Today in History - Feb 6th

Today's Birthdays

1564 Christopher Marlowe, poet/dramatist (The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus) died May 30, 1593
1756 Aaron Burr, 3rd U.S. Vice President (killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel) died Sep 14, 1836
1895 Babe (George Herman) Ruth, Baseball Hall of Famer (Boston Red Sox, NY Yankees) died Aug, 16, 1948
1911 Ronald Wilson Reagan, actor/40th president of the United States, died June 5, 2004
1912 Eva Braun, mistress/wife of Adolf Hitler, died Apr 30, 1945
1914 Thurl Ravenscroft, voice actor (Tony the Tiger, How the Grinch Stole Christmas) died May 22, 2005
1917 Zsa Zsa (Sari) Gabor, actress (Boy’s Night Out, Moulin Rouge, Ninotchka)
1922 Patrick Macnee, actor (The Avengers, Battlestar Galactica, This is Spinal Tap)
1926 Walker Edmiston, voice actor (Ernie the Keebler Elf) died February 15, 2007
1931 Rip (Elmore) Torn, actor (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Men in Black series, Dodgeball)
1931 Mamie Van Doren (Joan Olander), actress (High School Confidential)
1932 Francois Truffaut, director (Fahrenheit 451) died Oct 21, 1984
1939 Mike Farrell, actor (M*A*S*H)
1940 Tom Brokaw, news anchor/author (NBC Nightly News, The Greatest Generation)
1943 Fabian (Fabian Forte), singer/actor (Turn Me Loose; The Longest Day)
1945 Bob Marley, reggae singer/songwriter, died May 11, 1981
1945 Michael Tucker, actor (L.A. Law, For Love or Money, Radio Days, Diner)
1950 Natalie Cole, singer (This Will Be, I’ve Got Love on My Mind, Unforgettable)
1956 Jon Walmsley, actor (The Waltons)
1957 Robert Townsend, actor (The Meteor Man, Hollywood Shuffle, A Soldier’s Story)
1957 Simon Phillips, drummer (Toto)
1957 Kathy Najimy, actress (Sister Act series)
1958 Barry Miller, actor (Biloxi Blues, The Last Temptation of Christ)
1960 Megan Gallagher, actress (Hill Street Blues, China Beach)
1962 Axl Rose, singer (Guns N' Roses)
1966 Rick Astley, singer/songwriter (Never Gonna Give You Up)
1970 Denis Lemieux, board member
1971 Brian Stepanek, actor (Kim Possible, Over the Hedge, The Island)
1980 Beamer, board member
1980 Kim Poirier, actress (PSI Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal)
1981 Ty Warren, NFL defensive lineman (New England Patriots)
1983 Brodie Croyle, NFL quarterback (Kansas City Chiefs)

Today's Deaths in History

1918 Gustav Klimt, Austrian painter, dies at 55
1960 Jesse Belvin, R&B singer/songwriter, dies in a car crash at 26
1976 Vince Guaraldi, jazz musician (Linus and Lucy, Charlie Brown Theme) dies at 47
1981 Hugo Montenegro, orchestra leader (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly) dies at 55
1989 Barbara W. Tuchman, historian, dies at 77
1991 Danny Thomas, singer/comedian/actor (Make Room for Daddy) dies at 79
1993 Arthur Ashe, Tennis Hall of Famer, dies at 49
1994 Joseph Cotten, actor (Citizen Kane, The Third Man, Journey Into Fear) dies at 88
1998 Falco, Austrian singer (Rock Me Amadeus) dies at 40
1998 Carl Wilson, singer/guitarist (The Beach Boys) dies at 51
2007 Frankie Laine, singer (Jezebel, High Noon, Lord You Gave Me a Mountain) dies at 93

Today in History

1788 Massachusetts became the sixth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
1815 New Jersey granted the first American railroad charter to a John Stevens.
1820 The first 86 African American immigrants sponsored by the American Colonization Society started a settlement in present-day Liberia.
1862 Ulysses S. Grant gave the Union its first victory of the war by capturing Fort Henry, Tennessee.
1899 A peace treaty between the United States and Spain was ratified by the U.S. Senate.
1922 The Washington Naval Treaty was signed in Washington, D.C., limiting the naval armaments of United States, Britain, Japan, France, and Italy.
1933 The 20th Amendment to the Constitution was declared in effect; it moved the start of presidential, vice-presidential and congressional terms from March to January.
1959 Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments filed the first patent for an integrated circuit.
1959 The United States successfully test-fired a Titan intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time from Cape Canaveral.
1998 President Bill Clinton signed a bill changing the name of Washington National Airport to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
1999 Excerpts of former White House intern Monica Lewinsky's videotaped testimony were shown at President Bill Clinton's impeachment trial.
2000 First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton launched her successful candidacy for the U.S. Senate.
2001 Ariel Sharon was elected Israeli prime minister in a landslide over Ehud Barak.
2003 ABC's 20/20 aired a British documentary on Michael Jackson in which the singer revealed he sometimes let children sleep in his bed.
2004 An explosion ripped through a Moscow subway car during rush hour, killing 41 people in a terrorist attack blamed on Chechen separatists.

Chart Toppers

1949
A Little Bird Told Me - Evelyn Knight
Far Away Places - Margaret Whiting
Powder Your Face with Sunshine - Evelyn Knight
I Love You So Much It Hurts - Jimmy Wakely

1957
Too Much - Elvis Presley
Young Love - Tab Hunter
Banana Boat (Day-O) - Harry Belafonte
Young Love - Sonny James

1965
You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feelin’ - The Righteous Brothers
The Name Game - Shirley Ellis
This Diamond Ring - Gary Lewis & the Playboys
You’re the Only World I Know - Sonny James

1973
Crocodile Rock - Elton John
Why Can’t We Live Together - Timmy Thomas
Oh, Babe, What Would You Say? - Hurricane Smith
She Needs Someone to Hold Her (When She Cries) - Conway Twitty

1981
The Tide is High - Blondie
Celebration - Kool & the Gang
I Love a Rainy Night - Eddie Rabbitt
I Feel like Loving You Again - T.G. Sheppard

1989
When I’m with You - Sheriff
Straight Up - Paula Abdul
When the Children Cry - White Lion
What I’d Say - Earl Thomas Conley

Quote of the Day

Only the mediocre are always at their best.
Jean Giraudoux, French diplomat, dramatist, & novelist (1882 - 1944)

Today in History - Feb 7th

Today's Birthdays

1478 Sir Thomas More, statesman/author, beheaded July 6, 1535
1804 John Deere, manufacturer (Deere & Company) died May 17, 1886
1812 Charles Dickens, novelist (A Christmas Carol, A Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist) died June 9, 1870
1867 Laura Ingalls Wilder, writer (Little House series) died Feb 10, 1957
1883 James Hubert "Eubie" Blake, pianist/bandleader/songwriter, died Feb 12, 1983
1885 (Harry) Sinclair Lewis, author (Elmer Gantry, Main Street) died Jan 10, 1951
1908 Buster (Clarence Linden) Crabbe, Olympic swimmer/actor (Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers) died Apr 23, 1983
1932 Gay Talese, writer (The Kingdom and the Power, Unto the Sons)
1945 Pete Postlethwaite, English actor (Amistad, Brassed Off, The Shipping News)
1948 Jimmy Greenspoon, organist (Three Dog Night)
1949 Joe English, drummer (Paul McCartney & Wings)
1949 Alan Lancaster, bassist (Status Quo)
1953 Dan Quisenberry, MLB pitcher (Kansas City Royals) died September 30, 1998
1954 Miguel Ferrer, actor (Twin Peaks, Robocop, Crossing Jordan)
1956 Emo Philips, comedian
1956 Mark St. John, guitarist (Kiss) died April 5, 2007
1959 Brian Travers, saxophonist (UB40)
1960 James Spader, actor (Boston Legal, The Practice, Crash, Stargate)
1962 (Troyal) Garth Brooks, country singer (Friends in Low Places, The Thunder Rolls)
1962 David Bryan, keyboardist (Bon Jovi)
1962 Eddie Izzard, writer/actor/comedian (The Avengers, Mystery Men, The Riches)
1965 Jason Gedrick, actor (Iron Eagle, Born on the Fourth of July, Backdraft)
1966 Chris Rock, actor/comedian (Saturday Night Live, Lethal Weapon 4, Dogma)
1968 Sully Erna, singer (Godsmack)
1972 Robyn Lively, actress (Twin Peaks, Doogie Howser, M.D., Chicago Hope)
1973 Juwan Howard, NBA forward (Dallas Mavericks)
1974 Steve Nash, NBA point guard (Phoenix Suns)
1975 Wes Borland, guitarist (Limp Bizkit)
1975 Alexandre Daigle, NHL right wing (NY Rangers)
1978 Ashton Kutcher, actor (That '70s Show, Guess Who, Dude Where's My Car)
1979 Cerina Vincent, actress (Not Another Teen Movie)
1985 Tina Majorino, actress (Corrina Corrina, Waterworld, Napoleon Dynamite, Big Love)
1993 David Dorfman, actor (The Ring series)

Today's Deaths in History

1937 Elihu Root, statesman/diplomat, dies at 91
1938 Harvey Firestone, manufacturer (Firestone Tires) dies at 69
1959 Guitar Slim, blues guitarist, dies at 32
1979 Dr. Josef Mengele, accused Nazi war criminal, dies at 67
1990 Jimmy Van Heusen, songwriter (High Hopes, Call Me Irresponsible) dies at 77
1998 Lawrence Sanders, author (Guilty Pleasures) dies at 77
1999 King Hussein bin Talal of Jordan dies at 63
1999 Bobby Troup, musician/actor (Route 66; Emergency) dies at 80
2000 Doug Henning, magician, dies at 52
2000 “Lonesome” Dave Peverett, singer/guitarist (Foghat, Savoy Brown) dies at 56
2001 Dale Evans, actress/singer/Mrs Roy Rogers, dies at 88
2001 Anne Morrow Lindbergh, author/aviator, dies at 94

Today in History

1795 The 11th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which dealt with State's sovereign immunity from being sued in federal court by someone of another state or country, was ratified.
1898 Émile Zola was brought to trial for libel for publishing J'Accuse.
1943 Imperial Japanese naval forces completed the evacuation of Imperial Japanese Army troops from Guadalcanal during Operation Ke.
1944 Germany launched a counteroffensive at Anzio, Italy, during World War II.
1948 Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower resigned as Army chief of staff and was succeeded by Gen. Omar Bradley.
1962 The United States banned all Cuban imports and exports.
1964 The Beatles arrived in New York for their first American tour, touching off rock 'n' roll's "British invasion."
1974 The island nation of Grenada won independence from Britain.
1979 Pluto moved inside Neptune's orbit for the first time since either was discovered.
1984 Space shuttle astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart went on the first untethered space walk.
1986 Haitian President-for-Life Jean-Claude Duvalier fled his country, ending 28 years of family rule.
1990 The Soviet Union's Communist Party gave up its monopoly on power by agreeing to let other political parties compete for control of the country.
1991 The Rev. Jean-Bertrand Aristide was sworn in as Haiti's first democratically elected president.
1991 The IRA launched a mortar attack on 10 Downing Street during a cabinet meeting.
1995 Ramzi Yousef, the alleged mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, was arrested in Islamabad, Pakistan.
1999 Crown Prince Abdullah became the King of Jordan on the death of his father, King Hussein.
2005 Defrocked priest Paul Shanley, the most notorious figure in the sex scandal that rocked the Boston Archdiocese, was convicted of repeatedly raping and fondling a boy at his church during the 1980s; Shanley was sentenced to 12 to 15 years in prison.

Chart Toppers

1950
Dear Hearts and Gentle People - Dinah Shore
A Dreamer’s Holiday - Perry Como
The Old Master Painter - Snooky Lanson
Chatanoogie Shoe Shine Boy - Red Foley

1958
Don’t/I Beg of You - Elvis Presley
Get a Job - The Silhouettes
Sail Along Silvery Moon - Billy Vaughn
Ballad of a Teenage Queen - Johnny Cash

1966
My Love - Petula Clark
Barbara Ann - The Beach Boys
No Matter What Shape (Your Stomach’s In) - The T-Bones
Giddyup Go - Red Sovine

1974
The Way We Were - Barbra Streisand
Love’s Theme - Love Unlimited Orchestra
Americans - Byron MacGregor
Jolene - Dolly Parton

1982
Centerfold - The J. Geils Band
Harden My Heart - Quarterflash
Turn Your Love Around - George Benson
Lonely Nights - Mickey Gilley

1990
How Am I Supposed to Live Without You - Michael Bolton
Opposites Attract - Paula Abdul with the Wild Pair
Downtown Train - Rod Stewart
Nobody’s Home - Clint Black

Quote of the Day

There are only two ways of telling the complete truth--anonymously and posthumously.
Thomas Sowell (1930 - )

Today in History - Feb 8th

Today's Birthdays

1820 William Tecumseh Sherman, Civil War general, died Feb 14, 1891
1828 Jules Verne, writer (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Around the World in Eighty Days) died Mar 24, 1905
1888 Dame Edith Evans, actress (Scrooge, David Copperfield) died Oct 14, 1976
1921 Lana (Julia Jean) Turner, actress (The Postman Always Rings Twice, Madame X) died June 29, 1995
1925 Jack Lemmon (John Uhler Lemmon III), actor (Mr. Roberts, The Apartment, The Odd Couple, Some Like It Hot) died June 27, 2001
1926 Audrey Meadows, actress (The Honeymooners) died Feb 3, 1996
1931 James Dean, actor (Giant, East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause) killed in car crash Sep 30, 1955
1932 John Williams, composer (Schindler’s List, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Star Wars)
1940 Ted Koppel, journalist/anchor (Nightline)
1941 Nick Nolte, actor (The Deep, Blue Chips, 48 Hours, The Prince of Tides)
1943 Creed Bratton, actor (The Office)
1948 Dan Seals, singer (England Dan & John Ford Coley)
1948 Ron Tyson, singer (The Temptations)
1949 Brooke Adams, actress (Days of Heaven, Gas Food Lodging)
1953 Mary Steenburgen, actress (Back to the Future Part 3, Parenthood, Joan of Arcadia)
1955 John Grisham, author (A Time to Kill, The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Client, The Rainmaker)
1955 John Fox, NFL head coach (Carolina Panthers)
1961 Vince Neil (Wharton), singer (Motley Crue)
1968 Gary Coleman, actor (Diff’rent Strokes)
1969 Mary McCormack, actress (Mystery Alaska, K-Pax, Private Parts, Deep Impact)
1970 Alonzo Mourning, NBA player (Charlotte Hornets, Miami Heat)
1974 Seth Green, actor (Austin Powers movies, That 70's Show)
1974 Kimbo Slice, mixed martial artist
1977 Dave "Phoenix" Farrell, bassisy (Linkin Park)
1980 Cameron Muncey, guitarist (Jet)

Today's Deaths in History

1587 Mary, Queen of Scots, is beheaded at 44
1956 Connie Mack, baseball manager/executive (Pittsburgh Pirates) dies at 93
1990 Del Shannon, singer (Runaway) commits suicide at 50
2000 Derrick Thomas, NFL linebacker (Kansas City Chiefs) dies at 33
2005 Keith Knudsen, drummer/singer/songwriter (The Doobie Brothers) dies at 56
2006 Elton Dean, saxophonist (Soft Machine) dies at 60
2007 Anna Nicole Smith, model (1993 Playboy Plamate of the Year) dies at 39

Today in History

1587 Mary, Queen of Scots, was beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle in England after she was implicated in a plot to murder her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I.
1692 A doctor in Salem Village, Massachusetts Bay Colony suggested that two girls in the family of the village minister may have beeb suffering from bewitchment, which led to the Salem witch trials.
1693 A charter was granted for the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va.
1837 The Senate selected Richard Mentor Johnson of Kentucky as vice president after no candidate received a majority of electoral votes.
1887 The Dawes Act authorized the President of the United States to survey Native American tribal land and divide it into individual allotments.
1904 The Russo-Japanese War began.
1910 The Boy Scouts of America was incorporated.
1915 D.W. Griffith's silent movie epic about the Civil War, The Birth of a Nation, premiered in Los Angeles.
1918 The Stars and Stripes newspaper published for the first time.
1922 President Warren G. Harding had a radio installed in the White House.
1924 The first execution by gas in the United State took place at the Nevada State Prison in Carson City.
1968 Three college students died in a confrontation with highway patrolmen in Orangeburg, S.C., during a civil rights protest against a whites-only bowling alley.
1971 The NASDAQ stock market index debuted.
1978 Senate deliberations were broadcast on radio for the first time as members opened debate on the Panama Canal treaties.
1980 President Jimmy Carter unveiled a plan to re-introduce draft registration.
1993 General Motors sued NBC, alleging that the program Dateline NBC had rigged two crashes to show that GM pickups were prone to fires; NBC settled the lawsuit the following day.
1996 The U.S. Congress passed the Communications Decency Act.
1998 In the first women's ice hockey game in Olympic history, Finland beat Sweden 6-0.
1999 The Senate heard closing arguments in President Bill Clinton's impeachment trial.
2004 Beyonce won five Grammy Awards, tying the record for female performers held by Lauryn Hill, Alicia Keyes and Norah Jones.
2005 Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas announced a cease-fire at a summit in Egypt.
2007 Model and tabloid sensation Anna Nicole Smith died at age 39 of an accidental drug overdose.


Chart Toppers

1951
My Heart Cries for You - Guy Mitchell
Tennessee Waltz - Patti Page
If - Perry Como
There’s Been a Change in Me - Eddy Arnold

1959
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes - The Platters
The All American Boy - Bill Parsons
Stagger Lee - Lloyd Price
Billy Bayou - Jim Reeves

1967
I’m a Believer - The Monkees
Georgy Girl - The Seekers
Kind of a Drag - The Buckinghams
There Goes My Everything - Jack Greene

1975
Fire - Ohio Players
You’re No Good
Boogie on Reggae Woman - Stevie Wonder
Then Who Am I - Charley Pride

1983
Africa - Toto
Baby, Come to Me - Patti Austin with James Ingram
Shame on the Moon - Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band
Inside - Ronnie Milsap

1991
The First Time - Surface
Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now) - C & C Music Factory featuring Freedom Williams
Play that Funky Music - Vanilla Ice
Daddy’s Come Around - Paul Overstreet

Quote of the Day

A little government and a little luck are necessary in life, but only a fool trusts either of them.
P. J. O'Rourke, humorist & political commentator (1947 - )

Today in History - Feb 9th

Today's Birthdays

1773 William Henry Harrison, 9th U.S. President, died April 4, 1841
1891 Ronald (Charles) Colman, actor (Lost Horizon, Prisoner Around the World in 80 Days) died May 19, 1958
1901 (Waldo) Brian Donlevy, actor (Destry Rides Again, Wake Island, Jesse James) died Apr 5, 1972
1909 Carmen Miranda, the ‘Brazilian Bombshell,’ singer/dancer/actress (Chiquita Banana) died Aug 5, 1955
1914 Gypsy Rose Lee (Rose Hovick), actress/dancer/stripper (The Stripper) died Apr 26, 1970
1914 Ernest Tubb, Country Music Hall of Famer (Walking the Floor Over You) died Sep 6, 1984
1922 Kathryn Grayson (Zelma Hednick), actress (Kiss Me Kate, Show Boat, Anchors Aweigh)
1928 Roger Mudd, broadcast journalist (CBS News, NBC News, PBS)
1942 Carole King (Klein), songwriter/singer (Loco-motion, It’s Too Late, Jazzman)
1943 Joe Pesci, actor (Goodfellas, Raging Bull, My Cousin Vinny, Lethal Weapon series)
1944 Alice Walker, author (The Color Purple)
1945 Mia Farrow (Maria de Lourdes Villers), actress (Hannah and Her Sisters, Rosemary’s Baby)
1946 Jim Webb, United States Senator (Virginia)
1947 Major Harris, R&B singer (Love Won't Let Me Wait)
1949 Judith Light, actress (Who’s the Boss, Ugly Betty)
1955 Charles Shaughnessy, actor (The Nanny)
1958 Chris Nilan, NHL right wing (NY Rangers)
1960 Holly Johnson, singer (Frankie Goes to Hollywood)
1963 (James) Travis Tritt, country singer
1965 Julie Warner, actress (Doc Hollywood, Tommy Boy)
1976 Vladimir Guerrero, MLB outfielder (LA Angels)
1977 A.J. Buckley, actor (CSI: NY)
1979 Zhang Ziyi, actress (Memoirs of a Geisha, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, The Road Home)
1981 The Reverend Tholomew Plague, drummer (Avenged Sevenfold)
1981 Bleedin-Blue, board member
1981 John Walker Lindh, American Taliban fighter

Today's Deaths in History

1881 Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Russian novelist (Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov) dies at 59
1969 Gabby Hayes, actor (Hopalong Cassidy) dies at 83
1973 Max Yasgur, farm owner (Woodstock Festival) dies at 53
1981 Bill Haley, singer/guitarist (Bill Haley & his Comets) dies at 55
1984 Yuri V. Andropov, Soviet leader, dies at 69
1997 Brian Connolly, singer (Sweet) dies at 51
2002 Britain's Princess Margaret, the sister of Queen Elizabeth II, dies at 71
2005 Tyrone Davis, soul singer (Turn Back The Hands of Time) dies at 66

Today in History

1825 The House of Representatives elected John Quincy Adams president after no candidate received a majority of electoral votes.
1861 The Provisional Congress of the Confederate States of America elected Jefferson Davis president and Alexander H. Stephens vice president.
1870 The U.S. Weather Bureau was established.
1885 The first Japanese government-approved immigrants arrived in Hawaii.
1889 The United States Department of Agriculture was established as a Cabinet-level agency.
1900 The Davis Cup competition was established.
1942 Daylight-saving "war time" went into effect in the United States, with clocks turned one hour forward.
1943 The World War II battle of Guadalcanal in the southwest Pacific ended with an American victory over Japanese forces.
1950 Sen. Joseph McCarthy, R Wis., during a speech in Wheeling, W.Va., charged that the State Department was riddled with Communists.
1960 Joanne Woodward received the first star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1964 The Beatles made their first live American TV appearance, on The Ed Sullivan Show.
1971 Apollo 14 returned to Earth after man's third landing on the moon.
1971 Satchel Paige became the first Negro League player to be voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
1984 Soviet leader Yuri V. Andropov died at age 69, less than 15 months after succeeding Leonid Brezhnev.
1986 Halley's Comet reached perihelion, its closest approach to the sun, during its second visit to the inner solar system in the 20th century.
1993 NBC News announced it had settled a defamation lawsuit brought by General Motors over the network's demonstration of a fiery pickup truck crash on Dateline NBC.
1995 Space Shuttle astronauts Bernard A. Harris, Jr. and Michael Foale became the first African American and first Briton, respectively, to perform spacewalks.
1999 The Senate began closed-door deliberations in President Bill Clinton's impeachment trial.
2001 The American submarine USS Greeneville (SSN-772) accidentally struck and sank the Ehime Maru, a Japanese training vessel operated by the Uwajima Fishery High School; nine people on the fishing boat died.

Chart Topppers

1944
My Heart Tells Me - The Glen Gray Orchestra (vocal: Eugenie Baird)
Shoo, Shoo, Baby - The Andrews Sisters
No Love, No Nothin’ - Ella Mae Morse
Pistol Packin’ Mama - Al Dexter

1952
Slowpoke - Pee Wee King
Cry - Johnnie Ray
Anytime - Eddie Fisher
Give Me More, More, More (Of Your Kisses) - Lefty Frizzell

1960
Teen Angel - Mark Dinning
Where or When - Dion & The Belmonts
Handy Man - Jimmy Jones
He’ll Have to Go - Jim Reeves

1968
Green Tambourine - The Lemon Pipers
Spooky - Classics IV
Love is Blue - Paul Mauriat
Skip a Rope - Henson Cargill

1976
50 Ways to Leave Your Lover - Paul Simon
Love to Love You Baby - Donna Summer
You Sexy Thing - Hot Chocolate
Sometimes - Bill Anderson & Mary Lou Turner

1984
Karma Chameleon - Culture Club
Joanna - Kool & the Gang
Running with the Night - Lionel Richie
Show Her - Ronnie Milsap

Quote of the Day

The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously.
Henry Kissinger, diplomat & scholar (1923 - )

Today in History - Feb 10th

Today's Birthdays

1890 Boris Pasternak, poet/writer (Doctor Zhivago) died May 30, 1960
1893 Jimmy (James Francis) Durante, actor/comedian, died Jan 29, 1980
1898 Dame Judith (Frances Margaret) Anderson, actress (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof) died Jan 3, 1992
1898 Bertolt Brecht, German author (Baal, Drums in the Night) died August 14, 1956
1906 Lon Chaney Jr., actor (The Wolf Man, House of Frankenstein) died July 12, 1973
1920 Alex Comfort, author (The Joy of Sex) died Mar 26, 2000
1923 Allie Sherman, former NFL head coach (NY Giants)
1924 Bud (Norman) Poile, NHL right wing/coach/league executive (NY Rangers) died January 4, 2005
1927 Leontyne Price, operatic soprano (Metropolitan Opera)
1930 Robert Wagner, actor (Hart to Hart, The Towering Inferno, Titanic, Midway)
1937 Don Wilson, rhythm guitarist (The Ventures)
1939 Roberta Flack,singer (Killing Me Softly With His Song)
1940 Jimmy Merchant, singer (Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers)
1949 Nigel Olsson, drummer (Elton John)
1949 Harold Sylvester, actor (Uncommon Valor, Innerspace, Vision Quest)
1950 Mark Spitz, Olympic Gold Medal swimmer
1955 Greg Norman, golf champion
1961 George Stephanopoulos, broadcast journalist (This Week)
1961 Alexander Payne, director (Sideways)
1962 Cliff Burton, bassist (Metallica) died September 27, 1986
1963 Lenny (Leonard Kyle) Dykstra , MLB centerfielder (NY Mets, Philadelphia Phillies)
1964 Glenn Beck, radio/television host/commentator
1967 Laura Dern, actress (Jurassic Park, Blue Velvet, Rambling Rose)
1968 Peter Popovic, NHL defenseman (NY Rangers)
1969 Laurie Dhue, TV news anchor (Fox Report Weekend)
1974 Elizabeth Banks, actress (The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Invincible)
1975 Amber Frey, witness against Scott Peterson
1991 Emma Roberts, actress (Nancy Drew)

Today's Deaths in History

1912 Joseph Lister, British surgeon/inventor (antiseptic treatment of wounds) dies at 84
1923 Wilhelm Röntgen, German physicist (X-Rays) died at 77
1957 Laura Ingalls Wilder, author (Little House on the Prairie) dies at 90
1992 Alex Haley, author (Roots) dies at 70
2000 Jim Varney, actor (Ernest series) dies at 50
2001 Abraham Beame, former mayor (New York City) dies at 94
2003 Ron Ziegler, White House Press Secretary (Richard Nixon) dies at 63
2005 Arthur Miller, playwright (Death of a Salesman) dies at 89
2007 Ned Austin, character actor (Maximum Overdrive, Annie Hall) dies at 81
2008 Steve Gerber, comics writer (Howard the Duck) dies at 60
2008 Roy Scheider, actor (Jaws) dies at 75

Today in History

1542 Queen Catherine Howard of England was confined in the Tower of London to be executed three days later for treason (adultery).
1763 France ceded Canada to England under the Treaty of Paris, which ended the French and Indian War.
1840 Britain's Queen Victoria married Prince Albert of Saxe Coburg-Gotha.
1846 Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the Mormons, began an exodus west from Illinois.
1870 The YWCA was founded in New York City.
1923 Texas Tech University was founded as Texas Technological College in Lubbock, Texas.
1933 The first singing telegram was introduced by the Postal Telegram Co. in New York.
1942 The former French liner Normandie capsized in New York Harbor a day after it caught fire while being refitted for the U.S. Navy.
1949 Arthur Miller's play Death of a Salesman opened on Broadway.
1962 The Soviet Union exchanged captured American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers for a Soviet spy held by the United States.
1964 Bob Dylan's album The Times They Are A-Changin' was released.
1967 The 25th Amendment to the Constitution, dealing with presidential disability and succession, went into effect.
1968 Peggy Fleming of the United States won the gold medal in women's figure skating at the Winter Olympic Games in Grenoble, France.
1981 Fire broke out at the Las Vegas Hilton hotel-casino, killing eight people and injuring 198.
1989 Ron Brown was elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee, becoming the first black to head a major U.S. political party.
1992 Boxer Mike Tyson was convicted in Indianapolis of raping a Miss Black America contestant.
2003 Iraq agreed to allow U-2 surveillance flights over its territory, meeting a key demand by U.N. inspectors searching for banned weapons; President George W. Bush brushed aside Iraqi concessions as too little, too late.
2005 North Korea boasted publicly for the first time that it possessed nuclear weapons.
2007 Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., kicked off his presidential campaign with a speech at the state house in Springfield, Ill.
2007 Gen. David Petraeus took charge of U.S. forces in Iraq.

Chart Toppers

1945
Don’t Fence Me In - Bing Crosby & the Andrews Sisters
Accentuate the Positive - Johnny Mercer
I Dream of You - The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra (vocal: Freddy Stewart)
I’m Losing My Mind Over You - Al Dexter

1953
Don’t Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes - Perry Como
Why Don’t You Believe Me - Joni James
Keep It a Secret - Jo Stafford
I Let the Stars Get in My Eyes - Goldie Hill

1961
Will You Love Me Tomorrow - The Shirelles
Calcutta - Lawrence Welk
Shop Around - The Miracles
North to Alaska - Johnny Horton

1969
Crimson and Clover - Tommy James & the Shondells
Everyday People - Sly & the Family Stone
Touch Me - The Doors
Daddy Sang Bass - Johnny Cash

1977
Torn Between Two Lovers - Mary MacGregor
New Kid in Town - Eagles
Blinded by the Light - Manfred Mann’s Earth Band
Near You - George Jones & Tammy Wynette

1985
I Want to Know What Love Is - Foreigner
Easy Lover - Philip Bailey with Phil Collins
Careless Whisper - Wham! featuring George Michael
Ain’t She Somethin’ Else - Conway Twitty

Quote of the Day

The second half of a man's life is made up of nothing but the habits he has acquired during the first half.
Fyodor Dostoevsky, Russian novelist (1821 - 1881)

Today in History - Feb 11th

Today's Birthdays

1847 Thomas Alva Edison, inventor (incandescent light, phonograph) died Oct 18, 1931
1908 Philip Dunne, director/playwright (How Green was My Valley) died June 2, 1992
1909 Max (Maximillian Adalbert) Baer, boxing champion, died Nov 21, 1959
1909 Joseph Mankiewicz, playwright/director (All About Eve, The Barefoot Contessa) died Feb 5, 1993
1917 Sidney Sheldon, author (Bloodline, The Other Side of Midnight) died Jan 30, 2007
1919 Eva Gabor, actress (Green Acres, Gigi) died July 4, 1995
1926 Leslie Nielsen, actor (Airplane series, Naked Gun series, Forbidden Planet)
1928 Conrad Janis, actor (Mork and Mindy)
1934 Tina Louise (Blacker), actress (Gilligan’s Island)
1935 Gene Vincent (Craddock), singer (Be-Bop-A-Lula) died Oct 12, 1971
1936 Burt Reynolds, actor (Deliverance, Smokey and the Bandit series, The Longest Yard)
1938 Bobby ‘Boris’ Pickett, singer (The Monster Mash) died April 25, 2007
1939 Gerry Goffin, lyricist (Will You Love Me Tomorrow)
1953 Jeb Bush, former governor of Florida/brother of President Bush
1961 Carey Lowell, actress (Law and Order, Licence to Kill)
1962 Sheryl Crow, singer (All I Wanna Do, Every Day is a Winding Road)
1963 Diane Franklin, actress (The Last American Virgin, Better Off Dead)
1964 Sarah Palin, Alaska Governor
1969 Jennifer Aniston, actress (Friends, Rock Star, The Good Girl)
1972 Kelly Slater, surfing champion
1972 Craig Jones, musician (Slipknot)
1977 Mike Shinoda, rapper/keyboardist (Linkin Park)
1979 Brandy Norwood, singer (The Boy Is Mine)
1981 Kelly Rowland, R&B singer (Destiny's Child)
1982 Natalie Dormer, English actress (The Tudors)
1983 Nicki Clyne, actress (Battlestar Galactica)
1984 Aubrey O'Day, singer (Danity Kane)
1985 Harris Allan, actor (Queer as Folk, The 4400)
1990 Q'orianka Kilcher, actress (The New World)

Today's Deaths in History

1511 Henry, Duke of Cornwall, son of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, dies at 5 weeks
1650 René Descartes, French philosopher (Cogito ergo sum) dies at 53
1948 Sergei Eisenstein, Latvian film director (Battleship Potemkin) dies at 50
1963 Sylvia Plath, writer (The Bell Jar) dies at 30
1976 Lee J. Cobb, actor (Death of a Salesman, On the Waterfront) dies at 64
1982 Eleanor Powell, actress/dancer (Broadway Melody of 1936) dies at 69
1986 Frank Herbert, author (Dune) dies at 65
1994 Neil Bonnett, NASCAR driver, dies at 47
1994 Sorrell Booke, actor (The Dukes of Hazzard) dies at 64
1994 William Conrad, actor (Cannon, Jake and the Fat Man) dies at 73
2000 Roger Vadim, French director (And God Created Woman) dies at 72
2006 Peter Benchley, author (Jaws) dies at 65

Today in History

1531 Henry VIII of England was recognized as supreme head of the Church of England.
1752 Pennsylvania Hospital, the first hospital in the United States, opened.
1812 Massachusetts Gov. Elbridge Gerry signed a redistricting law that favored his party - giving rise to the term "gerrymandering."
1858 A French girl, Bernadette Soubirous, claimed to have seen a vision of the Virgin Mary near Lourdes.
1861 The United States House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution guaranteeing noninterference with slavery in any state.
1916 Anarchist Emma Goldman was arrested for lecturing on birth control.
1929 The Lateran Treaty was signed, with Italy recognizing the independence and sovereignty of Vatican City.
1937 A sit-down strike against General Motors ended with the company agreeing to recognize the United Automobile Workers Union.
1938 BBC Television produced the first-ever science fiction television program, an adaptation of a section of the Karel Capek play R.U.R., which coined the term "robot."
1941 The first Gold Record was presented to Glenn Miller for "Chattanooga Choo Choo."
1945 President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin wrapped up a conference at Yalta in the Crimea by signing a series of agreements on the governance of post-World War II Europe.
1953 President Dwight Eisenhower refused a clemency appeal for convicted spies Ethel and Julius Rosenberg.
1963 Julia Child's show The French Chef premiered.
1964 The Beatles held their first concert in the United States at the Washington Coliseum in Washington, D.C.
1972 McGraw-Hill Publishing Co. and Life magazine canceled plans to publish what turned out to be a fake autobiography of reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes.
1979 Followers of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini seized power in Iran, nine days after the religious leader returned to his home country following 15 years of exile.
1989 Rev. Barbara C. Harris became the first woman consecrated as a bishop in the Episcopal Church in a ceremony held in Boston.
1990 South African black activist Nelson Mandela was freed after 27 years in captivity.
1993 President Bill Clinton announced his choice of Miami prosecutor Janet Reno to be the nation's first female attorney general.
1997 Space Shuttle Discovery was launched on a mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope.
2002 Israel attacked Palestinian security headquarters in Gaza City in response to unprecedented Palestinian rocket fire and a shooting attack on Israeli civilians.
2004 A car bomb at an army recruiting center in Baghdad, Iraq, killed 47 people.
2006 Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot and wounded a companion during a quail hunt in Texas.
2006 Dubai Ports World, a state-owned business in the United Arab Emirates, struck a $6.8 billion deal to take over operations at six U.S. ports; the deal was later blocked.
2008 The Defense Department charged Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and five other detainees at Guantanamo Bay with murder and war crimes in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks; charges against one were later dropped.

