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16th day of 2011 - 349 remaining
Sunday, January 16, 2011
DIZZY DAY
He wasn’t given the name, Dizzy, at his birth on this day in 1910; but was named Jay Hanna Dean. Jay gained the reputation of being dizzy because of his malapropisms, used frequently in his later years.
Dizzy Dean also had a reputation for being a champion baseball pitcher. In fact he was one of baseball’s greatest pitchers, learning the game in the Army. Upon his discharge in 1930, he signed on professionally with the St. Louis Cardinals.
He played only one game in his first year with the Cards. By 1932 he led the league in strikeouts [191], in shutouts [4] and in innings pitched [286]. The following year he was strikeout leader again [199]; setting a one-game record of striking out 17 players in nine innings. 1934 was Dean’s greatest year as he was named the league’s MVP and the AP Male Athlete of the Year. Then, for the fourth year in a row, Dean led the league in strikeouts and added number of wins, games completed and innings pitched to his record book.
America’s baseball hero seemed unstoppable. Unfortunately, during the 1937 All-Star game, a line drive broke the big toe on Dean’s left foot. He returned to the Cards’ Gas House Gang before he was completely healed, and compensating with his arm, seriously damaged it and was never able to pitch as well again.
Dizzy Dean then became a broadcaster for the St. Louis Browns and went on to national broadcast fame on the Mutual Radio net, and the ABC/CBS Game of the Week. His malapropisms became widely heard: “The doctors x-rayed my head and found nothing.” “He slud into third.” Some objected to his misuse of the English language, especially his frequent ‘ain’ts’. Dean’s response was a Will Rogers quote: “A lot of people who don’t say ain’t, ain’t eatin’.”
Dizzy Dean earned his place in the Baseball Hall of Fame and earned the applause of millions of baseball fans worldwide ... and we ain’t kiddin’.
Events January 16
1866 - Mr. Everett Barney patented the all-metal screw clamp skate. Remember those? They would clamp on to the edges of the soles of shoes and you tightened them with a key. With the advent of athletic shoes, there was no place to clamp the skates so the clamp skate disappeared. In its place? Roller blades!
1883 - The U.S. Civil Service Commission was established as the Pendleton Act went into effect. Today’s the day to hug a postal worker, for one.
1920 - The 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution took effect, prohibiting the sale of alcoholic beverages. It was repealed in 1933 by the 21st Amendment, but the times were very dry for over a decade.
1921 - The motion picture, The Kid, opened in movie houses. The classic starred Charlie Chaplin and featured a little tyke, soon to be a Hollywood favorite. Jackie Coogan continued to make movies until his death in 1984.
1938 - Benny Goodman and his band, plus a quartet, brought the sound of jazz to Carnegie Hall in New York City. When asked how long an intermission he wanted, he quipped, “I don’t know. How much does Toscanini get?”
1939 - The shrill siren call of radio’s I Love a Mystery was heard for the first time as the show debuted on NBC’s West-Coast outlets.
1942 - Kay Kyser and the band recorded A Zoot Suit (For My Sunday Gal) for Columbia Records. The tune is about the problems associated with wearing the garish, exaggerated ‘hep’ fashion.
1944 - A Train wreck in the Torro Tunnel in Leon Province, Spain killed more than 500 people.
1945 - The U.S. First and Third armies linked up at Houffalize, It was the beginning of the end of Battle of the Bulge.
1954 - South Pacific Closed at the Broadway Theatre in New York -- after 1925 performances.
1956 - Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser pledged to reconquer Palestine as his government made Islam the state religion.
1957 - The Cavern Club opened for business in Liverpool, England. The rock club was just a hangout for commoners. Then, things changed -- big time. It all started in the early 1960s when four kids from the neighborhood popped in to jam. They, of course, turned out to be The Beatles.
1957 - Three B-52s took off from Castle Air Force Base in California on the first non-stop, round-the-world flight by jet planes. The trip took 45 hours, 19 minutes.
1961 - Mickey Mantle signed a contract which made him the highest paid baseball player in the American League. ‘The Commerce Comet’ stepped up to the plate for $75,000 for the 1961 season. Over in the National League, Willie ‘Say Hey’ Mays, was making more money than any baseball player. He had a contract for $85,000.
1964 - Hello Dolly! opened at the St. James Theatre in New York City. Carol Channing starred in the role of Mrs. Dolly Levi. The musical was an adaptation of Thornton Wilder’s play, The Matchmaker. The show, with an unforgettable title song, was hailed by critics as the “...possible hit of the season.” It was possible, all right. Hello Dolly! ran for 2,844 performances. And, it returned to Broadway in the 1990s, again starring Carol Channing.
1965 - More Willie Mays news: The San Francisco Giants continued to pay Mays a reported $105,000 a year. He gave them a .317 batting average (the last season in which he batted over .300), a slugging percentage of .645 and 52 home runs in return. And, Willie took home the 1965 MVP award for himself. Say Hey!
1967 - Alan S. Boyd was sworn in as the first U.S. secretary of transportation.
1972 - David Seville died on this day in Beverly Hills, CA. Born Ross Bagdasarian, the musician was the force, and artist, behind the Alvin and the Chipmunks novelty songs of the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s. Some may remember that Seville appeared in the films, Viva Zapata, Stalag 17 and Rear Window. Seville first claimed fame, not through the novelty impact of the hit, The Chipmunk Song (it sold 3.5 million copies in five weeks); but by writing Rosemary Clooney’s biggest hit, Come On-a My House, in the early 1950s and the number one hit, Witch Doctor, in 1958.
1972 - Super Bowl VI (at New Orleans): Dallas Cowboys 24, Miami Dolphins 3. No Superdome yet. Super Bowl VI was played in Tulane University Stadium, in 39-degree weather, and Roger Staubach’s Cowboys were all over the Dolphins. MVP: Cowboys’ QB Staubach. Tickets: $15.00.
1976 - The album, Frampton Comes Alive, was released by Herb Alpert’s A&M Records. The double LP soon reached the top spot of the album charts and stayed perched there for 17 weeks. It sold 19 million copies in its first year in the record racks.
1979 - The Iranian revolution overthrew the shah. Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi departed Iran for Egypt, leaving behind a civilian government (to be headed by by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini).
1984 - Michael Jackson didn’t get to sit down much at the 11th annual American Music Awards this night. The ‘Gloved One’ got up and down to receive eight awards, including favorite pop and soul male vocalist, pop and soul album winner for Thriller, pop and soul video winner for Beat It and best pop song for Billie Jean.
1985 - Hugh Hefner said, “Out with the staples!” Playboy magazine announced its 30-year tradition of stapling centerfold models in the bellybutton and elsewhere would come to an end. The centerfold became more difficult to remove in October 1985, when the magazine began to glue its publication instead.
1985 - Leonard Nimoy, who roamed among the stars in the Star Trek TV series and movies, got his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Live long and prosper, Mr. Spock.
1986 - “Old newsmen never die, they just fade to black.” Walter Cronkite, five years after his retirement from the CBS Evening News remained, polls showed, the most trusted man in America. “And that’s the way it is.” Dan...
1987 - Hu Yaobang resigned as head of China’s Communist Party, declaring he had made mistakes in dealing with student turmoil and intellectual challenges to the Communist system.
1988 - George Michael’s Faith started a sixteen-week run as the number-one album in the U.S. The tracks: Faith, Father Figure, I Want Your Sex, One More Try, Hard Day, Hand To Mouth, Look at Your Hands, Monkey and Kissing a Fool.
1991 - Astronomers presented pictures taken with the Hubble Space Telescope of the heart of M15, a dense cluster of stars within our Galaxy. The pictures showed that M15 is in the process of recovering from a deep implosion of its core regions, caused by “a massive gravitational instability.”
1992 - Officials of the government of El Salvador and rebel leaders signed a pact in Mexico City ending 12 years of civil war that had left at least 75,000 people dead.
1993 - Actor Glenn Corbett (Shenandoah, Chisum, Midway) died. He was 63 years old.
1994 - Canadian rocker Bryan Adams played before 2,500 people in Ho Chi Minh City. He was the first Western entertainer to perform in Vietnam since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975.
1996 - Jimmy Buffett’s sea plane Hemisphere Dancer was shot at by Jamaican police who mistook him for a drug smuggler. U2’s Bono was in the plane with Buffett at the time. Jimmy wrote a song about the incident, Jamaica Mistaica, that appears on the album Banana Wind.
1997 - Ennis Cosby, son of commedian Bill Cosby, was murdered in Los Angeles. The 27-year-old was shot in a roadside robbery attempt while changing a tire on a freeway off-ramp. A Ukrainian émigré teenager, Mikail Markhasev, was convicted the murder and sentenced to life in prison. Markhasev admitted his guilt in 2001 and made a public apology.
1998 - These films debuted in U.S. theatres: Fallen (an evil presence move from person to person by touch), starring Denzel Washington, John Goodman and Donald Sutherland; Half Baked (“Caution: This Film Causes Extreme Laughter.”), with David Chappelle, Guillermo Diaz, Jim Breuer and Harland Williams; and Hard Rain (a lazy dam operator accidentally floods town while a bank heist is going sour), starring Morgan Freeman, Christian Slater, Randy Quaid, Minnie Driver, Ed Asner, Richard Dysart, Betty White, Wayne Duvall and Mark Rolston.
1999 - Brandy’s single, Have You Ever, was #1 (for the first of two weeks) on the Billboard Hot 100.
2000 - Socialist Ricardo Lagos (61) won the presidential elections in Chile by a 51.3% to 48.7% margin over Joaquin Lavin, a former aide to General Pinochet.
2001 - Laurent Kabila, president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, was killed in a shooting at his home. He was replaced as president by his son, Joseph.
2001 - DAVE Winfield and Kirby Puckett were elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame
2002 - Richard Reid was indicted in Boston, Massachusetts, on federal charges that he had tried to blow up a Paris-to-Miami jetliner with explosives hidden in his shoes; the bombing attempt was thwarted when flight attendants and passengers subdued him.
2003 - AOL Time Warner chief executive **** Parsons was tapped to be the media conglomerate’s new chairman, succeeding Steve Case.
2003 - The space shuttle Columbia carried a crew of seven into space on a 16-day mission. Cololnel Ilan Ramon was aboard as Israel’s first astronaut. (The mission ended tragically on Feb 1, when the shuttle broke up during its return descent, killing all seven on board.)
2004 - These films were new in U.S. theatres: Along Came Polly, with Ben Stiller, Jennifer Aniston, Debra Messing, Hank Azaria, Alec Baldwin, Bryan Brown, Jsu Garcia, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Mitch Silpa; Teacher’s Pet, with Nathan Lane, Shaun Flemming, Rob Paulsen, Debra Jo Rupp, Wallace Shawn, David Ogden Stiers and Jerry Stiller; and Torque, starring Martin Henderson, Jaime Pressly, Ice Cube, Jay Hernandez, Matt Schulze, Adam Scott, Will Yun Lee, Faizon Love, Christina Milian and Fredro Starr.
