Lucille Ball – Time Rewind

On This Day April 26

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On This Day March 4

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Celebrity Birthdays

1678 – Italian Baroque composer, virtuoso violinist, teacher and cleric Antonio Vivaldi (d. 1741)

1938 – Actress Paula Prentiss (“The Black Marble,” “The Stepford Wives,” “The Parallax View”)

1941 – Movie director Adrian Lyne (“Fatal Attraction,” “9½ Weeks,” “Flashdance,” “Indecent Proposal,” “Jacob’s Ladder,” “Unfaithful”)

1954 – Actress Catherine O’Hara (“SCTV,” “Beetlejuice,” the “Home Alone” movies, “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” “Waiting for Guffman,” “Best in Show”)

1958 – Emmy-winning actress Patricia Heaton, best known for playing Debra Barone in the sitcom “Everybody Loves Raymond”

1961 – Actor Steven Weber (“The Kennedys of Massachusetts,” “Wings,” “The Shining,” “Once and Again,” “NCIS: New Orleans”)

History Highlights

1925 – The second inauguration of U.S. President Calvin Coolidge is the first to be nationally broadcast. More than 20 radio stations carry the event to an estimated 23 million listeners, including many children whose school auditoriums were specially equipped with speakers.

1933 – During the height of the Great Depression, an estimated 150,000 spectators gather on the east grounds of the U.S. Capitol as Franklin D. Roosevelt is inaugurated as the 32nd U.S. president. FDR tells Americans, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

1933 – Newly inaugurated President Franklin D. Roosevelt appoints Frances Perkins Secretary of Labor, making her the first female member of the U.S. cabinet.

1960 – Actress Lucille Ball divorces her husband and collaborator, Desi Arnaz, after 20 tumultuous years of marriage. The breakup of the couple, stars of the hit sitcom “I Love Lucy” and owners of Desilu Studios, becomes one of the highest-profile divorces in American history at that time.

1974 – People magazine makes its debut on American newsstands, featuring actress Mia Farrow on the cover.

1989 – Time, Inc. and Warner Communications announce plans to merge into the world’s largest media and entertainment conglomerate.

1994 – Comedic actor John Candy (“Splash,” “Planes, Trains and Automobiles,” “Uncle Buck,” “Home Alone”) dies of a heart attack at 43 while filming a movie in Mexico.

2005 – Billionaire mogul Martha Stewart is released from a federal prison in West Virginia after serving five months and paying a $30,000 fine for lying and obstructing justice in a 2001 stock sale. Stewart serves five months of home confinement at her Bedford, New York estate and then faces two years probation.

Musical Milestones

1963 – The Beach Boys release “Surfin’ U.S.A.,” which climbs as high as No. 3 on the Billboard pop chart. The The song features Brian Wilson’s lyrics set to the music of Chuck Berry’s “Sweet Little Sixteen.”

1966 – During an interview with the British newspaper London Evening Standard, John Lennon says of The Beatles: “We’re more popular than Jesus now.” The remark sets off an international furor when reprinted a few months later in an American teen magazine, with some radio stations refusing to play Beatles records and others burning them.

1967 – “Beggin’,” the 33rd hit single for Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons, lands on the Billboard pop chart, eventually climbing to No. 16.

1967 – “Ruby Tuesday,” by The Rolling Stones, begins a week as the No. 1 single. Brian Jones plays recorder on the track while the double bass is played jointly by bassist Bill Wyman pressing the strings against the fingerboard and Keith Richards bowing the strings.

1978 – Andy Gibb sails to the top of the singles chart with “(Love Is) Thicker Than Water.” The song remains at No. 1 for two weeks.

1989 – Debbie Gibson starts a three-week run at No. 1 on the singles chart with “Lost in Your Eyes.”

1995 – Madonna is in the midst of a seven-week ride at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Take a Bow,” off her “Bedtime Stories” album.

2000 – Nashville-based country music band Lonestar claims the top spot on the pop chart with “Amazed.” The single holds at No. 1 for two weeks.

2006 – “Check on It,” by Beyoncé featuring Slim Thug, begins its fifth and final week as a No. 1 single.

On This Day October 15

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Celebrity Birthdays

1924 – Former Chrysler Corp. Chairman and Ford Motor Co. President Lee Iacocca (d. 2019)

1937 – Actress-singer Linda Lavin (“Alice”)

1943 – Actress-director Penny Marshall (“Laverne & Shirley,” “Big,” “Awakenings,” “A League of Their Own,” “Riding in Cars With Boys”) (d. 2018)

1946 – Singer-songwriter Richard Carpenter of the 1970s sibling pop duo, the Carpenters

1959 – Sarah Ferguson (“Fergie”), Duchess of York

1959 – TV chef-restaurateur Emeril Lagasse

History Highlights

1863 – The H.L. Hunley, the world’s first successful combat submarine, sinks during a test run, killing its inventor and seven crew members. The vessel is recovered, and four months later, becomes the first submarine to destroy a ship (USS Housatonic) in battle.

1915 – Exotic dancer and spy Mata Hari is executed by a French firing squad after it was discovered that she also worked for the Germans.

