BROWNNOSE
BOOTLICKER
10th day of 2011 - 355 remaining
Monday, January 10, 2011
ROD THE MOD DAY
Born Roderick David Stewart on this day in 1945, the 5th son of Robert and Elsie Stewart spent his happy childhood doing what he did best: playing football (soccer) and singing. He excelled at the first, becoming captain of his school’s team. Then, for his 14th birthday, Rod’s father bought him a guitar.
That was the start of something big. Music auditions and emulating British and American folk artists convinced young Rod that he needed to play a harmonica. Soon he was singing with The Ray Davies Quartet (The Kinks) as their lead singer – only to irritate some with his now signature scratchy voice.
He was just 18 when he took on another signature – his spiked hairstyle – and earned the nickname, Rod the Mod! From folk music, to rock ‘n’ roll, to rhythm and blues, Stewart was running the gamut of popular music and writing some of his own. However, he wasn’t winning attention in any area until he joined the group, Faces. Going solo in 1969 led to the beginning of winning in every Direction for the throaty, extremely versatile singer. From the international smash hit, Maggie May to the even bigger hit, Tonight’s the Night to the 1978 chart-topper, Do Ya Think I’m Sexy, Rod Stewart was charming audiences around the globe. Two more decades of hit songs followed, including a version of Have I told You Lately that made one think Rod was singing only to you.
It would be hard to recognize that the seemingly quiet, retiring artist singing just to you was the same man who performed in 1994 at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro to the largest concert crowd in history: 3.5 million fans celebrating New Year’s Eve and Rod Stewart.
And, although he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, Rod Stewart was never awarded with a Grammy (he had 14 nominations) until 2005 when his Stardust… The Great American Songbook, Volume III was voted the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album. It was also the first time in 25 years that he had another #1 hit. That same year, Rod Stewart was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Today, audiences the world over have made the man with the most distinctive voice in pop music an icon and have purchased way more than 100 million of his records. Rod the Mod, now in his fifth decade as a performer, is still singing, selling more records and gaining new fans. And, he still plays in a senior soccer league in California.
Events January 10
1911 - Major Jimmie Erickson shot the first photograph from an airplane while flying over San Diego, California.
1945 - Erskine Hawkins waxed a classic for Victor Records. The tune, with the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra, was titled Tippin’ In.
1947 - Finian’s Rainbow opened on the Great White Way in New York City. The musical played for 725 performances. Years later, Petula Clark would star and sing in the celluloid version on the silver screen.
1949 - The Radio Corporation of America, sometimes known as RCA, announced a new 7-inch, 45-rpm phonograph record. Soon, the 45, the record with the big hole in the middle, would change the pop music business. RCA even manufactured a record player that played only 45s -- with a fat spindle that made “stacking wax” real simple and automatic for those romantic times when hands were just too busy to be flippin’ records.
1950 - Ben Hogan, appearing for the first time in a golf tournament since an auto accident a year earlier, tied ‘Slammin’ Sammy Snead in the Los Angeles Open. Hogan lost in a playoff.
1956 - Elvis Presley recorded his first tunes as an RCA Victor artist. Recording in Nashville, Elvis sang Heartbreak Hotel, I Got a Woman and Money Honey. Heartbreak Hotel was #1 by April 11, 1956 and stayed there for eight weeks. It was #1 on the pop and rhythm and blues charts and number five on the country music list.
1957 - Harold Macmillan became prime minister of Great Britain, following the resignation of Anthony Eden.
1960 - Marty Robbins’ hit tune, El Paso, held the record for the longest #1 song to that time. The song ran 4 minutes and 20 seconds, giving many radio station program directors fits; because the average record length at that time was around 2 minutes, and formats didn’t allow for records much longer than that, (e.g., 2-minute record, 3 minutes for commercials, 60 seconds for promo, 2-minute record, etc.). DJs got used to the longer length quickly, however, realizing it gave them time, before the record ended, to actually think of something to say next...
1961 - Author Dashiell Hammett (Sam Spade series, The Maltese Falcon) died. He was 66 years old.
1963 - The Chicago Cubs become the first baseball club to hire an athletic director. He was Robert Whitlow.
1964 - On the cover of LIFE magazine, the memoirs of U.S. General Douglas MacArthur.
1967 - Massachusetts Republican Edward W. Brooke, the first black elected to the U.S. Senate by popular vote, took his seat on this day.
1969 - Elvis Presley’s single, Don’t Cry Daddy, entered the Top 10 on the pop charts this day. If you listened to this song carefully, you’d hear a vocal duet with country artist Ronnie Milsap.
1969 - The final issue of The Saturday Evening Post appeared after 147 years of publication. It returned in limited publication years later. Norman Rockwell’s art was a popular item in the Post.
1971 - Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel, French fashion designer, died. She was 87 years old.