Chart Toppers

1946
Symphony - The Freddy Martin Orchestra (vocal: Clyde Rogers)
I Can’t Begin to Tell You - Bing Crosby with the Carmen Cavallaro Orchestra
Let It Snow - Vaughn Monroe
Guitar Polka - Al Dexter

1954
Oh! My Pa-Pa - Eddie Fisher
Make Love to Me - Jo Stafford
Young-at-Heart - Frank Sinatra
Bimbo - Jim Reeves

1962
Peppermint Twist - Joey Dee & the Starliters
Duke of Earl - Gene Chandler
Norman - Sue Thompson
Walk on By - Leroy Van Dyke

1970
Venus - The Shocking Blue
Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)/Everybody is a Star - Sly & the Family Stone
I’ll Never Fall in Love Again - Dionne Warwick
A Week in a Country Jail - Tom T. Hall

1978
Stayin’ Alive - Bee Gees
(Love Is) Thicker Than Water - Andy Gibb
Just the Way You Are - Billy Joel
I Just Wish You Were Someone I Love - Larry Gatlin with Brothers & Friends

1986
That’s What Friends are For - Dionne & Friends
Burning Heart - Survivor
I’m Your Man - Wham!
Hurt - Juice Newton

Quote of the Day

Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway, author & journalist (1899 - 1961)

Today in History - Feb 12th

Today's Birthdays

1775 Louisa Adams (Johnson), 1st Lady, died May 15, 1852
1809 Charles Darwin, naturalist (On the Origin of the Species) died Apr 19, 1882
1809 Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States, assassinated Apr 15, 1865
1893 Omar Bradley, Army General/first Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (WWII) died April 8, 1981
1904 Ted Mack (William Maguiness), TV host (The Original Amateur Hour) died July 12, 1976
1914 (Gordon) Tex Beneke, singer/tenor sax (Glenn Miller Orchestra) died May 30, 2000
1915 Lorne Greene, actor (Bonanza, Battlestar Galactica) died Sep 11, 1987
1917 Dom (Dominic Paul) DiMaggio, MLB center fielder (Boston Red Sox)
1919 Forrest Tucker, actor (Sands of Iwo Jima, The Yearling, F Troop) died Oct 25, 1986
1926 Joe (Joseph Henry) Garagiola, MLB catcher/sportscaster (StL Cardinals, Chicago Cubs, NY Giants)
1926 Charles Van Doren, quiz show contestant (quiz show scandal)
1930 Arlen Specter, US Senator (R-Pa)
1934 Bill Russell (William Felton), Basketball Hall of Famer (Boston Celtics)
1936 Joe Don Baker, actor (Cool Hand Luke, The Natural, Fletch)
1938 Johnny Rutherford, Indy car racer
1939 Ray Manzarek, keyboardist (The Doors)
1945 Maud Adams, actress (Octopussy, The Man with the Golden Gun)
1946 Joe Schermie, bassist (Three Dog Night) died Mar 25, 2002
1948 Mike Robitaille, NHL defenseman (NY Rangers)
1950 Michael Ironside, actor (Scanners, Top Gun, Total Recall, Starship Troopers)
1950 Steve Hackett, guitarist (Genesis, GTR)
1952 Michael McDonald, singer (The Doobie Brothers)
1953 Joanna Kerns, actress (The Four Seasons, Growing Pains)
1955 Arsenio Hall, TV talk-show host
1956 Brian Robertson, guitarist (Thin Lizzy, Motörhead)
1965 Christine Elise, actress (Beverly Hills 90210, ER)
1968 Chynna Phillips, singer (Wilson Phillips)
1968 Josh Brolin, actor (No Country for Old Men)
1968 Christopher McCandless, subject of biography Into the Wild, died Aug 18, 1992
1969 Darren Aronofsky, director/writer (RoboCop, The Wrestler)
1970 Jim Creeggan, bassist (Barenaked Ladies)
1976 Anna Benson, model/former stripper/Mrs Kris Benson
1979 Jesse Spencer, actor (House)
1980 Christina Ricci, actress (Addams Family series, Black Snake Moan)
1980 Sarah Lancaster, actress (Chuck)

Today's Deaths in History

1554 Lady Jane Grey, claimant to the English throne, is beheaded at 16
1789 Ethan Allen, American patriot (Green Mountain Boys) dies at 51
1804 Immanuel Kant, German philosopher (enlightenment philosophy) dies at 79
1971 James C. Penney, department store founder, dies at 95
1976 Sal Mineo, actor (Rebel Without a Cause) dies at 37
1983 Eubie Blake, musician/songwriter (Love Will Find a Way) dies at 96
1991 Roger Patterson, death metal bassist (R.A.V.A.G.E.) dies at 23
1995 Philip Taylor Kramer, bassist (Iron Butterfly) dies at 42
2000 Screamin' Jay Hawkins, blues/rock musician (I Put a Spell on You) dies at 70
2000 Charles M. Schulz, cartoonist (Peanuts) dies at 77
2000 Tom Landry, Football Hall of Fame coach (Dallas Cowboys) dies at 75
2007 Randy Stone, actor/casting director (Millennium) dies at 58

Today in History

1554 Lady Jane Grey, who had claimed the throne of England for nine days, was beheaded after being charged with treason.
1733 English colonists led by James Oglethorpe founded Savannah, Ga.
1825 The Creek tribe ceded the last of their lands in Georgia to the United States government, and migrated west.
1855 Michigan State University was established.
1870 Women in the Utah Territory gained the right to vote.
1879 The first artificial ice rink in North America opened at Gilmore's Park in New York City.
1909 The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was founded in New York.
1912 Pu Yi, the last emperor of China, abdicated, marking the end of the Qing Dynasty.
1915 The cornerstone for the Lincoln Memorial was laid in Washington, D.C.
1924 George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" premiered in New York City.
1924 Calvin Coolidge became the first President of the United States to deliver a political speech on radio.
1973 The first release of American prisoners of war from the Vietnam War took place.
1993 Two 10-year-old boys lured 2-year-old James Bulger from his mother at a shopping mall in Liverpool, England, then beat him to death.
1999 The Senate voted to acquit President Bill Clinton on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.
2000 Charles Schultz's Peanuts printed its last comic.
2001 The NEAR spacecraft touched down on Eros, completing the first landing on an asteroid.
2002 The war crimes trial of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic began in The Hague.
2002 Pakistan charged three men in connection with the kidnapping of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Karachi.
2004 Defying a California law, San Francisco officials began performing weddings for same-sex couples.
2006 A record 26.9 inches of snow fell in New York's Central Park.
2008 General Motors reported losing $38.7 billion in 2007 and offered buyouts to 74,000 hourly workers.

Chart Toppers

1947
For Sentimental Reasons - Nat King Cole
Ole Buttermilk Sky - The Kay Kyser Orchestra (vocal: Mike Douglas & The Campus Kids)
A Gal in Calico - Johnny Mercer
So Round, So Firm, So Fully Packed - Merle Travis

1955
Sincerely - McGuire Sisters
Hearts of Stone - Fontane Sisters
Ko Ko Mo (I Love You So) - Perry Como
Let Me Go, Lover! - Hank Snow

1963
Hey Paula - Paul & Paula
Loop De Loop - Johnny Thunder
Up on the Roof - The Drifters
The Ballad of Jed Clampett - Flatt & Scruggs

1971
Knock Three Times - Dawn
One Bad Apple - The Osmonds
Rose Garden - Lynn Anderson
Joshua - Dolly Parton

1979
Da Ya Think I’m Sexy? - Rod Stewart
Y.M.C.A. - Village People
A Little More Love - Olivia Newton-John
Every Which Way But Loose - Eddie Rabbitt

1987
Open Your Heart - Madonna
Livin’ on a Prayer - Bon Jovi
Change of Heart - Cyndi Lauper
Leave Me Lonely - Gary Morris

Quote of the Day

There's no trick to being a humorist when you have the whole government working for you.
Will Rogers, humorist & showman (1879 - 1935)

Today in History - Feb 13th

Today's Birthdays

1885 Bess Truman (Wallace), Frist Lady, died Oct 18, 1982
1891 Grant Wood, painter (American Gothic) died Feb 12, 1942
1918 Oliver Smith, Broadway scenic designer (On the Town, Brigadoon) died Jan 23, 1994
1919 Tennessee Ernie Ford, singer (16 Tons) died October 17, 1991
1923 Chuck Yeager, USAF test pilot (first to break the sound barrier)
1928 Dorothy McGuire, singer (The McGuire Sisters)
1933 Kim (Marilyn) Novak, actress (The Man with the Golden Arm, Vertigo)
1934 George Segal, actor (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Just Shoot Me)
1938 Oliver Reed, actor (Oliver! Tommy, Gladiator) died May 2, 1999
1942 Carol Lynley (Jones), actress (The Poseidon Adventure, Fantasy Island)
1942 Peter Tork (Peter Halsten Thorkelson), bassist/singer (The Monkees)
1944 Stockard Channing (Susan Stockard), actress (Grease, The West Wing)
1944 Jerry Springer, TV host
1944 Bo Svenson, actor (Heartbreak Ridge, North Dallas Forty)
1945 King Floyd, singer (Groove Me) died March 6, 2006
1947 Mike Krzyzewski, college basketball coach (Duke University)
1950 Peter (Brian) Gabriel, singer (Genesis)
1951 David Naughton, actor (An American Werewolf in London)
1956 Peter Hook, bassist (Joy Division, New Order)
1957 Tony Butler, bassist (Big Country)
1961 Henry Rollins, singer/TV host (Black Flag)
1966 Freedom Williams, singer (C&C Music Factory)
1966 Neal McDonough, actor (Band of Brothers, Minority Report)
1967 Kelly Hu, actress (Martial Law, Nash Bridges, X-Men II: X-Men United)
1976 Feist, singer/songwriter
1977 Randy Moss, NFL wide receiver (New England Patriots)
1978 Hamish Glencross, guitarist (My Dying Bride)
1979 Mena Suvari, actress (American Beauty, American Pie series, Beauty Shop)

Today's Deaths in History

1542 Catherine Howard, fifth wife of Henry VIII, is executed at 21
1883 Richard Wagner, German composer (Die Valkerie) dies at 69
1980 David Janssen, actor (The Fugitive, Harry O) dies at 48
1996 Martin Balsam, actor (On the Waterfront, 12 Angry Men) dies at 76
2002 Waylon Jennings, country singer/songwriter (Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys) dies at 64
2003 Kid Gavilan, Cuban boxer, dies at 77
2005 Dick Weber, bowling champion, dies at 75

Today in History

1542 The fifth wife of England's King Henry VIII, Catherine Howard, was executed for adultery.
1633 Galileo Galilei arrived in Rome for his trial before the Inquisition.
1635 The Boston Public Latin School was founded; it is now the oldest public school in the United States.
1914 The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers was founded in New York City.
1920 The League of Nations recognized the perpetual neutrality of Switzerland.
1920 The Negro National League was formed.
1935 A jury in Flemington, N.J., found Bruno Richard Hauptmann guilty of first-degree murder in the kidnap-death of the infant son of avaitor Charles Lindberg and his wife, Anne; Hauptmann was later executed.
1945 The Soviets captured Budapest, Hungary, from the Germans during World War II.
1945 Allied planes began bombing the German city of Dresden.
1960 France exploded its first atomic bomb.
1984 Konstantin Chernenko was chosen to be general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party's Central Committee, succeeding the late Yuri Andropov.
1991 Hundreds of Iraqi civilians were killed when a pair of laser-guided U.S. bombs destroyed an underground facility in Baghdad identified by U.S. officials as a military installation, but which Iraqi officials said was a bomb shelter.
1997 The Dow Jones industrial average broke through the 7,000 barrier for the first time, closing at 7,022.44.
2000 Charles Schulz's final Peanuts comic strip ran in Sunday newspapers, the day after the cartoonist died at age 77.
2005 Final results showed clergy-backed Shiites and independence-minded Kurds had swept to victory in Iraq's landmark elections.
2005 Ray Charles won eight posthumous Grammy awards for his final album Genius Loves Company.
2008 Under oath and sometimes blistering questioning, seven-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens told Congress: "I have never taken steroids or HGH."
2008 Hollywood writers ended q 100-day strike that had disrupted the TV season and canceled awards shows.
2008 Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made a historic apology to the Indigenous Australians and the Stolen Generations.

Chart Toppers

1948
Ballerina - Vaughn Monroe
I’ll Dance at Your Wedding - Buddy Clark with The Ray Noble Orchestra
Now is the Hour - Bing Crosby
I’ll Hold You in My Heart (Till I Can Hold You in My Arms) - Eddy Arnold

1956
Rock and Roll Waltz - Kay Starr
No, Not Much! - The Four Lads
Teenage Prayer - Gale Storm
Sixteen Tons - Tennessee Ernie Ford

1964
I Want to Hold Your Hand - The Beatles
You Don’t Own Me - Leslie Gore
Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um - Major Lance
Begging to You - Marty Robbins

1972
Let’s Stay Together - Al Green
Without You - Nilsson
Precious and Few - Climax
One’s on the Way - Loretta Lynn

1980
Rock with You - Michael Jackson
Do that to Me One More Time - The Captain & Tennille
Coward of the County - Kenny Rogers
Leaving Louisiana in the Broad Daylight - The Oak Ridge Boys

1988
Could’ve Been - Tiffany
Seasons Change - Expose
I Want to Be Your Man - Roger
Wheels - Restless Heart

Quote of the Day

Art is science made clear.
Jean Cocteau, French dramatist, director, & poet (1889 - 1963)

Today in History - Feb 14th

Today's Birthdays

1838 Margaret Knight, inventor (paper bag making machine) died October 12, 1914
1859 George Ferris, inventor (Ferris wheel) died Nov 22, 1896
1894 Jack Benny (Benjamin Kubelsky), violinist/comedian, died Dec 26, 1974
1913 Mel Allen (Israel), sportscaster (New York Yankees) died June 16, 1996
1913 Woody (Wayne) Hayes, College Football Hall of Fame coach, died Mar 12, 1987
1913 Jimmy Hoffa, labor union leader, disappeared in 1975
1921 Hugh Downs, TV host (Concentration, Today, 20/20)
1922 Murray the K, impresario/disc jockey, died February 21, 1982
1929 Vic Morrow, actor (Twilight Zone: The Movie, Combat) died July 23, 1982
1931 Brian Kelly, actor (Flipper) died February 12, 2005
1931 Bernie ‘Boom Boom’ Geoffrion, NHL right wing (NY Rangers) died March 11, 2006
1934 Florence Henderson, actress (The Brady Bunch)
1936 Andrew Prine, actor (The Miracle Worker, Gettysburg, The Devil’s Brigade)
1941 Paul Tsongas, Senator (D-Mass) died January 18, 1997)
1942 Michael Bloomberg, New York City Mayor
1942 Andrew Robinson, actor (Dirty Harry, Hellraiser, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)
1943 Maceo Parker, saxophonist (P-Funk)
1944 Carl Bernstein, journalist (Washington Post)
1946 Gregory Hines, dancer/actor (White Nights, The Cotton Club, Running Scared) died Aug 9, 2003
1947 Tim Buckley, singer/songwriter, died June 29, 1975
1948 Teller, comedian/magician (Penn and Teller)
1948 Pat O'Brien, TV host (The Insider)
1950 Roger Fisher, guitarist (Heart)
1951 (Alicia) Jo Jo Starbuck, ice skater/ex-Mrs. Terry Bradshaw
1956 Ken Wahl, actor (Wiseguy, The Favor, Fort Apache the Bronx)
1957 Alan Hunter, original MTV VJ
1960 Meg Tilly, actress (Body Snatchers, The Two Jakes, Psycho 2, The Big Chill)
1960 Jim Kelly, Football Hall of Fame quarterback (Buffalo Bills)
1963 Enrico Colantoni, actor (Just Shoot Me, Galaxy Quest)
1964 Zach Galligan, actor (Gremlins series)
1970 Simon Pegg, comedian/actor (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz)
1972 Rob Thomas, singer (Matchbox 20)
1992 Freddie Highmore, actor (Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, Finding Neverland, The Spiderwick Chronicles)

Today's Deaths in History

0270 St. Valentine, martyred saint, dies (age unknown)
1744 John Hadley, inventor (octant) dies at 61
1779 James Cook, British naval captain/explorer, is killed by Hawaiian natives at 50
1891 William Tecumseh Sherman, Civil War General, dies at 71
1969 Vito Genovese, American gangster, dies at 71
1975 P. G. Wodehouse, English writer/lyricist (The Three Musketeers) dies at 93
1988 Frederick Loewe, Austrian-American composer (Lerner & Loewe) dies at 86
1999 John Ehrlichman, presidential advisor (Watergate) dies at 73
1999 Buddy Knox, singer/songwriter (Party Doll) dies at 65
2003 Dolly, first cloned mammal, dies at 6

Today in History

1778 The United States Flag was formally recognized by a foreign naval vessel for the first time, when French Admiral Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte rendered a nine gun salute to USS Ranger, commanded by John Paul Jones.
1779 Captain James Cook was killed by Native Hawaiians near Kealakekua on the Island of Hawaii.
1803 Chief Justice John Marshall declared that any act of U.S. Congress that conflicted with the Constitution was void.
1849 James Knox Polk became the first serving President of the United States to have his photograph taken.
1859 Oregon was admitted to the Union as the 33rd state.
1876 Alexander Graham Bell applied for a patent for the telephone, as did Elisha Gray.
1895 Oscar Wilde's final play, The Importance of Being Earnest, opened at the St. James' Theatre in London.
1899 Congress approved and President William McKinley signed legislation authorizing states to use voting machines for federal elections.
1903 The U.S. Department of Commerce and Labor was established.
1912 Arizona became the 48th state of the Union.
1912 The first diesel-powered submarine was commissioned in Groton, Connecticut.
1920 The League of Women Voters was founded in Chicago.
1924 The International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) was founded.
1929 Seven rivals of gangster Al Capone were gunned down in a Chicago garage in the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.
1945 Peru, Paraguay, Chile and Ecuador joined the United Nations.
1945 President Franklin D. Roosevelt met with King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia aboard the USS Quincy, officially starting the U.S.-Saudi diplomatic relationship.
1949 The Knesset (Israeli parliament) convened for the first time.
1962 First lady Jacqueline Kennedy conducted a televised tour of the White House.
1979 Adolph Dubs, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, was kidnapped in Kabul by Muslim extremists and killed in a shootout between his abductors and police.
1989 Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini called on Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses, a novel Khomeini condemned as blasphemous.
1989 Union Carbide agreed to pay $470 million to the government of India in a court-ordered settlement of the 1984 Bhopal gas leak disaster.
1989 The first of 24 satellites of the Global Positioning System were placed into orbit.
1998 Authorities in the United States announced that Eric Robert Rudolph was a suspect in an Alabama abortion clinic bombing.
2000 The spacecraft NEAR Shoemaker entered orbit around asteroid 433 Eros, the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid.
2003 Dolly the sheep, the first mammal cloned from an adult, was put to death at age 6 due to premature aging and disease.
2004 In a suburb of Moscow, the roof of the Transvaal water park collapsed, killing more than 25 people, and wounding more than 100 others.
2005 Former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated.
2006 Iran said it had resumed uranium enrichment; Russia and France immediately called on Iran to halt its work.
2008 A former student walked onto the stage of a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University and opened fire on a packed science class, killing five students before committing suicide.

Chart Toppers

1949
A Little Bird Told Me - Evelyn Knight
Powder Your Face with Sunshine - Evelyn Knight
Far Away Places - Margaret Whiting
I Love You So Much It Hurts - Jimmy Wakely

1957
Too Much - Elvis Presley
Young Love - Tab Hunter
You Don’t Owe Me a Thing - Johnnie Ray
Young Love - Sonny James

1965
You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feelin’ - The Righteous Brothers
This Diamond Ring - Gary Lewis & the Playboys
All Day and All of the Night - The Kinks
You’re the Only World I Know - Sonny James

1973
Crocodile Rock - Elton John
Why Can’t We Live Together - Timmy Thomas
Oh, Babe, What Would You Say? - Hurricane Smith
She Needs Someone to Hold Her (When She Cries) - Conway Twitty

1981
Celebration - Kool & the Gang
9 to 5 - Dolly Parton
I Love a Rainy Night - Eddie Rabbitt
Who’s Cheatin’ Who - Charly McClain

1989
Straight Up - Paula Abdul
Wild Thing - Tone Loc
Born to Be My Baby - Bon Jovi
Song of the South - Alabama

Quote of the Day

It's kind of fun to do the impossible.
Walt Disney, cartoonist & movie producer (1901 - 1966)

Today in History - Feb 15th

Today's Birthdays

1564 Galileo Galilei, astronomer, died Jan 8, 1642
1803 John Sutter, California settler (Sutter’s Mill) died June 18, 1880
1809 Cyrus Hall McCormick, inventor (mechanical reaper) died May 13, 1884
1812 Charles Lewis Tiffany, jeweler, died Feb 18, 1902
1820 Susan B. (Brownell) Anthony, suffragist, died Mar 13, 1906
1905 Harold Arlen (Hyman Arluck), composer (Stormy Weather) died Apr 23, 1986
1914 Kevin McCarthy, actor (The Howling, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Matinee)
1918 Allan Arbus, actor (M*A*S*H)
1927 Harvey Korman, comedian/actor (The Carol Burnett Show, Blazing Saddles) died May 29, 2008
1929 Graham Hill, Indy car racer, killed in crash of his private plane Nov 29, 1975
1929 James Schlesinger, U.S. Secretary of Defense, Secretary of Energy
1931 Claire Bloom, actress (The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Anastasia)
1935 Roger Chaffee, astronaut, died January 27, 1967 in the Apollo 1 fire
1941 Brian Holland, songwriter (Holland-Dozier-Holland)
1944 Mick Avory, drummer (The Kinks)
1945 John Anthony Helliwell, saxophonist (Supertramp)
1947 David Brown, bassist (Santana) died September 4, 2000
1947 Rusty Hamer, actor (Make Room for Daddy) died Jan 18, 1990
1949 Ken Anderson, NFL quarterback (Cincinnati Bengals)
1951 Melissa Manchester, singer (Don’t Cry Out Loud, Midnight Blue)
1951 Jane Seymour (Joyce Penelope Wilhelmina Frankenberg), actress (Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, Somewhere in Time)
1954 Matt Groening, cartoonist (The Simpsons)
1955 Christopher McDonald, actor (Happy Gilmore, *61)
1955 Janice Dickinson, model/TV personality (America's Next Top Model)
1959 Ali (Alistair) Campbell, guitarist/lead singer (UB40)
1959 Joseph R. Gannascoli, actor (The Sopranos)
1960 Mikey Craig, bassist (Culture Club)
1964 Chris Farley, comedian/actor (Saturday Night Live, Tommy Boy, Black Sheep) died Dec 18, 1997
1967 Jane Child, singer/producer (Don't Wanna Fall in Love)
1971 Stevie Benton, bassist (Drowning Pool)
1971 Renee O'Connor, actress (Xena: Warrior Princess)
1972 Jaromir Jagr, NHL wing (NY Rangers)
1973 Sarah Wynter, actress (24, Lost Souls)
1974 Seattle Slew, racehorse, died May 7, 2002
1976 Ronnie Vannucci, drummer (The Killers)
1976 Brandon Boyd, singer (Incubus)
1977 Brooks Wackerman, drummer (Bad Religion)
1983 Ashley Lyn Cafagna, actress (Saved by the Bell: The New Class)

Today's Deaths in History

1965 Nat ‘King’ Cole, singer (Unforgettable, Mona Lisa, The Christmas Song), dies at 45
1973 Wally Cox, actor (Mr. Peepers) dies at 48
1973 Tim Holt, actor (Treasure of the Sierra Madre) dies at 54
1984 Ethel Merman, singer/actress (Anything Goes) dies at 76
1988 Richard Feynman, physicist (atomic bomb) dies at 69
1996 Tommy Rettig, actor (Lassie) dies at 54
1996 McLean Stevenson, actor (M*A*S*H) dies at 68
2002 Howard K. Smith, journalist (CBS, ABC) dies at 87
2002 Kevin Smith, actor (Xena: Warrior Princess) dies at 38
2007 Walker Edmiston, actor (Gunsmoke, Mission: Impossible) dies at 81
2007 Ray Evans, songwriter (Buttons and Bows, Mona Lisa) dies at 92

Today in History

1764 The city of St. Louis was established.
1852 The Great Ormond St Hospital for Sick Children, London, admitted its first patient.
1879 President Rutherford B. Hayes signed a bill allowing female attorneys to argue cases before the Supreme Court.
1898 The U.S. battleship Maine blew up in Havana harbor, killing more than 260 crew members and bringing the United States closer to war with Spain over the issue of Cuban independence.
1933 President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt escaped an assassination attempt in Miami that claimed the life of Chicago Mayor Anton J. Cermak.
1942 The British colony of Singapore surrendered to the Japanese during World War II.
1950 The Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China signed a mutual defense treaty.
1965 Canada's new maple leaf flag was unfurled in ceremonies in Ottawa.
1972 Sound recordings were granted U.S. federal copyright protection for the first time.
1989 The Soviet Union announced that the last of its troops had left Afghanistan after more than nine years of military intervention.
2001 The first draft of the complete Human Genome was published in Nature.
2002 President George W. Bush approved Nevada's Yucca Mountain as the site for long-term disposal of highly radioactive nuclear waste.
2002 Canadian pairs figure skaters Jamie Sale and David Pelletier were awarded a gold medal to resolve a judging controversy at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
2005 YouTube, the popular Internet site on which videos may be shared and viewed by others, was launched in the United States.
2005 Defrocked priest Paul Shanley was sentenced in Boston to 12 to 15 years in prison on child rape charges.
2008 Business tycoon Steve Fossett, 63, was declared dead by a judge in Cook County, Ill., five months after his small plane vanished after taking off from an airstrip near Yerington, Nev; Fossett's remains were discovered in October 2008 in California's Sierra Nevada mountains.

Chart Toppers

1950
Dear Hearts and Gentle People - Bing Crosby
The Old Master Painter - Snooky Lanson
There’s No Tomorrow - Tony Martin
Chatanoogie Shoe Shine Boy - Red Foley

1958
Don’t/I Beg of You - Elvis Presley
Get a Job - The Silhouettes
Catch a Falling Star/Magic Moments - Perry Como
Ballad of a Teenage Queen - Johnny Cash

1966
My Love - Petula Clark
Lightnin’ Strikes - Lou Christie
Uptight (Everything’s Alright) - Stevie Wonder
Giddyup Go - Red Sovine

1974
Love’s Theme - Love Unlimited Orchestra
Americans - Byron MacGregor
Until You Come Back to Me (That’s What I’m Gonna Do) - Aretha Franklin
World of Make Believe - Bill Anderson

1982
Centerfold - The J. Geils Band
Harden My Heart - Quarterflash
Open Arms - Journey
Someone Could Lose a Heart Tonight - Eddie Rabbitt

1990
Opposites Attract - Paula Abdul with the Wild Pair
Two to Make It Right - Seduction
Janie’s Got a Gun - Aerosmith
Southern Star - Alabama

Quote of the Day

Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those whom we cannot resemble.
Samuel Johnson, English author, critic, & lexicographer (1709 - 1784)

Today in History - Feb 16th

Today's Birthdays

1884 Robert Flaherty, film producer (Father of the Documentary Film) died July 23, 1951
1901 Chester Morris, actor (Frankie and Johnny, The Great White Hope) died Sep 11, 1970
1903 Edgar Bergen (Bergren), actor/ventriloquist (Charlie McCarthy) died Sep 30, 1978
1909 Hugh Beaumont, actor (To the Shores of Tripoli, Leave It to Beaver) died May 14, 1982
1918 Patty Andrews (Patricia Marie Andrews), singer (The Andrews Sisters)
1932 Otis Blackwell, songwriter/singer (Great Balls of Fire, Don't Be Cruel) died May 6, 2002
1932 Gretchen Wyler (Wienecke), actress (The Devil’s Brigade) died May 27, 2007
1935 Sonny (Salvatore) Bono, singer/entertainer/mayor/U.S. Congressman, died Jan 5, 1998
1942 Kim Jong-il, North Korean dictator
1946 Pete Postlethwaite, actor (The Usual Suspects, Brassed Off, The Shipping News)
1951 William Katt, actor (The Greatest American Hero, Carrie)
1955 Margaux Hemingway, actress (Bad Love, Lipstick) died July 2, 1996
1956 James Ingram, R&B singer (Just Once)
1957 LeVar Burton (Levardis Robert Martyn Burton Jr.), actor (Alex Haley’s Roots, Star Trek: The Next Generation)
1957 James Ingram, singer (Baby Come to Me, Just Once)
1958 Ice-T (Tracy Marrow), rapper/actor (Ricochet, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit)
1958 Lisa Loring, actress (Addams Family TV series)
1959 John McEnroe, tennis champion
1960 Pete Willis, guitarist (Def Leppard)
1961 Andy Taylor, guitarist (Duran Duran)
1963 Dave Lombardo, drummer (Slayer)
1964 Christopher Eccleston, actor (28 Days Later, Dr Who)
1965 Dave Lombardo, drummer (Slayer)
1972 Taylor Hawkins, drummer (Foo Fighters)
1972 Sarah Clarke, actress (24)
1972 Jerome Bettis, former NFL running back (Pittsburgh Steelers)
1977 Ahman Green, NFL running back (free agent)
1980 Ashley Lelie, NFL wide receiver (San Francisco 49ers)

Today's Deaths in History

1967 Smiley Burnette, actor/singer/songwriter (Rin Tin Tin) dies at 55
1996 Roger Bowen, actor (Heaven Can Wait, The Main Event) dies at 63
1996 Brownie McGhee, blues singer (Brownie McGhee and his Jook House Rockers) dies at 80
2001 Howard W. Koch, film director (The Manchurian Candidate) dies at 84
2001 William Masters, sexologist (Masters & Johnson) dies at 85
2005 Nicole DeHuff, actress (Meet the Parents) dies at 30

Today in History

1804 Lt. Stephen Decatur led a successful raid into Tripoli harbor to burn the U.S. Navy frigate Philadelphia, which had fallen into the hands of pirates.
1852 Studebaker Brothers wagon company, precursor of the automobile manufacturer, was established.
1862 Some 14,000 Confederate soldiers surrendered at Fort Donelson, Tenn., to Union forces led by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant.
1868 The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks was organized in New York City.
1918 Lithuania proclaimed its independence.
1923 The burial chamber of King Tutankhamen's recently unearthed tomb was unsealed in Egypt.
1937 Wallace H. Carothers, a research chemist for Du Pont, received a patent for nylon.
1945 American troops landed on the island of Corregidor in the Philippines during World War II.
1948 NBC-TV aired its first nightly newscast, The Camel Newsreel Theatre, which consisted of Fox Movietone newsreels.
1959 Fidel Castro became premier of Cuba a month after the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista.
1968 The nation's first 911 emergency telephone system was inaugurated in Haleyville, Ala.
1985 Hezbollah was founded.
1987 The trial of John Demjanjuk, accused of being a Nazi guard dubbed "Ivan the Terrible" in Treblinka extermination camp, began in Jerusalem.
1989 Investigators in Lockerbie, Scotland, said a bomb hidden inside a radio-cassette player was what brought down Pan Am Flight 103 the previous December, killing all 259 people aboard and 11 on the ground.
1999 Enraged Kurds seized embassies and held hostages across Europe following Turkey's arrest of Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan.
1999 In Uzbekistan, a bomb exploded and gunfire was heard at the government headquarters in an apparent assassination attempt against President Islom Karimov.
2002 The operator of a crematory in Noble, Ga., was arrested after dozens of decomposing corpses were found stacked in storage sheds and scattered around the building and surrounding woods.
2005 The NHL canceled what was left of its season after a round of last-gasp negotiations failed to resolve differences over a salary cap - the issue that led to a lockout.
2006 The last Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) was decommissioned by the United States Army.
2008 A car plowed into a group of street-racing fans obscured by a cloud of tire smoke on an isolated Maryland highway, killing eight people.

Chart Toppers

1951
My Heart Cries for You - Guy Mitchell
Tennessee Waltz - Patti Page
If - Perry Como
There’s Been a Change in Me - Eddy Arnold

1959
Stagger Lee - Lloyd Price
16 Candles - The Crests
The All American Boy - Bill Parsons
Billy Bayou - Jim Reeves

1967
I’m a Believer - The Monkees
Georgy Girl - The Seekers
Kind of a Drag - The Buckinghams
Don’t Come Home a’Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind) - Loretta Lynn

1975
You’re No Good - Linda Ronstadt
Pick Up the Pieces - AWB
Best of My Love - The Eagles
Devil in the Bottle - T.G. Sheppard

1983
Down Under - Men at Work
Baby, Come to Me - Patti Austin with James Ingram
Shame on the Moon - Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band
’Til I Gain Control Again - Crystal Gayle

1991
Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now) - C & C Music Factory featuring Freedom Williams
All the Man that I Need - Whitney Houston
One More Try - Timmy T
Brother Jukebox - Mark Chesnutt

Quote of the Day

Anybody who wants the presidency so much that he'll spend two years organizing and campaigning for it is not to be trusted with the office.
David Broder

Today in History - Feb 17th

Today's Birthdays

1766 Thomas Malthus, economist/demographer, died Dec 29, 1834
1844 Aaron Montgomery Ward, merchant/department store mogul, died Dec 7, 1913
1908 Red (Walter) Barber, sportscaster (Brooklyn Dodgers) died Oct 22, 1992
1919 Kathleen Freeman, actress (The Blues Brothers, The Nutty Professor) died August 23, 2001
1924 (Mary) Margaret Truman (Daniel), daughter of President Harry S Truman, died January 29, 2008
1925 Hal Holbrook (Harold Rowe Jr.), actor (Mark Twain, All the President’s Men, The Firm)
1933 Bobby Lewis, pianist/singer (Tossing and Turnin’)
1935 Christina Pickles, actress (Romeo+Juliet, The Wedding Singer)
1936 Jim Brown, Pro Football Hall of Fame running back/actor (The Dirty Dozen, Mars Attacks)
1941 Gene Pitney, singer (Town Without Pity, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance) died Apr 5, 2006
1942 Huey P. Newton, political activist (Black Panthers) died August 22, 1989
1945 Brenda Fricker, actress (A Time to Kill, Angels in the Outfield, So I Married an Axe Murderer)
1954 Rene Russo, actress (Lethal Weapon series, The Thomas Crown Affair, Major League)
1956 Richard Karn, actor (Home Improvement)
1957 Loreena McKennitt, singer (The Mummer's Dance)
1962 Lou Diamond Phillips, actor (Courage Under Fire, Young Guns series, La Bamba, Stand and Deliver)
1963 Larry the Cable Guy, actor/comedian
1963 Michael Jordan, NBA guard (Chicago Bulls, Washington Wizards)
1965 Michael Bay, film director (Transformers, Armageddon, The Rock, Pearl Harbor, Bad Boys series)
1966 Luc Robitaille, NHL left wing (NY Rangers)
1970 Dominic Purcell, actor (Prison Break)
1971 Denise Richards, actress (Wild Things, Undercover Brother)
1972 Billie Joe Armstrong, singer/songwriter/guitarist (Green Day)
1974 Jerry O'Connell, actor (Crossing Jordan, Joe's Apartment)
1975 Todd Harvey, NHL right wing (NY Rangers)
1976 Kelly Carlson, actress (Nip/Tuck)
1980 Jason Ritter, actor (Joan of Arcadia)
1981 Paris Hilton, heiress/celebutante
1981 Joseph Gordon-Levitt, actor (3rd Rock from the Sun)

Today's Deaths in History

1890 Christopher Sholes, inventor (first practical typewriter) dies at 71
1909 Geronimo, Apache leader, dies at 79
1982 Thelonious Monk, pianist/jazz pioneer, dies at 64
1982 Lee Strasberg, Austrian-born actor (The Godfather: Part II) dies at 80
1990 Hap Day, Hockey Hall of Fame player/executive (Toronto St. Pats, Toronto Maple Leafs, New York Americans) dies at 88
1998 Bob Merrill, composer/lyricist (Love Makes the World Go 'Round, Honeycomb) dies at 76
2005 Dan O'Herlihy, Irish actor (The Last Starfighter, Robocop series) dies at 85
2006 Bill Cowsill, singer (The Cowsills) dies at 58

Today in History

1621 Myles Standish was appointed as first commander of Plymouth colony.
1801 The House of Representatives broke an electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, choosing Jefferson to be president.
1817 A street in Baltimore became the first to be lighted with gas from America's first gas company.
1819 The United States House of Representatives passed the Missouri Compromise.
1864 The H. L. Hunley became the first submarine to engage and sink a warship, the USS Housatonic.
1865 Columbia, S.C., burned as the Confederates evacuated and Union forces moved in.
1904 Giacomo Puccini's opera Madama Butterfly had its world premiere at La Scala in Milan, Italy.
1925 Harold Ross and Jane Grant founded The New Yorker magazine.
1933 Newsweek magazine was first published.
1933 The Blaine Act ended Prohibition in the United States.
1947 The Voice of America began broadcasting to the Soviet Union.
1964 The Supreme Court ruled in Westberry v. Sanders that congressional districts within each state had to be roughly equal in population.
1972 President Richard M. Nixon departed on a historic trip to China.
1972 Sales of the Volkswagen Beetle model exceeded those of Ford Model-T.
1976 The Eagles' album Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975) was released.
1992 Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was sentenced in Milwaukee to life in prison.
1995 Colin Ferguson was convicted of six counts of murder in the December 1993 Long Island Rail Road shootings that also wounded 19 people.
1996 World chess champion Garry Kasparov beat IBM supercomputer Deep Blue, winning a six-game match in Philadelphia.
2002 The new Transportation Security Administration took over supervision of aviation security from the airline industry and the Federal Aviation Administration.
2003 Twenty-one people were killed in a stampede at a crowded nightclub in Chicago.
2004 Cingular Wireless agreed to pay nearly $41 billion in cash to buy AT&T Wireless Services.
2005 President George W. Bush named John Negroponte to be the government's first national intelligence director.
2005 Iraq's electoral commission certified the results of the Jan. 30 elections and allocated 140 of 275 National Assembly seats to the United Iraqi Alliance, giving the Shiite-dominated party a majority in the new parliament.
2006 A massive mudslide devastated Southern Leyte, Philippines; the official death toll was set at 1,126.
2008 Kosovo declared itself a nation in defiance of Serbia and Russia.

Chart Toppers

1944
Shoo, Shoo, Baby - The Andrews Sisters
My Heart Tells Me - The Glen Gray Orchestra (vocal: Eugenie Baird)
Besame Mucho - The Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra (vocal: Bob Eberly & Kitty Kallen
Pistol Packin’ Mama - Al Dexter

1952
Slowpoke - Pee Wee King
Cry - Johnnie Ray
Anytime - Eddie Fisher
Give Me More, More, More (Of Your Kisses) - Lefty Frizzell

1960
Teen Angel - Mark Dinning
Handy Man - Jimmy Jones
The Theme from "A Summer Place" - Percy Faith
He’ll Have to Go - Jim Reeves

1968
Love is Blue - Paul Mauriat
I Wish It Would Rain - The Temptations
(Theme From) Valley of the Dolls - Dionne Warwick
Skip a Rope - Henson Cargill

1976
50 Ways to Leave Your Lover - Paul Simon
Love to Love You Baby - Donna Summer
You Sexy Thing - Hot Chocolate
The White Knight - Cledus Maggard & the Citizen’s Band

1984
Karma Chameleon - Culture Club
Joanna - Kool & the Gang
Jump - Van Halen
That’s the Way Love Goes - Merle Haggard

Quote of the Day

When we ask for advice, we are usually looking for an accomplice.
Marquis de la Grange (1639 - 1692)

Today in History - Feb 18th

Today's Birthdays

1892 Wendell L. (Lewis) Willkie, lawyer/Republican presidential nominee, died Oct 8, 1944
1898 Enzo Ferrari, auto racer/manufacturer, died Aug 14, 1988
1919 Jack Palance (Vladimir Palahnuik), actor (City Slickers, Batman) died Nov 10, 2006
1920 Bill Cullen, TV host (The Price is Right, The Joker’s Wild, Name that Tune) died July 7, 1990
1922 Helen Gurley Brown, feminist/publisher (Cosmopolitan)
1922 Allan Melvin, actor (Brady Bunch, Gomer Pyle USMC) died January 17, 2008
1925 George Kennedy, actor (Cool Hand Luke, The Blue Knight, The Dirty Dozen)
1927 John Warner, U.S. senator (R-Va)
1931 Toni Morrison (Chloe Anthony Wofford), author (Beloved)
1931 Johnny Hart, cartoonist (BC, The Wizard of Id) died Apr 7, 2007
1932 Milos Forman, director (One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Amadeus)
1933 Yoko Ono Lennon, singer (Plastic Ono Band)
1936 Dick Duff, Hockey Hall of Fame forward (NY Rangers)
1941 Herman Santiago, singer (Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers)
1947 Dennis DeYoung, keyboardist/singer (Styx)
1948 Keith Knudsen, drummer/singer (The Doobie Brothers) died Feb 8, 2005
1950 Cybill Shepherd, actress (Cybill, Moonlighting, The Last Picture Show)
1950 John Hughes, film writer/director (Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Weird Science, The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink)
1952 Randy (Veronica) Crawford, singer (Imagine, Nightline)
1952 Juice Newton (Judy Cohen), singer (Angel of the Morning)
1953 Robbie Bachman, drummer (Bachman-Turner Overdrive)
1953 Larry Rust, keyboardist/singer (Iron Butterfly)
1954 John Travolta, actor (Welcome Back Kotter, Grease, Urban Cowboy, Pulp Fiction, Get Shorty)
1957 Vanna White (Rosich), TV personality (Wheel of Fortune)
1958 Gar Samuelson, drummer (Megadeath) died July 22, 1999
1960 Greta Scacchi, actress (White Mischief, Presumed Innocent)
1964 Matt Dillon, actor (Drugstore Cowboy, The Outsiders, There's Something About Mary)
1965 Dr. Dre, rapper
1968 Molly Ringwald, actress (Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink)
1969 Jason Sutter, drummer (Smash Mouth, American Hi-Fi)
1970 Raine Maida, singer/songwriter (Our Lady Peace)
1985 Lee Boyd Malvo, serial killer (D.C. sniper)

Today's Deaths in History

1546 Martin Luther, German religious reformer, dies at 62
1564 Michelangelo Buonarroti, Italian painter/sculptor, dies at 88
1902 Charles Lewis Tiffany, jeweler (Tiffany & Co.) dies at 90
1967 J. Robert Oppenheimer, physicist (Manhattan Project) dies at 62
1995 Bob Stinson, guitarist (The Replacements) dies at 35
1998 Harry Caray, sportscaster (Chicago Cubs) dies at 83
2001 Dale Earnhardt Sr., NASCAR driver, dies at 49 from injuries suffered in a crash at the Daytona 500
2003 Johnny Paycheck, country singer/songwriter (Take This Job and Shove It) dies at 64
2006 Richard Bright, actor (Godfather series) dies at 68

Today in History

1856 The American Party (Know-Nothings) convened in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to nominate their first Presidential candidate, former President Millard Fillmore.
1861 Jefferson Davis was sworn in as president of the Confederate States of America in Montgomery, Ala.
1885 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain was published.
1929 The first Academy Awards were announced.
1930 Photographic evidence of Pluto was discovered by Clyde W. Tombaugh at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz; originally classified as a planet, the icy rock was downgraded to "dwarf planet" in 2006.
1930 Elm Farm Ollie became the first cow to fly in a fixed-wing aircraft and also the first cow to be milked in an aircraft.
1953 Bwana Devil, the movie that heralded the 3-D fad of the 1950s, opened in New York City.
1960 The 8th Winter Olympic Games opened in Squaw Valley, Calif.
1970 Five of the Chicago Seven defendants were found guilty of intent to incite a riot at the 1968 Democratic national convention; the convictions were later overturned.
1972 The California Supreme Court struck down the state's death penalty.
1977 The space shuttle Enterprise, sitting atop a Boeing 747, went on its maiden flight above the Mojave Desert.
1988 Anthony M. Kennedy was sworn in as a justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
1991 The IRA exploded bombs in the early morning at both Paddington station and Victoria station in London.
1998 Two white separatists were arrested in Nevada and accused of plotting a biological attack on New York City subways.
2001 Auto racing star Dale Earnhardt Sr., 49, died from injuries suffered in a crash at the Daytona 500.
2001 Veteran FBI agent Robert Philip Hanssen was arrested, accused of spying for Russia for more than 15 years.
2006 American Shani Davis won the men's 1,000-meter speedskating in Turin, becoming the first black athlete to win an individual gold medal in Winter Olympic history.
2006 A Hamas-dominated Palestinian parliament was sworn in.

Chart Toppers

1945
Don’t Fence Me In - Bing Crosby & the Andrews Sisters
Accentuate the Positive - Bing Crosby & the Andrews Sisters
I Dream of You - The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra (vocal: Freddy Stewart)
I’m Losing My Mind Over You - Al Dexter

1953
Don’t Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes - Perry Como
Till I Waltz Again with You - Teresa Brewer
Keep It a Secret - Jo Stafford
I Let the Stars Get in My Eyes - Goldie Hill

1961
Calcutta - Lawrence Welk
Shop Around - The Miracles
Calendar Girl - Neil Sedaka
North to Alaska - Johnny Horton

1969
Everyday People - Sly & the Family Stone
Touch Me - The Doors
Build Me Up Buttercup - The Foundations
Until My Dreams Come True - Jack Greene

1977
Torn Between Two Lovers - Mary MacGregor
New Kid in Town - Eagles
Blinded by the Light - Manfred Mann’s Earth Band
Near You - George Jones & Tammy Wynette

1985
Careless Whisper - Wham! featuring George Michael
Loverboy - Billy Ocean
Method of Modern Love - Daryl Hall John Oates
Make My Life with You - The Oak Ridge Boys

Quote of the Day

Never try to tell everything you know. It may take too short a time.
Norman Ford

Today in History - Feb 19th

Today's Birthdays

1473 Nicolaus Copernicus (Mikolaj Kopernick), Polish astronomer, died May 24, 1543
1895 Louis Calhern (Carl Henry Vogt), actor (The Count of Monte Cristo) died May 12, 1956
1902 Nydia Westman, actress (The Ghost and Mr. Chicken) died May 23, 1970
1911 Merle Oberon (Thompson), actress (Wuthering Heights, Hotel) died Nov 23, 1979
1916 Eddie (George) Arcaro, jockey (won two Triple Crowns) died Nov 14, 1997
1917 Carson McCullers (Smith), author (The Heart is a Lonely Hunter) died Sep 29, 1967
1924 Bruce Norris, NHL executive, died January 1, 1986
1924 Lee Marvin, actor (Cat Ballou, The Caine Mutiny, The Dirty Dozen) died Aug 29, 1987
1930 John Frankenheimer, director (The French Connection, The Manchurian Candidate) died July 6, 2002
1939 Gwen Taylor, English actress (Life of Brian)
1940 Bobby Rogers, R&B singer (The Miracles)
1940 Smokey (William) Robinson, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame singer (The Miracles)
1942 Paul Krause, Pro Football Hall of Fame wide receiver (Minnesota Vikings)
1943 Lou Christie (Lugee Alfredo Giovanni Sacco), singer (Lightnin’ Strikes)
1946 Paul Dean, guitarist (Loverboy)
1946 Karen Silkwood, nuclear safety activist, died November 13, 1974
1948 Tony Iommi, guitarist (Black Sabbath)
1950 Andy Powell, guitarist (Wishbone Ash)
1952 Amy Tan, author (The Joy Luck Club, The Bonesetter's Daughter)
1954 Francis Buchholz, guitarist (Scorpions)
1955 Jeff Daniels, actor (Speed, Dumb and Dumber, The Purple Rose of Cairo)
1956 Dave Wakeling, musician/singer (General Public, English Beat)
1957 Falco (Johann Hölzel), singer/songwriter (Rock Me Amadeus) died Feb 6, 1998
1960 Prince Andrew (Duke of York), British royalty
1962 Hana Mandlikova, Tennis Hall of Famer
1963 Seal, singer (Crazy, Kiss from a Rose, Prayer for the Dying)
1964 Doug Aldrich, guitarist (Whitesnake)
1966 Justine Bateman, actress (Family Ties)
1967 Benicio Del Toro, actor (The Usual Suspects, Traffic)
1975 Daniel Adair, drummer (Nickelback)
1985 Haylie Duff, singer/actress (7th Heaven)

Today's Deaths in History

1916 Ernst Mach, Austrian-Czech physicist/philosopher (Mach number) dies at 78
1936 Billy Mitchell, American general/military aviation pioneer, dies at 56
1936 Max Schreck, German actor (Nosferatu) dies at 56
1969 Madge Blake, actress (Batman TV series) dies at 69
1980 Bon Scott, singer (AC/DC) dies at 33
1996 Charles O. Finley, MLB owner (Oakland A's) dies at 77
1997 Deng Xiaoping, Chinese Communist revolutionary, dies at 93
1998 Grandpa Jones, entertainer (Grand Ol' Opry, Hee Haw) dies at 84
2001 Stanley Kramer, director (The Wild One) dies at 87
2003 Johnny Paycheck, singer (Take This Job and Shove It) dies at 64
2007 Janet Blair, actress (Night of the Eagle) dies at 85

Today in History

1847 The Donner Party was rescued.
1878 Thomas Edison received a patent for his phonograph.
1881 Kansas became the first state to prohibit all alcoholic beverages.
1942 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order giving the military the authority to relocate and intern Japanese-Americans.
1945 30,000 U.S. Marines landed on Iwo Jima and began a month-long battle to seize control of the island from Japanese forces during World War II.
1959 An agreement was signed by Britain, Turkey and Greece granting Cyprus its independence.
1978 Egyptian forces raided Larnaca International Airport, in an attempt to intervene in a hijacking situation, without authorisation from the Republic of Cyprus authorities; the Cypriot National Guard and Police forces killed 15 Egyptian commandos and destroyed the Egyptian C-130 transport plane in open combat.
1985 Artificial heart recipient William J. Schroeder became the first such patient to leave hospital.
1986 The U.S. Senate approved a treaty outlawing genocide, 37 years after the pact had first been submitted for ratification.
1986 The Soviet Union launched its Mir spacecraft.
2001 An Oklahoma City bombing museum was dedicated at the Oklahoma City National Memorial.
2002 Vonetta Flowers became the first black athlete ever to win a gold medal at the Winter Olympics when she and Jill Bakken took top honors in bobsledding in Salt Lake City.
2002 NASA's Mars Odyssey space probe began to map the surface of Mars using its thermal emission imaging system.
2004 Former Enron Corp. chief executive Jeffrey Skilling was charged with fraud, insider trading and other crimes in connection with the energy trader's collapse; he was later convicted and sentenced to more than 24 years in prison.
2004 After sanctioning more than 2,800 gay marriages, the city of San Francisco sued the state of California, challenging its ban on same-sex marriages.
2005 Eight suicide bombers struck in quick succession in Iraq in a wave of attacks that killed dozens.
2005 The USS Jimmy Carter, the last of the Seawolf class of attack submarines, was commissioned at Groton, Conn.
2007 New Jersey became the third state to offer civil unions to gay couples.
2008 An ailing Fidel Castro resigned the Cuban presidency after nearly a half-century in power; his brother Raul was later named to succeed him. .
2008 Toshiba, creator of the HD DVD, conceded to Sony's rival Blu-ray format.

Chart Toppers

1946
Symphony - The Freddy Martin Orchestra (vocal: Clyde Rogers)
I Can’t Begin to Tell You - Bing Crosby with the Carmen Cavallaro Orchestra
Aren’t You Glad You’re You - Bing Crosby
Guitar Polka - Al Dexter

1954
Oh! My Pa-Pa - Eddie Fisher
Secret Love - Doris Day
Till Then - The Hilltoppers
Wake Up, Irene - Hank Thompson

1962
Duke of Earl - Gene Chandler
Norman - Sue Thompson
The Wanderer - Dion
Walk on By - Leroy Van Dyke

1970
Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)/Everybody is a Star - Sly & the Family Stone
Hey There Lonely Girl - Eddie Holman
No Time - The Guess Who
It’s Just a Matter of Time - Sonny James

1978
Stayin’ Alive - Bee Gees
(Love Is) Thicker Than Water - Andy Gibb
Just the Way You Are - Billy Joel
Don’t Break the Heart that Loves You - Margo Smith

1986
How Will I Know - Whitney Houston
When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going - Billy Ocean
Kyrie - Mr. Mister
Makin’ Up for Lost Time (The Dallas Lovers’ Song) - Crystal Gayle & Gary Morris

Quote of the Day

Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage, and those who manage what they do not understand.
Putt's Law

Today in History - Feb 20th

Today's Birthdays

1726 William Prescott, Revolutionary War solier ("Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes") died Oct 13, 1795
1898 Enzo Ferrari, Italian automobile manufacturer/designer, died August 14, 1988
1902 Ansel Adams, photographer, died April 22, 1984
1904 Aleksei (Nikolevich) Kosygin, Soviet premier, died in Dec 1980
1910 Carl E. Stotz, founder (Little Legaue Baseball) died June 4, 1992
1912 Pierre Boulle, French author (Bridge Over the River Kwai, Planet of the Apes) died Jan 30, 1994
1914 John Daly, reporter/TV host (What’s My Line) died Feb 24, 1991
1924 Gloria Vanderbilt, fashion designer
1925 Robert Altman, director (M*A*S*H, Nashville) died Nov 20, 2006
1927 Ibrahim Ferrer, Cuban musician (Buena Vista Social Club) died August 6, 2005
1927 Sidney Poitier, actor (Lilies of the Field, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, To Sir with Love, Sneakers)
1929 Amanda Blake (Beverly Louise Neill), actress (Gunsmoke) died Aug 16, 1989
1934 Bobby Unser, Indy car driver
1936 Larry Hovis, actor (Hogan's Heroes) died September 9, 2003
1937 Roger Penske, race car driver/team owner
1937 Nancy Wilson, singer (It’s Over, What Are You Doing New Year's Eve)
1938 Richard Beymer, actor (West Side Story, Twin Peaks, The Longest Day)
1941 Buffy (Beverly) Sainte-Marie, singer (Mister Can’t You See, Up Where We Belong)
1942 Phil Esposito, Hockey Hall of fame center (NY Rangers)
1945 Brion James, actor (Blade Runner, Enemy Mine) died August 7, 1999
1946 Sandy Duncan, dancer/actress (Peter Pan, Pinnochio, The Hogan Family)
1946 J. (Jerome) Geils, guitarist (The J. Geils Band)
1946 Brenda Blethyn, actress (Secrets & Lies, Little Voice)
1947 Peter Strauss, actor (Rich Man Poor Man, Soldier Blue, The Jericho Mile)
1948 Jennifer O’Neill, actress (The Summer of ’42)
1950 Walter Becker, bassist/guitarist (Steely Dan)
1951 Edward Albert, actor (Butterflies are Free, Guarding Tess) died Sep 22, 2006
1951 Randy California (Wolfe), singer/guitarist (Spirit) died Jan 2, 1997
1951 Gordon Brown, British Prime Minister
1954 Jon Brant, bassist (Cheap Trick)
1954 Patty Hearst (Shaw), heiress/kidnapee/actress (Cry-Baby)
1960 Joel Hodgson, comedian (Mystery Science Theater 3000)
1963 Charles Barkley, former NBA forward (Phoenix Suns)
1963 Ian Brown, singer (Stone Roses)
1964 French Stewart, actor (3rd Rock from the Sun)
1965 Ron Eldard, actor (ER, Deep Impact)
1966 Cindy Crawford, supermodel/actress
1967 Kurt Cobain, guitarist/singer (Nirvana) committed suicide April 5, 1994
1967 Andrew Shue, actor (Melrose Place)
1967 Lili Taylor, actress (Six Feet Under, I Shot Andy Warhol)
1975 Brian (Thomas) Littrell, singer (Backstreet Boys)
1976 Ed Graham, drummer (The Darkness)
1978 Lauren Ambrose, actress (Six Feet Under)
1988 Rihanna, R&B singer

Today's Deaths in History

1895 Frederick Douglass, abolitionist writer, dies at 77
1920 Robert Peary, explorer (North Pole) dies at 63
1966 Chester Nimitz, WWII Navy Admiral, dies at 80
1972 Walter Winchell, journalist (New York Evening Graphic) dies at 74
1985 Clarence "Ducky" Nash, voice actor (Donald Duck) dies at 80
1992 Dick York, actor (Bewitched) dies at 63
1993 Ferruccio Lamborghini, Italian automobile manufacturer, dies at 76
1999 Gene Siskel, film critic, dies at 53
2003 Ty Longley, guitarist (Great White) dies at 31 in a nightclub fire
2005 Pam Bricker, singer (Thievery Corporation) dies at 50
2005 Hunter S. Thompson, journalist/author, commits suicide at 67
2005 Sandra Dee, actress (Gidget, A Summer Place) dies at 62
2006 Curt Gowdy, sportscaster (Boston Red Sox, NBC sports) dies at 86

Today in History

1792 President George Washington signed an act creating the U.S. Post Office.
1809 The Supreme Court ruled that the power of the federal government is greater than that of any individual state.
1839 Congress prohibited dueling in the District of Columbia.
1872 The Metropolitan Museum of Art opened in New YorK City.
1873 The University of California opened its first medical school in San Francisco, California.
1901 The legislature of Hawaii Territory convened for the first time.
1938 British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden resigned in protest over Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's decision to negotiate with Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.
1942 Lieutenant Edward O'Hare became America's first World War II flying ace.
1943 American movie studio executives agreed to allow the Office of War Information to censor movies.
1944 U.S. bombers began raiding German aircraft manufacturing centers in a series of attacks that became known as "Big Week."
1952 Emmett Ashford became the first African-American umpire in organized baseball.
1962 Astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth, flying aboard the Friendship 7 Mercury capsule.
1965 The Ranger 8 spacecraft crashed on the moon after sending back thousands of pictures of the lunar surface.
1998 American Tara Lipinski became at age 15 the youngest gold medalist in Winter Olympics history when she won the ladies' figure skating title at Nagano, Japan.
2003 Fire broke out during a rock concert at a nightclub in West Warwick, R.I., killing 100 people and injuring about 200 others.
2005 Spain became the first country to vote in a referendum on ratification of the proposed Constitution of the European Union, passing it by a substantial margin, but on a low turnout.

Chart Toppers

1947
For Sentimental Reasons - Nat King Cole
A Gal in Calico - Johnny Mercer
Oh, But I Do - Margaret Whiting
So Round, So Firm, So Fully Packed - Merle Travis

1955
Sincerely - McGuire Sisters
Melody of Love - Billy Vaughn
Tweedle Dee - Georgia Gibbs
Let Me Go, Lover! - Hank Snow

1963
Hey Paula - Paul & Paula
Walk like a Man - The 4 Seasons
Ruby Baby - Dion
The Ballad of Jed Clampett - Flatt & Scruggs

1971
One Bad Apple - The Osmonds
If You Could Read My Mind - Gordon Lightfoot
Mama’s Pearl - The Jackson 5
Help Me Make It Through the Night - Sammi Smith

1979
Da Ya Think I’m Sexy? - Rod Stewart
Y.M.C.A. - Village People
A Little More Love - Olivia Newton-John
Every Which Way But Loose - Eddie Rabbitt

1987
Livin’ on a Prayer - Bon Jovi
Change of Heart - Cyndi Lauper
Touch Me (I Want Your Body) - Samantha Fox
How Do I Turn You On - Ronnie Milsap

Quote of the Day

Listening, not imitation, may be the sincerest form of flattery.
Dr. Joyce Brothers, psychologist & television personality (1928 - )

Today in History - Feb 21st

Today's Birthdays

1903 Anaïs Nin, French writer, died January 14, 1977
1907 W.H. (Wystan Hugh) Auden, poet (The Age of Anxiety) died Sep 28, 1973
1925 Sam Peckinpah, director (The Rifleman, The Wild Bunch) died Dec 28, 1984
1927 Erma Bombeck (Fiste), humorist/writer (The Grass Is Always Greener over the Septic Tank) died Apr 22, 1996
1927 Hubert de Givenchy, fashion designer
1933 Nina Simone (Eunice Waymon), singer/songwriter (To Be Young Gifted and Black) died Apr 21, 2003
1935 Rue McClanahan, actress (The Golden Girls)
1943 David Geffen, producer/record executive (Geffen Records)
1946 Tyne (Ellen) Daly, actress (Cagney and Lacey)
1946 Anthony Daniels, actor (Star Wars films)
1946 Alan Rickman, actor (Die Hard, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Dogma)
1949 Jerry Harrison, keyboards (Talking Heads)
1951 Vince Welnick, keyboardist (The Tubes, The Grateful Dead) died June 2, 2006
1952 Jean-Jacques Burnel, bassist/singer (The Stranglers)
1953 Christine Ebersole, actress (Amadeus)
1953 William Petersen, actor (Manhunter, To Live and Lie in LA, C.S.I.)
1955 Kelsey Grammer, actor (Frasier, Cheers, X-Men 3)
1958 Jack Coleman, actor (Heroes)
1961 Christopher Atkins, actor (Dallas, The Blue Lagoon)
1961 Ranking Roger, singer (General Public, English Beat)
1962 Chuck Palahniuk, writer (Fight Club)
1963 William Baldwin, actor (Backdraft, Bulworth, Primary Suspect)
1979 Jennifer Love Hewitt, actress (Party of Five, Ghost Whisperer)
1986 Charlotte Church, singer (Voice of an Angel)
1987 Ellen Page, actress (Hard Candy, Juno)

Today's Deaths in History

1554 Hieronymus Bock, German botanist, dies at 55
1965 Malcolm X (Little), former Black Muslim leader, is assassinated at 39
1982 Murray the K, impresario/disc jockey, dies at 60
1999 Wilmer David "Vinegar Bend" Mizell, MLB pitcher (St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates, New York Mets) dies at 68
2008 Ben Chapman, actor (Creature from the Black Lagoon) dies at 79

Today in History

1842 John Greenough was granted the first U.S. patent for the sewing machine.
1848 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published the Communist Manifesto.
1848 Former President John Quincy Adams suffered a stroke on the floor of the House of Representatives in Washington, D.C.; he died two days later.
1878 The first telephone directory was issued, by the District Telephone Co. of New Haven, Conn.
1885 The Washington Monument was dedicated.
1916 The World War I Battle of Verdun began in France.
1925 The New Yorker magazine made its debut.
1947 Edwin H. Land publicly demonstrated his Polaroid Land camera, which could produce a black-and-white photograph in 60 seconds.
1948 NASCAR was incorporated.
1965 Former Black Muslim leader Malcolm X, 39, was shot to death by three assassins as he gave a speech in New York.
1972 President Richard M. Nixon began his historic visit to China.
1973 Israeli fighter planes shot down a Libyan Airlines jet over the Sinai Desert, killing more than 100 people.
1975 Former Attorney General John N. Mitchell and former White House aides H.R. Haldeman and John D. Ehrlichman were sentenced to 2-1/2 to 8 years in prison for their roles in the Watergate cover-up.
1988 TV evangelist Jimmy Swaggart tearfully confessed to his congregation in Baton Rouge, La., that he was guilty of an unspecified sin, and said he was leaving the pulpit temporarily. Reports linked Swaggart to a prostitute.
1989 President George H.W. Bush called Ayatollah Khomeini's death warrant against "Satanic Verses" author Salman Rushdie "deeply offensive to the norms of civilized behavior."
1995 Chicago stockbroker Steve Fossett became the first person to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon, landing in Canada.
2002 The State Department declared Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl dead a month after he'd been abducted by Islamic extremists in Pakistan.
2006 President George W. Bush endorsed the takeover of shipping operations at six major U.S. seaports by a state-owned business in the United Arab Emirates, and pledged to veto any bill Congress might approve to block the agreement.

Chart Toppers

1948
I’m Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover - The Art Moonie Orchestra
Ballerina - Vaughn Monroe
Now is the Hour - Bing Crosby
I’ll Hold You in My Heart (Till I Can Hold You in My Arms) - Eddy Arnold

1956
Rock and Roll Waltz - Kay Starr
Lisbon Antigua - Nelson Riddle
It’s Almost Tomorrow - The Dream Weavers
Sixteen Tons - Tennessee Ernie Ford

1964
I Want to Hold Your Hand - The Beatles
You Don’t Own Me - Leslie Gore
She Loves You - The Beatles
B.J. the D.J. - Stonewall Jackson

1972
Without You - Nilsson
Hurting Each Other - Carpenters
Never Been to Spain - Three Dog Night
It’s Four in the Morning - Faron Young

1980
Do that to Me One More Time - The Captain & Tennille
Crazy Little Thing Called Love - Queen
Yes, I’m Ready - Teri DeSario with K.C.
Love Me Over Again - Don Williams

1988
Seasons Change - Expose
What Have I Done to Deserve This? - Pet Shop Boys & Dusty Springfield
Father Figure - George Michael
Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Star - Merle Haggard

Quote of the Day

The rule is perfect: in all matters of opinion our adversaries are insane.
Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)

Today in History - Feb 22nd

Today's Birthdays

1732 George Washington, first U.S. President, died Dec. 14, 1799
1778 Rembrandt Peale, artist, died in Oct 1860
1810 Frederic Francois Chopin, composer, died Oct 17, 1849
1819 James Russell Lowell, essayist/poet/editor (Atlantic Monthly) died Aug 12, 1891
1892 Edna St. Vincent Millay, American writer (Euclid Alone Has Looked on Beauty Bare) died October 19, 1950
1907 Robert (George) Young, actor (Father Knows Best) died July 21, 1998
1907 Sheldon Leonard (Bershad), actor (It’s a Wonderful Life) died Jan 10, 1997
1908 Sir John Mills, actor (Frankenstein, A Tale of Two Cities) died April 23, 2005
1918 Robert Pershing Wadlow, the world's tallest man (8' 11.1") died July 15, 1940
1918 Charles O. (Oscar) Finley, baseball owner (Oakland Athletics) died Feb 19, 1996
1918 Don Pardo, TV announcer (Saturday Night Live)
1928 Paul Dooley, actor (Sixteen Candles, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Slap Shot)
1932 Edward ‘Ted’ Kennedy, Senator (D-Mass)
1934 Sparky (George Lee) Anderson, MLB manager (Cincinnati Reds, Detroit Tigers)
1936 Ernie K-Doe (Ernest Kador Jr.), singer/songwriter (Mother-In-Law) died July 5, 2001
1944 Jonathan Demme, director (Silence of the Lambs; Philadelphia, Married to the Mob)
1945 Oliver (Swofford), singer (Good Morning Starshine) died Feb 12, 2000
1949 Niki (Andreas Nikolaus) Lauda, Grand Prix Hall of Fame auto racer
1950 Julius Erving II, Basketball Hall of Famer (Virginia Squires, Philadelphia 76ers)
1950 Miou-Miou (Sylvette Héry), actress (Going Places, Entre Nous)
1950 Julie Walters, actress (The Summer House, Mack the Knife, Educating Rita)
1951 Ellen Greene, actress (Pushing Daisies, Talk Radio, Little Shop of Horrors)
1959 Kyle MacLachlan, actor (Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet, Dune)
1962 Steve Irwin, Australian herpetologist (Crocodile Hunter) died September 4, 2006
1963 Vijay Singh, golf champion
1965 Pat Lafontaine, Hockey Hall of Fame center (NY Rangers)
1966 Rachel Dratch, actress/comedian (Saturday Night Live)
1968 Bradley Nowell, singer/guitarist (Sublime) died May 25, 1996
1968 Jeri Ryan, actress (Shark, Boston Public, Star Trek: Voyager)
1969 Thomas Jane, actor (The Punisher, *61)
1971 Lea Salonga, actress/singer (Miss Saigon)
1974 James Blunt, singer (You're Beautiful)
1975 Drew Barrymore, actress (E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Charlie’s Angels series, 50 First Dates)
1979 Tom Higgenson, singer (Plain White T's)

Today's Deaths in History

1512 Amerigo Vespucci, Italian merchant/explorer, dies at 57
1890 John Jacob Astor III, railroad businessman, dies at 67
1965 Felix Frankfurter, Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, dies at 82
1968 Peter Arno, cartoonist (The New Yorker) dies at 64
1976 Florence Ballard, singer (The Supremes) dies at 32
1987 Andy Warhol, pop artist, dies at 58
1994 Papa John Creach, musician (Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna)
2002 Chuck Jones, animator (Warner Bros) dies at 89
2002 Daniel Pearl, journalist, is killed in Pakistan at 38
2003 Daniel Taradash, screenwriter (From Here to Eternity, Don't Bother to Knock) dies at 90
2007 Dennis Johnson, NBA guard (Boston Celtics) dies at 52
2007 Howard Verne Ramsey, oldest U.S. veteran of WW I, dies at 108

Today in History

1819 Spain ceded Florida to the United States.
1856 The Republican Party opened its first national meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
1862 Jefferson Davis was officially inaugurated for a six-year term as the President of the Confederate States of America in Richmond, Virginia.
1865 Tennessee adopted a new constitution abolishing slavery.
1879 Frank Winfield Woolworth opened a five-cent store in Utica, N.Y.
1889 President Grover Cleveland signed a bill admitting North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Washington as U.S. states.
1924 Calvin Coolidge delivered the first presidential radio broadcast from the White House.
1935 It became illegal for airplanes to fly over the White House.
1942 Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered General Douglas MacArthur out of the Philippines as American defenses collapsed.
1959 The inaugural Daytona 500 race was held in Daytona Beach, Fla; Lee Petty won.
1974 Samuel Byck tried and failed to assassinate U.S. President Richard Nixon.
1980 In a stunning upset, the U.S. Olympic hockey team defeated the Soviets 4-3 at Lake Placid, N.Y.
1983 The notorious Broadway flop Moose Murders opened and closed on the same night at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre.
1993 The U.N. Security Council approved creation of an international war crimes tribunal to punish those responsible for atrocities in the former Yugoslavia.
1994 The Justice Department charged 31-year CIA veteran Aldrich Ames and his wife, Rosario, with selling national security secrets to the Soviet Union.
1997 In Roslin, Scotland, scientists announced that an adult sheep named Dolly had been successfully cloned.
2001 A U.N. war crimes tribunal convicted three Bosnian Serbs on charges of rape and torture in the first case of wartime sexual enslavement to go before an international court.
2002 San Diego police arrested David Westerfield in connection with the disappearance of 7-year-old Danielle van Dam; Westerfield was later convicted of kidnapping and murder and sentenced to death.
2002 The Angolan army and government announced the killing of UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi.
2005 A Virginia man was charged with plotting with al-Qaida to kill President George W. Bush; Ahmed Omar Abu Ali was later convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison.
2006 Insurgents destroyed the golden dome of one of Iraq's holiest Shiite shrines, the Askariya mosque in Samarra, setting off a spasm of sectarian violence.
2006 Thieves stole $96 million from a Bank of England cash depot 30 miles southeast of London in Britain's largest cash robbery.

Chart Toppers

1949
Powder Your Face with Sunshine - Evelyn Knight
Far Away Places - Margaret Whiting
A Little Bird Told Me - Evelyn Knight
I Love You So Much It Hurts - Jimmy Wakely

1957
Too Much - Elvis Presley
Young Love - Tab Hunter
Love is Strange - Mickey & Sylvia
Young Love - Sonny James

1965
This Diamond Ring - Gary Lewis & the Playboys
My Girl - The Temptations
The Jolly Green Giant - The Kingsmen
I’ve Got a Tiger by the Tail - Buck Owens

1973
Crocodile Rock - Elton John
Oh, Babe, What Would You Say? - Hurricane Smith
Dueling Banjos - Eric Weissberg & Steve Mandell
I Wonder if They Ever Think of Me - Merle Haggard

1981
9 to 5 - Dolly Parton
I Love a Rainy Night - Eddie Rabbitt
Woman - John Lennon
Southern Rains - Mel Tillis

1989
Straight Up - Paula Abdul
Wild Thing - Tone Loc
Born to Be My Baby - Bon Jovi
Big Wheels in the Moonlight - Dan Seals

Quote of the Day

Football is a mistake. It combines the two worst elements of American life. Violence and committee meetings.
George F. Will (1941 - )

Today in History - Feb 23rd

Today's Birthdays

1685 George Frederick Handel, composer (Messiah) died Apr 14, 1759
1904 William L. Shirer, journalist/author (The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich) died Dec 28, 1993
1915 Paul Tibbets, retired Brigadier General/pilot (Enola Gay) died November 1, 2007
1938 Diane Varsi, actress (Peyton Place, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden) died Nov 19, 1992
1940 Peter Fonda, director/actor (Easy Rider, Futureworld, Ghost Rider)
1943 Fred Biletnikoff, Pro Football Hall of Fame wide receiver (Oakland Raiders)
1944 Mike Maxfield, guitarist (Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas)
1944 Johnny Winter (John Dawson III), blues/rock guitarist
1946 Rusty Young, steel guitar (Poco)
1950 Steve Priest, bassist/singer (The Sweet)
1950 Jim Youngblood, NFL linebacker (LA Rams)
1951 Ed ‘Too Tall’ Jones, NFL defensive end (Dallas Cowboys)
1951 Patricia Richardson, actress (Home Improvement)
1952 Brad Whitford, guitarist (Aerosmith)
1955 Tom Bodett, voice actor/radio personality (Motel 6)
1955 Howard Jones, singer (No One is to Blame, New Song)
1960 Naruhito, Crown Prince of Japan
1962 Michael Wilton, guitarist (Queensryche)
1963 Bobby (Roberto Martin Antonio) Bonilla, MLB 3rd baseman/outfielder (NY Mets, St Louis Cardinals)
1964 John Norum, guitarist (Europe)
1965 Kristin Davis, actress (Sex and the City)
1965 Michael Dell, computer manufacturer
1965 Veronica Webb, supermodel/actress (Jungle Fever)
1971 Jeff Beres, bassist/singer (Sister Hazel)
1973 Lars-Olof Johansson, guitarist (The Cardigans)
1976 Kelly Macdonald, actress (Finding Neverland, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)
1978 Dan Snyder, NHL center (Atlanta Thrashers) killed in a car crash October 5, 2003
1979 D-Roc, rapper (Ying Yang Twins)
1983 Emily Blunt, actress (The Devil Wears Prada)
1994 Dakota Fanning, actress (War of the Worlds, Charlotte's Web)

Today's Deaths in History

1819 John Keats, English poet (Ode on a Grecian Urn) dies at 25
1848 John Quincy Adams, 6th President of the United States, dies at 80
1948 John Robert Gregg, Irish-born publisher/inventor (shorthand) dies at 80
1965 Stan Laurel, comedian/actor (Laurel and Hardy) dies at 74
1969 King Saud of Saudi Arabia dies at 67
1995 Melvin Franklin, singer (The Temptations) dies at 52
1995 James Herriot, English writer (All Creatures Great and Small) dies at 78
1999 Carlos Hathcock, USMC sniper (93 confirmed kills) dies at 56
2000 Ofra Haza, Israeli singer, dies at 42
2003 Howie Epstein, bassist (Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers) dies at 47
2004 Carl Anderson, singer/actor (Jesus Christ Superstar) dies at 58
2004 Don Cornell, singer (Hold My Hand) dies at 84

Today in History

1822 Boston was granted a charter to incorporate as a city.
1836 The siege of the Alamo began in San Antonio, Texas.
1847 U.S. troops under Gen. Zachary Taylor defeated Mexican general Santa Anna at the Battle of Buena Vista in Mexico.
1861 President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrived secretly in Washington to take office after an assassination plot was foiled in Baltimore.
1870 Mississippi was readmitted to the Union.
1883 Alabama became the first U.S. state to enact an antitrust law.
1898 Émile Zola was imprisoned in France after writing J'accuse, a letter accusing the French government of anti-Semitism and wrongfully imprisoning Captain Alfred Dreyfus.
1903 Cuba leased Guantánamo Bay to the United States "in perpetuity."
1905 Chicago attorney Paul Harris and three other businessmen met for lunch to form the Rotary Club, the world's first service club.
1927 President Calvin Coolidge signed a bill creating the Federal Radio Commission, forerunner of the Federal Communications Commission.
1941 Plutonium was first produced and isolated by Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg.
1942 The first shelling of the U.S. mainland during World War II occurred as a Japanese submarine fired on an oil refinery in Ellwood, Calif.
1945 U.S. Marines on Iwo Jima captured Mount Suribachi and raised the American flag; the moment was captured in a Pulitzer Prize winning photo by AP photographer Joe Rosenthal.

1954 The first mass inoculation of children against polio with the Salk vaccine began in Pittsburgh.
1974 The Symbionese Liberation Army demanded $4 million more to release kidnap victim Patty Hearst.
1981 An attempted coup began in Spain as 200 members of the Civil Guard invaded the Parliament, taking lawmakers hostage.
1991 President George H.W. Bush announced that the allied ground offensive against Iraqi forces had begun.
1997 A Palestinian man opened fire on the observation deck of New York City's Empire State Building, killing one person and wounding six before shooting himself to death.
1999 A jury in Jasper, Texas, convicted white supremacist John William King of murder in the dragging death of a black man, James Byrd Jr.
2000 Carlos Santana won eight Grammy Awards for his album Supernatural, tying the record set by Michael Jackson in 1983 for Thriller.
2003 Norah Jones won five Grammy Awards for the album Come Away With Me, tying the record for a female artist held by Lauryn Hill and Alicia Keys, and since tied by Beyonce.
2008 A United States Air Force B-2 Spirit crashed on Guam, the first operational loss of a B-2.

Chart Toppers

1950
Dear Hearts and Gentle People - Bing Crosby
There’s No Tomorrow - Tony Martin
The Old Master Painter - Snooky Lanson
Chatanoogie Shoe Shine Boy - Red Foley

1958
Don’t/I Beg of You - Elvis Presley
Sail Along Silvery Moon/Raunchy - Billy Vaughn
Short Shorts - The Royal Teens
Ballad of a Teenage Queen - Johnny Cash

1966
Lightnin’ Strikes - Lou Christie
These Boots are Made for Walkin’ - Nancy Sinatra
My World is Empty Without You - The Supremes
Waitin’ in Your Welfare Line - Buck Owens

1974
The Way We Were - Barbra Streisand
Seasons in the Sun - Terry Jacks
Until You Come Back to Me (That’s What I’m Gonna Do) - Aretha Franklin
Another Lonely Song - Tammy Wynette

1982
Centerfold - The J. Geils Band
Open Arms - Journey
Shake It Up - The Cars
Only One You - T.G. Sheppard

1990
Opposites Attract - Paula Abdul with the Wild Pair
Two to Make It Right - Seduction
Escapade - Janet Jackson
On Second Thought - Eddie Rabbitt

Quote of the Day

The problem with people who have no vices is that generally you can be pretty sure they're going to have some pretty annoying virtues.
Elizabeth Taylor, actress (1932 - )

Today in History - Feb 24th

Today's Birthdays

1786 Wilhelm Grimm, author (Grimm’s Fairy Tales) died Dec 16, 1859
1836 Winslow Homer, artist (On a Lee Shore, Mending the Nets) died Sep 29, 1910
1874 Honus (John Peter) Wagner, Baseball Hall of Fame shortstop (Pittsburgh Pirates) died Dec 6, 1955
1885 Chester Nimitz, U.S. Navy Admiral (WWII Pacific Fleet Commander in Chief) died Feb 20, 1966
1890 Marjorie Main (Mary Tomlinson), actress (Ma and Pa Kettle films) died Apr 10, 1975
1921 Abe Vigoda, actor (Barney Miller, The Godfather, Joe Versus the Volcano)
1922 Steven Hill, actor (Law & Order, Mission: Impossible, The Firm)
1929 Richard B. Shull, actor (Splash, Trapped in Paradise) died Oct 14, 1999
1931 Dominic Chianese, actor/singer (The Sopranos)
1932 Michel Legrand, composer (Yentl, Brian’s Song, Ice Station Zebra)
1932 John Vernon, actor (The Outlaw Josey Wales, National Lampoon’s Animal House) died Feb 1, 2005
1938 James Farentino, actor (Dynasty, Ensign Pulver, The Final Countdown)
1942 Paul Jones, singer (Manfred Mann)
1943 George Harrison, Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Famer (Beatles) died Nov 29, 2001
1945 Barry Bostwick, actor (The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Spin City)
1947 Rupert Holmes, singer/songwriter (Escape: The Pina Colada Song)
1947 Edward James Olmos, actor (Miami Vice, Stand and Deliver, Blade Runner)
1947 Lonnie Turner, bassist/singer (The Steve Miller Band)
1950 George Thorogood, blues/rock singer/guitarist (Bad to the Bone)
1951 Helen Shaver, actress (The Craft, The Color of Money, The Amityville Horror)
1951 Debra Jo Rupp, actress (That '70s Show)
1955 Steve Jobs, computer pioneer (Apple)
1956 Eddie (Clarence) Murray, Baseball Hall of Fame 1st baseman (Baltimore Orioles)
1956 Paula Zahn, broadcast journalist (CBS This Morning, American Morning with Paula Zahn)
1962 Michelle Shocked, singer (On the Greener Side)
1966 Billy Zane, actor (Titanic, Memphis Belle)
1968 Mitch Hedberg, comedian (non sequiturs) died March 29, 2005
1970 Jeff Garcia, NFL quarterback (Tampa Bay Buccaneers)
1972 Manon Rhéaume, female NHL goaltender (Tampa Bay Lightning)
1973 Chris Fehn, drummer (Slipknot)
1973 Alexei Kovalev, NHL right wing (NY Rangers)
1974 Mike Lowell, MLB 3rd baseman (Boston Red Sox)
1974 Bonnie Somerville, actress (NYPD Blue)
1976 Matt Skiba, guitarist/singer (Alkaline Trio)
1977 Floyd Mayweather Jr, boxing champion
1983 Matt McGinley, drummer (Gym Class Heroes)

Today's Deaths in History

1815 Robert Fulton, inventor (steamboat) dies at 49
1825 Thomas Bowdler, English physician/editor (bowderlized versions of Shakespeare) dies at 80
1970 Conrad Nagel, actor (One Million B.C.) dies at 72
1990 Johnnie Ray, singer (Cry) dies at 63
1990 Malcolm Forbes, publisher (Forbes magazine) dies at 70
1991 Webb Pierce, country music star, dies at 65
1991 George Gobel, comedian (Hollywood Squares) dies at 71
1994 Dinah Shore, actress/singer (The Dinah Shore Show) dies at 77
1998 Henny Youngman, comedian, dies at 91
2002 Arthur Lyman, jazz vibraphone/marimba player (Yellow Bird) dies at 70
2006 Don Knotts, actor (Andy Griffith Show, The Incredible Mr. Limpet) dies at 81
2006 Dennis Weaver, actor (McCloud, Gunsmoke) dies at 81
2007 Damien Nash, NFL running back (Denver Broncos) dies at 24

Today in History

1582 Pope Gregory XIII issued a papal bull outlining his calendar reforms; the Gregorian Calendar is the calendar in general use today.
1803 The Supreme Court in Marbury v. Madison ruled itself the final interpreter of constitutional issues.
1821 Mexico declared its independence from Spain.
1839 William Otis received a patent for the steam shovel.
1863 Arizona was organized as a territory.
1868 The House of Representatives impeached President Andrew Johnson following his attempt to dismiss Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton; the Senate later acquitted Johnson.
1868 The first parade to have floats was staged at Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Louisiana.
1903 The United States signed an agreement acquiring a naval station at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
1909 The Hudson Motor Car Company was founded.
1920 The German Workers Party, which later became the Nazi Party, met in Munich to adopt its platform.
1942 The Voice of America went on the air for the first time.
1945 American soldiers liberated the Philippine capital of Manila from Japanese control during World War II.
1970 National Public Radio was founded in the United States.
1981 Buckingham Palace announced the engagement of Britain's Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer.
1983 A congressional commission released a report condemning the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II as a "grave injustice."
1989 Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini offered a $3 million bounty for the death of The Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie.
1997 The Food and Drug Administration named six brands of birth control as safe and effective "morning-after" pills for preventing pregnancy.
1999 Lauryn Hill won five Grammys for her debut solo album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, setting a record for a female artist that has since been tied by Alicia Keys, Norah Jones and Beyonce.
2006 South Dakota lawmakers approved a ban on nearly all abortions.
2007 The Virginia General Assembly passed a resolution expressing "profound regret" for the state's role in slavery.
2008 Cuba's parliament named Raul Castro president, ending nearly 50 years of rule by his brother Fidel.

Chart Toppers

1951
If - Perry Como
My Heart Cries for You - Guy Mitchell
Tennessee Waltz - Patti Page
There’s Been a Change in Me - Eddy Arnold

1959
Stagger Lee - Lloyd Price
Donna - Ritchie Valens
The All American Boy - Bill Parsons
Don’t Take Your Guns to Town - Johnny Cash

1967
Kind of a Drag - The Buckinghams
Love is Here and Now You’re Gone - The Supremes
The Beat Goes On - Sonny & Cher
Where Does the Good Times Go - Buck Owens

1975
Pick Up the Pieces - AWB
Best of My Love - The Eagles
Some Kind of Wonderful - Grand Funk
I Care - Tom T. Hall

1983
Baby, Come to Me - Patti Austin with James Ingram
Shame on the Moon - Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band
Stray Cat Strut - Stray Cats
Faking Love - T.G. Sheppard & Karen Brooks

1991
All the Man that I Need - Whitney Houston
One More Try - Timmy T
Someday - Mariah Carey
Walk on Faith - Mike Reid

Quote of the Day

Give a man a fish, and you'll feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he'll buy a funny hat. Talk to a hungry man about fish, and you're a consultant.
Scott Adams, cartoonist (1957 - )

Today in History - Feb 25th

Today's Birthdays

1841 Pierre-August Renoir, artist (The Bathers) died Dec 3, 1919
1873 Enrico Caruso, Italian tenor, died August 2, 1921
1901 Zeppo (Herbert) Marx, comedian (Marx Brothers) died Nov 30, 1979
1910 Millicent Fenwick, U.S. congresswoman, died Sep 16, 1992
1913 Jim Backus, comedian/actor (Mr. Magoo, Gilligan's Island) died July 3, 1989
1917 (John) Anthony Burgess, author (A Clockwork Orange) died Nov 25, 1993
1918 Bobby (Robert Larrimore) Riggs (Larimore), tennis champion, died Oct 25, 1995
1928 Larry Gelbart, producer (M*A*S*H)
1932 Faron Young, country singer (Hello Walls) died Dec 10, 1996
1935 Sally Jessy Raphael (Sally Lowenthal), TV talk-show host
1937 Bob Schieffer, broadcast journalist (CBS News)
1942 Carl Eller, Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive end (Minnesota Vikings)
1943 George Harrison, guitarist/singer (The Beatles) died Nov 29 2001
1947 Doug Yule, bassist (The Velvet Underground)
1949 Ric "The Nature Boy" Flair, wrestler
1949 Jack Handey, author/former TV writer (Saturday Night Live)
1951 James "JB" Brown, sportscaster (Fox Sports, NFL on CBS)
1953 John Doe, songwriter/bassist (X), actor (Road House, Great Balls of Fire!)
1957 Stuart ‘Woody’ Wood, guitarist (Bay City Rollers)
1957 Dennis Diken, drummer (The Smithereens)
1958 Jeff Fisher, NFL coach (Tennessee Titans)
1959 Mike Peters, guitarist/singer (The Alarm)
1961 Davey Allison, NASCAR driver, died July 13, 1993
1965 Carrot Top, comedian
1965 Veronica Webb, model/actress (Jungle Fever)
1966 Nancy O'Dell, reporter/television personality (Access Hollywood)
1966 Téa Leoni, actress (Jurassic Park III, Deep Impact)
1966 Alexis Denisof, actor (Angel)
1968 Lesley Boone, actress (Ed)
1971 Sean Astin, actor (The Goonies, Rudy, The Lord of the Rings series)
1971 Daniel Powter, singer (Bad Day)
1973 Richard Liles, drummer (3 Doors Down)
1976 Rashida Jones, actress (Boston Public, The Office)
1976 Chris Pitman, keyboardist (Guns N' Roses)
1978 Brian Urlacher, NFL linebacker (Chichago Bears)
1986 Justin Berfield, actor (Malcolm in the Middle)

Today's Deaths in History

1966 James D. Norris, Hockey Hall of Fame executive (Chicago Blackhawks) dies at 59
1978 Daniel "Chappie" James Jr., first African-American four-star general (Air Force) dies at 57
1983 Tennessee Williams, playwright (The Glass Menagerie) dies at 71
1987 James Coco, actor (Ensign Pulver, The Muppets Take Manhattan) dies at 56
1994 Jersey Joe Walcott, boxing champion, dies at 80
1996 Haing S. Ngor, Cambodian-born actor (The Killing Fields) is murdered at 55
2004 Donald Hings, inventor (walkie-talkie) dies at 96
2006 Darren McGavin, actor (The Night Stalker, A Christmas Story) dies at 83

Today in History

1570 Pope Pius V excommunicated England's Queen Elizabeth I.
1793 George Washington convened the first Cabinet meeting on record, at his home.
1836 Inventor Samuel Colt patented his revolver.
1870 Hiram Revels, a Mississippi Republican, was sworn in as the first black member of the U.S. Senate.
1901 United States Steel Corp. was incorporated by J.P. Morgan.
1913 The 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, giving Congress the power to levy and collect income taxes, was declared in effect.
1933 The USS Ranger (CV-4) was launched, the first US Navy ship to be built solely as an aircraft carrier.
1940 A hockey game was televised for the first time, by New York City station W2XBS; the New York Rangers beat the Montreal Canadiens 6-2 at Madison Square Garden.
1948 Communists seized power in Czechoslovakia.
1950 Your Show of Shows debuted on NBC.
1951 The first Pan American Games were held in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
1956 Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev harshly criticized the late Josef Stalin in a speech before a Communist Party congress in Moscow.
1964 Cassius Clay (who later changed his name to Muhammad Ali) became the world heavyweight boxing champion by defeating Sonny Liston in Miami Beach.
1986 President Ferdinand E. Marcos fled the Philippines after 20 years of rule in the wake of a tainted election; Corazon Aquino assumed the presidency.
1990 Nicaraguans voted in an election that led to victory for opponents of the ruling Sandinistas.
1991 An Iraqi Scud missile hit a U.S. barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, killing 28 Americans during the Persian Gulf War.
1994 American-born Jewish settler Baruch Goldstein opened fire inside the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the West Bank, killing 29 Muslims before he was beaten to death by worshippers.
1999 A jury in Jasper, Texas, sentenced white supremacist John William King to death for the dragging death of James Byrd Jr., a black man.
2000 A jury in Albany, N.Y., acquitted four white New York City police officers of all charges in the shooting death of unarmed African immigrant Amadou Diallo.
2002 Former NBA star Jayson Williams was charged in the shooting death of a limousine driver; Williams was later acquitted of manslaughter, but the jury deadlocked on another charge.
2005 Dennis Rader was arrested for the BTK serial killings that terrorized Wichita, Kansas; he later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 life prison terms.

Chart Toppers

1944
Besame Mucho - The Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra (vocal: Bob Eberly & Kitty Kallen)
My Heart Tells Me - The Glen Gray Orchestra (vocal: Eugenie Baird)
Shoo, Shoo, Baby - The Andrews Sisters
Ration Blues - Louis Jordan

1952
Cry - Johnnie Ray
Slowpoke - Pee Wee King
Anytime - Eddie Fisher
Give Me More, More, More (Of Your Kisses) - Lefty Frizzell

1960
The Theme from "A Summer Place" - Percy Faith
Handy Man - Jimmy Jones
What in the World’s Come Over You - Jack Scott
He’ll Have to Go - Jim Reeves

1968
Love is Blue - Paul Mauriat
(Theme From) Valley of the Dolls - Dionne Warwick
(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay - Otis Redding
Skip a Rope - Henson Cargill

1976
50 Ways to Leave Your Lover - Paul Simon
Theme from S.W.A.T. - Rhythm Heritage
Love Machine (Part 1) - The Miracles
Good Hearted Woman - Waylon & Willie

1984
Jump - Van Halen
99 Luftballons - Nena
Girls Just Want to Have Fun - Cyndi Lauper
Stay Young - Don Williams

Quote of the Day

Prosperity is only an instrument to be used, not a deity to be worshipped.
Calvin Coolidge, 30th U.S. President (1872 - 1933)

The prophet himself died today. That's right, it's officially 15 years since Bill Hicks died.

I present to all of you his GENIUS:

Today in History - Feb 26th

Today's Birthdays

1802 Victor Hugo, author (Les Miserables) died May 22, 1885
1829 Levi Strauss, inventor (blue jeans) died Sep 26, 1902
1846 William Frederic "Buffalo Bill" Cody, frontiersman/showman, died Jan 10, 1917
1887 William Frawley, actor (I Love Lucy, Miracle on 34th Street) died Mar 3, 1966
1907 Dub Taylor, actor (Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, The Getaway) died October 3, 1994
1908 Tex Avery, cartoonist (Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, Droopy) died August 26, 1980
1916 Jackie (Herbert John) Gleason, comedian/actor (The Honeymooners, Smokey and the Bandit) died June 24, 1987
1920 Tony Randall (Leonard Rosenberg), actor (The Odd Couple) died May 17, 2004
1921 Betty Hutton (Elizabeth Thornberg), actress (The Greatest Show on Earth) died Mar 11, 2007
1928 Fats (Antoine) Domino, pianist/songwriter/singer (Ain’t That a Shame, Blueberry Hill)
1932 Johnny Cash, guitarist/singer (Folsom Prison Blues, I Walk the Line) died Sep 12, 2003
1945 Mitch Ryder (William Levise), singer (Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels)
1945 Bob Hite, singer/harmonicist (Canned Heat) died April 5, 1981
1950 Jonathan Cain, keyboardist (Babys, Journey)
1954 Michael Bolton, singer (When a Man Loves a Woman)
1958 Greg Germann, actor (Ally McBeal, Talladega Nights)
1958 Tim Kaine, Governor (Virginia)
1961 John-Jon (John Andrew Foster), keyboardist (Bronski Beat)
1966 Jennifer Grant, actress (Beverly Hills 90210)
1968 Tim Commerford, bassist (Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave)
1971 Erykah Badu, R&B singer (Mama's Gun)
1973 Marshall Faulk, former NFL running back (St Louis Rams)
1979 Corinne Bailey Rae, R&B singer (Put Your Records On)

Today's Deaths in History

1990 Cornell Gunter, singer (The Coasters) dies at 53
1993 Constance Ford, actress (Rawhide, Gunsmoke) dies at 69
1994 Bill Hicks, comedian (Dangerous) dies at 32
1997 David Doyle, actor (Charlie's Angels) dies at 67
1998 James Algar, film director/screenwriter/producer (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Fantasia) dies at 85
2002 Lawrence Tierney, actor (Dillinger, Reservoir Dogs) dies at 82
2008 Buddy Miles, drummer (Band of Gypsies) dies at 60
2009 Wendy Richards, English actress (Are You Being Served) dies at 65

Today in History

1815 Napoleon Bonaparte escaped from the island of Elba to begin his second conquest of France.
1848 The Second French Republic was proclaimed.
1863 President Abraham Lincoln signed the National Currency Act into law.
1870 New York City's first pneumatic-powered subway line was opened to the public; the tunnel was only a block long.
1914 HMHS Britannic, sister to the RMS Titanic, was launched at Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast.
1917 The Original Dixieland Jass Band recorded the first ever jazz record for the Victor Talking Machine Company in New York.
1919 Congress established Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona.
1929 The Grand Teton National Park was created.
1935 Robert Watson-Watt carried out the Daventry Experiment, a demonstration which led directly to the development of RADAR in the United Kingdom.
1936 Adolf Hitler opened the first Volkswagen plant in East Germany.
1952 Prime Minister Winston Churchill announced that Britain had developed its own atomic bomb.
1970 National Public Radio incorporated as a non-profit corporation.
1984 U.S. troops withdrew from Beirut.
1987 The Tower Commission issued its report on the Iran-Contra affair, rebuking President Ronald Reagan for failing to control his national security staff.
1991 Iraqi President Saddam Hussein announced on Baghdad Radio that he had ordered his forces to withdraw from Kuwait.
1993 A bomb built by Islamic extremists exploded in the parking garage of New York City's World Trade Center, killing six people and injuring more than 1,000.
1995 Barings PLC, Britain's oldest investment banking firm, collapsed after a securities dealer lost more than $1.4 billion by gambling on Tokyo stock prices.
2000 Pope John Paul II visited Mount Sinai in Egypt, revered as the place where Moses received the Ten Commandments.
2001 A U.N. tribunal convicted Bosnian Croat political leader Dario Kordic and military commander Mario Cerkez of war crimes for ordering the systematic murder and persecution of Muslim civilians during the Bosnian war.
2001 The Taliban destroyed two giant statues of Buddha in Bamyan, Afghanistan.
2004 The United States lifted a ban on travel to Libya, ending travel restrictions to the nation that had lasted for 23 years.
2008 The New York Philharmonic performed a historic concert in North Korea before the communist nation's elite.

Chart Toppers

1945
Accentuate the Positive - Bing Crosby & the Andrews Sisters
I Dream of You - The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra (vocal: Freddy Stewart)
Don’t Fence Me In - Bing Crosby & the Andrews Sisters
I’m Losing My Mind Over You - Al Dexter

1953
Don’t Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes - Perry Como
Till I Waltz Again with You - Teresa Brewer
Keep It a Secret - Jo Stafford
Kaw-Liga - Hank Williams

1961
Pony Time - Chubby Checker
There’s a Moon Out Tonight - The Capris
Surrender - Elvis Presley
North to Alaska - Johnny Horton

1969
Everyday People - Sly & the Family Stone
Build Me Up Buttercup - The Foundations
Can I Change My Mind - Tyrone Davis
Until My Dreams Come True - Jack Greene

1977
New Kid in Town - Eagles
Love Theme from "A Star is Born" (Evergreen) - Barbra Streisand
Fly like an Eagle - Steve Miller
Say You’ll Stay Until Tomorrow - Tom Jones

1985
Careless Whisper - Wham! featuring George Michael
Loverboy - Billy Ocean
Can’t Fight This Feeling - REO Speedwagon
Baby’s Got Her Blue Jeans On - Mel McDaniel

Quote of the Day

The world is a tragedy to those who feel, but a comedy to those who think.
Horace Walpole, English author (1717 - 1797)

Today in History - Feb 27th

Today's Birthdays

1807 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, poet (The Song of Hiawatha) died Mar 24, 1882
1886 Hugo (Lafayette) Black, Supreme Court Justice, died Sep 25, 1971
1892 William Demarest, actor (My Three Sons) died December 28, 1983
1897 Marion Anderson, African-American operatic contralto; April 8, 1993
1902 John (Ernst) Steinbeck, writer (The Grapes of Wrath) died Dec 20, 1968
1913 Irwin Shaw, novelist (Rich Man Poor Man) died May 16, 1984
1917 John Connally, former governor of Texas (shot during Kennedy assassination in 1963) died June 15, 1993
1923 Dexter Gordon, jazz saxophonist, died April 25, 1990
1927 James (Leo) Herlihy, writer (Midnight Cowboy) died Oct 20, 1993
1927 Guy Mitchell (Al Cernick), singer (Singing the Blues) died July 1, 1999
1927 Lynn Cartwright, actress (A League of Their Own) died January 2, 2004
1930 Joanne Woodward, actress (The Three Faces of Eve, Sybil, Philadelphia)
1932 Elizabeth Taylor, actress (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, National Velvet, Cleopatra)
1933 Ray Berry, Pro Football Hall of Fame wide receiver (Baltimore Colts)
1934 Ralph Nader, consumer advocate/Presidential candidate
1940 Howard Hesseman, actor (WKRP in Cincinnati, Head of the Class)
1945 Carl Anderson, singer/actor (Jesus Christ Superstar) died February 23, 2004
1948 Eddie Gray, guitarist (Tommy James & the Shondells)
1954 Neal Schon, guitarist (Santana, Journey)
1957 Adrian Smith, guitarist (Iron Maiden)
1959 Johnny Van Zant, singer (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
1960 Paul Humphreys, keyboardist (Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark)
1962 Adam Baldwin, actor (Radio Flyer, Full Metal Jacket, Firefly/Serenity, Chuck)
1962 Grant Show, actor (Melrose Place, Beverly Hills 90210, Private Practice)
1965 Noah Emmerich, actor (The Truman Show, Cop Land, Frequency, Windtalkers)
1966 Donal Logue, actor (The Tao of Steve, Ghost Rider, The Patriot)
1971 Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas, singer (TLC)
1976 Tony Gonzalez, NFL tight end (Kansas City Chiefs)
1980 Chelsea Clinton, former first daughter
1981 Josh Groban, singer
1983 Kate Mara, actress (Brokeback Mountain, 24, We Are Marshall, Shooter)

Today's Deaths in History

1902 Harry "Breaker" Morant, Australian soldier, executed in Boer War at 37
1936 Ivan Pavlov, Russian physiologist (Pavlov's dogs) dies at 86
1968 Frankie Lymon, singer (Why Do Fools Fall in Love) dies at 25
1985 Henry Cabot Lodge, Senator/Ambassador (R-Mass) dies at 82
1986 Jacques Plante, Hockey Hall of Fame goaltender (NY Rangers) dies at 57
1993 Lillian Gish, actress (Birth of a Nation) dies at 99
1998 J. T. Walsh, actor (A Few Good Men, Pleasantville, The Negotiator) dies at 54
2003 Fred Rogers, TV host (Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood) dies at 74
2005 Jessica Lunsford, murder victim, dies at 9
2006 Otis Chandler, newspaper publisher (LA Times) dies at 78
2006 Robert Lee Scott, Jr., U.S. General (Flying Tigers) dies at 97
2007 Bobby Rosengarden, jazz drummer, dies at 82
2008 Myron Cope, sportscaster (Voice of the Pittsburgh Steelers) dies at 79
2008 William F. Buckley, author/commentator (National Review) dies at 82

Today in History

1797 The Bank of England issued the first one-pound and two-pound notes.
1801 The District of Columbia was placed under the jurisdiction of Congress.
1922 The Supreme Court unanimously upheld the 19th Amendment to the Constitution guaranteeing the right of women to vote.
1933 Germany's parliament building in Berlin, the Reichstag, caught fire; the Nazis, blaming the Communists, used the fire as a pretext to suspend civil liberties.
1939 The Supreme Court outlawed sit-down strikes.
1951 The 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, limiting a president to two terms of office, was ratified.
1964 The government of Italy asked for help to keep the Leaning Tower of Pisa from toppling over.
1973 Members of the American Indian Movement occupied Wounded Knee, S.D., the site of the 1890 massacre of Sioux men, women and children; the occupation lasted until May.
1974 People magazine was published for the first time.
1982 Wayne B. Williams was found guilty of murdering two of the 28 young blacks whose bodies were found in the Atlanta area over a 22-month period.
1986 The U.S. Senate approved telecasts of its debates on a trial basis.
1991 President George H.W. Bush announced the end of the Persian Gulf War, saying the allies would suspend combat operations at midnight.
1997 Divorce became legal in Ireland.
1997 Legislation banning most handguns in Britain went into effect.
1998 Britain's House of Lords agreed to end 1,000 years of male preference by giving a monarch's first-born daughter the same claim to the throne as a first-born son.
2002 Alicia Keys won five Grammy Awards for her debut album, Songs in A Minor, tying the record for a female artist held by Lauryn Hill and since tied by Norah Jones and Beyonce.
2002 A mob of Muslims set fire to a train carrying hundreds of Hindu nationalists in Godhra, India; some 60 people died.
2003 Former Bosnian Serb leader Biljana Plavsic was sentenced by the U.N. tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, to 11 years in prison.
2004 A bombing of a Superferry by Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines' worst terrorist attack killed 116.
2007 A suicide bomber struck Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan during a visit by Vice President Dick Cheney, who was rushed to a bomb shelter; twenty-three people were killed; Cheney was unhurt.

Chart Toppers

1946
Let It Snow - Vaughn Monroe
Symphony - The Freddy Martin Orchestra (vocal: Clyde Rogers)
I Can’t Begin to Tell You - Bing Crosby with the Carmen Cavallaro Orchestra
Guitar Polka - Al Dexter

1954
Oh! My Pa-Pa - Eddie Fisher
Make Love to Me! - Jo Stafford
Cross Over the Bridge - Patti Page
Wake Up, Irene - Hank Thompson

1962
Duke of Earl - Gene Chandler
The Wanderer - Dion
Norman - Sue Thompson
Walk on By - Leroy Van Dyke

1970
Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)/Everybody is a Star - Sly & the Family Stone
Hey There Lonely Girl - Eddie Holman
Bridge Over Troubled Water - Simon & Garfunkel
It’s Just a Matter of Time - Sonny James

1978
Stayin’ Alive - Bee Gees
(Love Is) Thicker Than Water - Andy Gibb
Just the Way You Are - Billy Joel
Don’t Break the Heart that Loves You - Margo Smith

1986
How Will I Know - Whitney Houston
Kyrie - Mr. Mister
Sara - Starship
There’s No Stopping Your Heart - Marie Osmond

Quote of the Day

The young have aspirations that never come to pass, the old have reminiscences of what never happened.
Saki, British short-story author (1870 - 1916)

Today in History - Feb 28th

Today's Birthdays

1797 Mary Lyon, educator (founded Mt. Holyoke College) died Mar 5, 1849
1824 Charles Blondin (Jean Francois Gravelet), acrobat (first to walk across Niagara Falls on a tightrope) died in 1897
1901 Linus Pauling, chemist (quantum chemistry) died Aug 19, 1994
1903 Vincente Minnelli (Lester Anthony Minnelli), director (Gigi, An American in Paris) died July 25, 1986
1907 Milton Caniff, cartoonist (Terry and the Pirates, Steve Canyon) died May 3, 1988
1908 Billie Bird, actress (Sixteen Candles, Home Alone) died November 27, 2002
1915 Zero Mostel (Samuel Joel Mostel), actor (A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum) died Sep 8, 1977
1923 Charles Durning, actor (Tootsie, The Final Countdown, Dog Day Afternoon)
1931 Gavin MacLeod, actor (The Love Boat, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Kelly's Heroes)
1931 Dean Smith, Basketball Hall of Fame coach (North Carolina Tar Heels)
1939 Tommy Tune, dancer/actor (My One and Only, Will Rogers Follies)
1940 Mario Andretti, Indianapolis 500 Hall of Fame driver
1942 Frank Bonner, actor (WKRP in Cincinnati)
1942 Brian Jones (Lewis Hopkin-Jones), singer/rhythm guitarist (The Rolling Stones) died July 3, 1969
1942 Joe South (Souter), guitarist/singer (Down in the Boondocks)
1948 Bernadette Peters (Lazzara), actress (The Jerk, Pennies from Heaven)
1948 Mercedes Ruehl, actress (The Fisher King, Married to the Mob, Big, Radio Days)
1948 Steven Chu, Secretary of Energy
1955 Gilbert Gottfried, comedian/actor (Lethal Weapon)
1957 Phil Gould, drummer (Level 42)
1957 John Turturro, actor (Quiz Show, The Big Lebowski, O Brother Where Art Thou?)
1957 Cindy Wilson, singer (B-52s)
1960 Dorothy Stratten, actress/playmate (PMOY 1980) murdered by her estranged husband August 14, 1980
1961 Rae Dawn Chong, actress (Soul Man, Quest for Fire, The Color Purple)
1969 Robert Sean Leonard, actor (Dead Poets Society, House M.D.)
1969 Pat Monahan, singer/songwriter (Train)
1970 Daniel Handler, writer (Lemony Snicket)
1972 Rory Cochrane, actor (Empire Records, Dazed and Confused, CSI: Miami)
1973 Eric Lindros, NHL center (NY Rangers)
1976 Ali Larter, actress/model (Varsity Blues, Legally Blonde, Heroes)
1984 Karolína Kurková, Czech supermodel (Victoria's Secret)

Today's Deaths in History

1916 Henry James, writer (The Portrait of a Lady) dies at 72
1967 Henry Luce, publisher (Sports Illustrated, Fortune) dies at 68
1977 Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson, actor (The Jack Benny Program) dies at 71
1985 Ray Ellington, singer/drummer/bandleaders, dies at 68
1985 David Byron, singer (Uriah Heep) dies at 38
1993 Ishiro Honda, Japanese film director (Godzilla Films) dies at 81
1993 Ruby Keeler, actress/dancer/Mrs Al Jolson (42nd Street) dies at 82
2002 Mary Stuart, actress (Adventures of Don Juan) dies at 75
2004 Daniel J. Boorstin, historian/Librarian of Congress, dies at 89
2007 Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., historian, dies at 89
2007 Billy Thorpe, guitarist/singer/songwriter (Children of the Sun) dies at 60
2008 Mike Smith, keyboardist/singer (The Dave Clark Five) dies at 64

Today in History

1784 John Wesley chartered the Methodist Church.
1827 The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Co. was incorporated.
1844 A gun on USS Princeton exploded while the boat was on a Potomac River cruise, killing 8 United States Cabinet members and several others.
1849 Regular steamboat service from the west to the east coast of the United States began with the arrival of the SS California in San Francisco Bay, 4 months and 21 days after leaving New York Harbor.
1854 About 50 slavery opponents met in Ripon, Wis., to call for creation of a new political group, which became the Republican Party.
1861 The Territory of Colorado was organized.
1885 The American Telephone and Telegraph Company was incorporated in New York State as the subsidiary of American Bell Telephone.
1922 The United Kingdom accepted the independence of Egypt.
1935 DuPont scientist Wallace Carothers invented Nylon.
1942 The heavy cruiser USS Houston (CA-30) was sunk in the Battle of Sunda Strait with 693 crew members killed.
1953 Scientists James D. Watson and Francis H.C. Crick discovered the double-helix structure of DNA, the molecule that contains the human genes, at Cambridge University.
1958 A school bus in Floyd County, Kentucky hit a wrecker truck and plunged down an embankment into the rain-swollen Levisa Fork Riverl the driver and 26 children died in what remains the worst school bus accident in U.S. history.
1972 President Richard M. Nixon and Chinese Premier Chou En-lai issued the Shanghai Communique at the conclusion of Nixon's historic visit to China, a step toward the eventual normalization of relations between the two countries.
1974 The United States and Egypt re-established diplomatic relations after a seven-year break.
1975 A subway train smashed into the end of a tunnel in London's Underground, killing more than 40 people.
1983 The U2 album War was released.
1983 The final episode of M*A*S*H was broadcast in the U.S., becoming the most watched television episode in history, with 106–125 million viewers in the U.S.
1986 Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was shot to death in central Stockholm.
1991 Allied and Iraqi forces suspended their attacks as Iraq pledged to accept all United Nations resolutions concerning Kuwait.
1993 A gun battle erupted at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, when Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents tried to serve warrants; four agents and six Davidians were killed and a 51-day standoff began.
2002 A body found outside San Diego was identified as that of Danielle van Dam, 7, who'd disappeared from her bedroom about a month earlier; a neighbor was later convicted of her murder and sentenced to death.
2005 Lebanon's pro-Syrian prime minister, Omar Karami, resigned amid large anti-Syria street demonstrations in Beirut.
2008 Former Prime Minister of Thailand Thaksin Shinawatra was arrested on corruption charges upon returning to Thailand after months of exile.

Chart Toppers

1947
For Sentimental Reasons - Nat King Cole
The Anniversary Song - Dinah Shore
Oh, But I Do - Margaret Whiting
So Round, So Firm, So Fully Packed - Merle Travis

1955
Sincerely - McGuire Sisters
Melody of Love - Billy Vaughn
The Crazy Otto (Medley) - Johnny Maddox
In the Jailhouse Now - Webb Pierce

1963
Hey Paula - Paul & Paula
Ruby Baby - Dion
From a Jack to a King - Ned Miller
The Ballad of Jed Clampett - Flatt & Scruggs

1971
One Bad Apple - The Osmonds
Mama’s Pearl - The Jackson 5
Sweet Mary - Wadsworth Mansion
Help Me Make It Through the Night - Sammi Smith

1979
Da Ya Think I’m Sexy? - Rod Stewart
Fire - Pointer Sisters
I Will Survive - Gloria Gaynor
Every Which Way But Loose - Eddie Rabbitt

1987
Livin’ on a Prayer - Bon Jovi
Jacob’s Ladder - Huey Lewis & the News
You Got It All - The Jets
I Can’t Win for Losin’ You - Earl Thomas Conley

Quote of the Day

Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles.
Ambrose Bierce, author & satirist (1842 - 1914), The Devil's Dictionary

Today in History - March 1st

Today's Birthdays

1810 Frédéric Chopin, Polish-French composer/pianist, died October 17, 1849
1904 Glenn Miller, bandleader (Moonlight Serenade, In the Mood, Tuxedo Junction) presumed dead after his plane disappeared over the English Channel Dec 15, 1944
1910 (James) David (Graham) Niven, actor (The Pink Panther, The Guns of Navarone) died July 29, 1983
1914 Harry (Christopher) Caray (Carabina), sportscaster (Chicago Cubs) died Feb 18, 1998
1914 Ralph Waldo Ellison, author/essayist (Invisible Man) died Apr 16, 1994
1920 Max Bentley, Hockey Hall of Fame center (NY Rangers) died January 19, 1984
1922 William Gaines, publisher (Mad magazine) died June 2, 1992
1922 Yitzhak Rabin, Prime Minister of Israel, died November 4, 1995
1924 Deke (Donald) Slayton, astronaut (Apollo program) died June 13, 1993
1926 Robert Clary (Widerman), actor (Hogan’s Heroes)
1926 Pete (Alvin) Rozelle, NFL commissioner, died Dec 6, 1996
1927 Harry Belafonte, actor/singer (The Banana Boat Song, Mary’s Boy Child)
1935 Robert Conrad (Konrad Robert Falkowski), actor (The Wild Wild West, Baa Baa Black Sheep)
1942 Richard Bowman Myers, USAF General/Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
1944 Roger Daltrey, singer (The Who)
1944 Mike D'Abo, singer (Manfred Mann)
1945 Dirk Benedict, actor (The A-Team, Battlestar Galactica)
1946 Lana Wood, actress (Diamonds Are Forever, Peyton Place)
1947 Alan Thicke, actor (Growing Pains)
1948 Burning Spear, Jamaican singer/musician
1954 Catherine Bach, actress (The Dukes of Hazzard, Cannonball Run 2)
1954 Ron Howard actor/director/producer (From the Earth to the Moon, The Andy Griffith Show, Happy Days, American Graffiti, Night Shift, Splash, Cocoon, Backdraft, Apollo 13)
1956 Timothy Daly, actor (Diner, Wings, Private Practice)
1958 Nik Kershaw, singer/musician (Wouldn't It Be Good)
1962 Bill Leen, bassist (Gin Blossoms)
1963 Rob Affuso, drummer (Skid Row)
1963 Russell Wong, actor (The Joy Luck Club, Romeo Must Die)
1967 George Eads, actor (CSI)
1969 Dafydd Ieuan, Welsh drummer (Super Furry Animals)
1969 Javier Bardem, actor (No Country for Old Men)
1973 Ryan Peake, guitarist (Nickelback)
1974 Mark-Paul Gosselaar, actor (Saved By the Bell, NYPD Blue)
1978 Donovan Patton, TV host (Blues Clues)

Today's Deaths in History

1974 Bobby Timmons, jazz pianist, dies at 38
1984 Jackie Coogan, actor (The Kid, Addams Family) dies at 69
1991 Edwin H. Land, inventor/businessman (Polaroid Corporation) dies at 81
2000 Dennis Danell, guitarist (Social Distortion) dies at 38
2001 Henry Wade, lawyer (prosecuted Jack Ruby for killing Lee Harvey Oswald) dies at 86
2006 Johnny Jackson, drummer (Jackson 5) dies at 54

Today in History

1565 The city of Rio de Janeiro was founded.
1642 Georgeana, Massachusetts (now known as York, Maine) became the first incorporated city in the U.S.
1692 Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne and Tituba were brought before local magistrates in Salem Village, Massachusetts, beginning what would become known as the Salem witch trials.
1781 The Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation.
1790 Congress authorized the first U.S. census.
1803 Ohio was admitted as the 17th U.S. state.
1815 Napoleon returned to France from his banishment on Elba.
1845 President John Tyler signed a congressional resolution to annex the Republic of Texas.
1867 Nebraska became the 37th state.
1872 Congress authorized creation of Yellowstone National Park.
1873 E. Remington and Sons in Ilion, New York began production of the first practical typewriter.
1896 Henri Becquerel discovered radioactivity.
1912 Albert Berry made the first parachute jump from a moving airplane.
1932 The 20-month-old son of aviator Charles Lindbergh and his wife, Anne, was kidnapped from the family home near Hopewell, N.J.; the child's body was found two months later.
1936 The Hoover Dam was completed.
1940 Native Son by Richard Wright was published.
1941 W47NV (now known as WSM-FM) began operations in Nashville, Tennessee, becoming the first FM radio station in the U.S.
1947 The International Monetary Fund began financial operations.
1954 Puerto Rican nationalists opened fire from the gallery of the U.S. House of Representatives, wounding five congressmen.
1954 The Castle Bravo, a 15-megaton hydrogen bomb, was detonated on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, resulting in the worst radioactive contamination ever caused by the United States.
1961 President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps.
1968 Country musicians Johnny Cash and June Carter were married.
1971 A bomb exploded in a men's room in the United States Capitol: the Weather Underground claimed responsibility.
1974 Former Nixon White House aides H.R. Haldeman and John D. Ehrlichman and former Attorney General John Mitchell were indicted on obstruction of justice charges related to the Watergate break-in.
1981 Irish Republican Army member Bobby Sands began a hunger strike at the Maze Prison in Northern Ireland; he died 65 days later.
1989 The United States became a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.
1990 The Seabrook, N.H., nuclear power plant won federal permission to go on line after two decades of protests and legal struggles.
1992 Bosnia and Herzegovina declared its independence from Yugoslavia.
2002 Operation Anaconda began in eastern Afghanistan.
2003 Suspected Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was captured by CIA and Pakistani agents near Islamabad.
2003 Management of the United States Customs Service and the United States Secret Service moved to the United States Department of Homeland Security.
2005 Dennis Rader, the churchgoing family man accused of leading a double life as the BTK serial killer, was charged in Wichita, Kan., with 10 counts of first-degree murder; Rader later pleaded guilty and received multiple life sentences.
2005 A closely divided Supreme Court outlawed the death penalty for juvenile criminals.