2004 - President George Bush (II) sidestepped the U.S. Congress and installed Mississippi judge Charles Pickering to the federal appeals court.
2004 - Kalevi Sorsa, Finland’s longest serving prime minister, died. The 73-year-old Sorsa headed four coalition governments from 1972 to 1987 and led the Social Democrats, Finland’s largest party, for twelve years.
2004 - Starbucks opened its first coffee shop in France. The store is located in the heart of the city at 26 Avenue de l’Opera, one of Paris’ popular tourist and shopping districts.
2005 - The 62nd annual Golden Globes: The Aviator won for best movie drama; Leonardo DiCaprio for best actor; Hillary Swank won best actress for her role in Million Dollar Baby.
2005 - Adriana Iliescu of Bucharest, Romania became the world’s oldest woman to give birth. Adriana, 67 years old, gave birth to a baby girl.
2006 - President Mwai Kibaki of Kenya declared the ongoing drought to be a national disaster and appealed for $150 million to feed the hungry. 2.5 million people were close to starvation due to the lack of rain over the previous three years. Not helping the situation were corrupt officials who were stealing food aid.
2007 - Actor Ron Carey died in Los Angeles. He was 71 years old. Carey played Officer Carl Levitt in the Barney Miller (1976-1982) TV sitcom. His many movies include High Anxiety (1977) and History of the World: Part I (1981), both with Mel Brooks.
2008 - Texas was ranked as the biggest polluter in the U.S. And the state would have been the 7th worst polluter in the world if it were a nation.
2009 - Movies opening in the U.S.: Hotel for Dogs, with Don Cheadle, Emma Roberts, Lisa Kudrow, Kevin Dillon, Johnny Simmons, Troy Gentile and Robinne Lee; Paul Blart: Mall Cop, starring Kevin James, Jayma Mays, Shirley Knight, Raini Rodriguez, Stephen Rannazzisi and Adam Ferrara; My Bloody Valentine 3-D, with Jaime King, Jensen Ackles, Kerr Smith, Edi Gathegi, Kevin Tighe, Megan Boone and Betsey Rue; and Notorious, with Jamal Woolard, Angela Bassett, Derek Luke, Anthony Mackie, Antonique Smith, Naturi Naughton, Dennis White and Julia Pace Mitchell.
2009 - Citigroup reported a fourth-quarter net loss of $8.29 billion, while Bank of America Corp. posted its first quarterly loss in 17 years.
2009 - British DJ and pop singer Boy George (47) was sentenced to 15 months in jail for imprisoning a 29-year-old Norwegian male escort after a nude photoshoot. George, whose real name is George O’Dowd, admitted to handcuffing Audun Carlsen to his bed in 2007, as he investigated the Norwegian’s alleged tampering with his computer. (O’Dowd was released from prison May 11, 2009 after serving four months.)
2009 - Bankrupt electronics retailer Circuit City announced that it had failed to find a buyer and would liquidate its 567 U.S. stores. The shut down would result in the loss of some 30,000 jobs. (Circuit city’s last day of sales was on March 8, 2009.)
2010 - Senegal offered free land to Haitians wishing to ‘return to their origins’ following the devastating Jan 12 earthquake, which has destroyed the capital and buried thousands of people beneath rubble.
2010 - A small part of Antarctica had turned ‘green’ as the ice-covered continent’s biggest wind farm was formally switched on. The joint New Zealand-U.S. project on Antarctica’s Ross Sea coast was designed to generate enough electricity to power 500 homes.
Birthdays January 16
1853 - André Michelin
one of the pair of brothers who founded Michelin Tyre Company; died Apr 4, 1931
1903 - Peter Brocco
actor: Adventures of Superman, The Phantom Ring, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Other People’s Money, The War of the Roses, Throw Momma From the Train, Twilight Zone: The Movie, The Winds of War; died Dec 20, 1992
1909 - Ethel Merman (Zimmerman)
singer, Tony Award-winning actress (musical): Call Me Madam [1951]; It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, There’s No Business Like Show Business, Alexander’s Ragtime Band; Musical Theater Hall of Famer; died Feb 15, 1984
1910 - Dizzy (Jay Hanna) Dean
Baseball Hall of Famer: SL Cardinals [World Series: 1934/all-star: 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937], Chicago Cubs [World Series: 1938], SL Browns; broadcaster: SL Browns, Mutual Radio net, ABC/CBS Game of the Week; died July 17, 1974; see Dizzy Day [above]
1917 - Buddy Lester
actor: Smorgasbord, The Man From Clover Grove, Ellery Queen: Don’t Look Behind You, Three on a Couch, Ocean’s Eleven [1960]; died Oct 4, 2002
1918 - Stirling Silliphant
film writer, producer, director: Village of the ****ed, Naked City, Route 66, In the Heat of the Night, The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno, Telefon, Village of the ****ed [1995]; died Apr 26, 1996
1920 - Elliott (Edgeworth) Reid
actor: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, A Woman’s World, Follow Me Boys; radio performer: Suspense
1923 - Roy Lanham
musician: guitar: group: Sons of the Pioneers: Way Out There, There’s a Roundup in the Sky, Blue Prairie, So Long to the Red River Valley, I’m an Old Cowhand [From the Rio Grande]; died Feb 14, 1991
