Friday, June 15, 2012

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS:

• Steve Walsh (lead singer, Kansas) (61)
• Noddy Holder (singer-guitarist, Slade) (66)
• Brad Gillis (guitarist, Night Ranger; played with Ozzy Osbourne following the death of Randy Rhoads) (55)
• Scott Rockenfield (drummer, Queensryche) (49)
• Helen Hunt (actress, Mad About You, Twister, As Good As It Gets, What Women Want) (49)
• James Belushi (actor, The Principal, About Last Night, The Defenders, According To Jim; brother of John Belushi) (58)
• Courteney Cox Arquette (actress, Cougar Town, Friends' Monica, the Scream movies) (48)
• Julie Hagerty (actress, Airplane!) (57)
• Neil Patrick Harris (actor, Doogie Howser, M.D., Undercover Brother, Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay, How I Met Your Mother) (39)
• Andy Pettite (Retired MLB Baseball player, pitcher for New York Yankees) (40)
• Leah Remini (actress, TV's The King Of Queens, co-host, The Talk) (42)
• Gary Lightbody (singer, Snow Patrol) (36)
• Johnny Hallyday (singer, "The French Elvis") (69)
• Elizabeth Reaser (actress, Esme Cullen in the Twilight movies, The Family Stone) (37)
• Gary Lightbody (frontman, Snow Patrol) (36)
• Dryden Mitchell (lead singer, Alien Ant Farm) (36)
• Billy Martin (guitarist, Good Charlotte) (31)
• Ice Cube (rapper, actor, Friday, Three Kings, Ghosts Of Mars, Next Friday, Torque, Barbershop) (43)

ON THIS DAY:

• 1215, Britain's King John signed the Magna Carta, the first charter of English freedoms, and one of the most important documents in the history of political and human liberty.
• 1752, Ben Franklin proves lightning and electricity are related while flying a kite with a key attached during a thunderstorm.
• 1775, The Second Continental Congress votes unanimously to appoint George Washington Commander-In-Chief of the Continental Army.
• 1851, Baltimore dairyman Jacob Fussell sets up the first ice cream factory.
• 1916, The Boys Scouts of America are incorporated by a bill signed by President Wilson.
• 1924, J. Edgar Hoover becomes head of the FBI.
• 1970 Jimi Hendrix records his first session at his new "dream" studio,New York's Electric Ladyland.
• 1992, Then-Vice President Dan Quayle, relying on an incorrect flash card, tells a Trenton, New Jersey, elementary school student that potato is spelled "potatoe."
• 1994 Hole bassist Kristin Pfaff dies in her bathtub of a heroin overdose.
• 1995, At the O.J. Simpson murder trial, Simpson struggles to put on a pair of gloves that prosecutors say were worn the night Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were murdered.
• 1996, A truck bomb blew up in a retail district of Manchester, England, injuring more than 200 people in an attack claimed by the Irish Republican Army.
• 1996, Ella Fitzgerald, the "first lady of song," died inBeverly Hills,California, at age 78.
• 1999 Erase The Slate by Dokken is released.
• 1999 No Boundaries, a compilation album created for the benefit of the refugees of Kosovo, is released. The 16-track set features rare, live and previously unreleased versions of songs by Pearl Jam, Neil Young, Rage Against The Machine, Oasis, Korn, and others.
• 2002 Actors Denise Richards and Charlie Sheen are married. They later divorce.
• 2003 Zwan, led by former Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan, cancels its entire world tour, scheduled to start that night inItaly. The band later breaks up.
• 2004 Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro, bassist Chris Chaney, and drummer Stephen Perkins form a new group called the Panic Channel with former MTV VJ Steve Isaacs on vocals.
• 2004 Reunited alternative icons Pixies release their first new song in thirteen years, called "Bam Thwok," through Apple's iTunes online music store.
• 2004 The Beastie Boys release To The 5 Boroughs, their first album in six years.
• 2005 Coldplay's third album, X&Y, debuts at Number One on the Billboard Top 200 with first-week sales of 737,000 copies, while the White Stripes' fifth album, Get Behind Me Satan, debuts at Number Three, selling 189,000 copies.
• 2006 The Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival gets underway in Manchester, Tennessee, with the event featuring performances by Radiohead, Death Cab For Cutie, Matisyahu, Beck and numerous other artists.
• 2006 The White Stripes win a court case in which a co-producer and engineer on their first two albums claimed he was owed a share of their royalties for helping to develop the band's sound. A jury takes 20 minutes to find that Jim Diamond did not play a role in the creation of the duo's garage rock style.
• 2007 Tool closes out the first day of the Bonnaroo Festival as the event's seventh annual edition gets underway in Manchester, Tennessee. The band is joined onstage for the song "Lateralus" by Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello.