William McKinley – Time Rewind

On This Day January 29

Click each item below to learn more!

On This Day October 29

Click each item below to learn more!

Celebrity Birthdays

1891 – Actress-singer-comedian Fanny Brice, born Fannie Borach, best known for her work with the Ziegfeld Follies (portrayed by Barbra Streisand in the movie “Funny Girl”) (d. 1951)

1925 – Best-selling author, journalist and TV personality Dominick Dunne, who covered high-profile murder cases, including the O. J. Simpson trial, for Vanity Fair (d. 2009)

1945 – Tony-winning singer and actress Melba Moore (“This Is It,” “Lean on Me,” “Love’s Comin’ At Ya”)

1947 – Oscar-winning actor Richard Dreyfuss (“American Graffiti,” “Jaws,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “The Goodbye Girl,” “Mr. Holland’s Opus”)

1948 – Actress Kate Jackson (“Charlie’s Angels,” “Scarecrow and Mrs. King”)

1957 – Actor Dan Castellaneta, best known as the voice of Homer Simpson and several other characters in “The Simpsons”

1971 – Golden Globe-winning actress Winona Ryder, born Winona Laura Horowitz (“Beetlejuice,” “Heathers,” “Mermaids,” “Edward Scissorhands,” “Bram Stoker’s Dracula,” “The Age of Innocence,” “Reality Bites,” “Girl, Interrupted,” “Mr. Deeds”)

History Highlights

1901 – President William McKinley’s assassin, Leon Czolgosz, is executed in the electric chair at Auburn Prison in New York. Czolgosz had shot McKinley on September 6, 1901. The president succumbed to his wounds eight days later.

1929 – Pandemonium erupts on Wall Street as the New York Stock Exchange crashes. Black Tuesday, as it is known, is considered the worst economic event in world history and triggers the Great Depression.

1966 – The National Organization for Women (NOW) is established as the grassroots arm of the women’s movement.

1969 – The Internet is born as bits of electronic data begin to flow between computers at UCLA and the Stanford Research Institute.

1998 – Nearly four decades after making history as the first American to orbit the Earth, U.S. Senator John Glenn heads back into space — this time as a payload specialist aboard the space shuttle Discovery. At 77, Glenn becomes the oldest human ever to travel in space.

Musical Milestones

1966 – The Michigan-based garage rock band Question Mark & the Mysterians dominates the singles chart with “96 Tears.” Some music critics credit the song with starting the punk rock movement.

1971 – Guitarist Duane Allman of The Allman Brothers Band dies in a motorcycle accident in Macon, Georgia just three weeks shy of his 25th birthday.

1972 – The novelty song “My Ding-a-Ling” becomes rock and roll pioneer Chuck Berry’s first and only No. 1 single, holding the top spot for two weeks. The track was recorded eight months earlier in concert at the Lanchester Arts Festival in Coventry, England.

1977 – “You Light Up My Life,” by Debby Boone, is in the midst of a 10-week domination of the Billboard Hot 100.

1983 – The Dolly Parton-Kenny Rogers duet “Islands In The Stream” is the No. 1 single. The song, written by the Bee Gees, holds the top spot for two weeks.

1988 – Phil Collins holds first place on the Billboard Hot 100 with “A Groovy Kind of Love,” from the soundtrack to the movie “Buster,” in which Collins stars. The track garners him a Grammy nomination for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.

1994 – Boyz II Men continue their 14-week rule over the singles chart with “I’ll Make Love to You.”

2005 – “Gold Digger,” by Kanye West featuring Jamie Foxx, is in the middle of 10 weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100.

2011 – Adele rules the pop chart with “Someone Like You.”

On This Day September 14

Click each item below to learn more!