1924 - Katy Jurado
actress: High Noon, One-Eyed Jacks, Trapeze; died July 5, 2002
1929 - G.T. (Granville) Hogan
jazz drummer: played with Elmo Hope, Earl Bostic; died Aug 8, 2004
1930 - Norman Podhoretz
author: Making It, Breaking Ranks; editor/editor-at-large: Commentary magazine
1934 - Bob Bogle (Robert Lenard Bogle)
musician: guitar, bass: group: The Ventures: Walk, Don’t Run, Perfidia, theme from Hawaii Five-O; died Jun 14, 2009
1934 - Marilyn Horne
opera singer: Carmen Jones [v/o for Dorothy Dandridge]
1935 - A.J. (Anthony Joseph) Foyt
racing car drive: Indianapolis 500 Winner [1961, 1964, 1967, 1977]; Daytona 500 Winner: [1972]
1938 - Lou Angotti
hockey: NHL: NY Rangers, Chicago Blackhawks, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins, SL Blues; coach: St. Louis Blues, Pittsburgh Penguins
1942 - René Angelil
husband and manager of singer Celine Dion; appeared in film: L’Apparition
1942 - Bill Francis
musician: keyboard, singer: group: Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show: When You’re in Love with a Beautiful Woman, Sharing the Night Together, Sexy Eyes, Better Love Next Time, The Cover of Rolling Stone; died May 23, 2010
1944 - Jim Stafford
singer: Spiders and Snakes, Wildwood Weed, [w/John Hadley]: You Can’t Get the Hell out of Texas
1946 - Ronnie Milsap
Grammy Award-winning singer: Stand By My Woman Man [1976]; CMA Male Vocalist of the Year [1974, 1976, 1977]; CMA Entertainer of the Year [1977]; My Heart, Only One Love in My Life, It Was Almost like a song, Lost in the Fifties Tonight, A Woman in Love, [There’s] No Gettin’ Over Me; blind since birth, learned to play several instruments by age 12
1947 - Dr. Laura Schlessinger
conservative radio/TV host: The Dr. Laura Program; author: Ten Stupid Things Women Do to Mess Up Their Lives, The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands
1948 - John Carpenter
writer, director: Escape from L.A., Village of the ****ed, Body Bags, Prince of Darkness, Starman, The Thing, Escape from New York, Elvis: The Movie, Halloween
1950 - Debbie Allen
dancer, actress: Fame, Roots: The Next Generation, Ragtime, The Fish that Saved Pittsburgh; choreographer; sister of actress Phylicia Rashad
1951 - Chuck Crist
football: Penn State Univ., New York Giants, New Orleans Saints, San Francisco 49ers DB
1953 - Bo Harris
football: Cincinnati Bengals linebacker, Super Bowl XVI
1953 - DAVE Brown
football: Pittsburgh Steelers safety, Super Bowl X
1959 - Sade (Helen Folasade Adu)
singer: group: Sade: LPs: Diamond Life, Promise, Stronger than Pride
1962 - Paul Webb
musician: bass: group: Talk Talk
1965 - Maxine Jones
singer: group: En Vogue: Hold On, Free Your Mind, My Lovin’ [You’re Never Gonna Get It], Don’t Let Go [Love], Give It Up, Turn It Loose, Whatta Man
1966 - Steve Leach
hockey: Washington Capitals, Boston Bruins, SL Blues, Carolina Hurricanes, Ottawa Senators, Phoenix Coyotes, Pittsburgh Penguins
1970 - Ron Villone
baseball [pitcher]: Univ of Massachusetts; Seattle Mariners, SD Padres, Milwaukee Brewers, Cleveland Indians, Cincinnati Reds, Houston Astros, Colorado Rockies, Pittsburgh Pirates
1972 - Joe Horn
football: Itawamba Community College; NFL: KC Chiefs, NO Saints
1973 - Mario Bates
football: Arizona State Univ; NFL; NO Saints, Arizona Cardinals, Detroit Lions
1974 - Kate Moss
supermodel
1977 - Mark Simoneau
football: Kansas State Univ; NFL: Atlanta Falcons, Philadelphia Eagles
1979 - Aaliyah
singer: Miss You, We Need a Resolution, More Than a Woman, Got to Give It Up, Try Again, Are You That Somebody?; killed in plane crash Aug 25, 2001
1986 - Mason Gamble
actor: Arlington Road, Rushmore, Gattaca, Dennis the Menace, Spy Hard
Chart Toppers January 16
1946Symphony - 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
You Will Have to Pay - Tex Ritter
1955Mr. Sandman - The Chordettes
Hearts of Stone - The Fontane Sisters
Make Yourself Comfortable - Sarah Vaughan
Loose Talk - Carl Smith
1964There! I’ve Said It Again - Bobby Vinton
Popsicles and Icicles - The Murmaids
Surfin’ Bird - The Trashmen
Love’s Gonna Live Here - Buck Owens
1973You’re So Vain - Carly Simon
Superstition - Stevie Wonder
Your Mama Don’t Dance - Kenny Loggins & Jim Messina
Soul Song - Joe Stampley
1982Physical - Olivia Newton-John
Waiting for a Girl Like You - Foreigner
Centerfold - The J. Geils Band
I Wouldn’t Have Missed It for the World - Ronnie Milsap
1991Justify My Love - Madonna
High Enough - **** Yankees
Love Will Never Do (Without You) - Janet Jackson
Unanswered Prayers - Garth Brooks
2000What A Girl Wants - Christina Aguilera
I Wanna Love You Forever - Jessica Simpson
Bring It All to Me - Blaque
Breathe - Faith Hill
2009Just Dance - Lady Gaga featuring Colby O’Donis
Live Your Life - T.I. featuring Rihanna
Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It) - Beyoncé
Already Gone - Sugarland
Happy Birthday Maxine Jones of En Vogue
View attachment 9700
Sunday, January 16, 2011
DIZZY DAY
He wasn’t given the name, Dizzy, at his birth on this day in 1910; but was named Jay Hanna Dean. Jay gained the reputation of being dizzy because of his malapropisms, used frequently in his later years.