Chart Toppers

1948
Now is the Hour - Bing Crosby
I’m Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover - The Art Moonie Orchestra
Ballerina - Vaughn Monroe
I’ll Hold You in My Heart ('Til I Can Hold You in My Arms) - Eddy Arnold

1956
Lisbon Antigua - Nelson Riddle
The Poor People of Paris - Les Baxter
Why Do Fools Fall in Love - Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers
I Forgot to Remember to Forget - Elvis Presley

1964
I Want to Hold Your Hand - The Beatles
She Loves You - The Beatles
Dawn (Go Away) - The Four Seasons
Begging to You - Marty Robbins

1972
Without You - Nilsson
Hurting Each Other - Carpenters
Precious and Few - Climax
It’s Four in the Morning - Faron Young

1980
Crazy Little Thing Called Love - Queen
Yes, I’m Ready - Teri DeSario with K.C.
Longer - Dan Fogelberg
I Ain’t Living Long like This - Waylon Jennings

1988
Father Figure - George Michael
What Have I Done to Deserve This? - Pet Shop Boys & Dusty Springfield
She’s like the Wind - Patrick Swayze featuring Wendy Fraser
I Won’t Take Less Than Your Love - Tanya Tucker

Quote of the Day

People seem to enjoy things more when they know a lot of other people have been left out of the pleasure.
Russell Baker, columnist & journalist (1925 - )

Today in History - March 2nd

Today's Birthdays

1793 Sam Houston, President of Republic of Texas/U.S. Senator/Texas governor, died July 26, 1863
1900 Kurt Weill, German composer (The Threepenny Opera) died April 3, 1950
1904 Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel), author (The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham) died Sep 24, 1991
1909 Mel (Melvin Thomas) Ott, Baseball Hall of Fame outfielder (NY Giants) died Nov 21, 1958
1914 Martin Ritt, director (Norma Rae, Sounder, Hud) died Dec 8, 1990
1917 Desi Arnaz, bandleader/singer/actor (I Love Lucy) died Dec 2, 1986
1931 Mikhail Gorbachev, President of the Soviet Union
1931 Tom Wolfe, author (The Bonfire of the Vanities, The Right Stuff)
1938 Lawrence Payton, singer/songwriter (The Four Tops) died June 20, 1997
1942 John Irving, author (Cider House Rules, The World According to Garp)
1942 Lou Reed (Lewis Alan Reed), singer/songwriter/guitarist (Velvet Underground)
1943 Peter Straub, author (Ghost Story, Shadowland)
1948 Rory Gallagher, Irish blues/rock guitarist, died June 14, 1995
1949 Eddie Money (Mahoney), singer/guitarist (Baby Hold On, Take Me Home Tonight)
1949 Gates McFadden, actress (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
1950 Karen Carpenter, drummer/singer (The Carpenters) died Feb 4, 1983
1952 Laraine Newman, comedienne/actress (Saturday Night Live)
1955 Jay Osmond, singer (The Osmond Brothers)
1956 John Cowsill, singer (The Cowsills)
1956 Mark Evans, bassist (AC/DC)
1962 Jon Bon Jovi (John Francis Bongiovi), singer/songwriter/actor (U-571, Pay it Forward)
1968 Daniel Craig, actor (The Road to Perdition, Casinoa Royale)
1977 Chris Martin, singer (Coldplay)
1981 Bryce Dallas Howard, actress (The Village, Lady in the Water, Spiderman 3)
1982 Ben Roethlisberger, NFL quarterback (Pittsburgh Steelers)
1982 Henrik Lunqvist, NHL goaltender (NY Rangers)
1984 Elizabeth Jagger, model/actress/Mick's daughter
1985 Reggie Bush, NFL running back (New Orleans Saints)
1985 Robert Iler, actor (The Sopranos)

Today's Deaths in History

1930 D. H. Lawrence, English writer (Lady Chatterley's Lover) dies at 44
1982 Philip K. Dick, author (A Scanner Darkly, VALIS) dies at 53
1987 Randolph Scott, actor/director (My Favorite Wife) dies at 89
1992 Sandy Dennis, actress (Splendor in the Grass) dies at 54
1994 Anita Morris, actress (Ruthless People) dies at 50
1999 Dusty Springfield, singer (Wishin’ and Hopin’, Son of a Preacher Man) dies of cancer at 59
2003 Hank Ballard, R&B singer (Hank Ballard and the Midnighters) dies at 66
2004 Mercedes McCambridge, actress (All the King's Men, The Exorcist) dies at 87
2004 Marge Schott, MLB team owner (Cincinnati Reds) dies at 75
2005 Rick Mahler, MLB pitcher (Atlanta Braves) dies at 51
2005 Martin Denny, vibraphonist/marimba (exotica) dies at 93
2006 Jack Wild, British actor (Oliver!, H.R. Pufnstuf) dies at 53
2008 Jeff Healey, blind blues/rock guitarist/singer (See the Light, Angel Eyes) dies at 41

Today in History

1807 Congress outlawed the importing of slaves to the United States, effective the following year.
1836 Texas declared its independence from Mexico.
1877 Republican Rutherford B. Hayes was declared winner of the 1876 presidential election over Democrat Samuel J. Tilden, even though Tilden had won the popular vote.
1899 Congress established Mount Rainier National Park in Washington state.
1903 The Martha Washington Hotel opened in New York City, the first hotel exclusively for women.
1917 Puerto Ricans were granted U.S. citizenship.
1923 Time magazine debuted.
1933 The movie King Kong had its world premiere in New York.
1939 Roman Catholic Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli was elected pope and took the name Pius XII.
1946 Ho Chi Minh was elected the President of North Vietnam.
1949 An American B-50 Superfortress, the Lucky Lady II, landed at Fort Worth, Texas, after completing the first non-stop, around-the-world flight.
1949 The first automatic street light was installed in New Milford, Conn.
1953 The Academy Awards were first broadcast on television by NBC.
1959 Jazz trumpeter Miles Davis held the first of two recording sessions that yielded the album Kind of Blue.
1962 Wilt Chamberlain of the Philadelphia Warriors scored an NBA record 100 points in a game against the New York Knicks.
1965 The movie version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music had its world premiere in New York.
1978 Czech Vladimír Remek became the first non-Russian or non-American to go into space, when he was launched aboard Soyuz 28.
1985 The federal government approved a screening test for AIDS that detected antibodies to the virus, allowing possibly contaminated blood to be excluded from the blood supply.
1990 Nelson Mandela was elected deputy President of the African National Congress.
1997 It was revealed that Vice President Al Gore had made fund-raising calls for the 1996 election on phones installed in government buildings for that purpose.
1998 Data sent from the Galileo spacecraft indicated that Jupiter's moon Europa has a liquid ocean under a thick crust of ice.
2004 A series of coordinated blasts in Iraq killed 181 people at shrines in Karbala and Baghdad as thousands of Shiite Muslim pilgrims gathered for a religious festival.
2006 President George W. Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced a landmark civilian nuclear cooperation deal in New Delhi.
2008 Dmitry Medvedev, Vladimir Putin's hand-picked successor, scored a crushing victory in Russia's presidential election.

Chart Toppers

1949
Far Away Places - Margaret Whiting
Powder Your Face with Sunshine - Evelyn Knight
Galway Bay - Bing Crosby
Don’t Rob Another Man’s Castle - Eddy Arnold

1957
Young Love - Tab Hunter
Teen-Age Crush - Tommy Sands
Butterfly - Charlie Gracie
There You Go - Johnny Cash

1965
This Diamond Ring - Gary Lewis & the Playboys
My Girl - The Temptations
The Jolly Green Giant - The Kingsmen
I’ve Got a Tiger by the Tail - Buck Owens

1973
Killing Me Softly with His Song - Roberta Flack
Dueling Banjos - Eric Weissberg & Steve Mandell
Could It Be I’m Falling in Love - Spinners
Rated "X" - Loretta Lynn

1981
I Love a Rainy Night - Eddie Rabbitt
Woman - John Lennon
Keep on Loving You - REO Speedwagon
Southern Rains - Mel Tillis

1989
Straight Up - Paula Abdul
Lost in Your Eyes - Debbie Gibson
The Lover in Me - Sheena Easton
I Sang Dixie - Dwight Yoakam

Quote of the Day

Happiness depends upon ourselves.
Aristotle, Greek critic, philosopher, physicist, & zoologist (384 BC - 322 BC)

Today in History - March 3rd

Today's Birthdays

1831 George Pullman, inventor (railroad sleeping car) died Oct 19, 1897
1847 Alexander Graham Bell, inventor (telephone) died Aug 2, 1922
1872 Willie (William Henry) ‘Wee Willie’ Keeler, Baseball Hall of Fame outfielder (NY Giants, Brooklyn Bridegrooms) died Jan 1, 1923
1911 Jean Harlow, actress (Platinum Blonde, Bombshell) died June 7, 1937
1920 James Doohan, actor (Star Trek) died July 20, 2005
1934 Gia Scala (Giovanna Sgoglio), actress (The Guns of Navarone) died Apr 30, 1972
1938 Willie Chambers, guitarist/singer (The Chambers Brothers)
1940 Perry Ellis, fashion designer, died May 30, 1986
1942 Mike Pender (Michael John Prendergast), guitarist/singer (The Searchers)
1944 Jance Garfat, bassist/singer (Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show)
1945 George Miller, director/producer (Mad Max films)
1947 Jennifer Warnes, singer (Right Time of the Night)
1948 Snowy White, guitarist (Thin Lizzy, Pink Floyd)
1950 Tim Kazurinsky, actor/comedian/writer (Saturday Night Live)
1953 Robyn Hitchcock, guitarist/singer/songwriter (Madonna of the Wasps)
1958 Miranda Richardson, actress (The Crying Game, Empire of the Sun)
1962 Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Olympic track and field gold medalist
1962 Herschel Walker, NFL running back (Philadelphia Eagles, Dallas Cowboys, Minnesota Vikings)
1966 Tone-Loc, rapper/actor (Ace Ventura: Pet Detective)
1968 Brian Leetch, NHL defenseman (NY Rangers)
1970 Julie Bowen, actress (Ed, Boston Legal, Lost)
1971 Tyler Florence, chef/TV personality (Food Network)
1974 David Faustino, actor (Married... With Children)
1982 Jessica Biel, actress (7th Heaven, Stealth, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry)
1982 Colton Orr, NHL wing (NY Rangers)
1984 Santonio Holmes, NFL wide receiver (Pittsburgh Steelers)

Today's Deaths in History

1706 Johann Pachelbel, German composer (Canon in D) dies at 52
1953 James J. Jeffries, heavyweight boxer, dies at 77
1959 Lou Costello, actor/comedian (Abbott & Costello) dies at 52
1966 William Frawley, actor (I Love Lucy, Miracle on 34th Street) dies at 79
1987 Danny Kaye, actor/singer/dancer/comedian/broadcaster, dies at 74
1991 Arthur Murray, dancer/dance instructor, dies at 95
1993 Carlos Montoya, flamenco guitarist, dies at 89
1996 Marguerite Duras, French writer (The Lover) dies at 81
1998 Fred Friendly, broadcast executive (CBS News) dies at 82
2001 Louis Edmonds, actor (Dark Shadows) dies at 77
2003 Horst Buchholz, German actor (The Maginificent Seven) dies at 69
2003 Luis Marden, photojournalist (National Geographic) dies at 90
2004 Cecily Adams, actress (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) dies at 46

Today in History

1845 Florida became the 27th state.
1845 The U.S. Congress passed legislation overriding a presidential veto for the first time.
1849 Congress created the Minnesota Territory.
1849 Congress passed the Gold Coinage Act allowing the minting of gold coins.
1849 The Home Department, forerunner of the Interior Department, was established.
1873 Congress enacted the Comstock Law, making it illegal to send any "obscene, lewd, or lascivious" books through the mail.
1875 The first organized indoor game of ice hockey was played in Montreal, Canada as recorded in The Montreal Gazette.
1879 Belva Ann Bennett Lockwood became the first woman to be admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court.
1879 The United States Geological Survey was created.
1887 Anne Sullivan arrived at the Alabama home of Capt. and Mrs. Arthur H. Keller to become the teacher of their blind and deaf 6-year-old daughter, Helen.
1915 NACA, the predecessor of NASA, was founded.
1918 Russia signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with the Central Powers, ending Russian participation in World War I.
1923 TIME magazine was published for the first time.
1931 President Herbert Hoover signed into law a bill making "The Star-Spangled Banner" the national anthem.
1969 Apollo 9 was launched on a mission to test the lunar module that was used in the moon landings.
1974 A Turkish Airlines DC-10 crashed shortly after takeoff from Orly Airport in Paris, killing all 346 people on board.
1991 Motorist Rodney King was severely beaten by Los Angeles police in a scene captured on amateur video.
2002 Voters in Switzerland approved joining the United Nations, abandoning almost 200 years of formal neutrality.
2005 Millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett became the first person to fly around the world alone without stopping or refueling, touching down in central Kansas after a 67-hour, 23,000-mile journey.
2006 Former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Calif., was sentenced by a federal judge to more than eight years in prison for corruption.

Chart Toppers

1950
Dear Hearts and Gentle People - Bing Crosby
There’s No Tomorrow - Tony Martin
Music, Music, Music - Teresa Brewer
Chatanoogie Shoe Shine Boy - Red Foley

1958
Don’t/I Beg of You - Elvis Presley
A Wonderful Time Up There/It’s Too Soon to Know - Pat Boone
Tequila - The Champs
Ballad of a Teenage Queen - Johnny Cash

1966
These Boots are Made for Walkin’ - Nancy Sinatra
The Ballad of the Green Berets - SSgt Barry Sadler
My World is Empty Without You - The Supremes
Waitin’ in Your Welfare Line - Buck Owens

1974
Seasons in the Sun - Terry Jacks
Spiders & Snakes - Jim Stafford
Boogie Down - Eddie Kendricks
Another Lonely Song - Tammy Wynette

1982
Centerfold - The J. Geils Band
Open Arms - Journey
Shake It Up - The Cars
Lord, I Hope This Day is Good - Don Williams

1990
Escapade - Janet Jackson
Dangerous - Roxette
Roam - The B-52’s
No Matter How High - The Oak Ridge Boys

Quote of the Day

Sharing food with another human being is an intimate act that should not be indulged in lightly.
M. F. K. Fisher

Today in History - March 4th

Today's Birthdays

1888 Knute Rockne, College Football Hall of Fame coach (Notre Dame) killed in plane crash Mar 31, 1931
1895 Shemp Howard, comedian (Three Stooges) died November 22, 1955
1906 Charles Rudolph Walgreen, Jr., businessman (Walgreen) February 10, 2007
1909 Harry Helmsley, businessman (Helmsley Hotels) died Jan 4, 1997
1913 John Garfield, actor (The Postman Always Rings Twice) died May 21, 1952
1921 Joan Greenwood, actress (The Importance of Being Earnest) died Feb 27, 1987
1932 Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, car designer, died April 4, 2001
1934 Barbara McNair, singer/actress (They Call Me Mr. Tibbs!) Feb 4, 2007
1934 Anne Haney, actress (Mrs Doubtfire, Mama's Family) died May 26, 2001
1936 Jim Clark, Indy car racer, killed in crash Apr 7, 1968
1938 Paula Prentiss (Ragusa), actress (What’s New Pussycat, The Stepford Wives)
1942 Charles C. Krulak, 31st Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps
1944 Bobby Womack, singer/songwriter (If You Think You’re Lonely Now)
1947 Gwen Welles, actress (Nashville, Star 80) died October 13, 1993
1948 Chris Squire, bassist (Yes)
1950 Rick Perry, Texas Governor
1951 Chris Rea, guitarist/singer/songwriter (Fool If You Think It’s Over, Working On It)
1953 Kay Lenz, actress (Rich Man Poor Man, Death Wish 4)
1954 Catherine O’Hara, comedian/actress (A Simple Twist of Fate, Home Alone series, Beetlejuice)
1954 Adrian Zmed, actor (Bachelor Party, Grease 2)
1954 St Clair L. Palmer, vocalist (Sweet Sensation)
1955 Rowland Charles "Boon" Gould, guitarist (Level 42)
1958 Patricia Heaton, actress (Everybody Loves Raymond)
1960 Mykelti Williamson, actor (Forrest Gump, Soul of the Game, Con Air)
1961 Ray ‘Boom Boom’ Mancini, lightweight boxing champion
1961 Steven Weber, actor (Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Wings)
1963 Jason Newsted, bassist (Metallica)
1965 Stacy Edwards, actress (Superbad, The Next Best Thing)
1966 Patrick Hannan, drummer (The Sundays)
1967 Evan Dando, singer (Lemonheads)
1968 Patsy Kensit, actress (Lethal Weapon 2, The Great Gatsby)
1969 Chastity Bono, singer/daughter of Sonny & Cher
1971 Fergal Lawler, drummer (The Cranberries)
1976 Jasin Thomason, guitarist (The Ataris)
1977 Jeremiah Green, drummer (Modest Mouse)
1978 Rachel Roberts, model/actress (S1m0ne)
1990 Andrea Bowen, actress (Desperate Housewives)

Today's Death in History

1858 Matthew Perry, U.S. naval officer (opened Japan to the West) dies at 63
1868 Jesse Chisholm, American pioneer (Chisholm Trail) dies at 62
1915 William Willett, inventor (Daylight Saving Time) dies at 58
1981 E.Y. ‘Yip’ Harburg, lyricist (Somewhere Over the Rainbow) dies at 82
1986 Richard Manuel, singer/composer/musician (The Band) dies at 42
1989 Tiny Grimes, jazz guitarist (Art Tatum, Charlie Parker) dies at 72
1992 Art Babbitt, Disney animator (Goofy) dies at 84
1994 John Candy, comedian/actor (Planes Trains and Automobiles, Uncle Buck) dies at 43
1996 Minnie Pearl, comedian/musician (Grand Ol' Opry) dies at 83
1999 Harry A. Blackmun, Retired Supreme Court Justice, dies at 90
2001 Glenn Hughes, singer (The Village People) dies at 50
2001 Fred Lasswell, cartoonist (Barney Google and Snuffy Smith) dies at 84
2004 John McGeoch, Scottish guitarist (Siouxsie & the Banshees) dies at 48
2008 Gary Gygax, Fantasy author/role-playing games creator (Dungeons & Dragons) dies at 69

Today in History

1629 The Massachusetts Bay Colony was granted a Royal charter.
1681 England's King Charles II granted a charter to William Penn for an area of land that later became Pennsylvania.
1778 The Continental Congress voted to ratify both the Treaty of Amity and Commerce and the Treaty of Alliance with France, the first treaties entered into by the United States government.
1789 The Constitution went into effect as the first Congress met in New York City.
1791 Vermont became the 14th state.
1837 The Illinois state legislature granted a city charter to Chicago.
1861 The first national flag of the Confederate States of America (the 'Stars and Bars') was adopted.
1861 Abraham Lincoln took the oath of office as the 16th president.
1877 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake received its première performance at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.
1887 Gottlieb Daimler unveiled his first automobile which he test ran in Esslingen and Cannstatt, Germany.
1902 The American Automobile Association was founded in Chicago.
1909 William Howard Taft took the oath of office as the 27th president of the United Sates.
1913 Woodrow Wilson was sworn as the 28th president of the United States.
1917 Republican Jeanette Rankin of Montana took her seat as the first woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.
1925 Calvin Coolidge became the first President of the United States to have his inauguration broadcast on radio.
1929 Charles Curtis became the first native-American Vice President of the United States.
1933 Frances Perkins became the first woman to serve in the Cabinet when she took over as Secretary of Labor.
1933 Franklin D. Roosevelt was inaugurated as the 32nd president, pledging to lead the country out of the Great Depression.
1952 Actors Ronald Reagan and Nancy Davis were married in North Hollywood, Calif.
1962 The United States Atomic Energy Commission announced that the first atomic power plant at McMurdo Station in Antarctica was in operation.
1970 The French submarine Eurydice exploded.
1977 The first Cray-1 supercomputer was shipped to the Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico.
1985 The Food and Drug Administration approved a blood test for AIDS, used since then for screening all blood donations in the United States.
1987 President Ronald Reagan addressed the nation on the Iran-Contra affair, acknowledging his overtures to Iran had "deteriorated" into an arms-for-hostages deal.
1989 Time Inc. and Warner Communications Inc. announced plans to merge into the world's largest media and entertainment conglomerate.
1993 Authorities announced the arrest of Mohammad Salameh, who was later convicted of playing a key role in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City.
1997 President Bill Clinton barred spending federal money on human cloning.
1998 The Supreme Court ruled that federal laws banning on-the-job sexual harassment also apply when both parties are the same sex.
2001 A massive car bomb exploded in front of the BBC Television Centre in London, seriously injuring 11 people.
2005 The car of released Italian hostage Giuliana Sgrena was fired on by U.S. soldiers after it ran a roadblock in Iraq, causing the death of an Italian Secret Service Agent and injuring two passengers.
2005 Martha Stewart left federal prison after serving five months for her role in a stock scandal.
2008 Republican John McCain clinched his party's presidential nomination.

Chart Toppers

1951
If - Perry Como
My Heart Cries for You - Guy Mitchell
Tennessee Waltz - Patti Page
There’s Been a Change in Me - Eddy Arnold

1959
Stagger Lee - Lloyd Price
Donna - Ritchie Valens
Charlie Brown - The Coasters
Don’t Take Your Guns to Town - Johnny Cash

1967
Ruby Tuesday - The Rolling Stones
Love is Here and Now You’re Gone - The Supremes
Baby I Need Your Lovin’ - Johnny Rivers
The Fugitive - Merle Haggard

1975
Best of My Love - The Eagles
Have You Never Been Mellow - Olivia Newton-John
Black Water - The Doobie Brothers
It’s Time to Pay the Fiddler - Cal Smith

1983
Baby, Come to Me - Patti Austin with James Ingram
Shame on the Moon - Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band
Stray Cat Strut - Stray Cats
Why Baby Why - Charley Pride

1991
All the Man that I Need - Whitney Houston
Someday - Mariah Carey
One More Try – Timmy T
Walk on Faith - Mike Reid

Quote of the Day

Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel from coast to coast without seeing anything.
Charles Kuralt

Today in History - March 5th

Today's Birthdays

1595 William Blackstone, New World settler (Boston, Massachusetts) died May 26, 1675
1893 Emmett J. Culligan, inventor (water-softening device) died in 1970
1898 Zhou Enlai, Premier of the People's Republic of China, died January 8, 1976
1908 Rex Harrison, actor (My Fair Lady, Dr. Dolittle) died June 2, 1990
1927 Jack (John Joseph Edward) Cassidy, actor (The Eiger Sanction) killed in a fire Dec 12, 1976
1934 James B. Sikking, actor (Hill Street Blues, Doogie Howser, M.D., Outland)
1935 Paul Sand (Sanchez), actor (Gimme a Break, St. Elsewhere)
1936 Dean Stockwell, actor (Anchors Aweigh, Beverly Hills Cop 2, Quantum Leap)
1938 Fred ‘The Hammer’ Williamson, NFL cornerback/actor (Kansas City Chiefs; M*A*S*H, Hell Up in Harlem, From Dusk Till Dawn)
1946 Murray Head, actor/singer (One Night in Bangkok)
1946 Rocky (Robert) Bleier, Vietnam veteran/NFL running back (Pittsburgh Steelers)
1946 Michael Warren, actor (Hill Street Blues)
1948 Eddy Grant, singer/songwriter (Electric Avenue)
1952 Alan Clark, keyboardist (Dire Straits)
1954 Marsha Warfield, actress/comedienne (Night Court, Empty Nest)
1955 Penn Jillette, magician/comedian (Penn and Teller)
1956 Teena Marie, singer (Lovergirl)
1958 Andy Gibb, singer (I Just Want to be Your Everything) died March 10, 1988
1962 Charlie and Craig Reid, singers (The Proclaimers)
1970 John Frusciante, guitarist (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
1971 Evil Jared Hasselhoff, bassist (Bloodhound Gang)
1974 Jill Ritchie, actress (Arrested Development)
1974 Kevin Connolly, actor (Entourage)
1975 Eva Mendes, actress (Stuck on You, Ghost Rider, Hitch)
1975 Jolene Blalock, actress (Star Trek: Enterprise, Slow Burn)
1975 Niki Taylor, supermodel
1977 Bryan Berard, NHL defenseman (NY Rangers)
1989 Jake Lloyd, actor (Star Wars: Episode I)

Today's Deaths in History

1953 Sergei Prokofiev, Russian composer (Peter and the Wolf) dies at 61
1953 Josef Stalin, Soviet dictator, dies at 73
1963 Patsy Cline, country music singer, dies in a plane crash at 30
1980 Jay Silverheels, actor (The Lone Ranger) dies at 67
1982 John Belushi, comedian/actor (Saturday Night Live, Blues Brothers) dies of a drug overdose at 33
1984 William Powell, actor (The Thin Man series) dies at 91
1995 Vivian Stanshall, guitarist/singer/songwriter (Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band) dies at 51
1996 Whit Bissell, actor (The Time Machine, The Man from U.N.C.L.E) dies at 86
1999 Richard Kiley, actor (Phenomenon, Patch Adams) dies at 76
2004 Walt Gorney, actor (Friday the 13th series) dies at 91

Today in History

1770 The Boston Massacre took place as British soldiers, taunted by a crowd of colonists, opened fire, killing five people.
1836 Samuel Colt made the first production-model revolver, the .34-caliber.
1867 An abortive Fenian uprising against English rule took place in Ireland.
1868 The Senate was organized into a court of impeachment to decide charges against President Andrew Johnson.
1872 George Westinghouse patented the air brake.
1912 Italian forces become the first to use airships for military purposes, using them for reconnaissance behind Turkish lines.
1933 The Nazi Party won 44 percent of the vote in German parliamentary elections, enabling it to join with the Nationalists to gain a slender majority in the Reichstag.
1933 President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared a "bank holiday," closing all U.S. banks and freezing all financial transactions.
1942 The SeaBees, the U.S. Navy's Mobile Construction Battalions, were officially formed.
1946 British statesman Winston Churchill referred to the Soviet Union's sphere of influence in Eastern Europe as an "iron curtain" in a speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Mo.
1970 A nuclear non-proliferation treaty went into effect after 43 nations ratified it.
1974 Israeli forces withdrew from the west bank of the Suez Canal during the Yom Kippur War.
1997 Representatives of North Korea and South Korea met for first time in 25 years, for peace talks in New York.
2001 Vice President Dick Cheney underwent an angioplasty for a partially blocked artery.
2001 In Mecca, 35 Muslim pilgrims were crushed to death during the annual Hajj pilgrimage.
2003 In Haifa, 17 Israeli civilians were killed by a Hamas suicide bomb.
2004 Martha Stewart was convicted of obstructing justice and lying to the government about why she'd unloaded her Imclone Systems Inc. stock just before the price plummeted.
2006 AT&T Inc. announced it was buying BellSouth Corp., a big step toward resurrecting the old Ma Bell telephone system.

Chart Toppers

1944
Besame Mucho - The Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra (vocal: Bob Eberly & Kitty Kallen)
My Heart Tells Me - The Glen Gray Orchestra (vocal: Eugenie Baird)
Mairzy Doats - The Merry Macs
Ration Blues - Louis Jordan

1952
Cry - Johnnie Ray
Slowpoke - Pee Wee King
Anytime - Eddie Fisher
Wondering - Webb Pierce

1960
The Theme from "A Summer Place" - Percy Faith
Handy Man - Jimmy Jones
Beyond the Sea - Bobby Darin
He’ll Have to Go - Jim Reeves

1968
Love is Blue - Paul Mauriat
(Theme From) Valley of the Dolls - Dionne Warwick
(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay - Otis Redding
Skip a Rope - Henson Cargill

1976
Theme from S.W.A.T. - Rhythm Heritage
Love Machine (Part 1) - The Miracles
All by Myself - Eric Carmen
Good Hearted Woman - Waylon & Willie

1984
Jump - Van Halen
99 Luftballons - Nena
Girls Just Want to Have Fun - Cyndi Lauper
Woke Up in Love - Exile

Quote of the Day

The surest way to make a monkey of a man is to quote him.
Robert Benchley, actor, author, & humorist (1889 - 1945)

Today in History - March 6th

Today's Birthdays

1475 Michelangelo de Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, Renaissance artist, died Feb 18, 1564
1619 Cyrano De Bergerac, French soldier/author, died July 28, 1655
1806 Elizabeth Barrett Browning, poet (Sonnets from the Portuguese) died June 29, 1861
1885 Ring Lardner, sports reporter/humorist/writer, died Sep 25, 1933
1905 Bob Wills, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame bandleader (Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys) died May 13, 1975
1906 Lou Costello, comedian/actor (Abbott & Costello) died Mar 3, 1959
1923 Ed McMahon, radio/TV announcer (The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson)
1924 William Webster, former FBI and CIA director
1925 Wes (John Leslie) Montgomery, jazz composer/guitarist, died June 15, 1968
1926 Alan Greenspan, economist (U.S. Federal Reserve Board)
1927 (Leroy) Gordon Cooper, U.S. astronaut (Mercury, Gemini projects) died Oct 4, 2004
1928 Gabriel Garcia-Marquez, author (Love in the Time of Cholera)
1936 Marion Barry Jr., former Washington D.C. mayor
1941 Willie (Wilver Dornel) Stargell, Baseball Hall-of-Fame outfielder/1st baseman (Pittsburgh Pirates) died April 9, 2001
1944 Mary Wilson, singer (The Supremes)
1945 Hugh Grundy, drummer (The Zombies)
1946 David Gilmour, guitarist (Pink Floyd)
1947 Kiki Dee (Pauline Matthews), singer (Don’t Go Breaking My Heart)
1947 Rob Reiner, actor/director (When Harry Met Sally, This is Spinal Tap)
1953 Jacklyn Zeman, actress (General Hospital)
1959 Tom Arnold, actor (Roseanne, True Lies)
1964 D.L. Hughley, actor/comedian (The Hughleys, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip)
1968 Connie Britton, actress (Spin City, 24, Friday Night Lights)
1968 Moira Kelly, actress (One Tree Hill, The West Wing, The Cutting Edge)
1969 Andrea Elson, actress (Alf)
1972 Shaquille O’Neal, NBA center (Phoenix Suns)
1972 Jaret Reddick, singer/guitarist (Bowling For Soup)
1981 Ellen Muth, actress (Dead Like Me)
1984 Chris Tomson, drummer (Vampire Weekend)

Today's Deaths in History

1836 Davy Crockett, frontiersman, dies at the Alamo at 49
1836 William Barret Travis, lawyer/soldier, dies at the Alamo at 26
1836 Jim Bowie, pioneer/soldier, dies at the Alamo at 39
1842 Constanze Mozart, wife of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, dies at 80
1888 Louisa May Alcott, novelist (Little Women) dies at 55
1932 John Philip Sousa, U.S. Marine band leader/composer (Stars & Stripes Forever) dies at 77
1935 Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., Retired Supreme Court Justice, dies at 93
1965 Margaret Dumont, actress (Marx Brothers films) dies at 82
1967 Nelson Eddy, singer/actor (Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life) dies at 65
1970 William Hopper, actor (Perry Mason) dies at 55
1973 Pearl S. Buck, writer/Nobel Prize laureate (The Good Earth) dies at 80
1982 Ayn Rand, Russian-American author (Atlas Shrugged) dies at 77
1986 Georgia O'Keeffe, artist, dies at 98
2001 Kim Walker, actress (Heathers) dies at 32
2004 Frances Dee, actress (An American Tragedy, The Playboy of Paris) dies at 94
2005 Teresa Wright, actress (The Best Years of Our Lives, Shadow of a Doubt) dies at 86
2006 Kirby Puckett, Baseball Hall of Fame center fielder, dies at 45
2006 King Floyd, singer (Groove Me) dies at 61
2006 Dana Reeve, actress/wife of Christopher Reeve, dies at 44
2007 Ernest Gallo, winemaker, dies at 97

Today in History

1820 The Missouri Compromise was signed into law by President James Monroe. allowing Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state, but making the rest of the northern part of the Louisiana Purchase territory slavery-free.
1834 The city of Toronto was incorporated.
1836 The Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, fell to Mexican forces after a 13-day siege.
1853 Verdi's opera La Traviata premiered in Venice, Italy.
1857 The Supreme Court in Dred Scott v. Sandford ruled against a slave suing for his freedom and said Congress had no right to limit the expansion of slavery.
1899 Bayer registered aspirin as a trademark.
1933 A nationwide bank holiday declared by President Franklin D. Roosevelt went into effect.
1944 Heavy bombers staged the first American raid on Berlin during World War II.
1946 Ho Chi Minh signed an agreement with France which recognized Vietnam as an autonomous state in the Indochinese Federation and the French Union.
1951 The trial of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg began.
1957 The former British African colonies of the Gold Coast and Togoland became the independent state of Ghana.
1964 Nation of Islam's Elijah Muhammad officially gave boxing champion Cassius Clay the name Muhammad Ali.
1967 Joseph Stalin's daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva defected to the United States.
1981 Walter Cronkite signed off for the last time as anchorman of The CBS Evening News.
1983 A woman in New Bedford, Mass., was gang-raped atop a pool table in a tavern; four men were later convicted.
1992 The Michelangelo computer virus began to affect computers.
1997 Britain's Queen Elizabeth II launched the first official royal Web site.
2000 Three white New York police officers were convicted of a cover-up in a police station attack on Haitian immigrant Abner Louima.
2006 Gov. Mike Rounds signed legislation banning most abortions in South Dakota. (The ban was rejected by the state's voters in November).
2007 Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was convicted of lying and obstructing an investigation into the 2003 leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity.
2008 A Palestinian killed eight students at a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem before he was slain.

