On This Day: November 29

On This Day November 29

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Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1927 – Retired Hall of Fame sportscaster Vin Scully, play-by-play announcer for the Brooklyn and later the Los Angeles Dodgers for 67 seasons

1935 – Golden Globe-winning actress Diane Ladd, born Rose Diane Lanier (“Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” “Alice,” “Wild at Heart,” “Rambling Rose”)

1940 – Jazz trumpeter Chuck Mangione, best known for his 1978 smash “Feels So Good”

1949 – Comedian-actor Garry Shandling (“It’s Garry Shandling’s Show,” “The Larry Sanders Show”) (d. 2016)

1954 – Oscar-winning director Joel Coen of the Coen Brothers (“Blood Simple,” “Raising Arizona,” “Miller’s Crossing,” “Fargo,” “The Big Lebowski,” “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” “No Country for Old Men,” “A Serious Man,” “True Grit”)

1955 – Comedian-actor and TV host-judge Howie Mandel (“St. Elsewhere,” “Deal or No Deal,” “Bobby’s World,” “America’s Got Talent”)

1960 – Actress Cathy Moriarty (“Raging Bull,” “Soapdish,” “The Mambo Kings,” “Casper,” “Analyze That,” “The Bounty Hunter”)

1961 – Emmy-winning actress Kim Delaney (“NYPD Blue,” “All My Children,” “Philly,” “CSI: Miami”)

1962 – Actor-director Andrew McCarthy (“St. Elmo’s Fire,” “Mannequin,” “Weekend at Bernie’s,” “Pretty in Pink,” “Less Than Zero,” “Orange is the New Black”)

1964 – Golden Globe-winning actor Don Cheadle (“Boogie Nights,” “Hotel Rwanda,” “Crash,” “House of Lies,” “Iron Man 2,” “Iron Man 3,” “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Captain America: Civil War”)

History Highlights
History Highlights

1929 – American explorer Richard Byrd and three companions make the first flight over the South Pole.

1947 – Despite strong Arab opposition, the United Nations votes for the partition of Palestine and the creation of an independent Jewish state.

1962 – Britain and France announce a joint agreement to design and build Concorde, the world’s first supersonic airliner.

1963 – One week after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, President Lyndon Johnson establishes the Warren Commission to investigate the fatal shooting. Led by Chief Justice Earl Warren, the Commission later concludes that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.

1981 – Actress Natalie Wood, who starred in such movies as “Rebel Without a Cause,” “Splendor in the Grass” and “West Side Story,“ drowns in a boating accident near California’s Catalina Island at the age of 43. Although the Hollywood star’s death was officially labeled accidental, suspicion continues to swirl around the case.

1986 – Two-time Oscar nominee Cary Grant (“The Philadelphia Story,” “The Awful Truth,” “His Girl Friday,” “Notorious,” “North By Northwest”) dies of a stroke at the age of 82.

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1969 – “Come Together/Something,” by The Beatles, claims the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for a week. It is the band’s 18th chart-topper.

1975 – Silver Convention soars to the top of the singles chart with “Fly, Robin, Fly.” The disco smash nests there for three weeks.

1986 – Bon Jovi has its first No. 1 single with “You Give Love a Bad Name,” off the “Slippery When Wet” album. The track remains on top of the Billboard Hot 100 for a week.

1997 – Barbra Streisand’s “Higher Ground,” her first album in four years, tops the Billboard album chart. It contains the Grammy-nominated duet, “Tell Him,” with Celine Dion.

2001 – Beatles guitarist, singer and songwriter George Harrison loses his battle with cancer at the age of 58.

2003 – “Baby Boy,” by Beyoncé featuring Sean Paul, wraps up a nine-week run as a Billboard chart-topper.

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On this Day: May 9

On this Day May 9

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Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1874 – Archaeologist Howard Carter, who discovered the tomb of King Tutankhamun (d. 1939)

1918 – Longtime CBS “60 Minutes” correspondent Mike Wallace (d. 2012)

1936 – Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actor Albert Finney (“Miller’s Crossing,” “Erin Brockovich,” “Big Fish”) (d. 2019)

1940 – Oscar and Emmy-winning director-producer James L. Brooks (“Terms of Endearment,” “The Simpsons,” “As Good as it Gets”)

1946 – Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actress Candice Bergen (“Murphy Brown,” “Boston Legal,” “Miss Congeniality”)

1949 – Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Billy Joel (“Piano Man,” “Just the Way You Are,” “Movin’ Out,” “Only the Good Die Young,” “She’s Always a Woman”)

1961 – Actor-singer John Corbett (“Northern Exposure,” “Sex and the City,” “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”), who also provides voiceovers for Applebees and Walgreens

History Highlights
History Highlights

1926 – Polar explorer Richard Byrd and co-pilot Floyd Bennett fly over the North Pole in a triple-engine Fokker monoplane, marking the first time an aircraft crosses the top of the world. The flight’s earlier-than-expected return prompted some to challenge the achievement. However, a scientific committee of the National Geographic Society confirms the historic crossing, and Byrd and Bennett are awarded Medals of Honor by President Calvin Coolidge.

1960 – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves the first commercially produced birth control pill, which comes to be known as “The Pill,” and paves the way for the sexual revolution of the 1960s.

1970 – A Vietnam War protest draws nearly 100,000 demonstrators to an area near the White House. Speakers include actress Jane Fonda and acclaimed pediatrician-author Dr. Benjamin Spock. President Richard Nixon meets secretly with a group of protesters at the Lincoln Memorial.

1971 – The long-running comedy “The Honeymooners,” starring Jackie Gleason as bus driver Ralph Kramden and Audrey Meadows as his wife Alice, signs off for the last time.

1974 – The House Judiciary Committee opens impeachment hearings against President Richard Nixon.

1978 – The bullet-riddled body of former Italian prime minister Aldo Moro is found in the back of a car in Rome. Moro had been kidnapped by Red Brigade terrorists two months earlier after a bloody shoot-out near his suburban home.

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1964 – Louis Armstrong’s “Hello Dolly” ends The Beatles’ 14-week hold on the top spot on the singles chart which began with “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and was followed by “She Loves You” and “Can’t Buy Me Love.” At age 62, Satchmo becomes the oldest artist to reach No. 1.

1966 – The Beatles hold the first of three studio sessions to record “For No One,” a track on the band’s “Revolver” album.

1970 – “American Woman,” by The Guess Who, begins a three-week run at No. 1 on the singles chart.

1987 – Cutting Crew begins its second and final week on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “(I Just) Died in Your Arms.”

1992 – Bruce Springsteen makes his network television debut on “Saturday Night Live” (SNL) with host Tom Hanks.

1992 – “Jump,” the debut single by hip hop duo Kris Kross, is midway through an eight-week reign of the Billboard Hot 100. The artists are just 12 and 13 years old when they record the track, which becomes an international smash.

2014 – Michael Jackson’s second posthumous album, “Xscape,” is released. It contains previously unreleased tracks dating back to 1980.

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