Wham! – Time Rewind

On This Day April 7

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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 16

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Celebrity Birthdays

1935 – Musician, record producer and U.S. Congressman Sonny Bono, best known as half of the Sonny & Cher pop duo (d. 1998)

1952 – Grammy-winning singer-songwriter James Ingram (“One Hundred Ways,” “Baby Come to Me,” “Yah Mo B There,” “I Don’t Have the Heart”) (d. 2019)

1957 – Emmy and Grammy-winning actor LeVar Burton (“Roots,” “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” “Reading Rainbow”)

1958 – Grammy-winning rapper and actor Ice-T, born Tracy Marrow (“New Jack City,” “Ricochet,” “Law & Order SVU”)

1959 – Retired tennis champion and sports commentator John McEnroe

1964 – Actor Christopher Eccleston (“28 Days Later,” “Thor: The Dark World,” “Doctor Who”)

History Highlights

1923 – English archaeologist Howard Carter opens the tomb of the ancient Egyptian ruler King Tutankhamen.

1959 – Fidel Castro is sworn in as prime minister of Cuba after leading a guerrilla campaign that forced right-wing dictator Fulgencio Batista into exile.

1968 – The nation’s first 911 emergency telephone system goes into service in Haleyville, Alabama. Today, across the U.S., an estimated 240 million calls a year are made to 911.

1984 – Bill Johnson becomes the first American man to win an Olympic gold medal in downhill skiing, a sport long dominated by European athletes.

Musical Milestones

1959 – “Stagger Lee,” by Lloyd Price, is in the middle of a four-week run at No. 1 on the pop chart.

1964 – The Beatles are guests on “The Ed Sullivan Show” for a second time, with this broadcast originating from the Deauville Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida. CBS gave away 4,500 tickets, however the hotel could only accommodate 2,600 people.

1974 – A Bob Dylan album reaches the top of the Billboard album chart for the first time. “Planet Waves,” featuring a collaboration with The Band, holds the top spot for four weeks.

1975 – After a four-season run as half of “The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour,” Cher gets her own weekly variety show on CBS, simply called “Cher.” The series features guests like Elton John, Bette Midler, David Bowie, Bill Cosby, the Smothers Brothers, George Burns, Steve Martin and more.

1980 – “Do That to Me One More Time” becomes the Captain & Tennille’s second No. 1 single.

1985 – “Careless Whisper,” by Wham! featuring George Michael, tops the Billboard singles chart and stays there for three weeks.

1991 – “Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now),” by C+C Music Factory featuring Freedom Williams and Martha Wash begins its seconmd and final week on top of the pop chart.

2002 – Usher begins his fifth and final week atop the Billboard Hot 100 with “U Got It Bad.”

2008 – “Low,” by Flo-Rida featuring T-Pain, is in the middle of 10 weeks as a No. 1 single.

On This Day January 16

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Celebrity Birthdays

1908 – Theater actress and singer Ethel Merman, best remembered for her rendition of “There’s No Business Like Show Business” (d. 1984)

1935 – Indianapolis 500 champion A.J. Foyt

1943 – Grammy and Country Music Award-winning singer Ronnie Milsap (“Pure Love,” “There’s No Getting Over Me,” “Smoky Mountain Rain”)

1948 – Director-screenwriter-producer and composer John Carpenter, best known for the classic horror film “Halloween”

1950 – Actress-dancer Debbie Allen (“Fame,” “West Side Story,” “Sweet Charity”)

1959 – Grammy-winning musician Sade, born Helen Folasade Adu (“Smooth Operator,” “The Sweetest Taboo”)

1974 – Supermodel Kate Moss

1979 – R&B singer and actress Aaliyah, born Aaliyah Dana Haughton, whose career was cut short by a plane crash in The Bahamas (d. 2001)

History Highlights

1919 – The 18th Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, prohibiting the “manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes.” Known as Prohibition, the alcohol ban takes effect one year and one day later — on January 17, 1920 — and remains the law of the land until 1933 when it is repealed.