Dizzy Dean also had a reputation for being a champion baseball pitcher. In fact he was one of baseball’s greatest pitchers, learning the game in the Army. Upon his discharge in 1930, he signed on professionally with the St. Louis Cardinals.
He played only one game in his first year with the Cards. By 1932 he led the league in strikeouts [191], in shutouts [4] and in innings pitched [286]. The following year he was strikeout leader again [199]; setting a one-game record of striking out 17 players in nine innings. 1934 was Dean’s greatest year as he was named the league’s MVP and the AP Male Athlete of the Year. Then, for the fourth year in a row, Dean led the league in strikeouts and added number of wins, games completed and innings pitched to his record book.
America’s baseball hero seemed unstoppable. Unfortunately, during the 1937 All-Star game, a line drive broke the big toe on Dean’s left foot. He returned to the Cards’ Gas House Gang before he was completely healed, and compensating with his arm, seriously damaged it and was never able to pitch as well again.
Dizzy Dean then became a broadcaster for the St. Louis Browns and went on to national broadcast fame on the Mutual Radio net, and the ABC/CBS Game of the Week. His malapropisms became widely heard: “The doctors x-rayed my head and found nothing.” “He slud into third.” Some objected to his misuse of the English language, especially his frequent ‘ain’ts’. Dean’s response was a Will Rogers quote: “A lot of people who don’t say ain’t, ain’t eatin’.”
Dizzy Dean earned his place in the Baseball Hall of Fame and earned the applause of millions of baseball fans worldwide ... and we ain’t kiddin’.
Events January 16
1866 - Mr. Everett Barney patented the all-metal screw clamp skate. Remember those? They would clamp on to the edges of the soles of shoes and you tightened them with a key. With the advent of athletic shoes, there was no place to clamp the skates so the clamp skate disappeared. In its place? Roller blades!
1883 - The U.S. Civil Service Commission was established as the Pendleton Act went into effect. Today’s the day to hug a postal worker, for one.
1920 - The 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution took effect, prohibiting the sale of alcoholic beverages. It was repealed in 1933 by the 21st Amendment, but the times were very dry for over a decade.
1921 - The motion picture, The Kid, opened in movie houses. The classic starred Charlie Chaplin and featured a little tyke, soon to be a Hollywood favorite. Jackie Coogan continued to make movies until his death in 1984.
1938 - Benny Goodman and his band, plus a quartet, brought the sound of jazz to Carnegie Hall in New York City. When asked how long an intermission he wanted, he quipped, “I don’t know. How much does Toscanini get?”
1939 - The shrill siren call of radio’s I Love a Mystery was heard for the first time as the show debuted on NBC’s West-Coast outlets.
1942 - Kay Kyser and the band recorded A Zoot Suit (For My Sunday Gal) for Columbia Records. The tune is about the problems associated with wearing the garish, exaggerated ‘hep’ fashion.
1944 - A Train wreck in the Torro Tunnel in Leon Province, Spain killed more than 500 people.
1945 - The U.S. First and Third armies linked up at Houffalize, It was the beginning of the end of Battle of the Bulge.
1954 - South Pacific Closed at the Broadway Theatre in New York -- after 1925 performances.
1956 - Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser pledged to reconquer Palestine as his government made Islam the state religion.
1957 - The Cavern Club opened for business in Liverpool, England. The rock club was just a hangout for commoners. Then, things changed -- big time. It all started in the early 1960s when four kids from the neighborhood popped in to jam. They, of course, turned out to be The Beatles.
1957 - Three B-52s took off from Castle Air Force Base in California on the first non-stop, round-the-world flight by jet planes. The trip took 45 hours, 19 minutes.
1961 - Mickey Mantle signed a contract which made him the highest paid baseball player in the American League. ‘The Commerce Comet’ stepped up to the plate for $75,000 for the 1961 season. Over in the National League, Willie ‘Say Hey’ Mays, was making more money than any baseball player. He had a contract for $85,000.
1964 - Hello Dolly! opened at the St. James Theatre in New York City. Carol Channing starred in the role of Mrs. Dolly Levi. The musical was an adaptation of Thornton Wilder’s play, The Matchmaker. The show, with an unforgettable title song, was hailed by critics as the “...possible hit of the season.” It was possible, all right. Hello Dolly! ran for 2,844 performances. And, it returned to Broadway in the 1990s, again starring Carol Channing.
1965 - More Willie Mays news: The San Francisco Giants continued to pay Mays a reported $105,000 a year. He gave them a .317 batting average (the last season in which he batted over .300), a slugging percentage of .645 and 52 home runs in return. And, Willie took home the 1965 MVP award for himself. Say Hey!
1967 - Alan S. Boyd was sworn in as the first U.S. secretary of transportation.
1972 - David Seville died on this day in Beverly Hills, CA. Born Ross Bagdasarian, the musician was the force, and artist, behind the Alvin and the Chipmunks novelty songs of the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s. Some may remember that Seville appeared in the films, Viva Zapata, Stalag 17 and Rear Window. Seville first claimed fame, not through the novelty impact of the hit, The Chipmunk Song (it sold 3.5 million copies in five weeks); but by writing Rosemary Clooney’s biggest hit, Come On-a My House, in the early 1950s and the number one hit, Witch Doctor, in 1958.