1971 - Masterpiece Theatre premiered on PBS. Host Alistair Cooke introduced the drama series, The First Churchills.
1976 - C.W. McCall’s Convoy was the #1 single in the U.S. -- on both pop and country charts. “Ah, breaker one-nine, this here’s the Rubber Duck ... You gotta copy on me, Pig Pen, c’mon? Ah, yeah, 10-4, Pig Pen, fer shure, fer shure. By golly, it’s clean clear to Flag Town, c'mon. Yeah, that’s a big 10-4 there, Pig Pen, yeah, we definitely got the front door, good buddy. Mercy sakes alive, looks like we got us a convoy...”
1978 - The Soviet Union launched two cosmonauts aboard the Soyuz 27 capsule for a rendezvous with the Salyut Six space laboratory. Two other cosmonauts had been living on Salyut Six for a month.
1981 - The Pirates of Penzance, by Gilbert and Sullivan, opened on Broadway. The show, starring pop singers Linda Ronstadt and Rex Smith, was made into a movie in 1983.
1984 - Cyndi Lauper became the first female recording artist since Bobbie Gentry [1967] to be nominated for five Grammy Awards: Album of the Year, Best New Artist, Best Pop Vocal Performance (Female), Record of the Year and Song of the Year. Lauper went one better for copping the award for Worst Hair Coloring by a Woman on the Planet. Girls Just Want to Have Fun ya know... fer sure.
1989 - Cuba began withdrawing its troops from Angola, more than 13 years after its first contingents arrived.
1990 - Time Inc. aquired Warner Communications for the tidy little sum of $14.1 billion. Thus began Time Warner, one of the world’s largest media and entertainment conglomerates.
1991 - Clint Black became the 66th member of the Grand Ole Opry during the taping of the show’s 65th anniversary celebration.
1994 - Lorena Bobbitt went on trial in Manassas, VA. She was charged with the malicious wounding of her husband John. She had cut off his penis, but was eventually acquitted by reason of temporary insanity.
1996 - The third day of the ‘Blizzard of ’96’ saw the northeastern U.S. buried under 1.5 to 3 feet of snow. The big storm caused $1 billion in damage and killed 100 people. New York City had the heaviest snowfall in 48 years. Quick, let’s go make snow angels.
1997 - These films debuted in U.S. theatres: Evita (“The Most Anticipated Motion Picture Event of The Year”), starring Madonna, Antonio Banderas, Jonathan Pryce and Jimmy Nail; Jackie Chan’s First Strike (“Jackie Chan fights for America in his biggest action film ever.”; The Relic (“They did the unthinkable. They brought it back.”), with Penelope Ann Miller, Tom Sizemore, Linda Hunt and James Whitmore; and Turbulence (“If you weren’t afraid of flying before, you will be now.”, starring Ray Liotta Lauren Holly Hector Elizondo Brendan Gleeson.
1997 - Dow Corning kicked in $2.95 billion to settle breast implant suits.
1998 - A 6.2 earthquake hit Zhangbei County in northern Hebei province in China. Fifty people were killed and 11,440 injured. The quake left cracks in the Great Wall of China.
2000 - America Online, “the company that brought the Internet to the masses,” announced that it had agreed to buy Time Warner, the largest traditional media company in the U.S., for $165 billion.
2001 - China sent rats into orbit aboard its Shenzhou II (Sacred Ship), powered by a Long March rocket.
2002 - The White House disclosed the fact that Enron Corporation had sought the Bush Administration’s help shortly before collapsing with the life savings of many workers.
2002 - U.S. Marines began flying hundreds of al-Qaida prisoners from Afghanistan to a U.S. base on the island of Cuba.
2002 - Todd Eldredge won his 6th U.S. Figure Skating Championship.
2003 - These movies debuted in the U.S.: Just Married, starring Ashton Kutcher, Brittany Murphy, Christian Kane, Monet Mazur, David Moscow, Valeria Andrews, David Rasche, Veronica Cartwright and Raymond Barry; and Narc, starring Jason Patric, Ray Liotta, Busta Rhymes and Chi Mcbride.
2004 - Michelle Kwan won her seventh straight title and eighth overall at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Atlanta; Johnny Weir skated to his first men’s title.
2005 - A mudslide at La Conchita in Ventura County, CA destroyed fifteen homes and killed ten people.
2005 - CBS News fired four people in the wake of a 2004 story, aired by Dan Rather, about George Bush and his involvement in the National Guard as a young man.
2006 - On the fourth anniversary of detainees being held without charge at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Amnesty International claimed that torture and ill-treatment of terrorist suspects was ongoing at Camp Delta.
2007 - The U.S. Postal Service honored jazz great Ella Fitzgerald with a postage stamp. Fitzgerald became the 30th honoree in the popular Black Heritage commemorative stamp series.
2007 - U.S. President George Bush (II) announced his intention to send an additional 21,500 troops to Iraq. The ‘surge’, as the build-up soon became known, was an attempt to improve the security of Baghdad and the western province of Anbar.