1942 – Actress Carole Lombard, famous for her roles in such screwball comedies as “My Man Godfrey” and “To Be or Not to Be,” and for her marriage to actor Clark Gable, is killed in a plane crash outside Las Vegas at the age of 33.

1979 – The Shah of Iran is forced to flee his country amid violent protests against his regime. Later that year, he settles in the U.S.

1991 – The Persian Gulf War begins as the United Nations deadline for the Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait expires at midnight. The Pentagon prepares to launch offensive operations to forcibly eject Iraq from its five-month occupation of its oil-rich neighbor.

1997 – Comedian and TV star Bill Cosby’s 27-year-old son Ennis is murdered while fixing a flat tire along a Los Angeles freeway.

Musical Milestones

1938 – Acclaimed clarinetist and band leader Benny Goodman (a.k.a. “The King of Swing”) makes history when he takes the stage at New York’s Carnegie Hall. It not only marks the first time jazz is played in the hallowed music venue, but the first time a racially integrated ensemble performs.

1965 – The Supremes have a No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Come See About Me.”

1971 – George Harrison marks his fourth and final week at No. 1 on the pop chart with “My Sweet Lord.”

1979 – Cher’s divorce from Gregg Allman is finalized.

1988 – Twenty-four years after The Beatles first rule the singles chart, “Got My Mind Set On You” by George Harrison is No. 1. The track was originally recorded by R&B singer James Ray in 1962.

1988 – After huge success as half of the pop duo Wham! during the early to mid-80s, George Michael claims the top spot on the Billboard album chart with his debut solo album, “Faith.” The production packs several major hits, including the title track, “Father Figure,” “One More Try” and “Monkey.”

1993 – “I Will Always Love You,” by Whitney Houston, is in the middle of a 14-week domination of the Billboard singles chart.

1999 – Brandy’s “Have You Ever?” tops the Billboard Hot 100 and remains there for two weeks.

2004 – King of Pop, Michael Jackson, pleads not guilty to child molestation charges, as fans, reporters and TV crews from around the world swarm outside the California courthouse. The judge admonishes Jackson for arriving late.

On This Day December 1

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Celebrity Birthdays

1935 – Oscar-winning screenwriter-actor-director Woody Allen (“Annie Hall,” “Manhattan,” “Hannah and Her Sisters”)

1939 – Pro golfer Lee Trevino

1940 – Standup comedian-actor Richard Pryor (d. 2005)

1945 – Grammy, Golden Globe and Emmy-winning singer-actress Bette Midler, best known for her pop hits “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” and “Wind Beneath My Wings” and the movies “The Rose,” “Beaches” and “For the Boys”

1946 – Singer-songwriter Gilbert O’Sullivan, best known for his 1970s hits “Alone Again (Naturally)”, “Clair” and “Get Down”

1951 – Actor Treat Williams (“Hair,” “Prince of the City,” “Once Upon a Time in America,” “The Late Shift,” “127 Hours”)

1970 – Comedian and “SNL” alum Sarah Silverman (“School of Rock,” “Wreck-It Ralph,” “A Million Ways to Die in the West”)

History Highlights

1891 – James Naismith shoots and scores! The 30-year-old physical education teacher from the International YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts invents basket ball (originally two words) using two peach baskets and a ball. At the 1936 Summer Olympic Games, the year basketball was introduced to the international competition, Naismith was in Berlin, Germany to present medals to the winning teams of the three North American countries: United States, Gold; Canada, Silver; and Mexico, Bronze.

1913 – The Ford Motor Company introduces the first moving assembly line.

1914 – The Maserati company is founded in Bologna, Italy, and goes on to produce its first car in 1926.

1953 – The first issue of “Playboy” magazine is published, featuring a nude Marilyn Monroe centerfold. More than 50,000 copies sell at 50 cents apiece.