Chart Toppers

1945
Accentuate the Positive - Johnny Mercer
I Dream of You - The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra (vocal: Freddy Stewart)
A Little on the Lonely Side - The Frankie Carle Orchestra (vocal: Paul Allen)
I’m Losing My Mind Over You - Al Dexter

1953
Till I Waltz Again with You - Teresa Brewer
Don’t Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes - Perry Como
Keep It a Secret - Jo Stafford
Kaw-Liga - Hank Williams

1961
Pony Time - Chubby Checker
Surrender - Elvis Presley
Wheels - The String-A-Longs
Don’t Worry - Marty Robbins

1969
Everyday People - Sly & the Family Stone
Proud Mary - Creedence Clearwater Revival
Baby, Baby Don’t Cry - Smokey Robinson & the Miracles
To Make Love Sweeter for You - Jerry Lee Lewis

1977
Love Theme from "A Star is Born" (Evergreen) - Barbra Streisand
Fly like an Eagle - Steve Miller
I Like Dreamin’ - Kenny Nolan
Heart Healer - Mel Tillis

1985
Careless Whisper - Wham! featuring George Michael
Can’t Fight This Feeling - REO Speedwagon
California Girls - David Lee Roth
Baby Bye Bye - Gary Morris

Quote of the Day

Good breeding consists of concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person.
Mark Twain, humorist, novelist, short story author, & wit (1835 - 1910)

Today in History - March 7th

Today's Birthdays

1875 Maurice Ravel, composer (Bolero) died Dec 28, 1937
1917 Lee Young, jazz drummer (Nat King Cole Trio) died July 31, 2008
1925 Rene Gagnon, US Marine/Iwo Jima flag raiser, died October 12, 1979
1927 James Broderick, actor (Alice’s Restaurant, Dog Day Afternoon) died Nov 1, 1982
1932 Gene Shalit, film critic
1934 Willard Scott (Willard Herman Scott Jr.), weatherman (Today Show)
1938 Janet Guthrie, International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame driver (first woman in Indianapolis 500)
1940 Daniel J. Travanti, actor (Hill Street Blues)
1942 Tammy Faye Bakker (Tamara Faye LaValley), TV evangelist, died Jul 20, 2007
1942 Michael Eisner, former Walt Disney Co. CEO
1943 Chris White, bassist (The Zombies)
1945 John Heard, actor (Radio Flyer, Home Alone series, Big)
1946 Matthew Fisher, organist (Procol Harum)
1946 Peter Wolf (Blankfield), singer (J. Geils Band)
1950 Franco Harris, Pro Football Hall of Fame running back (Pittsburgh Steelers)
1951 Francis Rocco Prestia, bassist (Tower of Power)
1952 Lynn Swann, Pro Football Hall of Fame wide receiver (Pittsburgh Steelers)
1952 Ernie Isley, R&B singer (The Isley Brothers)
1956 Bryan Cranston, actor (Malcolm in the Middle, Breaking Bad)
1960 Ivan Lendl, tennis champion
1962 Taylor Dayne, singer (Tell It to My Heart)
1964 Wanda Sykes, comedian
1964 Bret Easton Ellis, writer (The Rules Of Attraction, Less Than Zero)
1966 Paul Davis, keyboardist (Happy Mondays)
1967 Randy Guss, drummer (Toad the Wet Sprocket)
1971 Rachel Weisz, actress (The Mummy series, Stealing Beauty)
1971 Peter Sarsgaard, actor (Garden State, Jarhead)
1973 Sébastien Izambard, operatic pop singer (Il Divo)
1974 Jenna Fischer, actress (The Office)
1974 Hugo Ferreira, singer (Tantric)
1975 Audrey Marie Anderson, actress (The Unit)
1980 Laura Prepon, actress (That 70s Show, October Road)
1984 Brandon T. Jackson, actor (Tropic Thunder)

Today's Deaths in History

0322 BC Aristotle, Greek philosopher, dies at 61
1967 Alice B. Toklas, companion to Gertrude Stein, dies at 89
1988 Divine (Harris Glenn Milstead), actor (Lust in the Dust, Hairspray) dies at 42
1991 James Thomas "Cool Papa" Bell, Baseball Hall of Fame center fielder (Negro Leagues) dies at 87
1999 Stanley Kubrick, film director, dies at 70
2000 Charles Gray, British actor (Diamonds Are Forever, Rocky Horror Picture Show) dies at 71
2000 Pee Wee King, country songwriter/musician, dies at 86
2004 Paul Winfield, actor (City Confidential, Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan) dies at 64
2005 Debra Hill, screenwriter/producer (Halloween series) dies at 54
2006 Gordon Parks, photographer (LIFE magazine) dies at 93

Today in History

1850 In a three-hour speech to the U.S. Senate, Daniel Webster endorsed the Compromise of 1850 as a means of preserving the Union.
1876 Alexander Graham Bell received a patent for the telephone.
1887 North Carolina State University was founded by the North Carolina General Assembly.
1912 Roald Amundsen announced that his expedition had reached the South Pole on December 14, 1911.
1926 The first successful trans-Atlantic radio-telephone conversation took place, between New York City and London.
1936 Adolf Hitler ordered German troops to march into the Rhineland, breaking the Treaty of Versailles and the Locarno Pact.
1945 U.S. forces crossed the Rhine River at Remagen, Germany, during World War II.
1951 United Nations troops led by General Matthew Ridgeway begin an assault against Chinese forces called Operation Ripper.
1965 State troopers and a sheriff's posse broke up a a march by civil rights demonstrators in Selma, Ala.
1975 The Senate revised its filibuster rule, allowing 60 senators to limit debate in most cases, instead of the previously required two-thirds of senators present.
1986 Divers from the USS Preserver located the crew cabin of Challenger on the ocean floor.
1989 Iran and the United Kingdom broke diplomatic relations after a row over Salman Rushdie and his controversial novel.
1994 The Supreme Court ruled that parodies that poke fun at an original work can be considered "fair use" that doesn't require permission from the copyright holder.
1996 Three U.S. servicemen were convicted in the rape of a 12-year-old Okinawa girl and sentenced by a Japanese court to up to seven years in prison.
2003 A four-day walkout by Broadway musicians began, forcing nearly every Broadway musical to cancel performances.
2004 An investiture ceremony was held in Concord, N.H., for V. Gene Robinson, the Episcopal Church's first openly gay bishop.
2007 Sex offender John Evander Couey was found guilty in Miami of kidnapping, raping and murdering 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford, who was buried alive.

Chart Toppers

1946
Let It Snow - Vaughn Monroe
Symphony - The Freddy Martin Orchestra (vocal: Clyde Rogers)
Oh, What It Seemed to Be - The Frankie Carle Orchestra (vocal: Marjorie Hughes)
Guitar Polka - Al Dexter

1954
Make Love to Me! - Jo Stafford
Young-At-Heart - Frank Sinatra
Cross Over the Bridge - Patti Page
Slowly - Webb Pierce

1962
Duke of Earl - Gene Chandler
Hey! Baby - Bruce Channel
Break It to Me Gently - Brenda Lee
Walk on By - Leroy Van Dyke

1970
Bridge Over Troubled Water - Simon & Garfunkel
Travelin’ Band/Who’ll Stop the Rain - Creedence Clearwater Revival
Rainy Night in Georgia - Brook Benton
It’s Just a Matter of Time - Sonny James

1978
(Love Is) Thicker Than Water - Andy Gibb
Sometimes When We Touch - Dan Hill
Emotion - Samantha Sang
Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys - Waylon & Willie

1986
Kyrie - Mr. Mister
Sara - Starship
Living in America - James Brown
You Can Dream of Me - Steve Wariner

Quote of the Day

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.
Leo Tolstoy, Russian mystic & novelist (1828 - 1910)

Today in History - March 8th

Today's Birthdays

1783 Hannah Van Buren, wife of Martin Van Buren, died Feb 5, 1819 (before he took office)
1841 Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., Supreme Court Justice, died Mar 6, 1935
1891 Sam Jaffe, actor (Ben Hur, The Day the Earth Stood Still) died March 24, 1984
1902 Louise Beavers, Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame actress (Reap the Wild Wind), died Oct 26, 1962
1909 Claire Trevor (Wemlinger), actress (Key Largo, Marjorie Morningstar) died Apr 8, 2000
1921 Alan Hale Jr., actor (Gilligan’s Island) died Jan 2, 1990
1922 Cyd Charisse (Tula Ellice Finklea), dancer/actress (Singin’ in the Rain, Silk Stockings) died June 17, 2008
1922 Carl (Anthony) Furillo, ‘The Reading Rifle,’ MLB outfielder (Brooklyn Dodgers) died Jan 21, 1989
1936 Sue Ane Langdon (Lookoff), actress (Frankie and Johnny, A Guide for the Married Man)
1940 Susan Clark, actress (Airport 1975, The Apple Dumpling Gang, Babe)
1943 Lynn Redgrave, actress (Georgy Girl, Shine, Gods and Monsters)
1945 Mickey Dolenz, singer/drummer (The Monkees)
1946 Randy Meisner, singer/bassist (The Eagles)
1947 Mike Allsup, guitarist (Three Dog Night)
1947 Carole Bayer Sager, singer/songwriter (That’s What Friends are For, Groovy Kind of Love)
1948 Little Peggy March (Margret Annemarie Batavio), singer (I Will Follow Him)
1957 Cynthia Rothrock, actress/martial artist
1957 Clive Burr, drummer (Iron Maiden)
1958 Gary Numan (Webb), singer/songwriter (Cars, Down in the Park)
1959 Aidan Quinn, actor (Legends of the Fall, Avalon, Desperately Seeking Susan)
1961 Camryn Manheim, actress (The Practice, The Road to Wellville)
1964 Peter Gill, drummer (Frankie Goes to Hollywood)
1968 Shawn Mullins, singer/songwriter (Lullaby)
1970 Andrea Parker, actress (The Pretender, Less Than Perfect)
1970 Jason Elam, NFL placekicker (Atlanta Falcons)
1976 Freddie Prinze Jr., actor (Scooby Doo, I Know What You Did Last Summer)
1976 Hines Ward, NFL wide receiver (Pittsburgh Steelers)
1977 James Van Der Beek, actor (Dawson's Creek, Varsity Blues, Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back)
1979 Tom Chaplin, singer (Keane)
1981 Timothy Jordan II, guitarist/songwriter (The All American Rejects) died December 13, 2005
1982 Kat Von D, Mexican-American tattoo artist

Today's Deaths in History

1874 Millard Fillmore, 13th President of the United States, dies at 74
1930 William Howard Taft, 27th President/former Chief Justice, dies at 72
1937 Howie Morenz, Hockey Hall of Fame center (NY Rangers) dies at 34
1973 Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, keyboardist/vocalist (Grateful Dead) dies at 27
1993 Billy Eckstine, singer/bandleader (swing era) dies at 78
1998 Ray Nitschke, NFL linebacker (Green Bay Packers) dies at 61
1999 Joe DiMaggio, Baseball Hall of Famer (NY Yankees) dies at 84
1999 Peggy Cass, actress/comedian (Born Yesterday) dies at 74
2001 Edward Winter, actor (M*A*S*H) dies at 63
2004 Abu Abbas, founder of the Palestine Liberation Front, dies at 55
2004 Robert Pastorelli, actor (Be Cool, Murphy Brown, Michael) dies at 49
2007 John Inman, English actor (Are You Being Served?) dies at 71

Today in History

1702 England's Queen Anne ascended the throne upon the death of King William III.
1775 Thomas Paine's "African Slavery in America" was published; it was the first article in the U.S. calling for the emancipation of slaves and the abolition of slavery.
1782 The Gnadenhutten massacre took place as some 90 Indians were slain by militiamen in Ohio in retaliation for raids carried out by other Indians.
1817 The New York Stock Exchange was founded.
1862 The iron-clad CSS Virginia (formerly USS Merrimack) was launched at Hampton Roads, Virginia.
1917 The U.S. Senate voted to limit filibusters by adopting the cloture rule.
1917 Rioting and strikes in St. Petersburg started Russia's "February Revolution," so called because of the Old Style calendar used by Russia at the time.
1936 Daytona Beach Road Course held their first oval-course stock car race.
1957 Egypt re-opened the Suez Canal after the Suez Crisis.
1965 The United States landed about 3,500 Marines in South Vietnam.
1974 Charles de Gaulle Airport opened in Paris, France.
1978 The first radio episode of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams, was transmitted on BBC Radio 4.
1979 Philips demonstrated the Compact Disc publicly for the first time.
1980 The first festival of rock music kicked off in the Soviet Union.
1983 President Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union an "evil empire."
1999 The Clinton administration directed the firing of nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee from his job at the Los Alamos National Laboratory because of alleged security violations.
1999 The Supreme Court of the United States upheld the murder convictions of Timothy McVeigh for the Oklahoma City bombing.
2001 The Republican-controlled House voted for an across-the-board tax cut of nearly $1 trillion over the next decade.
2004 Abul Abbas, the Palestinian guerrilla leader who planned the hijacking of the Achille Lauro passenger ship, died while in U.S. custody in Baghdad, Iraq.
2004 A new constitution was signed by Iraq's Governing Council.
2005 Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov was killed in northern Chechnya during a raid by Russian forces.
2008 President George W. Bush vetoed a bill that would have banned the CIA from using simulated drowning and other coercive interrogation methods to gain information from suspected terrorists.

Chart Toppers

1947
The Anniversary Song - Dinah Shore
Managua, Nicaragua - The Guy Lombardo Orchestra (vocal: Don Rodney)
Oh, But I Do - Margaret Whiting
So Round, So Firm, So Fully Packed - Merle Travis

1955
Sincerely - McGuire Sisters
The Crazy Otto (Medley) - Johnny Maddox
The Ballad of Davy Crockett - Bill Hayes
In the Jailhouse Now - Webb Pierce

1963
Walk like a Man - The 4 Seasons
Rhythm of the Rain - The Cascades
You’re the Reason I’m Living - Bobby Darin
The Ballad of Jed Clampett - Flatt & Scruggs

1971
One Bad Apple - The Osmonds
Mama’s Pearl - The Jackson 5
Me and Bobby McGee - Janis Joplin
I’d Rather Love You - Charley Pride

1979
Da Ya Think I’m Sexy? - Rod Stewart
I Will Survive - Gloria Gaynor
Tragedy - Bee Gees
Golden Tears - Dave & Sugar

1987
Livin’ on a Prayer - Bon Jovi
Jacob’s Ladder - Huey Lewis & the News
Somewhere Out There - Linda Ronstadt & James Ingram
Mornin’ Ride - Lee Greenwood

Quote of the Day

There is a tragic flaw in our precious Constitution, and I don't know what can be done to fix it. This is it: Only nut cases want to be president.
Kurt Vonnegut, novelist (1922 - 2007)

Today in History - March 9th

Today's Birthdays

1451 Amerigo Vespucci, explorer, died Feb 22, 1512
1902 Will Geer (William Auge Ghere), actor (In Cold Blood, The Waltons) died Apr 22, 1978
1918 Mickey Spillane (Frank Morrison Spillane), writer (Mike Hammer mysteries) died July 17, 2006
1923 James Buckley, U.S. Senator (R-New York)
1932 Keely Smith (Dorothy Jacqueline Keely), singer/former Mrs. Louis Prima (That Old Black Magic)
1933 Lloyd Price, singer/songwriter (Lawdy Miss Clawdy, Stagger Lee)
1934 Yuri Gagarin, Russian cosmonaut (first man in space) killed plane crash Mar 27, 1968
1937 Mickey Gilley, country singer (Don’t the Girls Get Prettier at Closing Time)
1940 Raul Julia, actor (The Addams Family, Kiss of the Spider Woman) died Oct 24, 1994
1942 Bert Campaneris, MLB shorstop (Oakland Athletics, California Angels, NY Yankees)
1942 Mark Lindsay, singer/songwriter (Paul Revere & the Raiders)
1942 John Cale, singer/songwriter (The Velvet Underground)
1943 Bobby Fischer, World Chess Champion, died January 17, 2008
1943 Charles Gibson, TV news host (Good Morning America, 20/20)
1945 Robin Trower, guitarist (Procol Harum)
1948 Jeffrey Osborne, singer/drummer/songwriter (L.T.D.)
1958 Martin Fry, singer (ABC)
1960 Linda Fiorentino, actress (The Last Seduction, Vision Quest, Men in Black)
1964 Juliette Binoche, French actress (The English Patient, Chocolat)
1966 Brendan Canty, drummer (Fugazi)
1970 Shannon Leto, drummer (30 Seconds to Mars)
1971 Emmanuel Lewis, actor (Webster)
1972 Kerr Smith, actor (Dawson's Creek, CSI: NY)
1977 Yamila Diaz, Argentine supermodel (Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue)
1977 Radek Dvořák, NHL right wing (NY Rangers)
1980 Matthew Gray Gubler, actor (The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Criminal Minds)
1984 Julia Mancuso, Olympic Gold Medalist alpine skier
1986 Brittany Snow, actress (John Tucker Must Die, Hairspray)
1987 Bow Wow, rapper

Today's Deaths in History

1983 Faye Emerson, actress (Destination Tokyo) dies at 65
1989 Robert Mapplethorpe, artist/photographer, dies at 42
1991 Jim Hardin, MLB pitcher (Baltimore Orioles, New York Yankees, Atlanta Braves) dies at 47
1992 Menachem Begin, Prime Minister of Israel, dies at 78
1994 Charles Bukowski, writer (The Poet Laureate of Skid Row) dies at 73
1994 Fernando Rey, Spanish-born actor (The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie) dies at 76
1996 George Burns, actor/singer/vaudevillian (Oh, God!) dies at 100
1997 The Notorious B.I.G., rapper, is shot to death at 24
2005 Chris LeDoux, country singer, dies at 56
2007 Brad Delp, singer/guitarist (Boston) dies at 55

Today in History

1796 Napoleon Bonaparte, the future emperor of France, married Josephine de Beauharnais.
1841 The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that captive Africans who seized control of the ship carrying them had been taken into slavery illegally.
1862 The ironclads Monitor and Virginia (formerly Merrimac) clashed for five hours to a draw at Hampton Roads, Va., during the Civil War.
1916 Mexican raiders led by Pancho Villa attacked Columbus, N.M., killing more than a dozen people.
1933 Congress, called into special session by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, began its 100 days of enacting New Deal legislation.
1945 U.S. B-29 bombers launched incendiary bomb attacks against Japan during World War II, causing widespread devastation.
1954 CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow critically reviewed Wisconsin Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy's anti-Communism campaign on See It Now.
1957 A magnitude 8.3 earthquake in the Andreanof Islands, Alaska triggered a Pacific-wide tsunami causing extensive damage to Hawaii and Oahu.
1959 Mattel's Barbie doll, created by Ruth Handler, made its public debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York.
1975 Work began on the Alaskan oil pipeline.
1977 About a dozen armed Hanafi Muslims invaded three buildings in Washington D.C., killing one person and taking more than 130 hostages; the siege ended two days later.
1981 Dan Rather made his debut as principal anchorman of The CBS Evening News; he signed off for the last time on the same date in 2005.
1989 The Senate rejected President George H.W. Bush's nomination of John Tower to be defense secretary on a 53-47 vote.
1989 A strike forced financially-troubled Eastern Air Lines into bankruptcy.
1993 Rodney King testified against the four LAPD officers accused of violating his civil rights when they beat him during his 1991 arrest.
1997 Gangsta rapper The Notorious B.I.G., whose real name was Christopher Wallace, was killed in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles at age 24.
1997 Observers in China, Mongolia and eastern Siberia were treated to a rare double feature as an eclipse permitted Comet Hale-Bopp to be seen during the day.
2004 Convicted sniper John Allen Muhammad was sentenced to death in Virginia.
2006 Bowing to ferocious opposition in Congress, a Dubai-owned company relinquished its quest to take over operations at U.S. ports.
2007 Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller acknowledged the FBI improperly used the Patriot Act to secretly pry out personal information about Americans; they apologized and vowed to prevent further illegal intrusions.

Chart Toppers

1948
Now is the Hour - Bing Crosby
I’m Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover - The Art Moonie Orchestra
Beg Your Pardon - Francis Craig
I’ll Hold You in My Heart (Till I Can Hold You in My Arms) - Eddy Arnold

1956
Lisbon Antigua - Nelson Riddle
Why Do Fools Fall in Love - Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers
Hot Diggity (Dog Ziggity Boom) - Perry Como
I Don’t Believe You You’ve Met My Baby - The Louvin Brothers

1964
I Want to Hold Your Hand - The Beatles
She Loves You - The Beatles
Please Please Me - The Beatles
Saginaw, Michigan - Lefty Frizzell

1972
Without You - Nilsson
Hurting Each Other - Carpenters
Down by the Lazy River - The Osmonds
Bedtime Story - Tammy Wynette

1980
Crazy Little Thing Called Love - Queen
Longer - Dan Fogelberg
Desire - Andy Gibb
My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys - Willie Nelson

1988
Father Figure - George Michael
Never Gonna Give You Up - Rick Astley
I Get Weak - Belinda Carlisle
Face to Face - Alabama

Quote of the Day

The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously.
Hubert H. Humphrey, politician (1911 - 1978)

Today in History - March 10th

Today's Birthdays

1628 Marcello Malpighi, physician (microscope pioneer) died Nov 30, 1694
1888 Barry Fitzgerald, actor (How Green Was My Valley) died Jan 14, 1961
1903 (Leon) Bix Beiderbecke, jazz cornetist, died Aug 6, 1931
1920 Jethro (Kenneth C. Burns), entertainer/musician (Homer & Jethro) died Feb 4, 1989
1928 James Earl Ray, assassin of Martin Luther King, Jr., died April 23, 1998
1937 Joe Viterelli, actor (Analyze This series, The Firm) died January 28, 2004
1940 David Rabe, playwright (Casualties of War)
1940 Dean Torrence, singer (Jan & Dean)
1940 Chuck Norris (Carlos Ray Norris), karate champion/actor (Lone Wolf McQuade, Missing in Action, Walker Texas Ranger)
1945 Katharine Houghton (Grant), actress (Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner)
1946 Jim Valvano, basketball coach (North Carolina State University) died April 28, 1993
1947 Tom Scholz, guitarist/keyboardist/singer (Boston)
1953 Paul Haggis, director/screenwriter (Crash)
1957 Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda leader
1958 Sharon Stone, actress (Casino, Basic Instinct series, Total Recall, The Mighty)
1960 Gail Greenwood, guitarist (L7)
1961 Laurel Clark, physician/astronaut, (Columbia) died February 1, 2003
1961 Pam Oliver, sportscaster (FOX Sports)
1963 Jeff Ament, bassist (Pearl Jam)
1963 Rick Rubin, record producer (Columbia Records)
1964 Neneh Cherry (Neneh Mariann Karlsson), songwriter/singer (Buffalo Stance)
1964 Prince Edward (Edward Antony Richard Louis) of England
1964 Jasmine Guy, actress (A Different World, Runaway)
1966 Edie Brickell, singer/Mrs. Paul Simon (What I Am)
1969 Paget Brewster, actress (Huff, Harvey Birdman Attorney at Law)
1971 Timbaland, rapper
1971 Jon Hamm, actor (Mad Men)
1972 Matt Kenseth, NASCAR driver
1973 Eva Herzigova, Czech model
1973 John LeCompt, guitarist (Evanescence)
1977 Shannon Miller, Olympic Gold Medal gymnast
1977 Bree Turner, dancer/actress (The Wedding Planner, Joe Dirt)
1977 Matt Rubano, bassist (Taking Back Sunday)
1977 Robin Thicke, singer
1983 Carrie Underwood, country singer/TV personality (American Idol)
1984 Olivia Wilde, actress (The Black Donnellys, House MD)

Today's Deaths in History

1913 Harriet Tubman, abolitionist, dies at 92
1948 Zelda Fitzgerald, artist/wife of writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, dies at 47
1984 June Marlowe, actress (Our Gang films) dies at 80
1986 Ray Milland, British actor (The Lost Weekend, Reap the Wild Wind) dies at 79
1988 Andy Gibb, singer, dies at 30
1996 Ross Hunter, film producer (Imitation of Life, Airport) dies at 75
1997 La Vern Baker, R&B singer, dies at 67
1998 Lloyd Bridges, actor (High Noon, Little Big Horn, Sahara, Airplane!) dies at 85
2004 Dave Blood (David Schulthise), bassist (The Dead Milkmen) commits suicide at 47
2005 Danny Joe Brown, singer (Molly Hatchet) dies at 53
2007 Richard Jeni, comedian, commits suicide at 49

Today in History

1496 Christopher Columbus concluded his second visit to the Western Hemisphere as he left Hispaniola for Spain.
1629 England's King Charles I dissolved Parliament.
1785 Thomas Jefferson was appointed minister to France, succeeding Benjamin Franklin.
1804 In St. Louis, Missouri, a formal ceremony was conducted to transfer ownership of the Louisiana Territory from France to the United States.
1848 The Senate ratified the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, ending the war with Mexico.
1864 Ulysses S. Grant became commander of the Union armies during the Civil War.
1876 The first successful voice transmission over Alexander Graham Bell's telephone took place in Boston as his assistant heard Bell say, "Mr. Watson, come here. I want you."
1922 Mahatma Gandhi was arrested in India, tried for sedition, and sentenced to six years in prison, only to be released after nearly two years for an appendicitis operation.
1945 The Army Air Force firebombed Tokyo, and the resulting firestorm killed more than 100,000 people, mostly civilians.
1949 Nazi wartime broadcaster Mildred E. Gillars, also known as "Axis Sally," was convicted in Washington, D.C., of treason.
1952 Fulgencio Batista led a successful coup in Cuba and appointed himself as the "provisional president."
1965 Neil Simon's play The Odd Couple opened on Broadway.
1969 James Earl Ray pleaded guilty in Memphis, Tenn., to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
1970 Captain Ernest Medina was charged with My Lai war crimes.
1980 Scarsdale Diet author Dr. Herman Tarnower was shot to death in Purchase, N.Y.; his lover, Jean Harris, was convicted of murder and served nearly 12 years in prison.
1993 Authorities announced the arrest of Nidal Ayyad, a second suspect in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York.
1993 Dr. David Gunn was shot to death outside a Pensacola, Fla., abortion clinic.
1997 Buffy the Vampire Slayer debuted on the WB network.
2000 The NASDAQ Composite stock market index peaked at 5132.52, signaling the beginning of the end of the dot-com boom.
2002 Israeli helicopters destroyed Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's office in Gaza City, hours after 11 Israelis were killed in a suicide bombing in a cafe across the street from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's residence in Jerusalem.
2004 Teenage sniper Lee Boyd Malvo was sentenced in Chesapeake, Va., to life in prison.
2008 New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer apologized after allegations surfaced that he had paid thousands of dollars for a high-end call girl, scandal which eventually led to his resignation.

Chart Toppers

1949
Far Away Places - Margaret Whiting
Powder Your Face with Sunshine - Evelyn Knight
Galway Bay - Bing Crosby
Don’t Rob Another Man’s Castle - Eddy Arnold

1957
Young Love - Tab Hunter
Young Love - Sonny James
Round and Round - Perry Como
There You Go - Johnny Cash

1965
My Girl - The Temptations
The Jolly Green Giant - The Kingsmen
Eight Days a Week - The Beatles
I’ve Got a Tiger by the Tail - Buck Owens

1973
Killing Me Softly with His Song - Roberta Flack
Dueling Banjos - Eric Weissberg & Steve Mandell
Love Train - O’Jays
’Till I Get It Right - Tammy Wynette

1981
I Love a Rainy Night - Eddie Rabbitt
9 to 5 - Dolly Parton
Keep on Loving You - REO Speedwagon
Do You Love as Good as You Look - The Bellamy Brothers

1989
Lost in Your Eyes - Debbie Gibson
The Lover in Me - Sheena Easton
The Living Years - Mike & the Mechanics
I Still Believe in You - The Desert Rose Band

Quote of the Day

Bureaucracy defends the status quo long past the time when the quo has lost its status.
Laurence J. Peter, educator & writer (1919 - 1988)

Today in History - March 11th

Today's Birthdays

1785 John McLean, U.S. Supreme Court Justice, died April 4, 1861
1885 Sir Malcolm Campbell, auto racer (first to travel 300 mph in a car) died Dec 31, 1948
1898 Dorothy Gish, actress (Hearts of the World) died June 4, 1968
1903 Lawrence Welk, bandleader (The Lawrence Welk Show) died May 17, 1992
1916 Ezra Jack Keats, children's literature author (The Snowy Day) died May 6, 1983
1919 Mercer Ellington, songwriter/bandleader (son of Duke Ellington) died Feb 8, 1996
1926 Reverend Ralph Abernathy, civil rights leader (Southern Christian Leadership Conference) died April 17, 1990
1931 Valerie French (Harrison), actress (The 27th Day) died Nov 3, 1990
1931 Rupert Murdoch, Australian-born entrepreneur (News Corporation)
1934 Sam Donaldson, broadcast journalist (Primetime Live)
1936 Antonin Scalia, U.S. Supreme Court Justice
1943 Bob Plager, NHL defenseman (NY Rangers)
1944 Ric Rothwell, drummer (Wayne Fontana & the Mindbenders)
1947 Mark Stein, keyboardist/singer (Vanilla Fudge)
1948 Dominique Sanda (Dominique Varaigne), actress (The Garden of the Finzi-Continis)
1950 Bobby McFerrin, jazz songwriter/singer (Don't Worry Be Happy)
1952 Douglas Adams, author (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series) died May 11, 2001
1952 Susan Richardson, actress (Eight is Enough)
1955 Jimmy Fortune, singer (Statler Brothers)
1955 Nina Hagen, German post-punk singer
1956 Rob Paulsen, voice actor (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Animaniacs)
1957 Lady Chablis (Benjamin Edward Knox), transsexual entertainer (Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil)
1957 Cheryl Lynn, R&B singer (Got to Be Real)
1958 Anissa Jones, actress (Family Affair) died August 28, 1976
1961 Bruce Watson, guitarist (Big Country)
1963 Alex Kingston, English actress (ER, Weapons of Mass Distraction)
1964 Peter Berg, actor/director/producer (Aspen Extreme, Friday Night Lights)
1964 Vinnie Paul, drummer (Pantera)
1965 Wallace Langham, actor (CSI)
1968 Lisa Loeb, singer/songwriter (Stay)
1969 Terrence Howard, actor (Crash, Hustle & Flow, Get Rich or Die Tryin')
1971 Johnny Knoxville, television personality/actor (Jackass, The Ringer)
1971 Martin Ručinský, NHL left wing (NY Rangers)
1979 Benji Madden, guitarist (Good Charlotte)
1979 Joel Madden, singer (Good Charlotte)
1981 David Anders, actor (Alias, Heroes)
1981 LeToya Luckett, singer (Destiny's Child)
1982 Thora Birch, actress (American Beauty, Ghost World)
1989 Anton Yelchin, Russian-born actor (Huff, Alpha Dog, Charlie Bartlett)

Today's Deaths in History

1847 Johnny Appleseed, pioneer agronomist, dies at 72
1931 F.W. Murnau, German film director (Nosferatu) dies at 42
1955 Oscar Mayer, meat packer, dies at 95
1957 Admiral Richard E. Byrd, explorer (South Pole) dies at 68
1958 Ole Kirk Christiansen, inventor (Legos) dies at 66
1970 Erle Stanley Gardner, novelist (Perry Mason) dies at 80
1971 Philo T. Farnsworth, television pioneer, dies at 64
1986 Sonny Terry, blues musician, dies at 74
1992 Richard Brooks, director (Blackboard Jungle, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof) dies at 79
1993 Dino Bravo, professional wrestler, dies at 43
1996 Vince Edwards, actor/director (Ben Casey) dies at 67
2002 James Tobin, economist, dies at 84
2006 Bernie "Boom Boom" Geoffrion, Hockey Hall of Fame right wing (NY Rangers) dies at 75
2007 Betty Hutton, actress/singer (Incendiary Blonde, Annie Get Your Gun) dies at 86

Today in History

1810 Emperor Napoleon of France was married by proxy to Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria.
1824 The United States War Department created the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
1861 The Constitution of the Confederate States of America was adopted.
1888 A blizzard struck the northeastern United States, resulting in some 400 deaths.
1941 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law the Lend-Lease Bill, providing war supplies to countries fighting the Axis.
1942 As Japanese forces continued to advance in the Pacific during World War II, Gen. Douglas MacArthur left the Philippines for Australia; he subsequently vowed, "I shall return."
1970 The Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young album Deja Vu was released.
1977 More than 130 hostages held in Washington, D.C., by Hanafi Muslims were freed.
1978 Palestinian guerrillas went on a rampage on the Tel Aviv-Haifa highway, killing 34 Israelis.
1985 Mikhail S. Gorbachev was chosen to succeed the late Soviet President Konstantin Chernenko.
1990 The Lithuanian parliament voted to break away from the Soviet Union and restore its independence.
1993 Janet Reno was unanimously confirmed by the Senate to be the nation's first female attorney general.
1993 North Korea withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
1997 Rock musician Paul McCartney of the Beatles was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
2002 Two columns of light soared skyward from ground zero in New York as a temporary memorial to the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks.
2004 10 bombs exploded in quick succession across the commuter rail network in Madrid, Spain, killing 191 people and wounding more than 2,000 in an attack linked to al-Qaida.
2005 A man being escorted to court for trial in Atlanta took a gun from a sheriff's deputy and went on a deadly rampage, killing four people, including a judge; Brian Nichols was later found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
2006 Former Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic was found dead of a heart attack in his prison cell in the Netherlands, abruptly ending his four-year U.N. war crimes trial for orchestrating a decade of conflict that killed a quarter of a million people.

Chart Toppers

1950
Music, Music, Music - Teresa Brewer
I Said My Pajamas - Tony Martin & Fran Warren
Dear Hearts and Gentle People - Bing Crosby
Chatanoogie Shoe Shine Boy - Red Foley

1958
Don’t/I Beg of You - Elvis Presley
Sweet Little Sixteen - Chuck Berry
Lollipop - The Chordettes
Ballad of a Teenage Queen - Johnny Cash

1966
The Ballad of the Green Berets - SSgt Barry Sadler
Listen People - Herman’s Hermits
California Dreamin’ - The Mamas & the Papas
Waitin’ in Your Welfare Line - Buck Owens

1974
Seasons in the Sun - Terry Jacks
Boogie Down - Eddie Kendricks
Jungle Boogie - Kool & the Gang
There Won’t Be Anymore - Charlie Rich

1982
Centerfold - The J. Geils Band
Open Arms - Journey
I Love Rock ’N Roll - Joan Jett & the Blackhearts
You’re the Best Break This Old Heart Ever Had - Ed Bruce

1990
Escapade - Janet Jackson
Dangerous - Roxette
Roam - The B-52’s
Chains - Patty Loveless

Quote of the Day

Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule.
Stephen King, horror novelist & screenwriter (1947 - )

Today in History - March 12th

Today's Birthdays

1806 Jane (Means Appleton) Pierce, First Lady, died Dec 2, 1863
1831 Clement Studebaker, automobile pioneer, died November 27, 1901
1832 Charles Boycott, real estate agent (tenants refused to deal with him) died in 1897
1881 Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, first President of Turkey, died November 10, 1938
1910 Roger L. Stevens, producer (West Side Story, Bus Stop) died Feb 2, 1998
1921 Gordon MacRae, actor (Oklahoma!, Carousel) died Jan 24, 1986
1922 Jack Kerouac, author (On the Road) died Oct 21, 1969
1923 Capt. Walter ‘Wally’ M. Shirra Jr., astronaut (Project Mercury, Gemini, Apollo) died May 3, 2007
1928 Edward Albee, playwright (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?)
1930 Bronco Horvath, NHL forward (NY Rangers)
1931 Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas, actor (Little Rascals) died October 10, 1980
1932 Barbara Feldon (Hall), actress (Get Smart)
1932 Andrew Young, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations
1938 Johnny Rutherford, Indy car race driver
1940 Al Jarreau, singer (Breakin’ Away, We’re in This Love Together)
1946 Liza Minnelli, singer/actress (Cabaret, Arthur)
1948 James Taylor, singer (You’ve Got a Friend, Fire & Rain)
1949 Mike Gibbins, drummer (Badfinger)
1949 Bill Payne, keyboardist (Little Feat)
1953 Carl Hiaasen, journalist/author (Basket Case, Sick Puppy)
1956 Steve Harris, bassist/songwriter (Iron Maiden)
1957 Marlon Jackson, singer (The Jackson Five)
1960 Courtney B. Vance, actor (Tuskegee Airmen, The Hunt for Red October)
1962 Darryl (Eugene) Strawberry, former MLB outfielder (NY Mets, NY Yankees)
1965 Steve Levy, sports journalist (ESPN)
1968 Aaron Eckhart, actor (The Black Dahlia, The Dark Knight)
1969 Graham Coxon, singer/songwriter/musician (Blur)
1970 John Nemechek, NASCAR driver, died March 21, 1997
1978 Claudio Sanchez, singer/guitarist (Coheed and Cambria)
1979 Pete Doherty, musician/singer (Babyshambles)
1986 Danny Jones, singer (McFly)

Today's Deaths in History

1914 George Westinghouse, entrepreneur/engineer, dies at 67
1925 Sun Yat-sen, Chinese revolutionary/politician, dies at 58
1929 Asa Griggs Candler, businessman (Coca-Cola) dies at 77
1955 Charlie Parker, jazz saxophonist, dies at 34
1978 John Cazale, actor (The Godfather, Dog Day Afternoon) dies at 42
1987 Woody Hayes, football coach (Ohio State) dies at 74
1989 Maurice Evans, English-born actor (Planet of the Apes) dies at 82
2001 Morton Downey, Jr., television talk show host, dies at 67
2001 Robert Ludlum, author (Bourne series) dies at 73
2003 Lynne Thigpen, actress (Godspell, Anger Management) dies at 54

Today in History

1664 New Jersey became a British colony as King Charles II granted land in North America to his brother James, the Duke of York.
1881 Andrew Watson made his Scotland debut as the world's first black international football (soccer) player and captain.
1894 In Vicksburg, Mississippi, Coca-Cola was sold in bottles for the first time.
1912 Juliette Gordon Low founded the Girl Guides, which later became the Girl Scouts of America.
1918 Moscow became the capital of Russia again after Saint-Petersburg held this status for 215 years.
1930 Indian political and spiritual leader Mohandas K. Gandhi began a 200-mile march to protest a British tax on salt.
1933 President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered the first of his radio "fireside chats," telling Americans what was being done to deal with the nation's economic crisis.
1938 The "Anschluss" took place as German troops entered Austria; Adolf Hitler annexed his homeland the following day.
1939 Pope Pius XII was crowned in ceremonies at the Vatican.
1947 President Harry S. Truman established what became known as the Truman Doctrine to help Greece and Turkey resist Communism.
1969 Rock musician Paul McCartney of the Beatles married Linda Eastman in London.
1980 A Chicago jury found John Wayne Gacy Jr. guilty of the murders of 33 men and boys.
1987 The musical Les Miserables opened on Broadway.
1993 Janet Reno was sworn in as the nation's first female attorney general.
1993 North Korea saod that it planned to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and refused to allow inspectors access to its nuclear sites.
1994 The Church of England ordained its first female priests.
1999 The Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland joined NATO.
2000 Pope John Paul II asked God's forgiveness for the sins of Roman Catholics through the ages, including wrongs inflicted on Jews, women and minorities.
2002 Homeland security chief Tom Ridge unveiled a color-coded system for terror warnings.
2002 The U.N. Security Council approved a U.S.-sponsored resolution endorsing a Palestinian state for the first time.
2003 Elizabeth Smart, the 15-year-old girl who'd vanished from her bedroom nine months earlier, was found alive in a Salt Lake City suburb with two drifters.
2006 A 14-year-old Iraqi girl was raped and her family killed in Mahmoudiya, near Baghdad; five American soldiers were charged; three pleaded guilty, one was convicted and one has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.
2008 New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned two days after reports had surfaced that he was a client of a prostitution ring.