1951 – Television’s first, long-running, sitcom hit, “I Love Lucy,” debuts, starring comedian Lucille Ball and her real-life husband, Desi Arnaz. The half-hour show runs for six seasons on CBS, becoming one of the most beloved and enduring TV comedies of all time.

1966 – With the stroke of his pen, President Lyndon Johnson (LBJ) creates the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT).

1989 – During a game against his old team, the Edmonton Oilers, Canadian ice hockey legend Wayne Gretzky breaks Gordie Howe’s National Hockey League career scoring record of 1,850 points.

1990 – Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev wins the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end Cold War tensions with the United States.

1991 – After a bitter confirmation hearing, the U.S. Senate votes 52 to 48 to confirm Clarence Thomas as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Musical Milestones

1930 – Legendary composer and bandleader Duke Ellington (a.k.a. “The Duke”) records his first big hit, “Mood Indigo.” Ellington explained that he wrote the the track, originally titled “Dreamy Blues,” in 15 minutes while waiting for his mother to finish cooking dinner.

1964 – Composer Cole Porter, whose musical notes fill much of the Great American Songbook, dies at the age of 73.

1966 – The Four Tops hit No.1 on the singles chart with “Reach Out And I’ll Be There.”

1973 – Ten years after her death, Patsy Cline (“Walkin’ After Midnight,” “I Fall to Pieces,” “Crazy,” “Sweet Dreams”) becomes the first female solo performer to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

1977 – Debby Boone begins 10 weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “You Light Up My Life.”

1983 – “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” by Bonnie Tyler, is in the middle of four weeks as a Billboard chart-topper.

1988 – UB40’s version of the Neil Diamond song “Red, Red Wine” spends a week on top of the Billboard Hot 100.

1994 – Boyz II Men are in the midst of a 14-week ride atop the pop chart with “I’ll Make Love to You.”

2006 – CBGB, the iconic New York City nightclub considered the birthplace of the punk rock movement, closes its doors after 33 years of business. The club, nestled in Manhattan’s East Village, helped launch the careers of such pioneering artists as the Ramones, Blondie, Talking Heads, Patti Smith Group and Joan Jett.

On this Day August 6

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Celebrity Birthdays

1911 – Actress-comedienne Lucille Ball, who was immortalized in the popular 1950s TV sitcom “I Love Lucy” (d. 1989)

1917 – Actor Robert Mitchum (“The Story of G.I. Joe,” “Crossfire,” “Out of the Past,”, “The Night of the Hunter,” “The Enemy Below,” “Cape Fear,” “El Dorado”) (d. 1997)

1928 – American pop artist and cultural icon Andy Warhol (d. 1987)

1962 – Actress Michelle Yeoh (“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” “Tomorrow Never Dies”)

1970 – Director M. Night Shyamalan (“The Sixth Sense,” “Unbreakable,” “Signs,” “Lady in the Water.” “The Last Airbender,” “After Earth”)

1972 – Singer Geri Halliwell, a.k.a. “Ginger Spice” of the British pop group Spice Girls

History Highlights

1890 – The first execution by electric chair takes place at Auburn Prison in New York with William Kemmler facing the death penalty for the hatchet murder of his girlfriend, Tillie Ziegler.

1945 – An American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, drops the world’s first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, leveling most of the city under a massive mushroom cloud. Some 70,000 people are killed in a matter of seconds.

1959 – Chevrolet unveils plans to produce the Corvair, a revolutionary rear-engine compact car that goes on to ignite controversy and debate over its safety.

1965 – President Lyndon Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act, guaranteeing African Americans the right to vote. The bill makes it illegal to impose restrictions on federal, state and local elections that were designed to deny the vote to blacks.

2009 – John Hughes, the influential writer-director who captured the humor and angst of the teen experience, 1980s style, in hit movies such as “Sixteen Candles,” “The Breakfast Club” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” dies at 59.

Musical Milestones

1960 – Chubby Checker appears on TV’s “American Bandstand” and performs “The Twist,” which goes on to become a national sensation and No. 1 single.

1973 – A traffic accident leaves Motown sensation Stevie Wonder in a coma for four days and permanently robs him of his sense of smell. Amazingly, he’s back in the recording studio eight weeks later.

1981 – Stevie Nicks releases her first solo album, “Bella Donna,” featuring “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” a duet with Tom Petty that reaches No. 3 on the Billboard singles chart.

1982 – “Pink Floyd The Wall” opens in movie theaters, based on the British rock band’s 1979 album of the same name.

1988 – Almost a year to the day after debuting at No. 182 on the Billboard album chart, “Appetite for Destruction,” by Guns N’ Roses, reaches No. 1, fueled by the band’s tour and widespread airplay for the hit singles “Welcome to the Jungle,” “Paradise City” and “Sweet Child o’ Mine.”

1994 – Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories begins a three-week run at No. 1 on the pop chart with “Stay (I Missed You).”

2004 – After years of cocaine use, funk legend Rick James is found dead of a heart attack at his Hollywood home at the age of 56. James was best known for his 1981 smash, “Super Freak.”

2005 – “We Belong Together,” by Mariah Carey, is midway through a 10-week run on top of the Billboard Hot 100.