BROWNNOSE
BOOTLICKER
15th day of 2011 - 350 remaining
Saturday, January 15, 2011
I HAVE A DREAM DAY
Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on this day in 1929. His lifelong goal was to bring about social, political and economic equality for blacks. In the quest for his ideals, he became one of the greatest civil rights leaders of the 20th century. A Baptist minister (as were his father and grandfather before him), he preached ‘nonviolent resistance’ to achieve full civil rights for all.
Leading the African-American struggle for equality through nonviolent demonstrations was what earned King the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.
In spite of his nonviolent preachings, Martin Luther King, Jr. was the target of violence on several occasions. His home was bombed in Montgomery, Alabama; he was stabbed while in New York City, had stones thrown at him in Chicago and, ultimately, was assassinated (age 39) by a hidden rifleman, in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968.
Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday has been a public holiday in the United States since 1986, commemorated on the 3rd Monday in January.
King wrote five books espousing his philosophy: Stride Toward Freedom [1958], Strength to Love [1963], Why We Can’t Wait [1964], Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? [1967] and The Trumpet of Conscience [1968].
On August 28, 1963 more than 200,000 people marched from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC and, as millions more watched on television, King addressed the throng saying, “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal.’”
Events January 15
1870 - A cartoon by Thomas Nast, titled, A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion, appeared on this day in Harper’s Weekly. The cartoon used the donkey to symbolize the Democratic Party. The symbol gave everyone such a such a ‘kick’ that it stuck to the Democrats... and it’s still stuck today.
1892 - YMCA Canada’s Y Triangle magazine published the story of a new game. James Naismith, a teacher at the YMCA International Training School in Massachusetts (later named Springfield College), had invented the game of basketball on December 21, 1891. Naismith attached peach baskets to the lower rail of a balcony, one at either end of the gym. There were eighteen men in Naismith’s class and he promised them that if this game proved to be a failure he would not try any more experiments on them. They went over the rules, divided the group into two teams of nine players each and tossed up the first basketball in history.
1899 - Edwin Markham’s poem, The Man With a Hoe, was published for the first time. The California school teacher’s work was published by the San Francisco Examiner.
1906 - Willie Hoppe, at the tender age of 18, won his first world billiard championship by defeating the renowned French champ, Maurice Vignaux in Paris. Hoppe was one of the greatest billiard players of all time (between 1936 and 1952, he held the Three-Cushion title 11 times).
1919 - Pianist and statesman Ignace Jan Paderewski became the first premier of the newly created republic of Poland.
1922 - The Irish Free State was formed; Michael Collins was the first premier.
1936 - The first all glass, windowless building was completed in Toledo, Ohio as the home of the Owens-Illinois Glass Company Laboratory.
1942 - Kenny Sargent, “one of the handsomest singers ever to grace a bandstand,” vocalized with the Glen Gray Orchestra on Decca Records’ It’s the Talk of the Town.
1943 - The world’s largest office building was completed, just outside of Washington, DC, in Arlington, VA. The massive structure covers 34 acres of land and has 17 miles of corridors, plus, a whole lot of secret places that we’ll never know about. Why? Because it’s the Pentagon, the headquarters of the United States defense effort.
1945 - Art Linkletter starred on the CBS radio debut of House Party. The show continued on the air for 22 years, including a long stint on CBS television. Linkletter wrote books about experiences with kids on the show. Remember, Kids Say the Darndest Things? This segment of the show -- and Art’s resulting books -- were among the most popular of early daytime television.
1947 - The mutilated remains of 22-year-old aspiring actress Elizabeth Short, known as the ‘Black Dahlia’ (for the dark outfits she wore), were found dumped in a vacant lot in Los Angeles. The Black Dahlia murder case remains unsolved even though some 500 hundred men have confessed to the murder.
1949 - Chinese Communists occupied Tientsin after a 27-hour battle with Nationalist forces.
1951 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the ‘clear and present danger’ of incitement to riot is not protected speech and can be cause for arrest.
1953 - Harry S Truman became the first U.S. President to use radio and television to say farewell as he left office.
1964 - The soundtrack album of the musical, The King and I, starring Yul Brynner, earned a gold record.
1967 - Super Bowl I (at Los Angeles): Green Bay Packers 35, Kansas City Chiefs 10. Most Valuable Player was Packers’ QB, Bart Starr. Max McGee scored the first touchdown. 61,946 fans attended the game at ten bucks a ticket.
1967 - Ed Sullivan told The Rolling Stones to change the lyrics AND the title to the song, Let’s Spend the Night Together, or “be off my riiiillly big shew!” So, the Stones gave in... changing the tune to Let’s Spend Some Time Together.
1969 - The Russian Soyuz 5 went into orbit. The crew maneuvered to dock with Soyuz 4 and Yevgeny Khrunov then became the first space traveler to transfer between linked capsules.
1971 - Egypt’s Aswan High Dam, 600 miles upstream from Cairo, officially opened.
1972 - Heavyweight Joe Frazier KO’d Terry Daniels. Daniels had lasted four rounds.
1973 - Pope Paul VI had an audience with Israel’s Prime Minister Golda Meir at the Vatican.
1974 - Happy Days began an 11-year run on ABC-TV.
1974 - A group of technical experts determined that the 18-minute gap in one of the Watergate tapes was the result of five separate manual erasures. It was never determined for sure who had performed them.
1978 - Super Bowl XII (at New Orleans): Dallas Cowboys 27, Denver Broncos 10. The first Super Bowl played without a sky. This one opened the Louisiana Superdome. Tom Landry was the Cowboys’ coach, Roger Staubach was their quarterback. Co-MVPs: DT Randy White and DE Harvey Martin (only co-MVPs in Super Bowl history). Tickets: $30.00.
1981 - Hill Street Blues premiered on NBC-TV. It ran through May 19, 1987.
1985 - The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honored actress Myrna Loy at Carnegie Hall in New York City. The 79-year-old actress never received a nomination by the Academy -- though she appeared in 120 films.
1987 - Paramount Home Video reported that, for the first time, it would place a commercial at the front of one of its video releases: a 30-second Diet Pepsi ad at the beginning of Top Gun. The idea was that Paramount would be able to reduce the price of the video to consumers by $3. The difference would be made up with Pepsi money and more consumers would buy the Tom Cruise flick rather than more expensive videos without the commercial.
1990 - ‘Big’ George Foreman, on the comeback-trail at 42 years of age, knocked out Gerry Cooney in the second round at Atlantic City, NJ. (Foreman became the oldest [age 45] ever to win the heavyweight title when he knocked out Michael Moorer on Nov 5, 1994.)
1992 - The Yugoslav federation, founded in 1918, collapsed as the European Community recognized the republics of Croatia and Slovenia.
1993 - Sammy Cahn, who wrote the lyrics to Call Me Irresponsible, High Hopes and many other hits, died in Los Angeles. He was 79 years old.
1994 - Singer and songwriter Harry Nilsson died at his Los Angeles-area home. He was only 52, but had suffered a serious heart attack a year earlier. Nilsson won a Grammy award for singing Everybody’s Talkin’, the theme from the 1969 film Midnight Cowboy. His biggest hit was Without You in 1972.
1995 - The San Francisco 49ers beat the Dallas Cowboys 38-28 in the NFC championship game and the San Diego Chargers edged the Pittsburgh Steelers 17-13 in the AFC title game. (The 49ers beat the Chargers 49-26 in Super Bowl XXIX.)
1997 - Boeing agreed to make rudder changes to its 737 airplanes at an estimated cost of $120 million. Faulty rudder design had been suspected of causing several crashes.
1997 - The crews of the shuttle Atlantis and the Russian space station Mir had a raucously joyful meeting, hours after their spacecraft docked.
1998 - Chicago Blues harmonica star Junior Wells died at 63 years of age. His album Hoodoo Man Blues, recorded in the 1960s, was considered by many as one of the best all-time blues albums.
1999 - These movies debuted in U.S. theatres: At First Sight (“Science gave him sight. She gave him vision.”), with Val Kilmer, Mira Sorvino, Kelly Mcgillis and Nathan Lane; In Dreams (“You don’t have to sleep to dream.”), starring Annette Bening, Robert Downey Jr., Stephen Rea and Aidan Quinn; Varsity Blues (“In a town where winning is everything, these guys have nothing to lose.”), with James Van Der Beek, Jon Voight and Paul Walker; and Virus (“Life on earth is in for a shock.”), starring Jamie Lee Curtis William Baldwin Donald Sutherland Joanna Pacula.
2000 - Masked gunmen opened fire in a hotel lobby in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, killing Serbian warlord Zeljko Raznatovic. Known as Arkan, Raznatovic had been indicted by the U.N. war crimes tribunal for atrocities in Bosnia and Croatia.
2001 - Wikipedia, the multilingual, Web-based, free-content encyclopedia project, was launched -- by Larry Sanger and Jimmy Wales.
2002 - Arthur Andersen LLP said it was firing senior auditor David B. Duncan, who had organized a “rushed disposal” of Enron documents after federal regulators requested information about the failing energy company.
2003 - The Walt Disney Company scored a big victory as the U.S. Supreme Court upheld longer copyright protections for cartoon characters, songs, books and other creations worth billions of dollars.
2004 - Author Olivia Goldsmith, 54, died in New York City of complications from plastic surgery. Her The First Wives Club became a revenge fantasy for wives tossed aside in favor of younger women. It became a hit film in 1996 (starring Goldie Hawn, Diane Keaton and Bette Midler).
2005 - The European space probe Huygens, having landed on Saturn’s moon Titan, sent back images of what scientists were calling the strangest landscape in the solar system. Pictures showed a pale orange surface covered by a thin haze of methane and what appeared to be a methane sea complete with islands and a mist-shrouded coastline.
2005 - Stage and screen actress Ruth Warrick died in New York at 88 years of age. Warrick played the inveterate busybody, Phoebe Tyler Wallingford, on All My Children, the TV soap opera that debuted in 1970.
2006 - The BBC reported that North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il had been on a fact-finding journey to China. He was apparently checking out high-tech Chinese companies, hoping to find help for Korea’s ailing economy.
2007 - The editor and a journalist at the Moroccan news weekly Nichane were convicted of publishing an article described as “harmful to Islam.” Casablanca First Instance Court presiding judge Noureddine Ghassin gave three-year suspended sentences to Driss Ksikes, editor of Nichane, and to journalist Sanaa al-Aji. Both were barred from journalistic activity with Nichane for two months and the independent Arab-language magazine was suspended for two months. Plus, Ksikes and al-Aji were fined $9,280 each.
2007 - The 64th Golden Globe Awards ceremony was aired on NBC-TV. The film Babel won for best dramatic film; Grey’s Anatomy won best dramatic TV series, while Ugly Betty won for best TV musical or comedy series. Forest Whitaker won the film actor award for The Last King of Scotland; Helen Mirren won the film actress award for The Queen. Dreamgirls won the most awards, with three (including Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy).
2007 - California’s top agricultural official said three days of freezing temperatures had ruined as much as 70% of the state’s citrus crop. California’s orange production was reduced by 20 percent as a direct result of the mid-January freeze.
2008 - Citigroup reported a $9.8-billion (sub-prime) loss in 2007’s 4th quarter. It was the largest quarterly deficit in the financial giant’s 196-year history.
2008 - The U.S. government sued the border city of Eagle Pass, Texas, to force the town to surrender 233 acres for the construction of a border fence by the Homeland Security Dept.
2009 - Actor Ricardo Montalban died at his home in Los Angeles. He was 88 years old. Montalban became a star in splashy MGM musicals and later as the wish-fulfilling Mr. Roarke in TV’s "Fantasy Island". His credits include scores of film and TV appearances. Montalban’s 1980 autobiography was titled "Reflections: A Life in Two Worlds" (family and faith vs. Hollywood star; review).
2009 - New Zealand police reported the arrest of a man who had tried to crack a bar’s safe. The cops posting of security camera footage of the attempted theft on Facebook led to his identification and apprehension.
2010 - Movies opening in the U.S.: The Book of Eli, starring Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman, Mila Kunis, Ray Stevenson, Jennifer Beals and Evan Jones; and The Spy Next Door, with Jackie Chan, Madeline Carroll, Alina Foley, George Lopez, Billy Ray Cyrus, Amber Valletta and Katherine Boecher.
2010 - Russian lawmakers ended years of resistance to ratify an international agreement intended to strengthen and speed up the work of the European Court of Human Rights.
2010 - The U.S. State Department said it was giving China a formal diplomatic message expressing its concern about cyber attacks that prompted Google to threaten to pull out of China.
Birthdays January 15
1622 - Jean Baptiste Moliere (Poquelin)
playwright: The Affected Young Ladies, The School for Wives, Tartuffe, Don Juan, The Misanthrope, The Miser, The Learned Ladies; died Feb 17, 1673
1870 - Pierre S. DuPont
industrialist: Chairman of the Board of the DuPont Company, board member of General Motors Corp. [at the same time]; humanitarian; died Apr 5, 1954
1892 - Rex Ingram (Hitchcock)
writer, director: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse; died July 21, 1950
1906 - Aristotle Onassis
Greek shipping magnate: 2nd husband of Jaqueline Kennedy; died Mar 15, 1975
1908 - Edward Teller
physicist: ‘father of the hydrogen bomb’; died Sep 9, 2003
1909 - Gene Krupa
drummer: Sing Sing Sing; bandleader: Let Me Off Uptown, Knock Me a Kiss, Chickery Chick, Boogie Blues; films: Some Like it Hot, Ball of Fire, The Gene Krupa Story; died Oct 6, 1973
1913 - Lloyd Bridges
actor: Sea Hunt, Roots, High Noon, Airplane!, Airplane 2, The Grace Kelly Story, The Rainmaker, The Great Wallendas, Joe Versus the Volcano; Jeff & Beau’s dad; died Mar 10, 1998
1920 - Steve (Stephen Joseph) Gromek
baseball: pitcher: Cleveland Indians [all-star: 1945/World Series: 1948], Detroit Tigers; died Mar 12, 2002
1920 - Yvonne King
singer: group: The King Sisters; TV: The King Family Show; actress: On Stage Everybody, Larceny with Music, Follow the Band; died Dec 13, 2009
1920 - Cardinal John O’Connor
spiritual leader of Roman Catholics in the New York Archdiocese; he was a national figure, sought out by U.S. Presidential candidates and world leaders, and was considered Pope John Paul II’s most important American ally; died May 3, 2000
1926 - Maria Schell (Margarete Schell)
actress: Samson and Delilah, Voyage of the ****ed, The Odessa File, The Hanging Tree, The Brothers Karamazov; died Apr 26, 2005
1929 - Martin Luther King Jr.
