On This Day: April 26

On This Day April 26

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Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1933 – Emmy, Tony and Golden Globe-winning comedian-actress Carol Burnett

1936 – Guitarist and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Duane Eddy

1958 – Actor Giancarlo Esposito (“Do The Right Thing,” “School Days,” “The Usual Suspects,” “Malcolm X,” “Breaking Bad”) 

1963 – Martial artist-actor Jet Li (“The War Lords,” “Lethal Weapon 4,” “Romeo Must Die,” “Kiss of the Dragon,” “The Forbidden Kingdom”)

1965 – Actor-comedian Kevin James (“Everybody Loves Raymond,” “The King of Queens,” “Paul Blart: Mall Cop,” “Grown Ups,” “Zookeeper,” “Pixels”) 

1980 – Actor Channing Tatum (“Coach Carter,” “21 Jump Street,” “22 Jump Street,” “She’s the Man,” “The Dilemma,” “White House Down,” “Foxcatcher,” “The Hateful Eight,” “Hail, Caesar!”, “Smallfoot”)

History Highlights
History Highlights

1865 – Presidential assassin John Wilkes Booth is killed by Union soldiers that track him to a Virginia farm 12 days after Booth fatally shot Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C.

1954 – More than 1.8 million American children (“Polio Pioneers”) participate in the Salk polio vaccine field trials. Dr. Jonas Salk developed the vaccine in an effort to wipe out polio — an infectious disease occurring primarily in children that can result in paralysis. A year later, researchers declare that the vaccine is safe and effective, and it becomes a standard part of childhood immunizations across the U.S.

1984 – President Ronald Reagan visits China — the first such mission by a U.S. president since the historic Nixon trip in 1972. 

1986 – An explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine sets off fires that release deadly radioactive material into the air, becoming the world’s worst nuclear disaster. 

1986 – Almost a decade after meeting at a celebrity tennis tournament,  TV news reporter Maria Shriver weds movie actor and former bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger. The marriage lasts 25 years.

1989 – An American entertainment icon, comedian Lucille Ball (“I Love Lucy”) dies at the age of 78.

1994 – South Africa’s 18 million blacks vote in multi-party elections for the first time ever and anti-Apartheid crusader Nelson Mandela is elected president.

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1969 – The Edwin Hawkins Singers hit the singles chart with “Oh Happy Day,” which eventually soars to No. 4 and million-selling status. It becomes the first gospel track to cross over to the pop chart. 

1975 – B.J. Thomas owns the hottest single in America with “(Hey Won’t You Play), Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song.” 

1980 – Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” begins its 15th and final week on top of the Billboard album chart. It becomes the best-selling album of 1980.

1986 – “Kiss,” by Prince and The Revolution, holds at No. 1 on the singles chart for a second week. The song clinches Prince a Grammy for Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group.

1988 – A jury in White Plains, New York finds Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger not guilty of copyright infringement. Reggae singer Patrick Alley had sued Jagger for $7 million over the song “Just Another Night,” claiming the chorus’s lyrics were similar to his version. Jagger provided jurors with a rare glimpse into his work habits by playing homemade and studio tapes demonstrating the development of his song.

1997 – “Can’t Nobody Hold Me Down,” by Puff Daddy featuring Mase, wraps up a six-week run as a Billboard chart-topper.

2008 – Leona Lewis kicks off a week at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with “Bleeding Love.”

2013 – George Jones, known as “the greatest voice in country music,”  dies in Nashville at the age of 81. 

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On This Day: September 19

On This Day September 19

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Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1928 – Actor Adam West, best known for playing Batman in the 1960s TV series (d. 2017)

1933 – Actor David McCallum, best known as secret agent Illya Kuryakin in the 1960s “Man from U.N.C.L.E.” TV series and as Dr. Donald Mallard on “NCIS.”

1940 – Oscar, Grammy and Golden Globe-winning songwriter Paul Williams, known for “We’ve Only Just Begun,” “Evergreen,” “Rainy Days and Mondays” and many others 1970s standards.

1941 – Singer Mama Cass Elliot, born Ellen Naomi Cohen, member of the 1960s band The Mamas & the Papas (d. 1974)

1948 – Oscar, Emmy and Tony-winning actor Jeremy Irons (“Brideshead Revisited,” “Reversal of Fortune,” “Kafka,” “The House of the Spirits,” “The Lion King,” “Die Hard With a Vengeance,” “Margin Call,” “The Man Who Knew Infinity”)

1949 – Lesley Hornby, a.k.a. “Twiggy,” the 60s British fashion icon

1964 – Grammy-winning country music singer Trisha Yearwood

1974 – Emmy-winning “The Tonight Show” host and “Saturday Night Live” alum Jimmy Fallon

History Highlights
History Highlights

1881 – U.S. President James Garfield dies of injuries suffered two months earlier when he was shot at a Washington railroad station by a mentally disturbed lawyer and writer named Charles Guiteau. Garfield was getting ready to leave town for a family vacation on the Jersey shore when the attack took place.

1957 – Scientists detonate a 1.8 kiloton nuclear weapon in an underground tunnel at the Nevada Test Site, a 1,375-square-mile research center located north of Las Vegas. The test, known as Rainier, marks the first fully contained underground detonation and produces no radioactive fallout.

1969 – President Richard Nixon tries to appease Vietnam War protesters by announcing the cancellation of two upcoming draft calls. 

1970 – Americans meet and fall in love with a single career woman, TV news producer Mary Richards, when CBS introduces “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” 

1985 – Mother Nature deals Mexico City a devastating one-two punch. A powerful earthquake and almost equally powerful aftershock rock the Mexican capital, killing nearly 10,000 people, injuring 30,000 and causing billions of dollars in damage. 

1994 – “ER,” the medical drama that gave George Clooney’s acting career a shot in the arm, premieres on NBC. The primetime series was the creation of novelist and physician Michael Crichton and captured 116 awards, including 22 Emmys, during a 15-season run.

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1960 – Chubby Checker’s “The Twist” kicks off a week on top of the Billboard singles chart and sets off a new dance craze across America.

1966 – “The House of the Rising Sun,” by The Animals, begins its third and final week as a No. 1 hit.

1970 – Diana Ross climbs to the summit of the singles chart with “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” — her first No. 1 since leaving The Supremes. 

1981 – Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel reunite for a free concert in New York’s Central Park that draws half a million fans. 

1987 – The duet “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” by Michael Jackson and Siedah Garrett, off MJ’s “Bad” album, begins a week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. 

1998 – Aerosmith is in the midst of a four-week domination of the pop chart with “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing,” from the movie “Armageddon.” The song is the band’s first No. 1 hit.

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