1972 - Super Bowl VI (at New Orleans): Dallas Cowboys 24, Miami Dolphins 3. No Superdome yet. Super Bowl VI was played in Tulane University Stadium, in 39-degree weather, and Roger Staubach’s Cowboys were all over the Dolphins. MVP: Cowboys’ QB Staubach. Tickets: $15.00.
1976 - The album, Frampton Comes Alive, was released by Herb Alpert’s A&M Records. The double LP soon reached the top spot of the album charts and stayed perched there for 17 weeks. It sold 19 million copies in its first year in the record racks.
1979 - The Iranian revolution overthrew the shah. Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi departed Iran for Egypt, leaving behind a civilian government (to be headed by by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini).
1984 - Michael Jackson didn’t get to sit down much at the 11th annual American Music Awards this night. The ‘Gloved One’ got up and down to receive eight awards, including favorite pop and soul male vocalist, pop and soul album winner for Thriller, pop and soul video winner for Beat It and best pop song for Billie Jean.
1985 - Hugh Hefner said, “Out with the staples!” Playboy magazine announced its 30-year tradition of stapling centerfold models in the bellybutton and elsewhere would come to an end. The centerfold became more difficult to remove in October 1985, when the magazine began to glue its publication instead.
1985 - Leonard Nimoy, who roamed among the stars in the Star Trek TV series and movies, got his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Live long and prosper, Mr. Spock.
1986 - “Old newsmen never die, they just fade to black.” Walter Cronkite, five years after his retirement from the CBS Evening News remained, polls showed, the most trusted man in America. “And that’s the way it is.” Dan...
1987 - Hu Yaobang resigned as head of China’s Communist Party, declaring he had made mistakes in dealing with student turmoil and intellectual challenges to the Communist system.
1988 - George Michael’s Faith started a sixteen-week run as the number-one album in the U.S. The tracks: Faith, Father Figure, I Want Your Sex, One More Try, Hard Day, Hand To Mouth, Look at Your Hands, Monkey and Kissing a Fool.
1991 - Astronomers presented pictures taken with the Hubble Space Telescope of the heart of M15, a dense cluster of stars within our Galaxy. The pictures showed that M15 is in the process of recovering from a deep implosion of its core regions, caused by “a massive gravitational instability.”
1992 - Officials of the government of El Salvador and rebel leaders signed a pact in Mexico City ending 12 years of civil war that had left at least 75,000 people dead.
1993 - Actor Glenn Corbett (Shenandoah, Chisum, Midway) died. He was 63 years old.
1994 - Canadian rocker Bryan Adams played before 2,500 people in Ho Chi Minh City. He was the first Western entertainer to perform in Vietnam since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975.
1996 - Jimmy Buffett’s sea plane Hemisphere Dancer was shot at by Jamaican police who mistook him for a drug smuggler. U2’s Bono was in the plane with Buffett at the time. Jimmy wrote a song about the incident, Jamaica Mistaica, that appears on the album Banana Wind.
1997 - Ennis Cosby, son of commedian Bill Cosby, was murdered in Los Angeles. The 27-year-old was shot in a roadside robbery attempt while changing a tire on a freeway off-ramp. A Ukrainian émigré teenager, Mikail Markhasev, was convicted the murder and sentenced to life in prison. Markhasev admitted his guilt in 2001 and made a public apology.
1998 - These films debuted in U.S. theatres: Fallen (an evil presence move from person to person by touch), starring Denzel Washington, John Goodman and Donald Sutherland; Half Baked (“Caution: This Film Causes Extreme Laughter.”), with David Chappelle, Guillermo Diaz, Jim Breuer and Harland Williams; and Hard Rain (a lazy dam operator accidentally floods town while a bank heist is going sour), starring Morgan Freeman, Christian Slater, Randy Quaid, Minnie Driver, Ed Asner, Richard Dysart, Betty White, Wayne Duvall and Mark Rolston.
1999 - Brandy’s single, Have You Ever, was #1 (for the first of two weeks) on the Billboard Hot 100.
2000 - Socialist Ricardo Lagos (61) won the presidential elections in Chile by a 51.3% to 48.7% margin over Joaquin Lavin, a former aide to General Pinochet.
2001 - Laurent Kabila, president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, was killed in a shooting at his home. He was replaced as president by his son, Joseph.
2001 - DAVE Winfield and Kirby Puckett were elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame
2002 - Richard Reid was indicted in Boston, Massachusetts, on federal charges that he had tried to blow up a Paris-to-Miami jetliner with explosives hidden in his shoes; the bombing attempt was thwarted when flight attendants and passengers subdued him.
2003 - AOL Time Warner chief executive **** Parsons was tapped to be the media conglomerate’s new chairman, succeeding Steve Case.
2003 - The space shuttle Columbia carried a crew of seven into space on a 16-day mission. Cololnel Ilan Ramon was aboard as Israel’s first astronaut. (The mission ended tragically on Feb 1, when the shuttle broke up during its return descent, killing all seven on board.)
2004 - These films were new in U.S. theatres: Along Came Polly, with Ben Stiller, Jennifer Aniston, Debra Messing, Hank Azaria, Alec Baldwin, Bryan Brown, Jsu Garcia, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Mitch Silpa; Teacher’s Pet, with Nathan Lane, Shaun Flemming, Rob Paulsen, Debra Jo Rupp, Wallace Shawn, David Ogden Stiers and Jerry Stiller; and Torque, starring Martin Henderson, Jaime Pressly, Ice Cube, Jay Hernandez, Matt Schulze, Adam Scott, Will Yun Lee, Faizon Love, Christina Milian and Fredro Starr.