2009 - A winter storm left large swaths of the Midwest and Northeast U.S. covered in snow and freezing rain. Ten inches of snow forced some 100 cancellations at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.
2010 - Abu Dhabi Sheik Issa BIN Zayed Al Nahyan, a member of the United Arab Emirates ruling family being tried in connection with the videotaped beating of an Afghan man, was cleared of all charges -- even though the video showed the prince beating the man with a stick, whips, electric cattle prods, wooden planks with protruding nails; pouring salt on his wounds; and running him over repeatedly with a car. The victim, identified as Afghani grain dealer Mohammed Shapoor, survived the April 2009 attack.
2010 - China has overtook Germany as the world’s top exporter. China’s December exports jumped 17.7% for their first increase in 14 months.
Birthdays January 10
1843 - Frank James
train, bank robber: brother of outlaw Jesse James: the James Gang; died Feb 18, 1915
1878 - Richard ‘****ie’ Boon
Hockey Hall of Famer: Montreal AAA and Montreal Wanderers; won three career Stanley Cups; credited with being the first to use the poke-check; director, coach: Montreal Wanderers; died May. 3, 1961
1883 - Francis X. (Xavier) Bushman
actor: The Rosary, Neptune’s Daughter, The Thirteenth Man, **** Tracy, Hollywood Boulevard, David and Bathsheba, Sabrina, The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini; died Aug 23, 1966
1898 - George Hay
Hockey Hall of Famer: Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Cougars, Detroit Tigers, Detroit Red Wings: 73 career goals, 54 assists; died July 13, 1975
1904 - Ray Bolger (Raymond Wallace Bulcao)
dancer, actor: The Wizard of Oz; died Jan 15, 1987
1908 - Paul Henreid (Paul Georg Julius Hernreid Ritter Von Wassel-Waldingau)
actor: The Madwoman of Chaillot, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Deep in My Heart, Casablanca, Goodbye, Mr. Chips; director: Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Battle in Blue, Battle Shock, Tall Lie; died Mar 29, 1992
1917 - Jerry Wexler
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame record producer: Atlantic Records: worked with artists such as: Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, LaVern Baker, Ray Charles, Dusty Springfield, The Drifters, Dire Straits, Bob Dylan; died Aug 15, 2008
1921 - Rodger Ward
auto racer: Indianapolis 500 winner [1959 and 1962]; died Jul 5, 2004
1924 - Max Roach
jazz drummer, composer: Freedom Now Suite; educator: taught at Lennox, MA School of Jazz and Yale; Professor of Music at University of Massachusetts, Amherst; died Aug 16, 2007
1927 - Johnnie Ray
singer: Cry, Please, Mr. Sun, The Little White Cloud That Cried, Walkin’ My Baby Back Home, Just Walking in the Rain; died Feb 24, 1990
1927 - Gisele MacKenzie (Marie LaFeche)
singer: Your Hit Parade, Hard to Get; died Sep 5, 2003
1930 - Roy Edward Disney
executive: Walt Disney Company; nephew of Walt Disney; organized the ousting of two top Disney executives: Ron Miller [1984], Michael Eisner [2005]; died Dec 16, 2009
1935 - Ronnie Hawkins
singer: musician: rock ’n’ roller: Mary Lou, 40 Days
1938 - Frank Mahovlich
hockey: NHL: Toronto Maple Leafs, Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens
1938 - Willie (Lee) ‘Stretch’ McCovey
Baseball Hall of Famer: SF Giants [NL Rookie of the Year: 1959/World Series: 1962/all-star: 1963, 1966, 1968-1971/Baseball’s Writer’s National League MVP Award: 1969], SD Padres, Oakland Athletics
1939 - Sal Mineo (Salvatore Mineo, Jr.)
singer: Start Movin’, Lasting Love; actor: The Gene Krupa Story; died Feb 12, 1976
1939 - Bill Toomey
U.S. Decathlon Olympic Gold Medalist [1968]
1943 - Jim Croce
singer, songwriter: You Don’t Mess Around with Jim, Time in a Bottle, Bad, Bad Leroy Brown, I’ve Got a Name; killed in plane crash Sep 20, 1973
1944 - Frank Sinatra, Jr.
