West Virginia – Time Rewind

On This Day February 26

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On This Day November 25

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Celebrity Birthdays

1835 – Philanthropist Andrew Carnegie (d. 1919)

1914 – New York Yankees Hall of Fame outfielder Joe DiMaggio (d. 1999)

1920 – Emmy-winning actor Ricardo Montalban, best known for playing Mr. Rourke on ABC’s “Fantasy Island” and Captain Kirk’s nemesis in “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan”) (d. 2009)

1944 – Economist-turned-presidential speechwriter-turned actor, comedian and Emmy-winning game show host Ben Stein (“Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, “Win Ben Stein’s Money”)

1947 – Emmy-winning actor John Larroquette (“Night Court,” “The John Larroquette Show,” “The West Wing,” “Boston Legal”)

1960 – Publisher and presidential son John F. Kennedy, Jr. (d. 1999)

1960 – Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Amy Grant (“Next Time I Fall,” “Baby, Baby”)

1971 – Emmy-winning actress Christina Applegate (“Married… with Children,” “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead,” “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy” and its sequel, “Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues”)

History Highlights

1947 – Film industry executives announce that 10 directors, producers and actors — the so-called “Hollywood Ten” — who refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee, will be fired or suspended.

1950 – A killer blizzard that comes to be known as “The Storm of the Century” paralyzes the eastern U.S. from western Pennsylvania and Ohio to New England and the Appalachians with heavy snow, 100-mile-per-hour winds and sub-zero temperatures. Coburn Creek, West Virginia receives the greatest snowfall: 62 inches. The storm claims more than 350 lives and becomes one of the costliest on record.

1973 – In response to the oil crisis, President Richard Nixon calls for a Sunday ban on the sale of gasoline to consumers. The proposal is part of a larger plan announced earlier in the month to achieve energy self-sufficiency in the U.S. by 1980.

1986 – The Iran-Contra scandal comes to light, as U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese announces that profits from covert weapons sales to Iran were illegally diverted to the anti-communist Contra rebels in Nicaragua. An investigation determines that the diversion of those funds had no direct link to then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan.

Musical Milestones

1965 – Harrods department store in London closes to the public for two hours so The Beatles can go Christmas shopping. Sadly, with Christmas still four weeks away, the Fab Four end up giving away all the gifts they bought during their spree.

1967 – “Incense and Peppermints,” by Strawberry Alarm Clock. is on top of the Billboard Hot 100.

1976 – The Band give their final performance at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. The show also features Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Van Morrison, Neil Diamond, Eric Clapton and other rock legends. Director Martin Scorsese films the event and releases it as a documentary called “The Last Waltz.”

1989 – Milli Vanilli start a two-week run at No. 1 on the singles chart with “Blame It On The Rain,” the duo’s third No. 1 of the year.

1992 – “The Bodyguard” opens in theaters, starring Whitney Houston in her first acting role, and Kevin Costner. The soundtrack becomes the best-selling soundtrack of all time, with many of the songs dominating the pop chart.

1995 – Whitney Houston scores her 11th No. 1 single with “Exhale (Shoop Shoop),” off the “Waiting To Exhale” movie soundtrack. The song was written and produced by Babyface.

2003 – Pop music legend Michael Jackson is arrested on suspicion of child molestation. He posts a $3 million bond and is released less than an hour later.

On this Day July 22

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Celebrity Birthdays

1940 – Emmy-winning “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek (d. 2020)

1946 – Actor-director Danny Glover (“Lethal Weapon” series, “The Color Purple,” “Angels in the Outfield,” “2012,” “Death at a Funeral”)

1947 – Grammy-winning singer-songwriter, guitarist, drummer and Eagles co-founder Don Henley (“Dirty Laundry”, “The Boys of Summer”, “All She Wants to Do Is Dance”, “The Heart of the Matter”, “The Last Worthless Evening”, “Sunset Grill”, “New York Minute” and “The End of the Innocence”)

1949 – Oscar, Grammy and Golden Globe-winning composer Alan Menken, known for his many Disney movie soundtracks

1955 – Actor Willem Dafoe (“Platoon,” “To Live and Die in L.A.” “Shadow of the Vampire,” “The Last Temptation of Christ,” the “Spider-Man” trilogy)

1964 – Actor-comedian John Leguizamo (“Hanging With the Homeboys,” “Ice Age,” “ER”)

1964 – Actor-comedian and “SNL” alum David Spade (“Tommy Boy,” “Black Sheep,” “Just Shoot Me,” “Joe Dirt,” “Grown Ups”)

1992 – Actress and pop superstar Selena Gomez (“Wizards of Waverly Place,” “Ramona and Beezus,” “Monte Carlo”)

History Highlights

1916 – A massive parade in San Francisco marking Preparedness Day, in anticipation of the United States entering World War I, is interrupted when a suitcase bomb explodes, killing 10 bystanders and wounding 40 others.

1933 – Some 50,000 cheering New Yorkers greet aviator Wiley Post at Brooklyn’s Floyd Bennett Field as he completes the first solo flight around the world. Post logged 15,596 miles in seven days, 18 hours and 49 minutes — the fastest circumnavigation of the globe.

1934 – FBI agents gun down Public Enemy No. 1 — notorious bank robber and murderer John Dillinger, outside Chicago’s Biograph movie theater. Dillinger and his mob gang terrorized the Midwest, killing 10 men, wounding seven others, robbing banks and police arsenals, and staging three jail breaks — killing a sheriff during one and wounding two guards in another.

1937 – The U.S. Senate rejects President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s efforts to add more justices to the Supreme Court — his so-called “court-packing” plan.

1942 – Agricultural chemist George Washington Carver arrives in Dearborn, Michigan at the invitation of Ford Motor Company founder Henry Ford to begin collaborating on crop experiments.

1987 – Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev indicates that he will accept a worldwide ban on intermediate-range nuclear missiles.

1991 – Milwaukee police arrest serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer after discovering dismembered victims and other evidence in his apartment. Dahmer is tried and convicted for the murders of 17 males between 1978 and 1991. While serving time in prison, he is attacked and killed by a fellow inmate in 1994.

2003 – U.S. Army Private Jessica Lynch, a prisoner-of-war who was rescued from an Iraqi hospital, receives a hero’s welcome when the 20-year-old returns to her hometown of Palestine, West Virginia. Following her return, new details of her capture and rescue emerge suggesting the original accounts were exaggerated to create positive feelings about the war.

Musical Milestones

1967 – “Windy,” by The Association, blows through the top of the singles chart for a fourth and final week.

1972 – “Lean on Me,” by Bill Withers, begins its third and final week on top of the Billboard Hot 100. The song is Withers’ only No. 1 on both the pop and soul charts.

1977 – During a performance, Tony Orlando announces he is retiring, which shocks the rest of his act — Dawn — since he had never mentioned his plans to them.

1977 – Elvis Costello releases his debut album, “My Aim is True,” which helps usher in the new wave genre and packs fan favorites including “Alison” and “(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes.” Subsequent pressings of the album for U.S. distribution contain the popular track, “Watching the Detectives.” In 2007, the album is inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

1978 – Andy Gibb is in the midst of a seven-week reign over the pop chart with “Shadow Dancing.”

1989 – Martika begins two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard singles chart with “Toy Soldiers.”

1995 – “Waterfalls,” by TLC, is in the middle of seven weeks as the No. 1 single.

2000 – Eminem has the No. 1 album with “The Marshall Mathers LP, which goes on to capture three Grammy Awards.

2006 – Three years after his death, country music legend Johnny Cash claims the top spot on the Billboard album chart with “American V: A Hundred Highways.”