2004 - President George Bush (II) sidestepped the U.S. Congress and installed Mississippi judge Charles Pickering to the federal appeals court.
2004 - Kalevi Sorsa, Finland’s longest serving prime minister, died. The 73-year-old Sorsa headed four coalition governments from 1972 to 1987 and led the Social Democrats, Finland’s largest party, for twelve years.
2004 - Starbucks opened its first coffee shop in France. The store is located in the heart of the city at 26 Avenue de l’Opera, one of Paris’ popular tourist and shopping districts.
2005 - The 62nd annual Golden Globes: The Aviator won for best movie drama; Leonardo DiCaprio for best actor; Hillary Swank won best actress for her role in Million Dollar Baby.
2005 - Adriana Iliescu of Bucharest, Romania became the world’s oldest woman to give birth. Adriana, 67 years old, gave birth to a baby girl.
2006 - President Mwai Kibaki of Kenya declared the ongoing drought to be a national disaster and appealed for $150 million to feed the hungry. 2.5 million people were close to starvation due to the lack of rain over the previous three years. Not helping the situation were corrupt officials who were stealing food aid.
2007 - Actor Ron Carey died in Los Angeles. He was 71 years old. Carey played Officer Carl Levitt in the Barney Miller (1976-1982) TV sitcom. His many movies include High Anxiety (1977) and History of the World: Part I (1981), both with Mel Brooks.
2008 - Texas was ranked as the biggest polluter in the U.S. And the state would have been the 7th worst polluter in the world if it were a nation.
2009 - Movies opening in the U.S.: Hotel for Dogs, with Don Cheadle, Emma Roberts, Lisa Kudrow, Kevin Dillon, Johnny Simmons, Troy Gentile and Robinne Lee; Paul Blart: Mall Cop, starring Kevin James, Jayma Mays, Shirley Knight, Raini Rodriguez, Stephen Rannazzisi and Adam Ferrara; My Bloody Valentine 3-D, with Jaime King, Jensen Ackles, Kerr Smith, Edi Gathegi, Kevin Tighe, Megan Boone and Betsey Rue; and Notorious, with Jamal Woolard, Angela Bassett, Derek Luke, Anthony Mackie, Antonique Smith, Naturi Naughton, Dennis White and Julia Pace Mitchell.
2009 - Citigroup reported a fourth-quarter net loss of $8.29 billion, while Bank of America Corp. posted its first quarterly loss in 17 years.
2009 - British DJ and pop singer Boy George (47) was sentenced to 15 months in jail for imprisoning a 29-year-old Norwegian male escort after a nude photoshoot. George, whose real name is George O’Dowd, admitted to handcuffing Audun Carlsen to his bed in 2007, as he investigated the Norwegian’s alleged tampering with his computer. (O’Dowd was released from prison May 11, 2009 after serving four months.)
2009 - Bankrupt electronics retailer Circuit City announced that it had failed to find a buyer and would liquidate its 567 U.S. stores. The shut down would result in the loss of some 30,000 jobs. (Circuit city’s last day of sales was on March 8, 2009.)
2010 - Senegal offered free land to Haitians wishing to ‘return to their origins’ following the devastating Jan 12 earthquake, which has destroyed the capital and buried thousands of people beneath rubble.
2010 - A small part of Antarctica had turned ‘green’ as the ice-covered continent’s biggest wind farm was formally switched on. The joint New Zealand-U.S. project on Antarctica’s Ross Sea coast was designed to generate enough electricity to power 500 homes.
Birthdays January 16
1853 - André Michelin
one of the pair of brothers who founded Michelin Tyre Company; died Apr 4, 1931
1903 - Peter Brocco
actor: Adventures of Superman, The Phantom Ring, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Other People’s Money, The War of the Roses, Throw Momma From the Train, Twilight Zone: The Movie, The Winds of War; died Dec 20, 1992
1909 - Ethel Merman (Zimmerman)
singer, Tony Award-winning actress (musical): Call Me Madam [1951]; It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, There’s No Business Like Show Business, Alexander’s Ragtime Band; Musical Theater Hall of Famer; died Feb 15, 1984
1910 - Dizzy (Jay Hanna) Dean
Baseball Hall of Famer: SL Cardinals [World Series: 1934/all-star: 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937], Chicago Cubs [World Series: 1938], SL Browns; broadcaster: SL Browns, Mutual Radio net, ABC/CBS Game of the Week; died July 17, 1974; see Dizzy Day [above]
1917 - Buddy Lester
actor: Smorgasbord, The Man From Clover Grove, Ellery Queen: Don’t Look Behind You, Three on a Couch, Ocean’s Eleven [1960]; died Oct 4, 2002
1918 - Stirling Silliphant
film writer, producer, director: Village of the ****ed, Naked City, Route 66, In the Heat of the Night, The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno, Telefon, Village of the ****ed [1995]; died Apr 26, 1996
1920 - Elliott (Edgeworth) Reid
actor: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, A Woman’s World, Follow Me Boys; radio performer: Suspense
1923 - Roy Lanham