civil rights activist: “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal.’”; author: Stride Toward Freedom, Strength to Love, Why We Can’t Wait, Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, The Trumpet of Conscience; assassinated Apr 4, 1968; see I Have a Dream Day [above]
1937 - Margaret O’Brien (Angela Maxine O'Brien)
actress: Meet Me in St. Louis, Little Women [1949], The Secret Garden [1949], Amy
1941 - Captain Beefheart (Don Van Vliet)
singer: group: Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band: Diddy Wah Diddy, Hair Pie, Old Fart at Play; artist
1943 - Mike (Michael Grant) Marshall
baseball: pitcher: Detroit Tigers, Seattle Pilots, Houston Astros, Montreal Expos, LA Dodgers [World Series: 1974/all-star: 1974, 1975/NL Cy Young Award: 1974/record: most games pitched in one season (106, 1974)], Atlanta Braves, Texas Rangers, Minnesota Twins, NY Mets
1947 - Andrea Martin
Emmy Award-winning writer: The Energy Ball/Sweeps Week, SCTV Network [1983], actress: Guitarman, Rude Awakening, Soup for One
1948 - Ronnie Van Zandt
singer, songwriter: group: Lynyrd Skynyrd; killed in plane crash at Gillsburg MS Oct 20, 1977
1950 - Nate Hawthorne
basketball: Phoenix Suns
1951 - Martha Davis
singer: group: The Motels: Total Control, Only the Lonely, LP: Shock
1951 - Ernie DiGregorio
basketball: Buffalo Braves, L.A. Clippers
1952 - Melvyn Gale
musician: cello: group: ELO (Electric Light Orchestra): Evil Woman, Livin’ Thing, Can’t Get It Out of My Head, Showdown, Turn to Stone, Sweet Talkin’ Woman
1953 - Randy White
Pro Football Hall of Famer: Dallas Cowboys: No.1 draft pick, won three Super Bowls, missed only one game in 14 years, played in nine Pro Bowls
1954 - Ray Simpson
lead singer (Cop): group Village People: Y.M.C.A, In the Navy, Macho ManGo West, Can’t Stop the Music, I Am What I Am
1957 - Mario Van Peebles
actor: Sonny Spoon, Jaws: The Revenge, Hot Shot, Exterminator 2; director, writer, actor: Posse, Panther, New Jack City
1959 - Peter Trewavas
musician: bass: group: Marillion: Lavender, Heart of Lothian
1967 - Lisa Velez
singer: group: Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam: I Wonder If I Take You Home, All Cried Out, Can You Feel the Beat?, Head to Toe, Let the Beat Hit ’Em, Something ’Bout Love
1968 - Chad Lowe
actor: Life Goes On, Siringo, An Inconvenient Woman, True Blood, Silence of the Heart; brother of actor, Rob Lowe
1969 - Adam Burt
hockey: Hartford Whalers, Carolina Hurricanes, Philadelphia Flyers, Atlanta Thrashers
1969 - Delino DeShields
baseball: Villanova Univ; Montreal Expos, LA Dodgers, SL Cardinals, Baltimore Orioles, Chicago Cubs
1971 - Regina King
actress: Boyz N the Hood, Jerry Maguire, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Enemy of the State, Mighty Joe Young, Love and Action in Chicago, Leap of Faith
1974 - Mike Minter
football [safety]: Univ of Nebraska; NFL: Carolina Panthers
1976 - Corey Chavous
football: Vanderbilt Univ; NFL: Arizona Cardinals, Minnesota Vikings
1979 - Drew Brees
football [quarterback]: Purdue Univ; NFL: San Diego Charges, New Orleans Saints [MVP: Super Bowl XLIV]
1981 - Zachary Bostrom
actor: Armed and Innocent, A Very Brady Christmas, Harry and the Hedersons, Beverly Hills, 90210, Fame
1982 - Ben Agosto
ice dancer [w/partner Tanith Belbin]: Olympics silver medalist [2006]; four-time World medalist; Four Continents champion [2004–2006]; U.S. champion [2004–2008]
Chart Toppers January 15
1945Don’t Fence Me In - Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters
There Goes that Song Again - Russ Morgan
I’m Making Believe - Ella Fitzgerald & The Ink Spots
I’m Wastin’ My Tears on You - Tex Ritter
1954Oh! My Pa-Pa - Eddie Fisher
Changing Partners - Patti Page
Secret Love - Doris Day
Bimbo - Jim Reeves
1963Go Away Little Girl - Steve Lawrence
Hotel Happiness - Brook Benton
Pepino the Italian Mouse - Lou Monte
The Ballad of Jed Clampett - Flatt & Scruggs
1972American Pie - Don McLean
Let’s Stay Together - Al Green
Sunshine - Jonathan Edwards
Carolyn - Merle Haggard
1981(Just Like) Starting Over - John Lennon
Love on the Rocks - Neil Diamond
Guilty - Barbra Streisand & Barry Gibb
I Think I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink - Merle Haggard
1990Another Day in Paradise - Phil Collins
Pump Up the Jam - Technotronic featuring Felly
Everything - Jody Watley
It Ain’t Nothin’ - Keith Whitley
1999I’m Your Angel - R. Kelly & Celine Dion
Have You Ever? - Brandy
Lullaby - Shawn Mullins
Right on the Money - Alan Jackson
2008No One - Alicia Keys
Clumsy - Fergie
Low - Flo Rida featuring T-Pain
Our Song - Taylor Swift
Chart Topper January 15th, 1981...(Just Like) Starting Over - John Lennon
View attachment 9667
Saturday, January 15, 2011
I HAVE A DREAM DAY
Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on this day in 1929. His lifelong goal was to bring about social, political and economic equality for blacks. In the quest for his ideals, he became one of the greatest civil rights leaders of the 20th century. A Baptist minister (as were his father and grandfather before him), he preached ‘nonviolent resistance’ to achieve full civil rights for all.