1955 – Rosa Parks is arrested in Montgomery, Alabama for refusing to give up her seat on a public bus to a white man — a violation of the city’s racial segregation laws. The incident, which triggers a year-long boycott of the city’s bus system, is considered the birth of the modern civil rights movement.

1992 – Workers drill a hole through a wall of rock 132 feet beneath the English Channel connecting both ends of a tunnel linking Great Britain with the European mainland for the first time in 8,000 years. The Channel Tunnel or “Chunnel” finally opens for passenger service in 1994.

Musical Milestones

1957 – Buddy Holly and the Crickets appear on “The Ed Sullivan Show” performing “That’ll Be The Day” and “Peggy Sue.” Sam Cooke is a guest on the same show performing “You Send Me.”

1958 – The Teddy Bears are No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “To Know Him is to Love Him.” It remains a chart-topper for three weeks.

1962 – The Four Seasons are midway through a five-week domination of the singles chart with “Big Girls Don’t Cry.”

1973 – “Top of the World” puts the Carpenters on top of the singles chart, where they remain for two weeks. It is the duo’s second No. 1 single following “(They Long to Be) Close to You” in 1970.

1984 – Wham! begins its third and final week with a No. 1 single: “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go.”

1990 – “I’m Your Baby Tonight,” by Whitney Houston, begins a week-long run at No. 1 on the pop chart. It is Houston’s eighth chart-topping single.

2001 – Mary J. Blige has the No. 1 single with “Family Affair.”

2007 – Alicia Keys kicks off five weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “No One,” from her “As I Am” album. The track captures Grammys for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Song.

On This Day November 24

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Celebrity Birthdays

1784 – Zachary Taylor, 12th U.S. president (d. 1850)

1868 – Ragtime composer and pianist Scott Joplin (“The Maple Leaf Rag,” “The Entertainer”) (d. 1917)

1925 – Conservative author-commentator William F. Buckley, Jr. (d. 2008)

1938 – Basketball Hall of Famer Oscar “Big O” Robertson

1941 – Original Beatles drummer Pete Best

1978 – Emmy-winning actress Katherine Heigl (“Grey’s Anatomy,” “Knocked Up,” “State of Affairs”)

1990 – Actress Sarah Hyland (“Private Parts,” “Modern Family,” “Vampire Academy: Blood Sisters”)

History Highlights

1859 – “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection,” a groundbreaking scientific work by British naturalist Charles Darwin, is published in England, and every copy sells the first day. Darwin concluded that organisms gradually evolve through a process he called “natural selection.”

1960 – Philadelphia Warrior Wilt Chamberlain snags 55 rebounds in a game against the Boston Celtics, setting an NBA record for the most rebounds in a single game.

1963 – Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby shoots and kills accused JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald in the garage of Dallas police headquarters. The incident is captured on live television as media outlets cover Oswald’s transfer from the police station to a county jail.

1971 – A hijacker identifying himself as D.B. Cooper takes $200,000 in ransom money and parachutes from a Seattle-bound passenger jet flying through a thunderstorm at 10,000 feet. Cooper’s fate remains a mystery to this day.

1978 – David Letterman makes his first guest appearance on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.”

Musical Milestones

1950 – The musical comedy “Guys and Dolls” premieres on Broadway at the 46th Street Theatre. Two years later, it spawns a film adaptation starring Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra.

1962 – The Four Seasons, featuring Frankie Valli, are in the second week of a five-week run as Billboard chart-toppers with “Big Girls Don’t Cry.”

1966 – The Beatles gather in a studio for the first time since wrapping up their U.S. summer concert tour and spend the entire day recording John Lennon’s “Strawberry Fields Forever.”

1972 – Don Kirshner’s “Rock Concert” TV show debuts, featuring Chuck Berry, Blood, Sweat & Tears and Alice Cooper.

1973 – Ringo Starr’s “Photograph” begins a week as the No. 1 single.

1979 – The Barbra Streisand-Donna Summer duet “No More Tears (Enough is Enough)” kicks off two weeks as a No. 1 single.

1984 – “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go,” by Wham!, rules the Billboard Hot 100.