Celebrity Birthdays

1936 – Actor Walter Koenig, best known for playing Chekov in the the “Star Trek” TV and movie series

1947 – Actor Sam Neill (“Dead Calm,” “The Piano,” “The Hunt for Red October,” “Jurassic Park,” “Event Horizon”)

1947 – Singer John “Bowzer” Bauman from the doo-wop band Sha Na Na

1960 – Oscar and Golden Globe-winning actress Melissa Leo (“Homicide: Life on the Street,” “All My Children,” “Frozen River,” “The Fighter”)

1964 – Actress Faith Ford (“thirtysomething,” “Murphy Brown,” “Hope & Faith”)

1983 – Five-time Grammy Award winner and soul-singing icon Amy Winehouse, who died of alcohol poisoning at the peak of her music career (d. 2011)

History Highlights

1814 – After witnessing the British bombardment of Fort McHenry in Maryland during the War of 1812, 35-year-old lawyer and poet Francis Scott Key writes a poem titled “Defence of Fort M’Henry,” which is later set to music, and in 1931, becomes America’s national anthem under its new title: “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Key was inspired by the sight of a lone U.S. flag still flying over the fort at daybreak.

1901 – Six months into his second term as U.S. president, William McKinley dies after being shot by a deranged anarchist during the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York.

1959 – The Soviet’s Luna 2 rocket reaches the surface of the moon, becoming the first man-made object sent from Earth to the lunar surface. The event gives the Soviets a short-lived lead in the Space Race, and prompts the U.S. to speed up efforts to develop its own space program.

1964 – President Lyndon Johnson awards entertainment pioneer Walt Disney the Presidential Medal of Freedom, saying “in the course of entertaining an age, he has created an American folklore.”

1964 – President Lyndon Johnson awards the Presidential Medal of Freedom to author John Steinbeck, who had already received numerous other honors for his literary work, including the 1962 Nobel Prize and 1939 Pulitzer Prize for “The Grapes of Wrath.”

1965 – Marching onto TV screens for the first time are the military farce “F Troop” and the short-lived sitcom “My Mother the Car.”

1972 – Americans meet the Walton family and witness its trials and tribulations for nine years on CBS. “The Waltons” airs for the last time on this day in 1981, the same day that “Entertainment Tonight” premieres.

1982 – Princess Grace of Monaco (Grace Kelly), who was an Oscar and Golden Globe-winning American actress before marrying into royalty, dies in a car crash at the age of 52.

1999 – Millions evacuate their homes along the southeastern coast of the U.S. as Hurricane Floyd advances. The storm weakens from Category 4 to Category 2 by the time it makes landfall at Cape Fear, North Carolina on September 16. Floyd is blamed for nearly 60 deaths across eight U.S. states and The Bahamas.

2015 – A 14-year-old Muslim boy is arrested at his Irving, Texas high school after a digital clock he had reassembled at home using a pencil case was mistaken by his teacher to be a bomb. Ahmed Mohamed’s arrest triggers a media frenzy, as many saw the incident as a case of racial profiling.

Musical Milestones

1963 – “My Boyfriend’s Back,” by the New Jersey-based girl group The Angels, enters its third and final week on top of the pop chart.

1969 – The Rascals begin their fifth and final week with the No. 1 single, “People Got to Be Free.”

1974 – Written and released by reggae sensation Bob Marley a year earlier, Eric Clapton’s version of “I Shot the Sheriff” is No. 1 on the singles chart.

1974 – Stevie Wonder begins two weeks at No.1 on the album chart with “Fulfillingness First Finale,” his second chart-topper. The album goes on to capture three Grammys, including Album of the Year.

1985 – John Parr’s “St. Elmo’s Fire,” from the movie of the same name, is the No. 1 single for a second straight week.

1991 – “The Promise of a New Day,” by Paula Abdul, tops the Billboard Hot 100 for a week.

1996 – “Macarena,” by Los del Rio, is in the middle of 14 weeks on top of the Billboard singles chart.

2002 – “Dilemma,” by Nelly featuring Kelly Rowland, is the No. 1 single.