musician: guitar: group: Sons of the Pioneers: Way Out There, There’s a Roundup in the Sky, Blue Prairie, So Long to the Red River Valley, I’m an Old Cowhand [From the Rio Grande]; died Feb 14, 1991
1924 - Katy Jurado
actress: High Noon, One-Eyed Jacks, Trapeze; died July 5, 2002
1929 - G.T. (Granville) Hogan
jazz drummer: played with Elmo Hope, Earl Bostic; died Aug 8, 2004
1930 - Norman Podhoretz
author: Making It, Breaking Ranks; editor/editor-at-large: Commentary magazine
1934 - Bob Bogle (Robert Lenard Bogle)
musician: guitar, bass: group: The Ventures: Walk, Don’t Run, Perfidia, theme from Hawaii Five-O; died Jun 14, 2009
1934 - Marilyn Horne
opera singer: Carmen Jones [v/o for Dorothy Dandridge]
1935 - A.J. (Anthony Joseph) Foyt
racing car drive: Indianapolis 500 Winner [1961, 1964, 1967, 1977]; Daytona 500 Winner: [1972]
1938 - Lou Angotti
hockey: NHL: NY Rangers, Chicago Blackhawks, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins, SL Blues; coach: St. Louis Blues, Pittsburgh Penguins
1942 - René Angelil
husband and manager of singer Celine Dion; appeared in film: L’Apparition
1942 - Bill Francis
musician: keyboard, singer: group: Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show: When You’re in Love with a Beautiful Woman, Sharing the Night Together, Sexy Eyes, Better Love Next Time, The Cover of Rolling Stone; died May 23, 2010
1944 - Jim Stafford
singer: Spiders and Snakes, Wildwood Weed, [w/John Hadley]: You Can’t Get the Hell out of Texas
1946 - Ronnie Milsap
Grammy Award-winning singer: Stand By My Woman Man [1976]; CMA Male Vocalist of the Year [1974, 1976, 1977]; CMA Entertainer of the Year [1977]; My Heart, Only One Love in My Life, It Was Almost like a song, Lost in the Fifties Tonight, A Woman in Love, [There’s] No Gettin’ Over Me; blind since birth, learned to play several instruments by age 12
1947 - Dr. Laura Schlessinger
conservative radio/TV host: The Dr. Laura Program; author: Ten Stupid Things Women Do to Mess Up Their Lives, The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands
1948 - John Carpenter
writer, director: Escape from L.A., Village of the ****ed, Body Bags, Prince of Darkness, Starman, The Thing, Escape from New York, Elvis: The Movie, Halloween
1950 - Debbie Allen
dancer, actress: Fame, Roots: The Next Generation, Ragtime, The Fish that Saved Pittsburgh; choreographer; sister of actress Phylicia Rashad
1951 - Chuck Crist
football: Penn State Univ., New York Giants, New Orleans Saints, San Francisco 49ers DB
1953 - Bo Harris
football: Cincinnati Bengals linebacker, Super Bowl XVI
1953 - DAVE Brown
football: Pittsburgh Steelers safety, Super Bowl X
1959 - Sade (Helen Folasade Adu)
singer: group: Sade: LPs: Diamond Life, Promise, Stronger than Pride
1962 - Paul Webb
musician: bass: group: Talk Talk
1965 - Maxine Jones
singer: group: En Vogue: Hold On, Free Your Mind, My Lovin’ [You’re Never Gonna Get It], Don’t Let Go [Love], Give It Up, Turn It Loose, Whatta Man
1966 - Steve Leach
hockey: Washington Capitals, Boston Bruins, SL Blues, Carolina Hurricanes, Ottawa Senators, Phoenix Coyotes, Pittsburgh Penguins
1970 - Ron Villone
baseball [pitcher]: Univ of Massachusetts; Seattle Mariners, SD Padres, Milwaukee Brewers, Cleveland Indians, Cincinnati Reds, Houston Astros, Colorado Rockies, Pittsburgh Pirates
1972 - Joe Horn
football: Itawamba Community College; NFL: KC Chiefs, NO Saints
1973 - Mario Bates
football: Arizona State Univ; NFL; NO Saints, Arizona Cardinals, Detroit Lions
1974 - Kate Moss
supermodel
1977 - Mark Simoneau
football: Kansas State Univ; NFL: Atlanta Falcons, Philadelphia Eagles
1979 - Aaliyah
singer: Miss You, We Need a Resolution, More Than a Woman, Got to Give It Up, Try Again, Are You That Somebody?; killed in plane crash Aug 25, 2001
1986 - Mason Gamble
actor: Arlington Road, Rushmore, Gattaca, Dennis the Menace, Spy Hard
Chart Toppers January 16
1946Symphony - 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
You Will Have to Pay - Tex Ritter
1955Mr. Sandman - The Chordettes
Hearts of Stone - The Fontane Sisters
Make Yourself Comfortable - Sarah Vaughan
Loose Talk - Carl Smith
1964There! I’ve Said It Again - Bobby Vinton
Popsicles and Icicles - The Murmaids
Surfin’ Bird - The Trashmen
Love’s Gonna Live Here - Buck Owens
1973You’re So Vain - Carly Simon
Superstition - Stevie Wonder
Your Mama Don’t Dance - Kenny Loggins & Jim Messina
Soul Song - Joe Stampley
1982Physical - Olivia Newton-John
Waiting for a Girl Like You - Foreigner
Centerfold - The J. Geils Band
I Wouldn’t Have Missed It for the World - Ronnie Milsap
1991Justify My Love - Madonna
High Enough - **** Yankees
Love Will Never Do (Without You) - Janet Jackson
Unanswered Prayers - Garth Brooks
2000What A Girl Wants - Christina Aguilera
I Wanna Love You Forever - Jessica Simpson
Bring It All to Me - Blaque
Breathe - Faith Hill
2009Just Dance - Lady Gaga featuring Colby O’Donis
Live Your Life - T.I. featuring Rihanna
Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It) - Beyoncé
Already Gone - Sugarland
Happy Birthday Maxine Jones of En Vogue
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