Chart Toppers

1951
If - Perry Como
My Heart Cries for You - Guy Mitchell
Be My Love - Mario Lanza
There’s Been a Change in Me - Eddy Arnold

1959
Venus - Frankie Avalon
Charlie Brown - The Coasters
Alvin’s Harmonica - David Seville & the Chipmunks
Don’t Take Your Guns to Town - Johnny Cash

1967
Love is Here and Now You’re Gone - The Supremes
Baby I Need Your Lovin’ - Johnny Rivers
Penny Lane - The Beatles
The Fugitive - Merle Haggard

1975
Have You Never Been Mellow - Olivia Newton-John
Black Water - The Doobie Brothers
My Eyes Adored You - Frankie Valli
Linda on My Mind - Conway Twitty

1983
Billy Jean - Michael Jackson
Shame on the Moon - Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band
Do You Really Want to Hurt Me - Culture Club
The Rose - Conway Twitty

1991
Someday - Mariah Carey
One More Try - Timmy T
Show Me the Way - Styx
I’d Love You All Over Again - Alan Jackson

Quote of the Day

Is sloppiness in speech caused by ignorance or apathy? I don't know and I don't care.
William Safire, columnist & speechwriter (1929 - )

Today in History - March 13th

Today's Birthdays

1733 Joseph Priestley, chemist (discovered oxygen) died Feb 6, 1804
1798 Abigail Fillmore (Powers), First Lady, died Mar 30, 1853
1813 Lorenzo Delmonico, restaurateur (Delmonico’s in NYC) died Sep 3, 1881
1855 Percival Lowell, astronomer (search for Pluto) died Nov 12, 1916
1910 Sammy Kaye, bandleader (Too Young, Harbor Lights) died June 2, 1987
1911 L. Ron Hubbard, author/founder (Church of Scientology) died Jan 24, 1986
1913 William Casey, former CIA director, died May 6, 1987
1929 Helen St. Aubin (Callaghan), All-American Girls Professional Baseball League player, died Dec 8, 1992
1933 Mike Stoller, record producer/songwriter (Up on the Roof, On Broadway)
1935 Leslie Parrish (Marjorie Helen), actress (The Manchurian Candidate)
1939 Neil Sedaka, songwriter/singer (Calendar Girl, Bad Blood, Laughter in The Rain)
1949 Donny York, singer (Sha Na Na)
1950 William H. Macy, actor (Fargo, The Cooler, Pleasantville, Happy Texas)
1951 Fred Berry, actor/dancer (What's Happening!!) died October 21, 2003
1953 Deborah Raffin, actress (Foul Play, Noble House)
1955 Glenne Headly, actress (Mr. Holland’s Opus, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels)
1956 Dana Delany, actress (Desperate Housewives, China Beach)
1960 Adam Clayton, bassist (U2)
1971 Annabeth Gish, actress (Mystic Pizza, Double Jeopardy)
1973 David Draiman, singer/songwriter (Disturbed)
1976 Danny Masterson, actor (That 70's Show)
1979 Johan Santana, MLB pitcher (NY Mets)
1979 Spanky G, drummer (Bloodhound Gang)
1985 Emile Hirsch, actor (The Girl Next Door, Into the Wild, Speed Racer)

Today's Deaths in History

1901 Benjamin Harrison, 23rd President of the United States, dies at 67
1906 Susan B. Anthony, suffragist, dies at 86
1938 Clarence S. Darrow, defense attorney, dies at 80
1964 Kitty Genovese, New Yorker, is stabbed to death at 28 while 38 witnesses did nothing
1988 John Holmes, porn star, dies of AIDS at 43
1996 Krzysztof Kieślowski, Polish film director (Three Colors) dies at 54
1999 Lee Falk, cartoonist (The Phantom, Mandrake the Magician) dies at 87
2006 Maureen Stapleton, actress (Johnny Dangerously, Cocoon series) dies at 80
2006 Peter Tomarken, game show host (Press Your Luck) dies at 63

Today in History

1781 The planet Uranus was discovered by Sir William Herschel.
1852 "Uncle Sam" made his debut as a cartoon character in the New York Lantern.
1868 The impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson began in the U.S. Senate.
1884 Standard Time was adopted throughout the United States.
1900 The length of the workday for women and children in France was limited by law to 11 hours.
1925 A law went into effect in Tennessee prohibiting the teaching of evolution.
1933 Banks began to re-open after a holiday declared by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
1947 The Lerner and Loewe musical Brigadoon opened on Broadway.
1964 Thirty-eight neighbors ignored the screams of Kitty Genovese, 28, as she was stabbed to death in Queens, New York.
1969 Apollo 9 returned to Earth after a mission to test the lunar module that was used in the moon landings.
1980 A jury in Winamac, Ind., found Ford Motor Co. innocent of reckless homicide in the fiery deaths of three young women riding in a Ford Pinto.
1986 Microsoft had its initial public offering.
1988 Gallaudet University, a liberal arts college for the hearing-impaired, chose I. King Jordan to become the school's first deaf president.
1991 The United States Department of Justice announced that Exxon had agreed to pay $1 billion for the clean-up of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska.
1996 A gunman opened fire on a class of kindergarteners at an elementary school in Dunblane, Scotland, killing 16 children and one teacher before killing himself.
2005 Robert Iger was named to succeed Michael Eisner as chief executive of Walt Disney Co.
2008 Gold prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange hit $1,000 an ounce for the first time.

Chart Toppers

1944
Mairzy Doats - The Merry Macs
Besame Mucho - The Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra (vocal: Bob Eberly & Kitty Kallen)
No Love, No Nothin’ - Ella Mae Morse
Rosalita - Al Dexter

1952
Slowpoke - Pee Wee King
Tell Me Why - The Four Aces
Please, Mr. Sun - Johnnie Ray
Wondering - Webb Pierce

1960
The Theme from "A Summer Place" - Percy Faith
Wild One - Bobby Rydell
Baby (You’ve Got What It Takes) - Dinah Washington & Brook Benton
He’ll Have to Go - Jim Reeves

1968
Love is Blue - Paul Mauriat
(Theme From) Valley of the Dolls - Dionne Warwick
(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay - Otis Redding
Take Me to Your World - Tammy Wynette

1976
December 1963 (Oh, What a Night) - The Four Seasons
All by Myself - Eric Carmen
Take It to the Limit - Eagles
The Roots of My Raising - Merle Haggard

1984
Jump - Van Halen
Girls Just Want to Have Fun - Cyndi Lauper
Somebody’s Watching Me - Rockwell
Going, Going, Gone - Lee Greenwood

Quote of the Day

Punctuality is the virtue of the bored.
Evelyn Waugh, English novelist & satirist (1903 - 1966)

Today in History - March 14th

Today's Birthdays

1804 Johann Strauss, Sr., Austrian composer (waltzes) died September 25, 1849
1833 Lucy Hobbs Taylor, D.D.S., first woman to receive a degree in dentistry, died Oct 3, 1910
1864 (John Luther) Casey Jones, railroad engineer (The Ballad of Casey Jones) killed in train crash Apr 30, 1900
1879 Albert Einstein, Nobel Prize-winning physicist, died Apr 18, 1955
1912 Les Brown, bandleader (Les Brown and His Band of Renown) died Jan 4, 2001
1914 Lee Petty, NASCAR driver, died April 5, 2000
1918 Dennis Patrick, actor (Dark Shadows, Dallas) died October 13, 2002
1919 Max Shulman, novelist/playwright (The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis) died Aug 28, 1988
1920 Hank Ketcham, cartoonist (Dennis the Menace) died June 1, 2001
1928 Frank (Frederick) Borman II, Apollo astronaut/president of Eastern Airlines
1931 Phil Phillips (Baptiste), singer (Sea of Love)
1933 Michael Caine (Maurice Micklewhite), actor (Hannah and Her Sisters, Alfie,
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels)
1933 Quincy Jones, composer/bandleader/record producer/arranger
1934 Eugene (Andrew) Cernan, astronaut (Gemini, Apollo programs)
1941 Wolfgang Petersen, director (In the Line of Fire, Das Boot)
1942 Rita Tushingham, actress (Dr. Zhivago, A Taste of Honey)
1945 Walter Parazaider, musician (Chicago)
1945 Michael Martin Murphey, singer/songwriter (Wildfire)
1948 Billy Crystal, actor/comedian (Throw Mama from the Train, When Harry Met Sally)
1950 Rick Dees, disc jockey/singer (Disco Duck)
1951 Jerry Greenfield, co-founder (Ben & Jerry's ice cream)
1954 Adrian Zmed, actor (Grease 2, Bachelor Party)
1955 Boon Gould, guitarist (Level 42)
1959 Tamara Tunie, actress (The Devil's Advocate, Law & Order: SVU)
1960 Kirby Puckett, Baseball Hall of Fame outfielder (Minnesota Twins) died March 6, 2006
1961 Penny Johnson Jerald, actress (24, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)
1965 Kiana Tom, fitness guru/model
1969 Michael Bland, drummer (New Power Generation, Soul Asylum)
1979 Chris Klein, actor (American Pie movies)
1980 Mercedes McNab, actress (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Boston Public)
1982 Kate Maberly, actress (Finding Neverland)
1983 Taylor Hanson, singer/musician (Hanson)
1986 Jamie Bell, British actor (Billy Eliot)

Today's Deaths in History

1883 Karl Marx, political philosopher, dies at 64
1932 George Eastman, inventor/founder (Eastman Kodak) dies at 77
1973 Chic Young, cartoonist (Blondie) dies at 72
1975 Susan Hayward, actress (Reap the Wild Wind, The Fighting Seabees) dies at 57
1976 Busby Berkeley, choreographer/director, dies at 80
1991 Doc Pomus, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame blues singer/songwriter, dies at 65
1991 Margery Sharp, children's author (The Rescuers series) dies at 86
1997 Fred Zinnemann, Austrian-born director (From Here to Eternity) dies at 89
1999 Kirk Alyn, actor (first to play Superman) dies at 88
2002 Cherry Wilder, sci-fi author, dies at 71
2006 Ann Calvello, Roller Derby Queen, dies at 76
2007 Gareth Hunt, English actor (Upstairs Downstairs, The New Avengers) dies at 65

Today in History

1743 The first recorded town meeting in America was held, at Faneuil Hall in Boston.
1794 Eli Whitney received a patent for the cotton gin.
1900 Congress ratified the Gold Standard Act.
1923 President Warren G. Harding became the first chief executive to file an income tax report.
1939 The Republic of Czechoslovakia was dissolved, opening the way for Nazi occupation.
1942 Orvan Hess and John Bumstead became the first in the world to successfully treat a patient, Anne Miller, using penicillin.
1951 United Nations forces recaptured Seoul during the Korean War.
1964 A jury in Dallas found Jack Ruby guilty of murdering Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy.
1967 The body of President John F. Kennedy was moved from a temporary grave to a permanent memorial site at Arlington National Cemetery.
1980 In Poland, a plane crashed during an emergency landing near Warsaw, killing 87 people, including a 14-man American boxing team.
1984 Gerry Adams, head of Sinn Féin, was seriously wounded in an assassination attempt in central Belfast.
1993 An independent U.N.-sponsored commission released a report blaming the bulk of atrocities committed during El Salvador's civil war on the country's military.
1994 Associate Attorney General Webster Hubbell resigned because of controversy over billings he'd charged while in private law practice.
1995 Astronaut Norman Thagard became the first American to enter space aboard a Russian rocket as he and two cosmonauts blasted off aboard a Soyuz spacecraft, headed for the Mir space station.
2002 The government charged the Arthur Andersen accounting firm with obstruction of justice, securing its first indictment in the collapse of Enron.
2004 Opposition Socialists scored a dramatic upset win in Spain's general election, unseating conservatives stung by charges they'd provoked the Madrid terror bombings by supporting the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
2004 Russian President Vladimir Putin captured more than 70 percent of the vote to win a second term in an election that European observers said fell short of democratic standards.
2005 A judge in San Francisco ruled that California's ban on gay marriage was unconstitutional.
2005 About one million people rallied in Beirut, Lebanon, demanding Syrian withdrawal and the arrest of ex-Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's killers.
2008 Protests led by Buddhist monks in Tibet turned violent, leading to an extensive crackdown by China's military.

Chart Toppers

1945
Accentuate the Positive - Johnny Mercer
Saturday Night - Frank Sinatra
A Little on the Lonely Side - The Guy Lombardo Orchestra (vocal: Jimmy Brown)
I’m Losing My Mind Over You - Al Dexter

1953
Till I Waltz Again with You - Teresa Brewer
Don’t Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes - Perry Como
Doggie in the Window - Patti Page
Kaw-Liga - Hank Williams

1961
Pony Time - Chubby Checker
Surrender - Elvis Presley
Where the Boys Are - Connie Francis
Don’t Worry - Marty Robbins

1969
Everyday People - Sly & the Family Stone
Proud Mary - Creedence Clearwater Revival
Dizzy - Tommy Roe
Only the Lonely - Sonny James

1977
Love Theme from "A Star is Born" (Evergreen) - Barbra Streisand
Fly like an Eagle - Steve Miller
I Like Dreamin’ - Kenny Nolan
She’s Just an Old Love Turned Memory - Charley Pride

1985
Can’t Fight This Feeling - REO Speedwagon
The Heat is On - Glenn Frey
Material Girl - Madonna
My Only Love - The Statler Brothers

Quote of the Day

Sometimes the measure of friendship isn't your ability to not harm but your capacity to forgive the things done to you and ask forgiveness for your own mistakes.
Randy K. Milholland, Webcomic pioneer

Today in History - March 15th

Today's Birthdays

1767 Andrew Jackson, 7th U.S. President, died June 8, 1845
1913 MacDonald Carey, actor (Days of Our Lives, Who is the Black Dahlia) died Mar 21, 1994
1915 Joe E. Ross, actor/comedian (Car 54 Where Are You?) died August 13, 1982
1916 Harry (Haag) James, trumpeter/bandleader (Sweet Georgia Brown) died July 5, 1983
1918 Punch Imlach, Hockey Hall of Fame coach/general manager (Toronto Maple Leafs) died December 1, 1987
1926 Norm Van Brocklin, Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback (LA Rams, Philadelphia Eagles) died May 2, 1983
1932 Alan (LaVern) Bean, astronaut (Apollo, Skylab missions)
1933 Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Supreme Court justice
1935 Judd Hirsch, actor (Taxi, Ordinary People, Independence Day)
1935 Jimmy (Lee) Swaggert, TV evangelist
1940 Phil Lesh (Chapman), bassist (Grateful Dead)
1941 Mike Love, singer/songwriter (The Beach Boys)
1944 David Costell, bassist (Gary Lewis & The Playboys)
1944 Sly Stone (Sylvester Stewart), guitarist/singer (Sly & the Family Stone)
1946 Bobby (Lee) Bonds, MLB right fielder (SF Giants) died August 23, 2003
1946 Howard Scott, guitarist/singer (War)
1947 Ry (Ryland) Cooder, guitarist/songwriter
1954 Craig Wasson, actor (The Boys in Company C, Body Double)
1955 Dee Snider, singer (Twisted Sister)
1959 Fabio (Lanzoni), model
1959 Renny Harlin, film director (Deep Blue Sea, The Long Kiss Goodnight)
1962 Terence Trent D’Arby, singer/songwriter (Wishing Well)
1963 Bret Michaels, singer (Poison)
1964 Rockwell (Kennedy William Gordy), singer (Somebody’s Watching Me)
1968 Mark McGrath, singer (Sugar Ray)
1969 Kim Raver, actress (24)
1972 Mark Hoppus, bassist/singer (Blink-182)
1972 Mike Tomlin, NFL head coach (Pittsburgh Steelers)
1975 will.i.am, rapper/musician (Black Eyed Peas)
1975 Eva Longoria Parker, actress (Desperate Housewives)
1977 Joseph Hahn, DJ (Linkin Park)
1978 Sid Wilson, DJ (Slipknot)
1982 Emily Kennard, actress (Napoleon Dynamite)
1983 Sean Biggerstaff, actor (Harry Potter movies)
1985 Eva Amurri, actress (The Banger Sisters, Saved!)

Today's Deaths in History

0044 BC Roman Emperor Julius Caesar is assassinated at 56
1937 H. P. Lovecraft, writer (horror, fantasy, science fiction) dies at 46
1959 Lester Young, jazz saxophonist/clarinetist, dies at 49
1975 Aristotle Onassis, Greek Shipping magnate, dies at 69
1981 René Clair, French film director (Les Belles de nuit) dies at 82
1991 Bud Freeman, jazz saxophonist, dies at 84
1998 Dr. Benjamin Spock, pediatrician/writer, dies at 94
2001 Ann Sothern, actress (The Whales of August) dies at 92
2003 Paul Stojanovich, Reality TV pioneer (World's Wildest Police Videos) dies at 47
2006 Red Storey, Hockey Hall of Fame referee, dies at 88
2007 Charles Harrelson, hitman/father of Woody Harrelson, dies at 68
2007 Bowie Kuhn, MLB Commissioner, dies at 80
2007 Stuart Rosenberg, film director (Cool Hand Luke, The Amityville Horror) dies at 79
2008 Ken Reardon, Hockey Hall of Fame defenseman (Montreal Canadiens) dies at 86

Today in History

44 B.C. Roman dictator Julius Caesar was assassinated by a group of nobles that included Brutus and Cassius.
1493 Christopher Columbus returned to Spain, concluding his first voyage to the Western Hemisphere.
1776 South Carolina became the first American colony to declare its independence from Great Britain and set up its own government.
1820 Maine became the 23rd state.
1875 The Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York City, John McCloskey, was named the first American cardinal by Pope Pius IX.
1906 Rolls-Royce Limited was incorporated.
1913 President Woodrow Wilson held the first open presidential news conference.
1916 President Woodrow Wilson sent 12,000 United States troops over the U.S.-Mexico border to pursue Pancho Villa.
1919 The American Legion was founded in Paris.
1956 The Lerner and Loewe musical My Fair Lady opened on Broadway.
1964 Actress Elizabeth Taylor and actor Richard Burton were married.
1965 Addressing a joint session of Congress, President Lyndon B. Johnson called for new legislation to guarantee every American's right to vote.
1977 The U.S. House of Representatives began a 90-day test to determine the feasibility of showing its sessions on TV.
1985 The first Internet domain name was registered (symbolics.com).
1989 The United States Department of Veterans Affairs was established.
2003 Hu Jintao was chosen to replace Jiang Zemin as the president of China.
2004 Martha Stewart resigned from the board of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia 10 days after she was convicted in a stock scandal.
2005 Former WorldCom chief Bernard Ebbers was convicted in New York of engineering the largest corporate fraud in U.S. history; he was later sentenced to 25 years in prison.
2008 A construction crane toppled in New York City, killing seven people.

Chart Toppers

1946
Oh, What It Seemed to Be - The Frankie Carle Orchestra (vocal: Marjorie Hughes)
Let It Snow - Vaughn Monroe
Symphony - The Freddy Martin Orchestra (vocal: Clyde Rogers)
Guitar Polka - Al Dexter

1954
Make Love to Me! - Jo Stafford
I Get So Lonely - The Four Knights
Answer Me, My Love - Nat ‘King’ Cole
Slowly - Webb Pierce

1962
Hey! Baby - Bruce Channel
Midnight in Moscow - Kenny Ball & His Jazzmen
Don’t Break the Heart that Loves You - Connie Francis
Misery Loves Company - Porter Wagoner

1970
Bridge Over Troubled Water - Simon & Garfunkel
Travelin’ Band/Who’ll Stop the Rain - Creedence Clearwater Revival
The Rapper - The Jaggerz
It’s Just a Matter of Time - Sonny James

1978
(Love Is) Thicker Than Water - Andy Gibb
Night Fever - Bee Gees
Lay Down Sally - Eric Clapton
Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys - Waylon & Willie

1986
Sara - Starship
These Dreams - Heart
Secret Lovers - Atlantic Starr
I Could Get Used to You - Exile

Quote of the Day

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
Thomas A. Edison, inventor (1847 - 1931)

Today in History - March 16th

Today's Birthdays

1751 James Madison, 4th U.S. President, died June 28, 1836
1897 Conrad Nagel, actor (The Mysterious Lady, The Kiss) died Feb 24, 1970
1905 Marlin Perkins, naturalist (Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom) died June 14, 1986
1906 Henny (Henry) Youngman, comedian (“Take my wife ... please.”) died Feb 24, 1998
1911 Dr. Josef Mengele, accused Nazi war criminal (Angel of Death) died February 7, 1979
1912 Pat Nixon (Ryan), former U.S. First Lady, died June 22, 1993
1916 Mercedes McCambridge, actress (All the King's Men, Cimarron) died March 2, 2004
1920 Leo McKern, actor (Ladyhawke, The French Lieutenant’s Woman) died July 23, 2002
1926 Jerry Lewis (Joseph Levitch), comedian/actor (Martin and Lewis)
1927 Daniel Patrick Moynihan, U.S. Senator (New York) died Mar 26, 2003
1932 R. Walter Cunningham, astronaut (Apollo, Skylab)
1936 Fred Neil, singer/songwriter (Candy Man, Everybody's Talkin') died July 7, 2001
1940 Bernardo Bertolucci, director (The Last Emperor, Stealing Beauty, Last Tango in Paris)
1941 Chuck Woolery, game show host (Love Connection)
1942 Jerry Jeff Walker (Paul Crosby), country singer/guitarist (Mr. Bojangles)
1948 Michael Bruce, guitarist/keyboardist (Alice Cooper)
1949 Erik Estrada, actor (C.H.I.P.S.)
1949 Victor Garber, actor (Alias)
1950 Kate Nelligan, actress (Eye of the Needle, The Prince of Tides, The Count of Monte Cristo)
1954 Nancy Wilson, guitarist/singer (Heart)
1955 Isabelle Huppert, actress (Violette, Entré Nous)
1959 Flavor Flav, rapper (Public Enemy)
1961 Todd McFarlane, cartoonist/comic book writer/artist (Spawn)
1963 Jimmy DeGrasso, drummer (Megadeth)
1963 Kevin Smith, actor (Xena: Warrior Princess) died February 15, 2002
1964 Gore Verbinski, film director (Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl)
1967 Lauren Graham, actress (Gilmore Girls)
1969 Judah Friedlander, actor (30 Rock)
1971 Alan Tudyk, actor (Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Firefly, Serenity, A Knight's Tale)
1976 Blu Cantrell, R&B singer
1978 Brooke Burns, actress (North Shore, Baywatch, Baywatch Hawaii)
1991 Wolfgang Van Halen, bassist (Van Halen)

Today's Deaths in History

1903 Judge Roy Bean, jurist ("The Law West of the Pecos") dies at 78
1936 Marguerite Durand, French journalist/feminist, dies at 72
1970 Tammi Terrell, R&B singer, dies at 24
1971 Thomas Dewey, presidential candidate, dies at 68
1975 T-Bone Walker, blues guitarist/singer/songwriter, dies at 64
1983 Arthur Godfrey, actor/television host, dies at 79
1985 Eddie Shore, Hockey Hall of Fame defenseman (NY Americans) dies at 82
1996 Charlie Barnett, actor (DC Cab, Miami Vice) dies of AIDS at 41
2000 Thomas Ferebee, Army Air Corps bombardier (Enola Gay/Hiroshima) dies at 81
2005 Anthony George, actor (Dark Shadows) dies at 84
2005 Todd Bell, NFL safety (Chicago Bears) dies at 47
2006 David Feintuch, sci-fi author (Seafort Saga) dies at 61
2008 Ola Brunkert, session drummer (ABBA) dies at 61
2008 G. David Low, astronaut (Shuttle Endeavour) dies at 52
2008 Daniel MacMaster, singer (Bonham) dies at 39

Today in History

0037 Caligula became Roman Emperor after the death of his great uncle, Tiberius.
1521 Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reached the Philippines, where he was killed by natives the following month.
1802 Congress authorized the establishment of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.
1836 The Republic of Texas approved a constitution.
1850 The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, was published.
1915 The Federal Trade Commission was organized.
1926 Robert Goddard launched the first liquid-fueled rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts.
1935 Adolf Hitler scrapped the Treaty of Versailles.
1945 The Battle of Iwo Jima ended, but small pockets of Japanese resistance persisted.
1958 The Ford Motor Company produced its 50 millionth automobile, a Thunderbird, after averaging almost a million cars a year since the company's founding.
1968 U.S. troops gunned down hundreds of unarmed civilians in the village of My Lai during the Vietnam War.
1968 General Motors produced its 100 millionth automobile, an Oldsmobile Toronado.
1978 Former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro was kidnapped by left-wing terrorists and was later killed by his captors.
1984 William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut, was kidnapped by gunmen.
1985 Terry Anderson, chief Middle East correspondent for The Associated Press, was abducted in Beirut.
1988 Former National Security Adviser John M. Poindexter and former White House aide Oliver L. North were indicted on charges relating to the Iran-Contra affair; their convictions were later thrown out.
1994 Figure skater Tonya Harding pleaded guilty in Portland, Ore., to conspiracy for covering up the attack on rival Nancy Kerrigan.
1998 The Vatican expressed remorse for the cowardice of some Christians during the Holocaust, but defended the actions of Pope Pius XII.
2003 Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old American college student, was killed when she was run over by a bulldozer while trying to block Israeli troops from demolishing a Palestinian home in Gaza.
2005 A judge in Redwood City, Calif., sent Scott Peterson to death row for the slaying of his pregnant wife, Laci.
2005 A jury in Los Angeles acquitted actor Robert Blake of murder in the shooting death of his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley; a civil court jury later ordered Blake to pay $30 million to Bakley's four children.
2008 Protests spread from Tibet into three neighboring provinces; the Dalai Lama decried what he called the "cultural genocide" taking place in his homeland.

Chart Toppers

1947
The Anniversary Song - Dinah Shore
Managua, Nicaragua - The Guy Lombardo Orchestra (vocal: Don Rodney)
Oh, But I Do - Margaret Whiting
So Round, So Firm, So Fully Packed - Merle Travis

1955
The Ballad of Davy Crockett - Bill Hayes
Sincerely - McGuire Sisters
Pledging My Love - Johnny Ace
In the Jailhouse Now - Webb Pierce

1963
Walk like a Man - The 4 Seasons
Our Day Will Come - Ruby & the Romantics
You’re the Reason I’m Living - Bobby Darin
The Ballad of Jed Clampett - Flatt & Scruggs

1971
One Bad Apple - The Osmonds
Me and Bobby McGee - Janis Joplin
For All We Know - Carpenters
I’d Rather Love You - Charley Pride

1979
I Will Survive - Gloria Gaynor
Tragedy - Bee Gees
Heaven Knows - Donna Summer with Brooklyn Dreams
Golden Tears - Dave & Sugar

1987
Jacob’s Ladder - Huey Lewis & the News
Somewhere Out There - Linda Ronstadt & James Ingram
Let’s Wait Awhile - Janet Jackson
Baby’s Got a New Baby - S-K-O

Quote of the Day

Brain: an apparatus with which we think we think.
Ambrose Bierce, author & satirist (1842 - 1914)

Today in History - March 17th

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Today's Birthdays

1777 Roger Taney, Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court (Dred Scott decision) died Oct 12, 1864
1895 Shemp Howard, comic actor (3 Stooges) died Nov 22, 1955
1919 Nat ‘King’ Cole, jazz pianist/bandleader; died Feb 15, 1965
1936 Ken Mattingly, Apollo astronaut
1938 Rudolf Nureyev, Russian ballet dancer; died Jan 6, 1993
1938 Zola Taylor, R&B singer (The Platters) died April 30, 2007
1941 Paul Kantner, guitarist (Jefferson Airplane/Starship)
1942 John Wayne Gacy, serial murderer; executed May 10, 1994
1944 John Sebastian, singer/songwriter (Lovin’ Spoonful)
1949 Patrick Duffy, actor (Dallas)
1951 Scott Gorham, guitarist (Thin Lizzy)
1951 Kurt Russell, actor (Escape from New York, Death Proof)
1954 Lesley-Anne Down, actress (Dallas)
1955 Gary Sinise, actor/director/producer (CSI: NY)
1959 Mike Lindup, keyboardist/singer (Level 42)
1959 Danny Ainge, NBA player/coach (Boston Celtics)
1960 Vicki Lewis, actress (NewsRadio)
1960 Arye Gross, actor (Soul Man)
1961 Casey Siemaszko, actor (Three O'Clock High, Young Guns)
1961 Dana Reeve, actress/wife of Christopher Reeve; died March 6, 2006
1962 Roxy Petrucci, drummer (Vixen)
1964 Rob Lowe, actor (Youngblood, The West Wing)
1967 Van Conner, bassist (Screaming Trees, Valis)
1967 Billy Corgan, guitarist/singer (Smashing Pumpkins)
1968 Mathew St. Patrick, actor (Six Feet Under)
1969 Patricia Ford, Kaneohe Hawaii, model/actress (Playboy)
1972 Melissa Auf der Maur, bassist (Hole, Smashing Pumpkins)
1972 Mia Hamm, soccer player
1973 Caroline Corr, rock musician (The Corrs)
1974 Marisa Coughlan, actress (Boston Legal)
1975 Natalie Zea, actress (Dirty Sexy Money)
1975 Justin Hawkins, singer (The Darkness)
1979 Nicole "Coco" Austin, glamor model/Mrs Ice-T

Today's Deaths in History

0180 Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor, dies at 58
0493 Saint Patrick, patron saint of Ireland, dies (age unknown)
1680 François de La Rochefoucauld, French writer (Memoirs, Maximes) dies at 66
1782 Daniel Bernoulli, Dutch-born mathematician (probability and statistics) dies at 82
1853 Christian Doppler, Austrian physician/mathematician (Doppler Effect) dies at 49
1956 Fred Allen, actor/comedian, dies at 61
1965 Amos Alonzo Stagg, football coach/player (College Football Hall of Fame) dies at 102
1990 Ric Grech, bassist (Blind Faith, Traffic) dies at 43
1993 Helen Hayes, actress (First Lady of the American Theater) dies at 92
1995 Rick Aviles, actor (Ghost) dies at 42
1996 Terry Stafford, singer (Suspicion) dies at 54
1999 Rod Hull, British comedian/puppeteer (Emu) dies at 63
2004 J. J. Jackson, television personality (MTV VJ) dies at 62
2005 Andre Norton, sci-fi writer, dies at 93
2006 Bob Papenbrook, voice actor (Power Rangers) dies at 50
2006 Oleg Cassini, fashion designer, dies at 92

Today in History

0180 Marcus Aurelius died, leaving Commodus as the sole emperor of the Roman Empire.
1756 St. Patrick's Day was celebrated in New York City for the first time, at the Crown and Thistle Tavern.
1776 British forces evacuated Boston during the Revolutionary War.
1845 The rubber band was patented.
1870 The Massachusetts Legislature authorized the incorporation of Wellesley Female Seminary (later Wellesley College).
1905 Franklin D. Roosevelt married his distant cousin, Eleanor Roosevelt, in New York City; the wedding was attended by President Theodore Roosevelt, FDR's fifth cousin, who gave his niece away.
1906 President Theodore Roosevelt first used the term "muck-rake" as he criticized what he saw as the excesses of investigative journalism in a speech to the Gridiron Club in Washington.
1910 The Camp Fire Girls organization was formed.
1941 The National Gallery of Art opened in Washington, D.C.
1942 The first Jews from the Lviv Ghetto in western Ukraine were gassed at the Belzec death camp.
1942 Gen. Douglas MacArthur arrived in Australia to become supreme commander of Allied forces in the southwest Pacific theater during World War II.
1950 Scientists at the University of California at Berkeley announced they had created a new radioactive element, which they named "californium."
1959 The Dalai Lama fled Tibet for India in the wake of a failed uprising by Tibetans against Chinese rule.
1966 A hydrogen bomb that had fallen from an American bomber over the Mediterranean Sea was located by a U.S. midget submarine.
1969 Golda Meir became prime minister of Israel.
1999 The International Olympic Committee expelled six of its members in the wake of a bribery scandal.
2003 Edging to the brink of war, President George W. Bush gave Saddam Hussein 48 hours to leave his country; Iraq rejected the ultimatum.
2005 Baseball players Rafael Palmeiro and Sammy Sosa testified before Congress that they hadn't used steroids while Mark McGwire refused to say whether he had.
2008 A female suicide bomber struck Shiite Muslim worshippers in the holy city of Karbala, killing at least 49 people..
2008 Rock musician Paul McCartney's divorce from Heather Mills was settled for $48.6 million.
2008 New York State Governor Eliot Spitzer resigned after a scandal involving a high-end prostitute.

Chart Toppers

1948
Now is the Hour - Bing Crosby
I’m Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover - The Art Moonie Orchestra
Beg Your Pardon - Francis Craig
I’ll Hold You in My Heart (Till I Can Hold You in My Arms) - Eddy Arnold

1956
Lisbon Antigua - Nelson Riddle
Why Do Fools Fall in Love - Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers
Hot Diggity (Dog Ziggity Boom) - Perry Como
Heartbreak Hotel - Elvis Presley

1964
I Want to Hold Your Hand - The Beatles
She Loves You - The Beatles
Please Please Me - The Beatles
Saginaw, Michigan - Lefty Frizzell

1972
Without You - Nilsson
Heart of Gold - Neil Young
The Lion Sleeps Tonight - Robert John
My Hang-Up is You - Freddie Hart

1980
Crazy Little Thing Called Love - Queen
Longer - Dan Fogelberg
Another Brick in the Wall - Pink Floyd
My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys - Willie Nelson

1988
Never Gonna Give You Up - Rick Astley
I Get Weak - Belinda Carlisle
Man in the Mirror - Michael Jackson
Too Gone Too Long - Randy Travis

Quote of the Day

A celebrity is one who is known to many persons he is glad he doesn't know.
H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)

1988
Never Gonna Give You Up - Rick Astley

Why, that reminds me of this completely unrelated song by the muppets!