1991 – Queen frontman Freddie Mercury dies of complications from AIDS exactly one day after publicly disclosing that he is HIV positive. He was 45 years old.

1997 – Johnny Rotten of The Sex Pistols is the defendant in an episode of TV’s “Judge Judy.” The case is a wrongful termination suit brought on by his former drummer, which Rotten wins.

2007 – Jay-Z climbs to the top of the Billboard album chart with “American Gangster,” his 10th chart-topping album. This ties the rapper to 2nd place with Elvis Presley for the most No. 1 albums. Only The Beatles have had more, with 19.

On This Day November 17

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Celebrity Birthdays

1925 – Actor and 1950s-60s leading man Rock Hudson (“Magnificent Obsession,” “All That Heaven Allows,” “Giant,” “Pillow Talk,” “McMillan & Wife”) (d. 1985)

1938 – Singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot, the talent behind some of the biggest pop-folk hits of the 1970s (“If You Could Read My Mind,” “Sundown,” “Carefree Highway,” “Rainy Day People,” “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”)

1942 – Oscar, Golden Globe, Emmy and Grammy-winning director-producer Martin Scorsese (“Taxi Driver,” “Raging Bull,” “Goodfellas,” “Casino,” “Gangs of New York,” “The Aviator,” “The Departed,” “The Wolf of Wall Street,” “The Irishman”)

1944 – Golden Globe and Emmy-winning actor-director-producer Danny DeVito (“Taxi,” “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” “Terms of Endearment,” “Ruthless People,” “Tin Men,” “Throw Momma from the Train,” “Get Shorty,” “L.A. Confidential”)

1944 – “Saturday Night Live” creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels

1960 – Drag queen, singer and actor RuPaul, born RuPaul Andre Charles

1978 – Actress Rachel McAdams (“Mean Girls,” “The Notebook,” “Wedding Crashers,” “The Time Traveler’s Wife,” “Sherlock Holmes,” “Midnight in Paris,” “The Vow,” “Spotlight,” “Doctor Strange”)

History Highlights

1869 – The Suez Canal, connecting the Mediterranean and Red Seas, formally opens. The 100-mile-long waterway shortens the sea route from Europe to India by about 4,000 miles.

1962 – President John F. Kennedy and former President Dwight D. Eisenhower dedicate Dulles International Airport, serving the Washington, D.C. region.

1968 – The Oakland Raiders score two touchdowns in nine seconds at home to defeat the New York Jets, but television viewers never see the win. With just over a minute left in the game, NBC cuts to the previously scheduled made-for-TV movie “Heidi” — based on the book about a young girl and her grandfather in the Swiss Alps. The network apologizes after being bombarded by complaints in what comes to be called “The Heidi Game.”

1973 – In the midst of the Watergate scandal that eventually destroys his presidency, President Richard Nixon tells a room full of newspaper editors, “I’m not a crook.”

2003 – Actor and former bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger is sworn in as the 38th governor of California at the State Capitol in Sacramento.

2003 – Ex-soldier John Allen Muhammad is found guilty of one of a series of sniper shootings that terrorized the metropolitan Washington, D.C. area and dominated national headlines for three weeks in the fall of 2002. The shootings left 10 people dead.

Musical Milestones

1839 – Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi’s first opera, “Oberto, conte di San Bonifacio,” debuts in Milan.

1958 – “Tom Dooley,” by The Kingston Trio, is No. 1 on the pop chart. The single goes on to sell over three million copies and puts the band at the forefront of the pop-folk boom that continued through the 1960s.

1962 – The Four Seasons park themselves on top of the singles chart for five weeks with “Big Girls Don’t Cry.”

1970 – Elton John’s music career is in its infancy when he performs a concert to a small audience at A&R Studios in New York that is broadcast live on local radio station WABC-FM. A recording of the session is packaged as his first live album, “11-17-70” (U.S. version) and “17-11-70” (U.K. version) and released in April 1971.

