as he narrowly defeats Republican Vice President Richard Nixon. Kennedy’s first term is cut short when an assassin guns him down three years later as his motorcade passes through downtown Dallas, Texas.

1965 – A new soap opera hits American television. It’s “Days of Our Lives” on NBC. Still on the air today, it is one of the longest-running scripted TV programs in the world.

1966 – Actor Ronald Reagan, who goes on to become the 40th U.S. president, is elected governor of California. He defeats Democratic incumbent Pat Brown by nearly a million votes.

1978 – The world mourns the death of artist Norman Rockwell at age 84. Rockwell was best known for the cover illustrations he produced for The Saturday Evening Post magazine for nearly 50 years.

Musical Milestones

1969 – “Wedding Bell Blues,” by The 5th Dimension, begins three weeks as a No. 1 single. Written by Laura Nyro, it is the band’s second chart-topping hit.

1975 – Elton John’s “Rock of the Westies” debuts at No. 1 on the U.S. album chart — the same thing that happened with his “Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy” album six months earlier.

1975 – David Bowie makes his American television debut on the “Cher” variety show on CBS. He performs “Fame” as well as a medley with Cher that includes “Young Americans.”

1980 – Bruce Springsteen’s double LP, “The River,” flows to the top of the Billboard album chart, where it remains for four weeks. Among the work’s 20 tracks is “Hungry Heart,” The Boss’ first No. 1 single.

1986 – Boston has its first and only No. 1 single with “Amanda,” off the rock band’s “Third Stage” album, which was actually recorded in 1980. The power ballad holds the top spot for two weeks.

1997 – Elton John’s tribute to the late Diana, Princess of Wales — “Candle in the Wind 1997” — continues its 14-week ride at the top of the singles chart.

2008 – AC/DC begin two weeks on top of the Billboard album chart with “Black Ice,” the band’s 15th studio album. While the album garners a Grammy nomination, it’s the track “War Machine” that actually captures a Best Hard Rock Performance Grammy — AC/DC’s first-ever Grammy Award.

On This Day September 7

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Celebrity Birthdays

1860 – Folk artist Grandma Moses (d, 1861)

1936 – Rock and roll legend Buddy Holly (d. 1959)

1949 – Singer Gloria Gaynor, best known for her disco smash “I Will Survive”

1950 – Actress and voice artist Julie Kavner, best recognized as the voice of TV’s Marge Simpson

1951 – Pretenders founder and lead singer Chrissie Hynde

1954 – Actor Corbin Bernsen (“L.A. Law,” “Psych”)

1956 – Singer-pianist Michael Feinstein, known for his interpretation of the Great American Songbook

1987 – Actress Evan Rachel Wood (“Thirteen,” “Across The Universe,” “The Wrestler,” “Whatever Works,” “The Ides of March”)

History Highlights

1813 – The United States gets its nickname, “Uncle Sam.” The name is linked to Samuel Wilson, a meat packer from Troy, New York, who supplied barrels of beef to the U.S. Army during the War of 1812. Wilson stamped the barrels with “U.S.” for United States, but soldiers began referring to their rations as “Uncle Sam’s.”

1965 – Hurricane Betsy churns across extreme southern Florida en route to Louisiana where it kills 76 people and triggers widespread flooding. She’s the first hurricane to cause more than a billion dollars in damage, earning the nickname “Billion-Dollar Betsy.”

1968 – Fifty women led by the New York Radical Women feminist group stages the first protest against the Miss America pageant.

1977 – President Jimmy Carter signs a treaty granting Panama control over the Panama Canal beginning in the year 2000. The treaty ends an agreement signed in 1904 between then-President Theodore Roosevelt and Panama, which gave the U.S. the right to build the canal and a renewable lease to control five miles of land along either side of it.

1979 – The sports network ESPN debuts on cable TV.

1980 – The 33rd annual Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony takes place, with statues going to the producers of “Taxi” and “Lou Grant” and performers Ed Asner and Barbara Bel Geddes — Asner for his starring role as newspaper editor Lou Grant, and Bel Geddes for her role as Miss Ellie, the Ewing family matriarch in the prime time soap “Dallas.”

1986 – Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu becomes the first black man to lead the Anglican Church in South Africa.

Musical Milestones

1936 – Rock ‘n’ roll legend Buddy Holly is born Charles Hardin Holley in Lubbock, Texas. He produces a string of hits before his death at age 22 in a 1959 plane crash that also claims the lives of musical greats Ritchie Valens and “The Big Bopper” (J.P. Richardson).

1968 – The Rascals are in the midst of a five-week domination of the Billboard Hot 100 with “People Got to Be Free.”

1974 – “(You’re) Having My Baby,” by Paul Anka and Odia Coates, wraps up three weeks on top of the singles chart.