singer: It’s All Right; bandleader
1945 - Rod Stewart
singer, musician: Maggie May, You Wear It Well, Tonight’s The Night [Gonna Be Alright], I Don’t Want to Talk About It, Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?, This Old Heart of Mine, Have I Told You Lately; [see Rod the Mod Day - above]
1946 - Aynsley Dunbar
musician: drums: groups: Jefferson Starship: Freedom at Point Zero, Jane, Girl with the Hungry Eyes, Find Your Way Back, Winds of Change; Whitesnake: Whitesnake 1987, Still of the Night, What is Love and Here I go Again; Eric Burdon and the New Animals: We Gotta Get Out of This Place, It’s My Life, Spill the Wine, Don’t Bring Me Down, House of the Rising Sun; played with Pat Travers, UFO, John Lee Hooker, Michael Schenker, Alvin Lee, John Mayall, Spencer Davis
1946 - Julie Garfield
actress: The Boarding House, The Little Death, Goodfellas, Ishtar, The Nativity, Love Story, Coming Apart
1946 - Bob Lang
musician: bass: group: Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders: Game of Love; Mindbenders: Groovy Kind of Love
1948 - Donald Fagen
musician: keyboard: group: Steely Dan: LPs: Countdown to Ecstacy, Pretzel Logic, Katy Lied, The Royal Scam, Aja, Gaucho
1948 - Cyril Neville
musician: percussion, singer: group: The Neville Brothers: LP: FiYo on the Bayou; Meters: Sophisticated Cissy, Cissy Strut
1949 - Walter Browne
Australian chess champion [1974-1978], [1980-1984]; journalist
1949 - George Foreman
boxer: oldest heavyweight champion at age 45 [Nov 5, 1994]; commercial pitchman
1949 - Linda Lovelace (Boreman)
actress: X-rated films: Deep Throat, Exotic French Fantasies, Sexual Ecstasy of the Macumba, Lovelace Meets Miss Jones, Super Climax; died Apr 22, 2002
1952 - Scott Thurston
musician: guitar, keyboards; songwriter: group: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: American Girl, Breakdown, Listen to Her Heart, I Need to Know, Refugee
1953 - Pat Benatar
Grammy award-winning singer: Crimes of Passion [1980], and Fire and Ice [1981], Hit Me with Your Best Shot
1953 - Bobby Rahal
auto racer: Indianapolis 500 winner [1986]
1964 - Brad Roberts
songwriter, singer: group: Crash Test Dummies: Keep a Lid on Things, Get You in the Morning, Superman’s Song, Androgynous, The Ghosts That Haunt Me, Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm
1967 - Trini Alvarado
actor: The Frighteners, Little Women, Stella, The Chair, Mrs. Soffel, Rich Kids
1973 - Ryan Drummond
voice actor: voice of Sonic the Hedgehog in SEGA games; actor: Based on a True Story, Bring It On
1973 - Glenn Robinson
basketball: Purdue Univ; NBA: Milwaukee Bucks, Atlanta Hawks, Philadelphia 76ers
1974 - Ryôka Yuzuki
actress: All Night Long, Angel of Darkness 3, Ladies in Torture I, Voyeurs, Inc.; anime voice actress: Cardcaptor Sakura, Chobits, Hell Girl, Real Bout High School, Spirit of Wonder: Scientific Boys Club, X-TV
1974 - Hollis Thomas
football: Northern Illinois Univ; NFL: Philadelphia Eagles, New Orleans Saints
1975 - Jake Delhomme
football: QB: Louisiana-Lafayette; NFL: NO Saints, Carolina Panthers
1976 - Terry Jackson
football: Univ of Florida; NFL: SF 49ers
1976 - Adam Kennedy
baseball: Cal State-Northbridge; SL Cardinals, Anaheim/Los Angeles Angels
1977 - Clark Haggans
football: Colorado State Univ; NFL: Buffalo Bills, Pittsburgh Steelers
1980 - Sarah Shahi
actress: The Adventures of Beatle Boyin, Damages, For Your Consideration, Plan B, Old School, Class of ’06
Chart Toppers January 10
1949Buttons and Bows - Dinah Shore
On a Slow Boat to China - The Kay Kyser Orchestra (vocal: Harry Babbitt & Gloria Wood
A Little Bird Told Me - Evelyn Knight
I Love You So Much It Hurts - Jimmy Wakely
1958At the Hop - Danny & The Juniors
Stood Up/Waitin’ in School - Ricky Nelson
Kisses Sweeter Than Wine - Jimmie Rodgers
Great Balls of Fire - Jerry Lee Lewis
1967I’m a Believer - The Monkees
Tell It Like It Is - Aaron Neville
Good Thing - Paul Revere & The Raiders
There Goes My Everything - Jack Greene
1976Convoy - C.W. McCall
Theme from Mahogany (Do You Know Where You’re Going To) - Diana Ross
Fox on the Run - Sweet
Convoy - C.W. McCall
1985Like a Virgin - Madonna
All I Need - Jack Wagner
You’re the Inspiration - Chicago
Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind - George Strait
1994Hero - Mariah Carey
All for Love - Bryan Adams/Rod Stewart/Sting
Gangsta Lean - D.R.S.