1979 – The Commodores top the Billboard Hot 100 with “Still.”

1984 – “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go,” by Wham!, begins three weeks as a Billboard No. 1 single.

1990 – “Love Takes Time,” by Mariah Carey, is in the middle of three weeks as a Billboard chart-topper.

2001 – Mary J. Blige is queen of the pop chart with “Family Affair.”

On this Day June 25

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Celebrity Birthdays

1852 – Architect Antoni Gaudi (d. 1926)

1924 – Director-producer Sidney Lumet (“12 Angry Men,” “Serpico,” “Dog Day Afternoon,” “Network,” “The Verdict”) (d. 2011)

1925 – Tony-winning actress June Lockhart (“Lassie,” “Lost in Space,” “Petticoat Junction”)

1945 – Grammy, Oscar and Golden Globe-winning singer-songwriter Carly Simon (“Anticipation,” “You’re So Vain,” “Mockingbird,” “You Belong To Me,” “Coming Around Again,” “Jesse,” “Nobody Does It Better”)

1947 – Actor-comedian Jimmie Walker, best remembered for his catchphrase “Dy-no-mite” from the CBS sitcom “Good Times”

1956 – Emmy-winning TV chef and bestselling author Anthony Bourdain (d. 2018)

1961 – Emmy and Golden Globe-winning English stand-up comedian, actor, writer, director and producer Ricky Gervais

1963 – Grammy-winning singer-songwriter George Michael, born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou, who was half of the 80s pop duo Wham! (d. 2016)

History Highlights

1876 – Native American forces led by Chiefs Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull defeat the U.S. Army troops of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer in a bloody battle near southern Montana’s Little Bighorn River. The conflict becomes known as the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

1942 – General Dwight D. Eisenhower (a.k.a. “Ike”), who would later become 34th U.S. president, assumes command of all U.S. troops in the European theater during World War II. In 1943, Ike is appointed supreme Allied commander of all forces in Europe.

1950 – Armed forces from communist North Korea invade South Korea, setting off the Korean War. The United States, acting under the auspices of the United Nations, quickly springs to the defense of South Korea and fights a bloody and frustrating war for the next three years.

1962 – In the case of Engel v. Vitale, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that prayers read aloud in public schools violate the separation of church and state stipulated by the First Amendment.

1968 – Congress passes the Flag Desecration Law, making it a crime to burn or otherwise desecrate the American flag. However, in 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down flag desecration laws in 48 states in its 5-4 Texas v. Johnson ruling, stating that flag desecration is a constitutionally protected form of free speech.

1993 – Kim Campbell is sworn in as Canada’s 19th prime minister, becoming the first woman to hold the country’s highest office.

2009 – Actress Farrah Fawcett — best known for TV and movie roles in “Charlie’s Angels,” “The Cannonball Run” and “The Burning Bed,” and who rocketed to pin-up status when a 1976 poster of her in a red bathing suit sold 12 million copies — dies at 62 following a three-year battle with anal cancer.

Musical Milestones

1966 – The Beatles have the No. 1 single with “Paperback Writer.”

1967 – The Beatles record “All You Need Is Love” with friends Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton and Marianne Faithfull singing backup before an international audience of more than 350 million viewers. It is part of a live, worldwide satellite TV broadcast called “Our World.”

1969 – The Hollies record “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother,” with Elton John playing piano.

1973 – Chicago releases “Chicago VI,” which delivers two of the band’s biggest hits: “Just You ‘n’ Me” and “Feelin’ Stronger Every Day.” It becomes Chicago’s second album to reach the top of the Billboard 200, where it holds for five weeks.

1980 – “Coming Up (Live at Glasgow),” by Paul McCartney & Wings, begins a three-week run at No. 1 on the singles chart.

1984 – Prince releases the “Purple Rain” soundtrack five weeks before the movie opens.

1988 – Debbie Gibson is just 17 when her single, “Foolish Beat,” lands on top of the Billboard Hot 100 and holds there for a week.