Today in History - March 18th

Stanley Cup Day

Today's Birthdays

1496 Mary Tudor, daughter of Henry VII of England/queen consort of Louis XII of France, died June 25, 1533
1782 John Calhoun, U.S. Vice President, died Mar 31, 1850
1837 Grover Cleveland, 22nd/24th President of the United States, died June 24, 1908
1844 Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, composer (Flight of the Bumblebee) died June 21, 1908
1909 Ernest Gallo, winemaker, died March 6, 2007
1911 Smiley (Lester Alvin) Burnette, actor (King of the Cowboys) died Feb 16, 1967
1923 Andy Granatelli, auto racer (STP spokesman)
1926 Peter Graves, actor (Mission: Impossible TV series)
1927 George Plimpton, author (Paper Lion) died Sep 26, 2003
1932 John Updike, author (Witches of Eastwick) died January 27, 2009
1936 F.W. de Klerk, former South African president
1938 Charley Pride, country singer
1941 Wilson Pickett, singer (In the Midnight Hour, Mustang Sally) died Jan 19, 2006
1943 Kevin Dobson, actor (Knot's Landing)
1947 B.J. (Barrie James) Wilson, drummer (Procol Harum) died Oct 8, 1990
1950 Brad Dourif, actor (Deadwood)
1950 John Hartman, drummer (The Doobie Brothers)
1951 Ben Cohen, co-founder (Ben & Jerry's ice cream)
1959 Irene Cara, singer/actress (Fame)
1960 Richard Biggs, actor (Babylon 5) died May 22, 2004
1961 Thomas Ian Griffith, actor (Vampires)
1963 Vanessa Williams, singer/actress/Miss America (Ugly Betty)
1963 Jeff LaBar, guitarist (Cinderella)
1964 Bonnie Blair, Olympic gold medal speed skater
1966 Jerry Cantrell, singer/songwriter/guitarist (Alice in Chains)
1967 Miki Berenyi, singer (Lush)
1970 Queen Latifah, singer/actress (Beauty Shop)
1972 Dane Cook, actor/comedian (Employee of the Month)
1974 Stuart Zender, rock musician (Jamiroquai)
1979 Adam Levine, rock singer (Maroon 5)
1980 Sophia Myles, actress (Underworld series)

Today's Deaths in History

1947 William C. Durant, automobile pioneer (General Motors, Chevrolet) dies at 85
1969 Barbara Bates, film actress (All About Eve) dies at 43
1980 Erich Fromm, German-born psychologist/philosopher, dies at 79
1986 Bernard Malamud, writer (The Natural) dies at 71
1988 Billy Butterfield, jazz trumpeter, dies at 71
1990 Robin Harris, actor/comedian (Bébé's Kids) dies at 36
2001 John Phillips, guitarsit/singer/songwriter (The Mamas and the Papas) dies at 65
2002 Brittanie Cecil, hockey fan, dies at 13 after being hit in the head by a puck
2006 Bill Beutel, broadcast journalist (ABC) dies at 75
2008 Anthony Minghella, film director (The English Patient, The Talented Mr. Ripley) dies at 54

Today in History

1766 Britain repealed the Stamp Act.
1850 American Express was founded by Henry Wells and William Fargo.
1865 The Congress of the Confederate States of America adjourned for the last time.
1874 Hawaii signed a treaty with the United States granting exclusive trading rights.
1893 Former Governor General Lord Stanley pledged to donate a silver challenge cup, later named after him, as an award for the best hockey team in Canada; originally presented to amateur champions, the Stanley Cup has been awarded to the top pro team since 1910, and since 1926, only to National Hockey League teams.
1909 Einar Dessau of Denmark used a shortwave transmitter to converse with a government radio post about six miles away in what's believed to have been the first broadcast by a "ham" operator.
1922 Mohandas K. Gandhi was sentenced to prison in India for civil disobedience.
1925 A tornado with a base nearly a mile wide tore a destructive path 219 miles from southeastern Missouri across Illinois and into southwestern Indiana; with 695 killed, it is the deadliest tornado in U.S. history.
1931 Schick Inc. marketed the first electric razor.
1937 A gas explosion at a school in New London, Texas, killed more than 400 people, most of them children.
1940 Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini held a meeting at the Brenner Pass during which the Italian dictator agreed to join in Germany's war against France and Britain.
1944 The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Italy killed 26 and caused thousands to flee their homes.
1959 President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Hawaii statehood bill.
1962 France and Algerian rebels agreed to a truce.
1965 Soviet cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov went on the first spacewalk.
1968 The U.S. Congress repealed the requirement for a gold reserve to back U.S. currency.
1974 Most of the Arab oil-producing nations ended their embargo against the United States.
1990 In the largest art theft in U.S. history, 12 paintings (collectively worth around $300 million) were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Massachusetts.
2000 Taiwan ended more than a half century of Nationalist Party rule by electing opposition leader Chen Shui-bian president.
2002 Brittanie Cecil, 13, died two days after being hit in the head by a hockey puck during an NHL game between the hometown Columbus Blue Jackets and the Calgary Flames.
2003 FBI agents raided the corporate headquarters of HealthSouth Corporation in Birmingham, Alabama on suspicion of massive corporate fraud led by the company's top executives.
2005 Doctors in Florida, acting on orders of a state judge, removed Terri Schiavo's feeding tube; the brain-damaged woman died 13 days later.
2005 Former Connecticut Gov. John G. Rowland was sentenced to a year in prison and four months under house arrest for corruption.
2008 Democrat Barack Obama confronted America's racial divide head-on with a speech in Philadelphia in which he urged the nation to break "a racial stalemate we've been stuck in for years."

Chart Toppers

1949
Far Away Places - Margaret Whiting
Powder Your Face with Sunshine - Evelyn Knight
Cruising Down the River - The Russ Morgan Orchestra (vocal: The Skyliners)
Don’t Rob Another Man’s Castle - Eddy Arnold

1957
Young Love - Tab Hunter
Round and Round - Perry Como
Little Darlin’ - The Diamonds
There You Go - Johnny Cash

1965
Eight Days a Week - The Beatles
Stop! In the Name of Love - The Supremes
The Birds and the Bees - Jewel Akens
I’ve Got a Tiger by the Tail - Buck Owens

1973
Killing Me Softly with His Song - Roberta Flack
Love Train - O’Jays
Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001) - Deodato
Teddy Bear Song - Barbara Fairchild

1981
9 to 5 - Dolly Parton
Keep on Loving You - REO Speedwagon
Woman - John Lennon
Guitar Man - Elvis Presley

1989
Lost in Your Eyes - Debbie Gibson
The Living Years - Mike & the Mechanics
Roni - Bobby Brown
From a Jack to a King - Ricky Van Shelton

Quote of the Day

Learning to dislike children at an early age saves a lot of expense and aggravation later in life.
Robert Byrne

Today in History - March 19th

Today's Birthdays

1589 William Bradford, governor of the Plymouth Colony, died May 19, 1657
1813 David Livingstone, missionary/explorer, died May 1, 1873
1848 Wyatt Earp, frontiersman/lawman (gunfight at O.K. Corral) died Jan 13, 1929
1860 William Jennings Bryan, Congressman/Democratic U.S. presidential nominee (Scopes trial) died July 26, 1925
1890 Ho Chi Minh, North Vietnamese leader, died Sept 2, 1969
1891 Earl Warren, 14th Chief Justice of the United States, died July 9, 1974
1894 (Jackie) ‘Moms’ Mabley (Loretta Mary Aiken), comedienne, died May 23, 1975
1904 John Sirica, U.S. federal judge (Watergate trials) died Aug 14, 1992
1920 Tige Andrews, actor (The Mod Squad) died January 27, 2007
1928 Patrick McGoohan, actor/director (Danger Man, The Prisoner) died January 13, 2009
1933 Philip Roth, author (Portnoy's Complaint)
1933 Reneé Taylor, actress (Alfie)
1936 Ursula Andress, actress (Dr. No, Casino Royale)
1937 Clarence ''Frogman'' Henry, R&B singer
1939 Joe Kapp, NFL quarterback (Minnesota Vikings)
1944 Sirhan Sirhan, assassin (killed Bobby Kennedy)
1946 Ruth Pointer, singer (The Pointer Sisters)
1946 Paul Atkinson, guitarist (The Zombies) died Apr 1, 2004
1947 Glenn Close, actress (Fatal Attraction, Dangerous Liaisons, The Big Chill)
1952 Harvey Weinstein, film producer (Miramax)
1953 Ricky Wilson, guitarist (The B-52's) died October 12, 1985
1953 Billy Sheehan, bassist (Mr. Big)
1955 Bruce Willis, actor (Die Hard series)
1955 Derek Longmuir, drummer (The Bay City Rollers)
1958 Andy Reid, football coach (Philadelphia Eagles)
1964 Jake Weber, actor (Medium, Meet Joe Black, Dawn of the Dead)
1974 Vida Guerra, model (Maxim magazine)
1976 Zach Lind, rock musician (Jimmy Eat World)
1976 Rachel Blanchard, actress (Flight of the Conchords, Clueless)

Today's Deaths in History

1943 Frank Nitti, gangster (Al Capone gang) dies at 55
1950 Edgar Rice Burroughs, author (Tarzan) dies at 74
1974 Anne Klein, fashion designer, dies at 50
1982 Randy Rhoads, guitarist (Quiet Riot, Ozzy Osbourne) dies at 25
1990 Andrew Wood, singer (Mother Love Bone) dies at 24
2005 John De Lorean, automobile engineer, dies at 80
2007 Calvert DeForest, actor (Larry "Bud" Melman) dies at 85
2007 Luther Ingram, R&B singer/songwriter, dies at 69
2008 Sir Arthur C. Clarke, English science fiction author (2001: A Space Odyssey) dies at 90

Today in History

1859 The opera Faust by Charles Gounod premiered in Paris.
1915 Pluto was photographed for the first time but was not recognized as a planet.
1916 Eight American planes took off in pursuit of Pancho Villa in the first United States air-combat mission in history
1917 The Supreme Court upheld the eight-hour work day for railroads.
1918 Congress approved daylight-saving time.
1920 The U.S. Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles for a second time.
1931 Nevada legalized gambling.
1945 Kamikaze planes attacked the U.S. carrier Franklin off Japan, killing about 800 people.
1945 Adolf Hitler issued his so-called "Nero Decree" ordering the destruction of German facilities that could fall into Allied hands.
1953 The Academy Awards ceremony was televised for the first time.
1954 Joey Giardello knocked out Willie Tory in the 7th round at Madison Square Garden in the first televised prize boxing fight shown in color.
1962 Bob Dylan's self-titled debut album was released.
1966 Texas Western became the first college basketball team to win the Final Four with an all-black starting lineup.
1979 The U.S. House of Representatives began televising its day-to-day business.
1987 Televangelist Jim Bakker resigned as chairman of his PTL ministry organization amid a sex-and-money scandal involving a former church secretary, Jessica Hahn.
1988 Two British soldiers were shot to death after they were dragged from a car and beaten by mourners attending an Irish Republican Army funeral in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
1990 Latvia's political opposition claimed victory in the republic's first free elections in 50 years.
1993 Supreme Court Justice Byron R. White announced plans to retire.
1995 After giving up an attempt to become a major league baseball player, Michael Jodan returned to pro basketball with his former team, the Chicago Bulls.
2001 California officials declared a power alert, ordering the first of two days of rolling blackouts.
2003 Mahmoud Abbas accepted the new position of Palestinian prime minister.
2003 An American-led coalition launched a war against Iraq, beginning with the launch of U.S. cruise missiles and precision-guided bombs aimed at Saddam Hussein near Baghdad.

Chart Toppers

1950
I Said My Pajamas - Tony Martin & Fran Warren
Music, Music, Music - Teresa Brewer
If I Knew You Were Comin’ I’d’ve Baked a Cake - Eileen Barton
Chatanoogie Shoe Shine Boy - Red Foley

1958
Don’t/I Beg of You - Elvis Presley
Sweet Little Sixteen - Chuck Berry
Dinner with Drac (Part 1) - John Zacherle
Ballad of a Teenage Queen - Johnny Cash

1966
The Ballad of the Green Berets - SSgt Barry Sadler
19th Nervous Breakdown - The Rolling Stones
Nowhere Man - The Beatles
Waitin’ in Your Welfare Line - Buck Owens

1974
Seasons in the Sun - Terry Jacks
Dark Lady - Cher
Sunshine on My Shoulders - John Denver
There Won’t Be Anymore - Charlie Rich

1982
Centerfold - The J. Geils Band
Open Arms - Journey
I Love Rock ’N Roll - Joan Jett & the Blackhearts
Blue Moon with Heartache - Roseanne Cash

1990
Escapade - Janet Jackson
Black Velvet - Alannah Myles
Roam - The B-52’s
Hard Rock Bottom of Your Heart - Randy Travis

Quote of the Day

These days an income is something you can't live without - or within.
Tom Wilson, cartoonist

Today in History – March 20th

Today's Birthdays

1828 Henrik Ibsen, dramatist (Peer Gynt, Hedda Gabler) died May 23, 1906
1882 René Coty, President of France (1953-58) died November 22, 1962
1902 Edgar Buchanan, actor (Petticoat Junction) died April 4, 1979
1904 Burrhus Frederic (B.F.) Skinner, Behaviorism pioneer, died Aug 18, 1990
1906 Ozzie Nelson, actor (Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet) died June 3, 1975
1908 Sir Michael Redgrave, actor (Browning Version) died Mar 21, 1985
1918 Jack Barry, game show emcee (Joker's Wild) died May 2, 1984
1920 Werner Klemperer, actor (Hogan's Heroes) died December 6, 2000
1922 Carl Reiner, comedian/actor (2000 Year Old Man)
1922 Ray Goulding, comedian (Bob & Ray) died Mar 24, 1990
1925 John D Erlichman, politician (Watergate conspirator) died February 14, 1999
1928 Mr. Rogers (Fred McFeely), children's television host (Mr. Roger's Neighborhood) died Feb 27, 2003
1931 Hal Linden (Harold Lipshitz), actor (Barney Miller)
1935 Ted Bessell, actor (That Girl, Gomer Pyle) died October 6, 1996
1937 Jerry Reed, singer/actor (Smokey & the Bandit, When You're Hot You're Hot) died September 1, 2008
1939 Brian Mulroney, former Canadian prime minister
1945 Pat Riley, NBA star/coach (LA Lakers, New York Knicks)
1947 Carl Palmer, drummer (Emerson Lake & Palmer)
1948 Bobby Orr, Parry Sound Ontario, Hockey Hall of Fame defenseman (Boston Bruins)
1948 Pamela Sargent, US, sci-fi author (Venus of Dreams)
1950 William Hurt, actor (Altered States, The Big Chill, Broadcast News)
1951 Guy Perry, guitarist/vocalist (The Motels)
1951 Jimmie Vaughan, guitarist (Fabulous Thunderbirds)
1955 Billy Sheehan, rock bassist (Mr. Big)
1955 Paul Smachetti, board member
1957 Spike Lee, director (Do the Right Thing, Mo’ Better Blues, Jungle Fever)
1957 Theresa Russell, actress (Black Widow)
1958 Holly Hunter, actress (The Piano, Broadcast News, The Firm, Raising Arizona)
1961 Slim Jim Phantom, drummer (Stray Cats)
1963 Kathy Ireland, model/actress (Necessary Roughness)
1966 Jessica Lundy, actress (Party of Five)
1968 Liza Snyder, actress (Yes Dear)
1970 Michael Rapaport, actor (Cop Land, Boston Public, Zebrahead)
1971 Alexander Chaplin, actor (Spin City)
1972 Alexander Kapranos, singer/guitarist (Franz Ferdinand)
1973 Jane March, actress (The Lover)
1976 Chester Bennington, singer (Linkin Park)
1982 Nick Wheeler, guitarist (The All-American Rejects)
1984 Christy Carlson Romano, actress (Even Stevens, Kim Possible)
1986 Lady Gaga, singer/songwriter

Today's Deaths in History

1934 Queen Emma of the Netherlands dies at 75
1972 Marilyn Maxwell, actress (Bus Stop), dies at 50
1974 Chet Huntley, newscaster (NBC Huntley-Brinkley Report), dies at 62
1974 Edward Platt, actor (Get Smart), dies at 58
1987 Norman Harris, guitarist (O'Jays), dies at 39 of heart failure
1991 Conor Clapton, Eric Clapton's son, falls out of 53rd floor window and dies at 4
1994 Lewis Grizzard, humorist (If I Ever Get Back to Georgia I'm Gonna Nail My Feet to the Ground) dies at 47
1998 George Howard, jazz saxophonist, dies at 42
2004 Queen Juliana of the Netherlands dies at 94

Today in History

1616 Sir Walter Raleigh was freed from the Tower of London after 13 years of imprisonment.
1815 Napoleon Bonaparte entered Paris, beginning his Hundred Days rule.
1816 The Supreme Court affirmed its right to review state court decisions.
1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel about slavery, Uncle Tom's Cabin, was published.
1896 U.S. Marines landed in Nicaragua in the wake of a revolution.
1899 Martha M. Place of Brooklyn, N.Y., became the first woman to be executed in the electric chair.
1914 The first international figure skating championship took place in New Haven, Connecticut.
1916 Albert Einstein published his general theory of relativity.
1922 The USS Langley (CV-1) was commissioned as the first United States Navy aircraft carrier.
1942 General Douglas MacArthur, at Terowie, South Australia, made his famous speech regarding the fall of the Philippines, in which he said, "I came out of Bataan and I shall return."
1952 The United States Senate ratified a peace treaty with Japan.
1969 Rock musician John Lennon of the Beatles married Yoko Ono in Gibraltar.
1976 Newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst was convicted of armed robbery for her part in a San Francisco bank holdup.
1985 Libby Riddles became the first woman to win the 1,135-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
1987 The Food and Drug Administration approved the sale of AZT, a drug shown to prolong the lives of some AIDS patients.
1990 Namibia became an independent nation, marking the end of 75 years of South African rule.
1990 Ferdinand Marcos's widow, Imelda Marcos, went on trial for bribery, embezzlement, and racketeering.
1993 An Irish Republican Army bomb exploded in Warrington, England, killing 3-year-old Johnathan Ball and 12-year-old Tim Parry.
1995 A doomsday cult released sarin nerve gas in five Tokyo subway stations, killing 12 people and injuring more than 5,500.
1996 A jury in Los Angeles convicted Erik and Lyle Menendez of first-degree murder in the shotgun slayings of their millionaire parents; they are serving life without parole.
1997 Liggett Group, the maker of Chesterfield cigarettes, settled 22 state lawsuits by admitting the industry markets cigarettes to teenagers and agreeing to warn on every pack that smoking is addictive.
2002 Arthur Andersen pleaded innocent to charges it had shredded documents and deleted computer files related to Enron.
2003 U.S. and British forces invaded Iraq from Kuwait.
2004 The U.S. military charged six soldiers with abusing inmates at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

Chart Toppers

1951
If - Perry Como
Be My Love - Mario Lanza
My Heart Cries for You - Guy Mitchell
The Rhumba Boogie - Hank Snow

1959
Venus - Frankie Avalon
Charlie Brown - The Coasters
Alvin’s Harmonica - David Seville & the Chipmunks
Don’t Take Your Guns to Town - Johnny Cash

1967
Penny Lane - The Beatles
Happy Together - The Turtles
Dedicated to the One I Love - The Mamas & the Papas
The Fugitive - Merle Haggard

1975
Black Water - The Doobie Brothers
My Eyes Adored You - Frankie Valli
Lady Marmalade - LaBelle
Before the Next Teardrop Falls - Freddy Fender

1983
Billy Jean - Michael Jackson
Shame on the Moon - Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band
Do You Really Want to Hurt Me - Culture Club
I Wouldn’t Change You If I Could - Ricky Skaggs

1991
Someday - Mariah Carey
One More Try - Timmy T
Show Me the Way - Styx
I’d Love You All Over Again - Alan Jackson

Quote of the Day

Lawyers spend a great deal of their time shoveling smoke.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., jurist (1841 - 1935)

Today in History - March 21st

Today's Birthdays

1685 Johann Sebastian Bach, composer; died July 28, 1750
1839 Modest Mussorgsky, composer (Night on Bald Mountain) died March 28, 1881
1869 Florenz Ziegfeld, producer (Ziegfield Follies) died July 22, 1932
1910 Julio Gallo, vintner (Ernest & Julio Gallo Winery) died May 2, 1993
1929 Jules Bergman, space & science reporter (ABC-TV) died February 11, 1987
1930 James Coco, actor (Man of La Mancha, Murder by Death) died Feb 25, 1987
1940 Solomon Burke, soul singer (Cry to Me)
1946 Timothy Dalton, actor (Living Daylights, License to Kill)
1949 Eddie Money, rock singer (Two Tickets to Paradise)
1950 Roger Hodgson, rock vocalist (Supertramp)
1951 Russell Thompkins Jr, soul singer (Stylistics)
1953 Robert "Shotgun" Johnson, drummer (KC & the Sunshine Band)
1958 Brad Hall, Santa Barbara CA, comedian (Saturday Night Live)
1958 Gary Oldman, actor (The Professional, The Fifth Element, Dracula, Batman Begins)
1960 Robert Sweet, drummer (Stryper)
1961 Shawn Lane, guitarist (Black Oak Arkansas) died September 26, 2003
1962 Matthew Broderick, actor (Ferris Bueller's Day Off, The Producers)
1962 Rosie O'Donnell, comedienne/actress (A League of Their Own)
1963 Sharon June Howe Pederson, guitarist (Vixen)
1965 Cynthia Geary, actress (Northern Exposure)
1967 Jonas "Joker" Berggren, singer (Ace of Base)
1967 Maxim, MC (Prodigy)
1968 Andrew Copeland, guitarist/singer (Sister Hazel)
1968 Jaye Davidson, actor (The Crying Game, Stargate)
1972 Vanessa Branch, actress (Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl)
1974 Laura Allen, actress (Mona Lisa Smile)
1974 Rhys Darby, New Zealand comedian/actor (Flight of the Conchords)
1978 Kevin Federline, dancer/ex-Mr. Britney Spears
1980 Deryck Whibley, guitarist/singer (Sum 41)
1980 Ronaldinho, soccer star
1985 Adrian Peterson, NFL running back (Minnesota Vikings)
1985 Ryan Callahan, NHL wing (NY Rangers)

Today's Deaths in History

1617 Pocahontas, daughter of Powhatan, dies at 22
1974 Candy Darling (James Slattery), female impersonator, dies at 29
1982 Harry H Corbett, British actor (Jabberwacky), dies at 57
1984 Shauna Grant, adult film star, commits suicide at 20
1985 Michael Redgrave, actor (Goodbye Mr. Chips), dies at 77
1987 Dean Paul Martin, actor (Misfits of Science), dies at 35 in a plane crash
1987 Robert Preston, actor (Music Man, The Last Starfighter), dies at 68
1991 Leo Fender, inventor (Fender guitar), dies at 81
1991 Rajiv Gandhi, former Prime Minister of India, killed by bomb at 46
1992 John Ireland, actor (Rawhide), dies at 78
1994 Dack Rambo, actor (Dallas), dies of AIDS at 52
1995 Norman Schwartz, record producer, dies at 66
2005 Barney Martin, actor (Arthur, The Odd Couple) dies at 82
2005 Bobby Short, cabaret/lounge singer, dies at 80
2007 Kevin Whitrick, commits suicide on a live chatroom at 42

Today in History

1556 Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer was burned at the stake in Oxford.
1790 Thomas Jefferson took office as America's first secretary of state.
1804 The French civil code, the Code Napoleon, was adopted.
1871 Journalist Henry M. Stanley began an expedition to Africa to locate missing Scottish missionary David Livingstone.
1918 Germany launched the Somme offensive during World War I, hoping to break through the Allied line before American reinforcements could arrive.
1928 Charles Lindbergh was presented the Medal of Honor for his first trans-Atlantic flight.
1945 Allied bombers began four days of raids over Germany during World War II.
1946 The United Nations set up temporary headquarters at Hunter College in New York City.
1952 Alan Freed presented the Moondog Coronation Ball, the first rock and roll concert, in Cleveland, Ohio.
1960 Police fired on demonstrators in Sharpeville, South Africa, killing some 70 people.
1963 Alcatraz prison in San Francisco Bay was emptied of its last inmates.
1965 More than 3,000 civil rights demonstrators led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. began a march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala.
1970 The first Earth Day proclamation was issued by San Francisco Mayor Joseph Alioto.
1970 Vinko Bogataj crashed during a ski-jumping championship in Germany; his image became that of the "agony of defeat guy" in the opening credits of ABC's Wide World of Sports.
1980 President Jimmy Carter announced a United States boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow to protest the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan.
1980 On the season finale of Dallas, J.R. Ewing was shot by an unseen assailant, leading to the catchphrase "Who Shot JR?"
1985 Police in Langa, South Africa, opened fire on blacks marching to mark the 25th anniversary of the Sharpeville shootings, killing at least 21 demonstrators.
1985 Canadian paraplegic athlete and humanitarian Rick Hansen began his circumnavigation of the globe in a wheelchair in the name of spinal cord injury medical research.
1987 U2 released The Joshua Tree album.
1989 Randall Dale Adams, whose conviction for killing a police officer was overturned after the documentary The Thin Blue Line challenged evidence, was released from a Texas prison.
1989 Sports Illustrated reported allegations tying baseball player Pete Rose to baseball gambling.
1999 Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones became the first to circumnavigate the Earth in a hot air balloon.
2000 A divided Supreme Court ruled the government lacked authority to regulate tobacco as an addictive drug.
2002 In Pakistan, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, along with three other suspects, was charged with murder for the kidnapping and killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
2005 Armed with a new law rushed through Congress and signed by President George W. Bush, the attorney for Terri Schiavo's parents pleaded with a judge to order the brain-damaged woman's feeding tube re-inserted; the judge later refused.

Chart Toppers

1944
Mairzy Doats - The Merry Macs
Besame Mucho - The Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra (vocal: Bob Eberly & Kitty Kallen)
Poinciana - Bing Crosby
They Took the Stars Out of Heaven - Floyd Tillman

1952
Cry - Johnnie Ray
Wheel of Fortune - Kay Starr
Anytime - Eddie Fisher
(When You Feel like You’re in Love) Don’t Just Stand There - Carl Smith

1960
The Theme from "A Summer Place" - Percy Faith
Wild One - Bobby Rydell
Puppy Love - Paul Anka
He’ll Have to Go - Jim Reeves

1968
(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay - Otis Redding
Love is Blue - Paul Mauriat
Simon Says - 1910 Fruitgum Co.
A World of Our Own - Sonny James

1976
December 1963 (Oh, What a Night) - The Four Seasons
Dream Weaver - Gary Wright
Lonely Night (Angel Face) - Captain & Tennille
Faster Horses (The Cowboy and the Poet) - Tom T. Hall

1984
Jump - Van Halen
Girls Just Want to Have Fun - Cyndi Lauper
Somebody’s Watching Me - Rockwell
Elizabeth - The Statler Brothers

Quote of the Day

Nobody talks so constantly about God as those who insist that there is no God.
Heywood Broun, journalist (1888 - 1939)

Today in History – March 22nd

Today's Birthdays

1887 Chico (Leonard) Marx, comedian (The Marx Brothers) died Oct 11, 1961
1908 Louis L'Amour, writer (The Quick and the Dead) died June 10, 1988
1912 Karl Malden (Mladen Sekulovich), actor (Streets of San Francisco)
1917 Virginia Grey, actress (The Rose Tattoo) died July 31, 2004
1920 Ross Martin (Martin Rosenblatt), actor (The Wild Wild West) died July 3, 1981
1923 Marcel Marceau (Mangel), mime, died Sept 22, 2007
1924 Bill Wendell (William Joseph Wenzel, Jr.), announcer (Tonight Show) died Apr 14, 1999
1930 Pat Robertson (Marion Gordon Robinson), TV evangelist
1930 Stephen Sondheim, composer (Send in the Clowns)
1931 William Shatner, actor (Boston Legal, Star Trek)
1935 M. (Michael) Emmet Walsh, actor (Blade Runner)
1940 Haing S. Ngor, Cambodian/American actor (Tne Killing Fields) murdered February 25, 1996
1943 George Benson, guitarist/singer (This Masquerade, On Broadway)
1943 Keith Relf, singer (The Yardbirds) died May 14, 1976
1944 Jeremy Clyde, singer (Chad & Jeremy)
1947 Harry Vanda, guitarist (The Easybeats)
1947 James Patterson, writer (Along Came a Spider)
1948 Randy Hobbs, bassist (The McCoys)
1948 Andrew Lloyd Webber, composer (Jesus Christ Superstar, Phantom of the Opera)
1948 Wolf Blitzer, TV newsman
1952 Bob Costas (Robert Quinlan), sportscaster
1955 Lena Olin, actress (Romeo is Bleeding, Chocolat)
1957 Stephanie Mills, singer/actress (The Wiz)
1959 Carlton Cuse, TV writer/executive (Lost)
1959 Matthew Modine, actor (Memphis Belle, Vision Quest, Weeds)
1972 Cory Lidle, pitcher (NY Yankees) died Oct 11, 2006
1975 Cole Hauser, actor (Pitch Black)
1975 Anne Dudek, actress (House MD)
1976 Reese Witherspoon, actress (Legally Blonde series, Pleasantville)
1976 Kellie Williams, actress (Family Matters)
1977 John Otto, drummer (Limp Bizkit)
1978 Tom Poti, NHL defenseman (NY Rangers)
1980 Shannon Bex, singer (Danity Kane)
1985 Katie Stuart, actress (X2: X-Men United)
1988 Tania Raymonde, actress (Malcolm in the Middle)

Today's Deaths in History

1832 Johann Wolfgang Goethe, playwright/poet (Faust) dies at 82
1978 Karl Wallenda, patriarch of high-wire daredevil family, falls to his death at 73
1986 Mark Dinning, singer (Teen Angel) dies at 52
1991 Dave Guard, folk singer (The Kingston Trio) dies at 56
1994 Walt Lantz, animator (Woody Woodpecker) dies at 94
1994 Dan Hartman, singer (I Can Dream About You) dies at 43 of AIDS
1996 Don Murray, drummer (The Turtles) dies at 50
1999 David Strickland, actor (Suddenly Susan) commits suicide at 29
2001 William Hanna, animation guru (Hanna-Barbera) dies at 90
2003 Terry Lloyd, English reporter, is killed in Iraq at 50
2003 Denise Lynn Roberts, stuntwoman (Titanic) dies at 41
2004 Ahmed Yassin, Palestinian co-founder of Hamas, dies at 66

Today in History

1622 Algonquian Indians killed 347 English settlers around Jamestown, Virginia, a third of the colony's population.
1765 Britain enacted the Stamp Act to raise money from the American colonies.
1871 In North Carolina, William Woods Holden became the first governor of a U.S. state to be removed from office by impeachment.
1882 Congress outlawed polygamy.
1894 Hockey's first Stanley Cup championship game was played as the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association defeated the Ottawa Capitals 3-1 in Montreal.
1895 In what is generally regarded as the first public display of a movie projected onto a screen, Auguste and Louis Lumiere showed their first movie to an invited audience in Paris.
1923 The first radio broadcast of ice hockey was made by Foster Hewitt.
1933 During Prohibition, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a measure to make wine and beer containing up to 3.2 percent alcohol legal.
1941 The Grand Coulee Dam in Washington state went into operation.
1945 The Arab League was formed with the adoption of a charter in Cairo, Egypt.
1946 The British mandate in Transjordan came to an end.
1963 The Beatles' first album, Please Please Me, was released in Great Britain.
1965 Bob Dylan's album Bringing It All Back Home, his first featuring electric guitar, was released.
1972 Congress sent the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution to the states for ratification.
1987 A barge carrying 3,200 tons of garbage left Islip, N.Y., on a six-month journey in search of a place to unload; the barge was turned away by several states and three countries before space was found back in Islip.
1989 Clint Malarchuk of the Buffalo Sabres suffered a near-fatal injury when another player accidentally slit his throat.
1990 A jury in Anchorage, Alaska, found former tanker captain Joseph Hazelwood innocent of three major charges in connection with the Exxon Valdez oil spill, but convicted him of a minor charge of negligent discharge of oil.
1991 High school instructor Pamela Smart, accused of manipulating her student-lover into killing her husband, was convicted in Exeter, N.H., of murder-conspiracy.
1993 The Intel Corporation shipped the first Pentium chips (80586), featuring a 60 MHz clock speed, 100+ MIPS, and a 64 bit data path.
1995 Colin Ferguson was sentenced to life in prison for killing six people on a Long Island Rail Road commuter train in 1993.
1997 Tara Lipinski of the United States became the youngest women's world figure skating champion at age 14 years, 10 months.
1997 The Comet Hale-Bopp had its closest approach to earth.
2004 Hamas spiritual leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City.
2006 The Basque separatist group ETA announced a permanent cease-fire with Spain.

Chart Toppers

1945
A Little on the Lonely Side - The Guy Lombardo Orchestra
Accentuate the Positive - Johnny Mercer
My Dreams are Getting Better All the Time - The Pied Pipers
There’s a New Moon Over My Shoulder - Jimmie Davis

1953
Till I Waltz Again with You - Teresa Brewer
Don’t Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes - Perry Como
Doggie in the Window - Patti Page
Kaw-Liga - Hank Williams

1961
Surrender - Elvis Presley
Where the Boys Are - Connie Francis
Dedicated to the One I Love - The Shirelles
Don’t Worry - Marty Robbins

1969
Dizzy - Tommy Roe
Traces - Classics IV featuring Dennis Yost
Indian Giver - 1910 Fruitgum Co.
Only the Lonely - Sonny James

1977
Love Theme from "A Star is Born" (Evergreen) - Barbra Streisand
Fly like an Eagle - Steve Miller
Rich Girl - Daryl Hall & John Oates
Southern Nights - Glen Campbell

1985
Can’t Fight This Feeling - REO Speedwagon
The Heat is On - Glenn Frey
Material Girl - Madonna
Crazy for Your Love - Exile

Quote of the Day

Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.
Martin Luther King Jr., civil rights leader & clergyman (1929 - 1968)

Today in History - March 23rd

Today's Birthdays

1908 Joan Crawford, actress (What Ever Happened To Baby Jane?) died May 10, 1977
1910 Akira Kurosawa, director (The Seven Samurai) died September 6, 1998
1912 Werner von Braun, rocket expert (I Aim at the Stars) died June 16, 1977
1929 Roger Bannister, England, first to run a 4-minute mile (May 6, 1954)
1932 Don Marshall, NHL forward (NY Rangers)
1937 Craig Breedlove, auto-racing champion (Spirit of America)
1938 Christopher Glenn, news anchor (CBS Nightwatch) died October 17, 2006
1942 Jimmy Miller, drummer (Motorhead) died October 22, 1994
1949 Ric Ocasek, singer (Cars)
1952 Patricia Richardson, actress (Home Improvement)
1953 Chaka Khan [Yvette Marie Stevens], singer (I Feel for You)
1953 Louie Anderson, comedian/actor (Coming to America)
1954 Moses Malone, NBA center (Atlanta Hawks, Milwaukee Bucks, Philadelphia '76ers)
1957 Amanda Plummer, actress (So I Married an Axe Murderer, The Fisher King, Pulp Fiction)
1959 Catherine Keener, actress (Being John Malkovich, The 40-Year Old Virgin)
1960 Terry Sweeney, writer/comedian (Saturday Night Live)
1964 Hope Davis, actress (About Schmidt)
1965 Richard Grieco, actor (21 Jump Street)
1966 Marin Hinkle, actress (Two and a Half Men)
1968 Damon Albarn, singer/songwriter (Blur, Gorillaz)
1973 Jason Kidd, NBA guard (Phoenix Suns, Dallas Mavericks)
1976 Keri Russell, actress (Mickey Mouse Club, Lottery, Daddy Girls)
1976 Michelle Monaghan, actress (Mission: Impossible III)
1978 Nicholle Tom, Hinsdale IL, actress (The Nanny)
1985 Maurice Jones-Drew, NFL running back (Jacksonville Jaguars)
1990 Eugenie, Princess of York/daughter of prince Andrew/Sarah Ferguson

Today's Deaths in History

1964 Peter Lorre, Hungarian-born actor (Casablanca, Maltese Falcon, M) dies at 59
1967 Duncan MaCrae, actor (Casino Royale, Kidnapped), dies at 61
1973 Ken Maynard, actor (Phantom Rancher, $50,000 Reward), dies at 77
1982 Barney Clark, first artificial heart recipient, dies
1991 Dominic Bellissimo, created buffalo chicken wings, dies at 68
1995 Alan Barton, singer (Smokie, Black Lace), dies in a bus crash at 41
2006 Cindy Walker, singer/songwriter/dancer (Country Music Hall of Fame) dies at 87
2006 David B. Bleak, Medal of Honor recipient (Korean War) dies at 74
2007 Eric Medlen, NHRA drag racer, dies of injuries from a racing accident at 33

Today in History

1743 George Frideric Handel's oratorio Messiah had its premiere, in London.
1775 Patrick Henry called for America's independence from Britain, telling the Virginia Provincial Convention, "Give me liberty, or give me death!"
1806 Explorers Lewis and Clark, having reached the Pacific coast, began their journey back east.
1857 Elisha Otis's first elevator was installed at 488 Broadway in New York City.
1896 The Raines Law was passed by the New York State Legislature, restricting Sunday sale of alcohol to hotels.
1903 The Wright Brothers applied for a patent on their invention: one of the first successful airplanes.
1909 Theodore Roosevelt left New York for a post-presidency safari in Africa.
1919 Benito Mussolini founded his Fascist political movement in Milan, Italy.
1933 The German Reichstag adopted the Enabling Act, which effectively granted Adolf Hitler dictatorial legislative powers.
1942 During World War II, the U.S. government began moving Japanese-Americans from their West Coast homes to detention centers.
1956 Pakistan became the first Islamic republic in the world.
1981 The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states could require, with some exceptions, parental notification when teenage girls seek abortions.
1983 President Ronald Reagan proposed the development of technology to intercept enemy nuclear missiles; the plan was dubbed Star Wars by its critics.
1983 Dr. Barney Clark died after living 112 days with a permanent artificial heart.
1990 Former Exxon Valdez Captain Joseph Hazelwood was sentenced by a judge in Anchorage, Alaska, to help clean up Prince William Sound and pay $50,000 in restitution for his role in the nation's worst oil spill.
1994 A United States Air Force F-16 aircraft collided with a USAF C-130 at Pope Air Force Base and then crashed, killing 24 United States Army soldiers on the ground.
1994 Wayne Gretzky of the Los Angeles Kings broke Gordie Howe's National Hockey League career record with his 802nd goal.
1998 The movie Titanic won 11 Academy Awards, including best picture, best director and best song, to tie the record set by 1959's Ben-Hur; the record was tied again by Lord of the Rings: Return of the King in 2003.
2001 Russia's orbiting Mir space station ended its 15-year odyssey with a fiery plunge into the South Pacific.
2003 A U.S. Army maintenance convoy was ambushed in Iraq; 11 soldiers were killed and seven were captured, including Pfc. Jessica Lynch.
2005 The United States 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision, refused to order the reinsertion of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube.
2007 The Iranian Navy seized Royal Navy personnel in Iraqi waters.
2008 A roadside bomb killed four U.S. soldiers in Baghdad, pushing the overall American death toll in the five-year war to at least 4,000.

Chart Toppers

1946
Oh, What It Seemed to Be - The Frankie Carle Orchestra (vocal: Marjorie Hughes)
Personality - Johnny Mercer
Day by Day - Frank Sinatra
Guitar Polka - Al Dexter

1954
Make Love to Me! - Jo Stafford
Cross Over the Bridge - Patti Page
Wanted - Perry Como
Slowly - Webb Pierce

1962
Hey! Baby - Bruce Channel
Midnight in Moscow - Kenny Ball & His Jazzmen
Don’t Break the Heart that Loves You - Connie Francis
That’s My Pa - Sheb Wooley

1970
Bridge Over Troubled Water - Simon & Garfunkel
The Rapper - The Jaggerz
Give Me Just a Little More Time - Chairmen of the Board
The Fightin’ Side of Me - Merle Haggard

1978
Night Fever - Bee Gees
Stayin’ Alive - Bee Gees
Lay Down Sally - Eric Clapton
Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys - Waylon & Willie

1986
These Dreams - Heart
Secret Lovers - Atlantic Starr
Rock Me Amadeus - Falco
What’s a Memory like You (Doing in a Love like This) - John Schneider

Quote of the Day

Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.
Edgar Allan Poe, author/editor/poet (1809 - 1849)