Leading the African-American struggle for equality through nonviolent demonstrations was what earned King the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.
In spite of his nonviolent preachings, Martin Luther King, Jr. was the target of violence on several occasions. His home was bombed in Montgomery, Alabama; he was stabbed while in New York City, had stones thrown at him in Chicago and, ultimately, was assassinated (age 39) by a hidden rifleman, in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968.
Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday has been a public holiday in the United States since 1986, commemorated on the 3rd Monday in January.
King wrote five books espousing his philosophy: Stride Toward Freedom [1958], Strength to Love [1963], Why We Can’t Wait [1964], Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? [1967] and The Trumpet of Conscience [1968].
On August 28, 1963 more than 200,000 people marched from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC and, as millions more watched on television, King addressed the throng saying, “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal.’”
Events January 15
1870 - A cartoon by Thomas Nast, titled, A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion, appeared on this day in Harper’s Weekly. The cartoon used the donkey to symbolize the Democratic Party. The symbol gave everyone such a such a ‘kick’ that it stuck to the Democrats... and it’s still stuck today.
1892 - YMCA Canada’s Y Triangle magazine published the story of a new game. James Naismith, a teacher at the YMCA International Training School in Massachusetts (later named Springfield College), had invented the game of basketball on December 21, 1891. Naismith attached peach baskets to the lower rail of a balcony, one at either end of the gym. There were eighteen men in Naismith’s class and he promised them that if this game proved to be a failure he would not try any more experiments on them. They went over the rules, divided the group into two teams of nine players each and tossed up the first basketball in history.
1899 - Edwin Markham’s poem, The Man With a Hoe, was published for the first time. The California school teacher’s work was published by the San Francisco Examiner.
1906 - Willie Hoppe, at the tender age of 18, won his first world billiard championship by defeating the renowned French champ, Maurice Vignaux in Paris. Hoppe was one of the greatest billiard players of all time (between 1936 and 1952, he held the Three-Cushion title 11 times).
1919 - Pianist and statesman Ignace Jan Paderewski became the first premier of the newly created republic of Poland.
1922 - The Irish Free State was formed; Michael Collins was the first premier.
1936 - The first all glass, windowless building was completed in Toledo, Ohio as the home of the Owens-Illinois Glass Company Laboratory.
1942 - Kenny Sargent, “one of the handsomest singers ever to grace a bandstand,” vocalized with the Glen Gray Orchestra on Decca Records’ It’s the Talk of the Town.
1943 - The world’s largest office building was completed, just outside of Washington, DC, in Arlington, VA. The massive structure covers 34 acres of land and has 17 miles of corridors, plus, a whole lot of secret places that we’ll never know about. Why? Because it’s the Pentagon, the headquarters of the United States defense effort.
1945 - Art Linkletter starred on the CBS radio debut of House Party. The show continued on the air for 22 years, including a long stint on CBS television. Linkletter wrote books about experiences with kids on the show. Remember, Kids Say the Darndest Things? This segment of the show -- and Art’s resulting books -- were among the most popular of early daytime television.
1947 - The mutilated remains of 22-year-old aspiring actress Elizabeth Short, known as the ‘Black Dahlia’ (for the dark outfits she wore), were found dumped in a vacant lot in Los Angeles. The Black Dahlia murder case remains unsolved even though some 500 hundred men have confessed to the murder.
1949 - Chinese Communists occupied Tientsin after a 27-hour battle with Nationalist forces.
1951 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the ‘clear and present danger’ of incitement to riot is not protected speech and can be cause for arrest.
1953 - Harry S Truman became the first U.S. President to use radio and television to say farewell as he left office.
1964 - The soundtrack album of the musical, The King and I, starring Yul Brynner, earned a gold record.
1967 - Super Bowl I (at Los Angeles): Green Bay Packers 35, Kansas City Chiefs 10. Most Valuable Player was Packers’ QB, Bart Starr. Max McGee scored the first touchdown. 61,946 fans attended the game at ten bucks a ticket.
1967 - Ed Sullivan told The Rolling Stones to change the lyrics AND the title to the song, Let’s Spend the Night Together, or “be off my riiiillly big shew!” So, the Stones gave in... changing the tune to Let’s Spend Some Time Together.
1969 - The Russian Soyuz 5 went into orbit. The crew maneuvered to dock with Soyuz 4 and Yevgeny Khrunov then became the first space traveler to transfer between linked capsules.
1971 - Egypt’s Aswan High Dam, 600 miles upstream from Cairo, officially opened.
1972 - Heavyweight Joe Frazier KO’d Terry Daniels. Daniels had lasted four rounds.
1973 - Pope Paul VI had an audience with Israel’s Prime Minister Golda Meir at the Vatican.