Wild One - Faith Hill
2003Beautiful - Christina Aguilera
Jenny from the Block - Jennifer Lopez
Lose Yourself - Eminem
She’ll Leave You with a Smile - George Strait
Happy Birthday Rod Stewart
View attachment 9634
Monday, January 10, 2011
ROD THE MOD DAY
Born Roderick David Stewart on this day in 1945, the 5th son of Robert and Elsie Stewart spent his happy childhood doing what he did best: playing football (soccer) and singing. He excelled at the first, becoming captain of his school’s team. Then, for his 14th birthday, Rod’s father bought him a guitar.
That was the start of something big. Music auditions and emulating British and American folk artists convinced young Rod that he needed to play a harmonica. Soon he was singing with The Ray Davies Quartet (The Kinks) as their lead singer – only to irritate some with his now signature scratchy voice.
He was just 18 when he took on another signature – his spiked hairstyle – and earned the nickname, Rod the Mod! From folk music, to rock ‘n’ roll, to rhythm and blues, Stewart was running the gamut of popular music and writing some of his own. However, he wasn’t winning attention in any area until he joined the group, Faces. Going solo in 1969 led to the beginning of winning in every Direction for the throaty, extremely versatile singer. From the international smash hit, Maggie May to the even bigger hit, Tonight’s the Night to the 1978 chart-topper, Do Ya Think I’m Sexy, Rod Stewart was charming audiences around the globe. Two more decades of hit songs followed, including a version of Have I told You Lately that made one think Rod was singing only to you.
It would be hard to recognize that the seemingly quiet, retiring artist singing just to you was the same man who performed in 1994 at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro to the largest concert crowd in history: 3.5 million fans celebrating New Year’s Eve and Rod Stewart.
And, although he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, Rod Stewart was never awarded with a Grammy (he had 14 nominations) until 2005 when his Stardust… The Great American Songbook, Volume III was voted the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album. It was also the first time in 25 years that he had another #1 hit. That same year, Rod Stewart was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Today, audiences the world over have made the man with the most distinctive voice in pop music an icon and have purchased way more than 100 million of his records. Rod the Mod, now in his fifth decade as a performer, is still singing, selling more records and gaining new fans. And, he still plays in a senior soccer league in California.
Events January 10
1911 - Major Jimmie Erickson shot the first photograph from an airplane while flying over San Diego, California.
1945 - Erskine Hawkins waxed a classic for Victor Records. The tune, with the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra, was titled Tippin’ In.
1947 - Finian’s Rainbow opened on the Great White Way in New York City. The musical played for 725 performances. Years later, Petula Clark would star and sing in the celluloid version on the silver screen.
1949 - The Radio Corporation of America, sometimes known as RCA, announced a new 7-inch, 45-rpm phonograph record. Soon, the 45, the record with the big hole in the middle, would change the pop music business. RCA even manufactured a record player that played only 45s -- with a fat spindle that made “stacking wax” real simple and automatic for those romantic times when hands were just too busy to be flippin’ records.
1950 - Ben Hogan, appearing for the first time in a golf tournament since an auto accident a year earlier, tied ‘Slammin’ Sammy Snead in the Los Angeles Open. Hogan lost in a playoff.
1956 - Elvis Presley recorded his first tunes as an RCA Victor artist. Recording in Nashville, Elvis sang Heartbreak Hotel, I Got a Woman and Money Honey. Heartbreak Hotel was #1 by April 11, 1956 and stayed there for eight weeks. It was #1 on the pop and rhythm and blues charts and number five on the country music list.
1957 - Harold Macmillan became prime minister of Great Britain, following the resignation of Anthony Eden.
1960 - Marty Robbins’ hit tune, El Paso, held the record for the longest #1 song to that time. The song ran 4 minutes and 20 seconds, giving many radio station program directors fits; because the average record length at that time was around 2 minutes, and formats didn’t allow for records much longer than that, (e.g., 2-minute record, 3 minutes for commercials, 60 seconds for promo, 2-minute record, etc.). DJs got used to the longer length quickly, however, realizing it gave them time, before the record ended, to actually think of something to say next...
1961 - Author Dashiell Hammett (Sam Spade series, The Maltese Falcon) died. He was 66 years old.
1963 - The Chicago Cubs become the first baseball club to hire an athletic director. He was Robert Whitlow.
1964 - On the cover of LIFE magazine, the memoirs of U.S. General Douglas MacArthur.
1967 - Massachusetts Republican Edward W. Brooke, the first black elected to the U.S. Senate by popular vote, took his seat on this day.
1969 - Elvis Presley’s single, Don’t Cry Daddy, entered the Top 10 on the pop charts this day. If you listened to this song carefully, you’d hear a vocal duet with country artist Ronnie Milsap.
1969 - The final issue of The Saturday Evening Post appeared after 147 years of publication. It returned in limited publication years later. Norman Rockwell’s art was a popular item in the Post.
1971 - Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel, French fashion designer, died. She was 87 years old.
1971 - Masterpiece Theatre premiered on PBS. Host Alistair Cooke introduced the drama series, The First Churchills.