1994 – All-4-One is in the middle of an 11-week domination of the singles chart with “I Swear.”

2009 – King of Pop, Michael Jackson, dies of cardiac arrest at his Los Angeles home from a lethal combination of drugs administered by his personal doctor. He is just 50 years old and leaves behind a massive musical legacy enjoyed today by millions of fans around the world.

On this Day May 25

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Celebrity Birthdays

1927 – Robert Ludlum, author of more than 20 thrillers, including the Jason Bourne spy novels (d. 2001)

1939 – Tony and Golden Globe-winning actor Sir Ian McKellen, best known as Gandalf in “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy and Magneto in the “X-Men” movies

1943 – Tony and Emmy-winning actress-singer Leslie Uggams (“Hallelujah, Baby!,” “Roots”)

1944 – Emmy-winning actor-director and “Sesame Street” and “The Muppet Show” puppeteer Frank Oz, who also provided the voice of Yoda in the “Star Wars” movies

1963 – Emmy-winning comedic actor Mike Myers (“Saturday Night Live,” “Wayne’s World,” “So I Married an Axe Murderer,” and the “Austin Powers” and “Shrek” movie series)

1969 – Actress Anne Heche (“Donnie Brasco,” “Volcano,” “Wag the Dog,” “Six Days Seven Nights,” “John Q,” “Men in Trees”)

1972 – Oscar and Golden Globe-winning actress Octavia Spencer (“A Time to Kill,” “The Help,” “Hidden Figures,” “The Shape of Water”)

History Highlights

1961 – Addressing a special joint session of Congress, President John F. Kennedy announces his goal to send an American to the moon before the end of the decade. He also requests financial support for an accelerated space program.

1977 – “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” With those words on the screen, cinematic history is made as George Lucas’ epic sci-fi adventure “Star Wars” opens on Memorial Day weekend at just 32 theaters across the U.S. with no official premiere. By August, more than 1,000 theaters are screening the film, propelling it box office glory. Later renamed “Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope,” the movie captures seven Academy Awards and becomes a marketing bonanza.

1979 – This day marks the worst domestic air crash in U.S. history. American Airlines Flight 191, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10, crashes during takeoff at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport killing 271 on board and two people on the ground. Investigators blame a faulty pylon assembly for the tragedy in which the left engine fell off the LA-bound aircraft.

1979 – Six-year old Etan Patz disappears while walking two blocks from home to his bus stop in Manhattan. Investigators have the boy’s face and description printed on milk cartons all across the U.S. in hopes that someone would find him — the first time that method is used to aid in a missing child case. It takes 38 years for authorities to find and convict the suspect in Patz’s kidnapping and murder.

Musical Milestones

1963 – Jimmy Soul enjoys his second and final week on top of the pop chart with “If You Wanna Be Happy.”

1965 – Blues singer-songwriter and harmonica player Sonny Boy Williamson dies in his sleep at age 65. Over the years, Van Morrison, Aerosmith, The Who, The Animals, Yardbirds and The Moody Blues have all covered his songs.

1968 – Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bookends” becomes the duo’s second No. 1 album, delivering such classic tracks as “Mrs. Robinson,” “America,” “A Hazy Shade Of Winter” and “At The Zoo.” The album holds the top spot for three weeks.

1973 – More than 100,000 people flock to New York’s Central Park for a free concert by singer-songwriting sensation Carole King.

1974 – Ray Stevens’ novelty song, “The Streak,” is in the midst of a three-week run on top of the Billboard Hot 100.

1985 – “Everything She Wants,” by Wham! (featuring George Michael), begins two weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100. It becomes the pop duo’s third consecutive million-selling No. 1 hit in the U.S.

1991 – Mariah Carey’s “I Don’t Wanna Cry” rules the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks.

1996 – Bone Thugs-n-Harmony claim the top spot on the pop chart with “Tha Crossroads.”

2002 – “Foolish,” by Ashanti, is in its sixth week as a Billboard singles chart-topper. It spends another four weeks at No. 1.