1974 - Happy Days began an 11-year run on ABC-TV.
1974 - A group of technical experts determined that the 18-minute gap in one of the Watergate tapes was the result of five separate manual erasures. It was never determined for sure who had performed them.
1978 - Super Bowl XII (at New Orleans): Dallas Cowboys 27, Denver Broncos 10. The first Super Bowl played without a sky. This one opened the Louisiana Superdome. Tom Landry was the Cowboys’ coach, Roger Staubach was their quarterback. Co-MVPs: DT Randy White and DE Harvey Martin (only co-MVPs in Super Bowl history). Tickets: $30.00.
1981 - Hill Street Blues premiered on NBC-TV. It ran through May 19, 1987.
1985 - The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honored actress Myrna Loy at Carnegie Hall in New York City. The 79-year-old actress never received a nomination by the Academy -- though she appeared in 120 films.
1987 - Paramount Home Video reported that, for the first time, it would place a commercial at the front of one of its video releases: a 30-second Diet Pepsi ad at the beginning of Top Gun. The idea was that Paramount would be able to reduce the price of the video to consumers by $3. The difference would be made up with Pepsi money and more consumers would buy the Tom Cruise flick rather than more expensive videos without the commercial.
1990 - ‘Big’ George Foreman, on the comeback-trail at 42 years of age, knocked out Gerry Cooney in the second round at Atlantic City, NJ. (Foreman became the oldest [age 45] ever to win the heavyweight title when he knocked out Michael Moorer on Nov 5, 1994.)
1992 - The Yugoslav federation, founded in 1918, collapsed as the European Community recognized the republics of Croatia and Slovenia.
1993 - Sammy Cahn, who wrote the lyrics to Call Me Irresponsible, High Hopes and many other hits, died in Los Angeles. He was 79 years old.
1994 - Singer and songwriter Harry Nilsson died at his Los Angeles-area home. He was only 52, but had suffered a serious heart attack a year earlier. Nilsson won a Grammy award for singing Everybody’s Talkin’, the theme from the 1969 film Midnight Cowboy. His biggest hit was Without You in 1972.
1995 - The San Francisco 49ers beat the Dallas Cowboys 38-28 in the NFC championship game and the San Diego Chargers edged the Pittsburgh Steelers 17-13 in the AFC title game. (The 49ers beat the Chargers 49-26 in Super Bowl XXIX.)
1997 - Boeing agreed to make rudder changes to its 737 airplanes at an estimated cost of $120 million. Faulty rudder design had been suspected of causing several crashes.
1997 - The crews of the shuttle Atlantis and the Russian space station Mir had a raucously joyful meeting, hours after their spacecraft docked.
1998 - Chicago Blues harmonica star Junior Wells died at 63 years of age. His album Hoodoo Man Blues, recorded in the 1960s, was considered by many as one of the best all-time blues albums.
1999 - These movies debuted in U.S. theatres: At First Sight (“Science gave him sight. She gave him vision.”), with Val Kilmer, Mira Sorvino, Kelly Mcgillis and Nathan Lane; In Dreams (“You don’t have to sleep to dream.”), starring Annette Bening, Robert Downey Jr., Stephen Rea and Aidan Quinn; Varsity Blues (“In a town where winning is everything, these guys have nothing to lose.”), with James Van Der Beek, Jon Voight and Paul Walker; and Virus (“Life on earth is in for a shock.”), starring Jamie Lee Curtis William Baldwin Donald Sutherland Joanna Pacula.
2000 - Masked gunmen opened fire in a hotel lobby in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, killing Serbian warlord Zeljko Raznatovic. Known as Arkan, Raznatovic had been indicted by the U.N. war crimes tribunal for atrocities in Bosnia and Croatia.
2001 - Wikipedia, the multilingual, Web-based, free-content encyclopedia project, was launched -- by Larry Sanger and Jimmy Wales.
2002 - Arthur Andersen LLP said it was firing senior auditor David B. Duncan, who had organized a “rushed disposal” of Enron documents after federal regulators requested information about the failing energy company.
2003 - The Walt Disney Company scored a big victory as the U.S. Supreme Court upheld longer copyright protections for cartoon characters, songs, books and other creations worth billions of dollars.
2004 - Author Olivia Goldsmith, 54, died in New York City of complications from plastic surgery. Her The First Wives Club became a revenge fantasy for wives tossed aside in favor of younger women. It became a hit film in 1996 (starring Goldie Hawn, Diane Keaton and Bette Midler).
2005 - The European space probe Huygens, having landed on Saturn’s moon Titan, sent back images of what scientists were calling the strangest landscape in the solar system. Pictures showed a pale orange surface covered by a thin haze of methane and what appeared to be a methane sea complete with islands and a mist-shrouded coastline.
2005 - Stage and screen actress Ruth Warrick died in New York at 88 years of age. Warrick played the inveterate busybody, Phoebe Tyler Wallingford, on All My Children, the TV soap opera that debuted in 1970.
2006 - The BBC reported that North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il had been on a fact-finding journey to China. He was apparently checking out high-tech Chinese companies, hoping to find help for Korea’s ailing economy.