1976 - C.W. McCall’s Convoy was the #1 single in the U.S. -- on both pop and country charts. “Ah, breaker one-nine, this here’s the Rubber Duck ... You gotta copy on me, Pig Pen, c’mon? Ah, yeah, 10-4, Pig Pen, fer shure, fer shure. By golly, it’s clean clear to Flag Town, c'mon. Yeah, that’s a big 10-4 there, Pig Pen, yeah, we definitely got the front door, good buddy. Mercy sakes alive, looks like we got us a convoy...”
1978 - The Soviet Union launched two cosmonauts aboard the Soyuz 27 capsule for a rendezvous with the Salyut Six space laboratory. Two other cosmonauts had been living on Salyut Six for a month.
1981 - The Pirates of Penzance, by Gilbert and Sullivan, opened on Broadway. The show, starring pop singers Linda Ronstadt and Rex Smith, was made into a movie in 1983.
1984 - Cyndi Lauper became the first female recording artist since Bobbie Gentry [1967] to be nominated for five Grammy Awards: Album of the Year, Best New Artist, Best Pop Vocal Performance (Female), Record of the Year and Song of the Year. Lauper went one better for copping the award for Worst Hair Coloring by a Woman on the Planet. Girls Just Want to Have Fun ya know... fer sure.
1989 - Cuba began withdrawing its troops from Angola, more than 13 years after its first contingents arrived.
1990 - Time Inc. aquired Warner Communications for the tidy little sum of $14.1 billion. Thus began Time Warner, one of the world’s largest media and entertainment conglomerates.
1991 - Clint Black became the 66th member of the Grand Ole Opry during the taping of the show’s 65th anniversary celebration.
1994 - Lorena Bobbitt went on trial in Manassas, VA. She was charged with the malicious wounding of her husband John. She had cut off his penis, but was eventually acquitted by reason of temporary insanity.
1996 - The third day of the ‘Blizzard of ’96’ saw the northeastern U.S. buried under 1.5 to 3 feet of snow. The big storm caused $1 billion in damage and killed 100 people. New York City had the heaviest snowfall in 48 years. Quick, let’s go make snow angels.
1997 - These films debuted in U.S. theatres: Evita (“The Most Anticipated Motion Picture Event of The Year”), starring Madonna, Antonio Banderas, Jonathan Pryce and Jimmy Nail; Jackie Chan’s First Strike (“Jackie Chan fights for America in his biggest action film ever.”; The Relic (“They did the unthinkable. They brought it back.”), with Penelope Ann Miller, Tom Sizemore, Linda Hunt and James Whitmore; and Turbulence (“If you weren’t afraid of flying before, you will be now.”, starring Ray Liotta Lauren Holly Hector Elizondo Brendan Gleeson.
1997 - Dow Corning kicked in $2.95 billion to settle breast implant suits.
1998 - A 6.2 earthquake hit Zhangbei County in northern Hebei province in China. Fifty people were killed and 11,440 injured. The quake left cracks in the Great Wall of China.
2000 - America Online, “the company that brought the Internet to the masses,” announced that it had agreed to buy Time Warner, the largest traditional media company in the U.S., for $165 billion.
2001 - China sent rats into orbit aboard its Shenzhou II (Sacred Ship), powered by a Long March rocket.
2002 - The White House disclosed the fact that Enron Corporation had sought the Bush Administration’s help shortly before collapsing with the life savings of many workers.
2002 - U.S. Marines began flying hundreds of al-Qaida prisoners from Afghanistan to a U.S. base on the island of Cuba.
2002 - Todd Eldredge won his 6th U.S. Figure Skating Championship.
2003 - These movies debuted in the U.S.: Just Married, starring Ashton Kutcher, Brittany Murphy, Christian Kane, Monet Mazur, David Moscow, Valeria Andrews, David Rasche, Veronica Cartwright and Raymond Barry; and Narc, starring Jason Patric, Ray Liotta, Busta Rhymes and Chi Mcbride.
2004 - Michelle Kwan won her seventh straight title and eighth overall at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Atlanta; Johnny Weir skated to his first men’s title.
2005 - A mudslide at La Conchita in Ventura County, CA destroyed fifteen homes and killed ten people.
2005 - CBS News fired four people in the wake of a 2004 story, aired by Dan Rather, about George Bush and his involvement in the National Guard as a young man.
2006 - On the fourth anniversary of detainees being held without charge at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Amnesty International claimed that torture and ill-treatment of terrorist suspects was ongoing at Camp Delta.
2007 - The U.S. Postal Service honored jazz great Ella Fitzgerald with a postage stamp. Fitzgerald became the 30th honoree in the popular Black Heritage commemorative stamp series.
2007 - U.S. President George Bush (II) announced his intention to send an additional 21,500 troops to Iraq. The ‘surge’, as the build-up soon became known, was an attempt to improve the security of Baghdad and the western province of Anbar.