1978 – Acclaimed drummer Keith Moon of the British rock band The Who dies of a drug overdose at the age of 32.

1985 – The theme from the movie “St. Elmo’s Fire” (“Man In Motion”), by John Parr, is the No. 1 single.

1994 – With TV host David Letterman as her escort, Madonna hands Aerosmith the Best Video award for “Cryin’” during the MTV Video Music Awards at New York’s Radio City Music Hall.

2001 – Michael Jackson is reunited onstage with the Jackson Five at his 30th Anniversary Celebration in New York City’s Madison Square Garden.

2002 – “Dilemma,” by Nelly featuring Kelly Rowland, rules the Billboard Hot 100.

2003 – Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Warren Zevon (“Werewolves of London,” “Lawyers, Guns and Money”) dies of lung cancer at the age of 56. Ironically, Zevon earned the Grammys posthumously for his final album, “The Wind,” which was released just two weeks before his death.

2013 – “Blurred Lines,” by Robin Thicke featuring T.I. and Pharrell, enters its 12th and final week as a Billboard chart-topper.

On this Day June 15

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Celebrity Birthdays

1937 – Country music singer-songwriter Waylon Jennings (d. 2002)

1954 – Actor and comedian Jim Belushi (“Curly Sue,” “According to Jim”)

1963 – Oscar, Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actress Helen Hunt (“Mad About You,” “Twister,” “As Good As It Gets”)

1964 – Actress-producer Courteney Cox (“Friends,” “Scream,” “Cougar Town”)

1969 – Rapper-turned-actor and filmmaker Ice Cube, born O’Shea Jackson (“Straight Outta Compton,” “Boyz n the Hood,” “Friday, “Three Kings,” “Barbershop,” “21 Jump Street”)

1973 – Emmy and Tony-winning actor Neil Patrick Harris (“Doogie Howser, M.D.,” “How I Met Your Mother,” “Hedwig and the Angry Inch”)

History Highlights

1215 – Following a revolt by the English nobility against his rule, King John puts his royal seal on the Magna Carta (“Great Charter”). The document, essentially a peace treaty between John and his barons, guaranteed that the king would respect feudal rights and privileges, uphold the freedom of the church, and maintain the nation’s laws.

1846 – Representatives of the United States and Great Britain sign the Oregon Treaty, establishing the boundary between the U.S. and Canada.

1877 – Henry Ossian Flipper, born a slave in Thomasville, Georgia, becomes the first black cadet to graduate from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York.

1917 – Two months after America formally enters World War I Congress passes the Espionage Act. The measure makes it a crime for any person to convey information intended to interfere with the U.S. armed forces’ prosecution of the war effort or to promote the success of the country’s enemies.

1934 – Great Smoky Mountains National Park is established, straddling North Carolina and Tennessee.

1955 – The Eisenhower administration stages the first Operation Alert (OPAL) exercise, an attempt to assess America’s preparations for a nuclear attack.

1969 – The variety show “Hee Haw” premieres on CBS and continues through 1971 before starting a 21-year run in syndication. The show centered around country music and rural culture.

1986 – Auto racing legend Richard Petty makes the 1,000th start of his National Association for Stock Car Racing (NASCAR) career, becoming the first driver to do so.

Musical Milestones

1963 – Japanese singer Kyu Sakamoto begins a three-week domination of the U.S. pop chart with “Sukiyaki.” Two decades later, in 1981, the band A Taste of Honey — which gave us the disco hit “Boogie Oogie Oogie” — releases its English-language version of the song and takes it to No. 3 on the pop chart.

1965 – Bob Dylan records one of the defining songs of his career: “Like a Rolling Stone.” The track is credited with transforming Dylan’s image from folk singer to rock star, and is considered one of the most influential compositions in postwar popular music. “Rolling Stone” magazine named it the best song of all time.

1974 – One-hit wonder Bo Donaldson claims a two-week hold on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “Billy, Don’t Be a Hero.”

1985 – “Around the World in a Day,” by Prince and the Revolution, begins its third and final week atop the Billboard album chart. The album contains the hits “Paisley Park and “Raspberry Beret.”

1989 – Nirvana’s debut album, “Bleach,” is released in the U.S., but doesn’t gain much traction until after the grunge band’s “Nevermind” album is released three years later.

1996 – “The First Lady of Song,” Ella Fitzgerald, dies at the age of 79. Fitzgerald was the most popular female jazz singer in the United States for more than half a century, winning 13 Grammy awards and selling more than 40 million albums.

2002 – Ashanti’s debut single, “Foolish,” is in the midst of a 10-week run on top of the Billboard Hot 100. Her accompanying music video features actor Terrence Howard.