2007 - The editor and a journalist at the Moroccan news weekly Nichane were convicted of publishing an article described as “harmful to Islam.” Casablanca First Instance Court presiding judge Noureddine Ghassin gave three-year suspended sentences to Driss Ksikes, editor of Nichane, and to journalist Sanaa al-Aji. Both were barred from journalistic activity with Nichane for two months and the independent Arab-language magazine was suspended for two months. Plus, Ksikes and al-Aji were fined $9,280 each.
2007 - The 64th Golden Globe Awards ceremony was aired on NBC-TV. The film Babel won for best dramatic film; Grey’s Anatomy won best dramatic TV series, while Ugly Betty won for best TV musical or comedy series. Forest Whitaker won the film actor award for The Last King of Scotland; Helen Mirren won the film actress award for The Queen. Dreamgirls won the most awards, with three (including Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy).
2007 - California’s top agricultural official said three days of freezing temperatures had ruined as much as 70% of the state’s citrus crop. California’s orange production was reduced by 20 percent as a direct result of the mid-January freeze.
2008 - Citigroup reported a $9.8-billion (sub-prime) loss in 2007’s 4th quarter. It was the largest quarterly deficit in the financial giant’s 196-year history.
2008 - The U.S. government sued the border city of Eagle Pass, Texas, to force the town to surrender 233 acres for the construction of a border fence by the Homeland Security Dept.
2009 - Actor Ricardo Montalban died at his home in Los Angeles. He was 88 years old. Montalban became a star in splashy MGM musicals and later as the wish-fulfilling Mr. Roarke in TV’s "Fantasy Island". His credits include scores of film and TV appearances. Montalban’s 1980 autobiography was titled "Reflections: A Life in Two Worlds" (family and faith vs. Hollywood star; review).
2009 - New Zealand police reported the arrest of a man who had tried to crack a bar’s safe. The cops posting of security camera footage of the attempted theft on Facebook led to his identification and apprehension.
2010 - Movies opening in the U.S.: The Book of Eli, starring Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman, Mila Kunis, Ray Stevenson, Jennifer Beals and Evan Jones; and The Spy Next Door, with Jackie Chan, Madeline Carroll, Alina Foley, George Lopez, Billy Ray Cyrus, Amber Valletta and Katherine Boecher.
2010 - Russian lawmakers ended years of resistance to ratify an international agreement intended to strengthen and speed up the work of the European Court of Human Rights.
2010 - The U.S. State Department said it was giving China a formal diplomatic message expressing its concern about cyber attacks that prompted Google to threaten to pull out of China.
Birthdays January 15
1622 - Jean Baptiste Moliere (Poquelin)
playwright: The Affected Young Ladies, The School for Wives, Tartuffe, Don Juan, The Misanthrope, The Miser, The Learned Ladies; died Feb 17, 1673
1870 - Pierre S. DuPont
industrialist: Chairman of the Board of the DuPont Company, board member of General Motors Corp. [at the same time]; humanitarian; died Apr 5, 1954
1892 - Rex Ingram (Hitchcock)
writer, director: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse; died July 21, 1950
1906 - Aristotle Onassis
Greek shipping magnate: 2nd husband of Jaqueline Kennedy; died Mar 15, 1975
1908 - Edward Teller
physicist: ‘father of the hydrogen bomb’; died Sep 9, 2003
1909 - Gene Krupa
drummer: Sing Sing Sing; bandleader: Let Me Off Uptown, Knock Me a Kiss, Chickery Chick, Boogie Blues; films: Some Like it Hot, Ball of Fire, The Gene Krupa Story; died Oct 6, 1973
1913 - Lloyd Bridges
actor: Sea Hunt, Roots, High Noon, Airplane!, Airplane 2, The Grace Kelly Story, The Rainmaker, The Great Wallendas, Joe Versus the Volcano; Jeff & Beau’s dad; died Mar 10, 1998
1920 - Steve (Stephen Joseph) Gromek
baseball: pitcher: Cleveland Indians [all-star: 1945/World Series: 1948], Detroit Tigers; died Mar 12, 2002
1920 - Yvonne King
singer: group: The King Sisters; TV: The King Family Show; actress: On Stage Everybody, Larceny with Music, Follow the Band; died Dec 13, 2009
1920 - Cardinal John O’Connor
spiritual leader of Roman Catholics in the New York Archdiocese; he was a national figure, sought out by U.S. Presidential candidates and world leaders, and was considered Pope John Paul II’s most important American ally; died May 3, 2000
1926 - Maria Schell (Margarete Schell)
actress: Samson and Delilah, Voyage of the ****ed, The Odessa File, The Hanging Tree, The Brothers Karamazov; died Apr 26, 2005
1929 - Martin Luther King Jr.