2009 - A winter storm left large swaths of the Midwest and Northeast U.S. covered in snow and freezing rain. Ten inches of snow forced some 100 cancellations at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.
2010 - Abu Dhabi Sheik Issa BIN Zayed Al Nahyan, a member of the United Arab Emirates ruling family being tried in connection with the videotaped beating of an Afghan man, was cleared of all charges -- even though the video showed the prince beating the man with a stick, whips, electric cattle prods, wooden planks with protruding nails; pouring salt on his wounds; and running him over repeatedly with a car. The victim, identified as Afghani grain dealer Mohammed Shapoor, survived the April 2009 attack.
2010 - China has overtook Germany as the world’s top exporter. China’s December exports jumped 17.7% for their first increase in 14 months.
Birthdays January 10
1843 - Frank James
train, bank robber: brother of outlaw Jesse James: the James Gang; died Feb 18, 1915
1878 - Richard ‘****ie’ Boon
Hockey Hall of Famer: Montreal AAA and Montreal Wanderers; won three career Stanley Cups; credited with being the first to use the poke-check; director, coach: Montreal Wanderers; died May. 3, 1961
1883 - Francis X. (Xavier) Bushman
actor: The Rosary, Neptune’s Daughter, The Thirteenth Man, **** Tracy, Hollywood Boulevard, David and Bathsheba, Sabrina, The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini; died Aug 23, 1966
1898 - George Hay
Hockey Hall of Famer: Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Cougars, Detroit Tigers, Detroit Red Wings: 73 career goals, 54 assists; died July 13, 1975
1904 - Ray Bolger (Raymond Wallace Bulcao)
dancer, actor: The Wizard of Oz; died Jan 15, 1987
1908 - Paul Henreid (Paul Georg Julius Hernreid Ritter Von Wassel-Waldingau)
actor: The Madwoman of Chaillot, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Deep in My Heart, Casablanca, Goodbye, Mr. Chips; director: Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Battle in Blue, Battle Shock, Tall Lie; died Mar 29, 1992
1917 - Jerry Wexler
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame record producer: Atlantic Records: worked with artists such as: Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, LaVern Baker, Ray Charles, Dusty Springfield, The Drifters, Dire Straits, Bob Dylan; died Aug 15, 2008
1921 - Rodger Ward
auto racer: Indianapolis 500 winner [1959 and 1962]; died Jul 5, 2004
1924 - Max Roach
jazz drummer, composer: Freedom Now Suite; educator: taught at Lennox, MA School of Jazz and Yale; Professor of Music at University of Massachusetts, Amherst; died Aug 16, 2007
1927 - Johnnie Ray
singer: Cry, Please, Mr. Sun, The Little White Cloud That Cried, Walkin’ My Baby Back Home, Just Walking in the Rain; died Feb 24, 1990
1927 - Gisele MacKenzie (Marie LaFeche)
singer: Your Hit Parade, Hard to Get; died Sep 5, 2003
1930 - Roy Edward Disney
executive: Walt Disney Company; nephew of Walt Disney; organized the ousting of two top Disney executives: Ron Miller [1984], Michael Eisner [2005]; died Dec 16, 2009
1935 - Ronnie Hawkins
singer: musician: rock ’n’ roller: Mary Lou, 40 Days
1938 - Frank Mahovlich
hockey: NHL: Toronto Maple Leafs, Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens
1938 - Willie (Lee) ‘Stretch’ McCovey
Baseball Hall of Famer: SF Giants [NL Rookie of the Year: 1959/World Series: 1962/all-star: 1963, 1966, 1968-1971/Baseball’s Writer’s National League MVP Award: 1969], SD Padres, Oakland Athletics
1939 - Sal Mineo (Salvatore Mineo, Jr.)
singer: Start Movin’, Lasting Love; actor: The Gene Krupa Story; died Feb 12, 1976
1939 - Bill Toomey
U.S. Decathlon Olympic Gold Medalist [1968]
1943 - Jim Croce
singer, songwriter: You Don’t Mess Around with Jim, Time in a Bottle, Bad, Bad Leroy Brown, I’ve Got a Name; killed in plane crash Sep 20, 1973
1944 - Frank Sinatra, Jr.