civil rights activist: “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal.’”; author: Stride Toward Freedom, Strength to Love, Why We Can’t Wait, Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, The Trumpet of Conscience; assassinated Apr 4, 1968; see I Have a Dream Day [above]
1937 - Margaret O’Brien (Angela Maxine O'Brien)
actress: Meet Me in St. Louis, Little Women [1949], The Secret Garden [1949], Amy
1941 - Captain Beefheart (Don Van Vliet)
singer: group: Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band: Diddy Wah Diddy, Hair Pie, Old Fart at Play; artist
1943 - Mike (Michael Grant) Marshall
baseball: pitcher: Detroit Tigers, Seattle Pilots, Houston Astros, Montreal Expos, LA Dodgers [World Series: 1974/all-star: 1974, 1975/NL Cy Young Award: 1974/record: most games pitched in one season (106, 1974)], Atlanta Braves, Texas Rangers, Minnesota Twins, NY Mets
1947 - Andrea Martin
Emmy Award-winning writer: The Energy Ball/Sweeps Week, SCTV Network [1983], actress: Guitarman, Rude Awakening, Soup for One
1948 - Ronnie Van Zandt
singer, songwriter: group: Lynyrd Skynyrd; killed in plane crash at Gillsburg MS Oct 20, 1977
1950 - Nate Hawthorne
basketball: Phoenix Suns
1951 - Martha Davis
singer: group: The Motels: Total Control, Only the Lonely, LP: Shock
1951 - Ernie DiGregorio
basketball: Buffalo Braves, L.A. Clippers
1952 - Melvyn Gale
musician: cello: group: ELO (Electric Light Orchestra): Evil Woman, Livin’ Thing, Can’t Get It Out of My Head, Showdown, Turn to Stone, Sweet Talkin’ Woman
1953 - Randy White
Pro Football Hall of Famer: Dallas Cowboys: No.1 draft pick, won three Super Bowls, missed only one game in 14 years, played in nine Pro Bowls
1954 - Ray Simpson
lead singer (Cop): group Village People: Y.M.C.A, In the Navy, Macho ManGo West, Can’t Stop the Music, I Am What I Am
1957 - Mario Van Peebles
actor: Sonny Spoon, Jaws: The Revenge, Hot Shot, Exterminator 2; director, writer, actor: Posse, Panther, New Jack City
1959 - Peter Trewavas
musician: bass: group: Marillion: Lavender, Heart of Lothian
1967 - Lisa Velez
singer: group: Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam: I Wonder If I Take You Home, All Cried Out, Can You Feel the Beat?, Head to Toe, Let the Beat Hit ’Em, Something ’Bout Love
1968 - Chad Lowe
actor: Life Goes On, Siringo, An Inconvenient Woman, True Blood, Silence of the Heart; brother of actor, Rob Lowe
1969 - Adam Burt
hockey: Hartford Whalers, Carolina Hurricanes, Philadelphia Flyers, Atlanta Thrashers
1969 - Delino DeShields
baseball: Villanova Univ; Montreal Expos, LA Dodgers, SL Cardinals, Baltimore Orioles, Chicago Cubs
1971 - Regina King
actress: Boyz N the Hood, Jerry Maguire, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Enemy of the State, Mighty Joe Young, Love and Action in Chicago, Leap of Faith
1974 - Mike Minter
football [safety]: Univ of Nebraska; NFL: Carolina Panthers
1976 - Corey Chavous
football: Vanderbilt Univ; NFL: Arizona Cardinals, Minnesota Vikings
1979 - Drew Brees
football [quarterback]: Purdue Univ; NFL: San Diego Charges, New Orleans Saints [MVP: Super Bowl XLIV]
1981 - Zachary Bostrom
actor: Armed and Innocent, A Very Brady Christmas, Harry and the Hedersons, Beverly Hills, 90210, Fame
1982 - Ben Agosto
ice dancer [w/partner Tanith Belbin]: Olympics silver medalist [2006]; four-time World medalist; Four Continents champion [2004–2006]; U.S. champion [2004–2008]
Chart Toppers January 15
1945Don’t Fence Me In - Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters
There Goes that Song Again - Russ Morgan
I’m Making Believe - Ella Fitzgerald & The Ink Spots
I’m Wastin’ My Tears on You - Tex Ritter
1954Oh! My Pa-Pa - Eddie Fisher
Changing Partners - Patti Page
Secret Love - Doris Day
Bimbo - Jim Reeves
1963Go Away Little Girl - Steve Lawrence
Hotel Happiness - Brook Benton
Pepino the Italian Mouse - Lou Monte
The Ballad of Jed Clampett - Flatt & Scruggs
1972American Pie - Don McLean
Let’s Stay Together - Al Green
Sunshine - Jonathan Edwards
Carolyn - Merle Haggard
1981(Just Like) Starting Over - John Lennon
Love on the Rocks - Neil Diamond
Guilty - Barbra Streisand & Barry Gibb
I Think I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink - Merle Haggard
1990Another Day in Paradise - Phil Collins
Pump Up the Jam - Technotronic featuring Felly
Everything - Jody Watley
It Ain’t Nothin’ - Keith Whitley
1999I’m Your Angel - R. Kelly & Celine Dion
Have You Ever? - Brandy
Lullaby - Shawn Mullins
Right on the Money - Alan Jackson
2008No One - Alicia Keys
Clumsy - Fergie
Low - Flo Rida featuring T-Pain
Our Song - Taylor Swift
Chart Topper January 15th, 1981...(Just Like) Starting Over - John Lennon
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