singer: It’s All Right; bandleader
1945 - Rod Stewart
singer, musician: Maggie May, You Wear It Well, Tonight’s The Night [Gonna Be Alright], I Don’t Want to Talk About It, Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?, This Old Heart of Mine, Have I Told You Lately; [see Rod the Mod Day - above]
1946 - Aynsley Dunbar
musician: drums: groups: Jefferson Starship: Freedom at Point Zero, Jane, Girl with the Hungry Eyes, Find Your Way Back, Winds of Change; Whitesnake: Whitesnake 1987, Still of the Night, What is Love and Here I go Again; Eric Burdon and the New Animals: We Gotta Get Out of This Place, It’s My Life, Spill the Wine, Don’t Bring Me Down, House of the Rising Sun; played with Pat Travers, UFO, John Lee Hooker, Michael Schenker, Alvin Lee, John Mayall, Spencer Davis
1946 - Julie Garfield
actress: The Boarding House, The Little Death, Goodfellas, Ishtar, The Nativity, Love Story, Coming Apart
1946 - Bob Lang
musician: bass: group: Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders: Game of Love; Mindbenders: Groovy Kind of Love
1948 - Donald Fagen
musician: keyboard: group: Steely Dan: LPs: Countdown to Ecstacy, Pretzel Logic, Katy Lied, The Royal Scam, Aja, Gaucho
1948 - Cyril Neville
musician: percussion, singer: group: The Neville Brothers: LP: FiYo on the Bayou; Meters: Sophisticated Cissy, Cissy Strut
1949 - Walter Browne
Australian chess champion [1974-1978], [1980-1984]; journalist
1949 - George Foreman
boxer: oldest heavyweight champion at age 45 [Nov 5, 1994]; commercial pitchman
1949 - Linda Lovelace (Boreman)
actress: X-rated films: Deep Throat, Exotic French Fantasies, Sexual Ecstasy of the Macumba, Lovelace Meets Miss Jones, Super Climax; died Apr 22, 2002
1952 - Scott Thurston
musician: guitar, keyboards; songwriter: group: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: American Girl, Breakdown, Listen to Her Heart, I Need to Know, Refugee
1953 - Pat Benatar
Grammy award-winning singer: Crimes of Passion [1980], and Fire and Ice [1981], Hit Me with Your Best Shot
1953 - Bobby Rahal
auto racer: Indianapolis 500 winner [1986]
1964 - Brad Roberts
songwriter, singer: group: Crash Test Dummies: Keep a Lid on Things, Get You in the Morning, Superman’s Song, Androgynous, The Ghosts That Haunt Me, Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm
1967 - Trini Alvarado
actor: The Frighteners, Little Women, Stella, The Chair, Mrs. Soffel, Rich Kids
1973 - Ryan Drummond
voice actor: voice of Sonic the Hedgehog in SEGA games; actor: Based on a True Story, Bring It On
1973 - Glenn Robinson
basketball: Purdue Univ; NBA: Milwaukee Bucks, Atlanta Hawks, Philadelphia 76ers
1974 - Ryôka Yuzuki
actress: All Night Long, Angel of Darkness 3, Ladies in Torture I, Voyeurs, Inc.; anime voice actress: Cardcaptor Sakura, Chobits, Hell Girl, Real Bout High School, Spirit of Wonder: Scientific Boys Club, X-TV
1974 - Hollis Thomas
football: Northern Illinois Univ; NFL: Philadelphia Eagles, New Orleans Saints
1975 - Jake Delhomme
football: QB: Louisiana-Lafayette; NFL: NO Saints, Carolina Panthers
1976 - Terry Jackson
football: Univ of Florida; NFL: SF 49ers
1976 - Adam Kennedy
baseball: Cal State-Northbridge; SL Cardinals, Anaheim/Los Angeles Angels
1977 - Clark Haggans
football: Colorado State Univ; NFL: Buffalo Bills, Pittsburgh Steelers
1980 - Sarah Shahi
actress: The Adventures of Beatle Boyin, Damages, For Your Consideration, Plan B, Old School, Class of ’06
Chart Toppers January 10
1949Buttons and Bows - Dinah Shore
On a Slow Boat to China - The Kay Kyser Orchestra (vocal: Harry Babbitt & Gloria Wood
A Little Bird Told Me - Evelyn Knight
I Love You So Much It Hurts - Jimmy Wakely
1958At the Hop - Danny & The Juniors
Stood Up/Waitin’ in School - Ricky Nelson
Kisses Sweeter Than Wine - Jimmie Rodgers
Great Balls of Fire - Jerry Lee Lewis
1967I’m a Believer - The Monkees
Tell It Like It Is - Aaron Neville
Good Thing - Paul Revere & The Raiders
There Goes My Everything - Jack Greene
1976Convoy - C.W. McCall
Theme from Mahogany (Do You Know Where You’re Going To) - Diana Ross
Fox on the Run - Sweet
Convoy - C.W. McCall
1985Like a Virgin - Madonna
All I Need - Jack Wagner
You’re the Inspiration - Chicago
Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind - George Strait
1994Hero - Mariah Carey
All for Love - Bryan Adams/Rod Stewart/Sting
Gangsta Lean - D.R.S.
Wild One - Faith Hill
2003Beautiful - Christina Aguilera
Jenny from the Block - Jennifer Lopez
Lose Yourself - Eminem
She’ll Leave You with a Smile - George Strait
Happy Birthday Rod Stewart
View attachment 9634