Sunday, July 22, 2012

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS:

• John Leguizamo (actor-comedian, Die Hard 2, Moulin Rouge!, Ice Age, Summer of Sam, Land Of The Dead, The Happening) (48)
• David Spade (actor-comedian, Rules of Engagement, Saturday Night Live, Tommy Boy, Just Shoot Me) (48)
• Willem Dafoe (actor, Platoon, Clear And Present Danger, Spider-Man's Norman Osbourne/The Green Goblin, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Spider Man 2) (57)
• Albert Brooks (actor-comedian, Taxi Driver, Defending Your Life, Out Of Sight, Finding Nemo's Marlin, Weeds) (65)
• Danny Glover (actor, Witness, The Color Purple, the Lethal Weapon movies, Predator 2, The Royal Tenenbaums) (66)
• Alex Trebek (host, Jeopardy!) (72)
• Terence Stamp (actor, Superman's General Zod, Wall Street, Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, The Limey, Get Smart) (74)
• Louise Fletcher (actress, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest's Nurse Ratched, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's Vedek/Kai Winn Adami) (78)
• Bob Dole (former U.S. Senator, Republican presidential candidate) (89)
• Franka Potente (actress, Run Lola Run, The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy) (38)
• Don Henley (singer-drummer, the Eagles) (65)
• Rick Davies (musician-singer, Supertramp) (68)
• George Clinton ('the Godfather of P-Funk,' leader of Parliament Funkadelic) (71 disputed, 72)
• Bobby Sherman (singer, "Easy Come, Easy Go"; actor, Here Come The Brides) (69)
• Rhys Ifans (actor, Notting Hill, The Replacements, Little Nicky, The Shipping News) (45, disputed)
• Rufus Wainwright (singer) (39)
• Emily Saliers (singer, Indigo Girls) (49)
• Oscar de la Renta (fashion designer) (80)
• Rob Estes (actor, 90210, Melrose Place) (49)
• Selena Gomez (actress, Wizards of Waverly Place, Spy Kids 3D, The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, Hannah Montana) (20)
• Will Calhoun (drummer, Living Colour) (48)
• Pat Badger (bassist, Extreme) (45)

ON THIS DAY:

• 1889 Director James Whale (Frankenstein, The Bride Of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man) is born. He dies in 1957.
• 1926, Babe Ruth proved that he could catch a baseball. In a stunt at Mitchell Field inNew York, Ruth a private in the National Guard, caught a baseball that was dropped from an airplane. The plane was at 250 feet and traveling at about 100 miles-per-hour.
• 1934 Bank robber and "Public Enemy Number One" John Dillinger is shot and killed by federal and local law-enforcement officers at age 32, just after leaving a movie theater inChicago.
• 1943, American forces led by General George S. Patton capturedPalermo,Sicily.
• 1963 The Beatles album Introducing...The Beatles is released. A somewhat different version of the Please Please Me album that had already come out in the U.K., Introducing is the first Beatles album released in theU.S.
• 1967 "You Keep Me Hangin' On" by Vanilla Fudge, a cover of the Supremes song, peaks at Number 67 on the pop chart.
• 1969 The Band records "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down."
• 1972 "Join Together" by the Who peaks at Number Nine on theU.K. pop chart.
• 1972 "Mary Had A Little Lamb" by Paul McCartney & Wings peaks at Number 28 on the pop chart.
• 1972 "Take It Easy" by the Eagles peaks at Number 12 on the pop chart.
• 1975, more than a century after the death of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, the House Of Representatives joined the Senate in voting to restore his citizenship.
• 1978 "Prove It All Night" by Bruce Springsteen peaks at Number 33 on the pop chart.
• 1978 "Still The Same" by Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band peaks at Number Four on the pop chart. That same day, Stranger In Town peaks at Number Four on the album chart, where it stays for two weeks.
• 1981, Turkish extremist Mehmet Ali Agca was sentenced in Rome to life in prison for shooting Pope John Paul II. However, Agca was pardoned byItaly in June 2000 and sent toTurkey to serve time for a killing that took place before the attack on the pope.
• 1991, Desiree Washington, a Miss Black America contestant, charged she'd been raped by boxer Mike Tyson in anIndianapolis hotel room. Tyson was later convicted of the charge, and served three years in prison.
• 1991, Milwaukee police arrested serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer after finding skulls, headless torsos, and other body parts in his apartment. He confessed to killing as many as 17 men, and was sentenced to life in prison. Dahmer was killed in jail in 1994 by a fellow inmate.
• 1992, Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar escaped from his luxury prison nearMedellin. He was on the run until his death in December 1993.
• 1994, O.J. Simpson declared himself "absolutely, positively, 100 percent not guilty" in court to the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman.
• 1995, Susan Smith was found guilty of first-degree murder for drowning her two sons when she pushed her car into aSouth Carolina lake. She was later sentenced to life in prison. Smith had originally claimed that a black man had carjacked her and taken the boys, before later confessing to police.
• 1996 The parents of a teen-age murder victim sue the band Slayer, contending that the band's lyrics were "satanic" and inspired three teen-age boys to rape, torture, and stab the girl to death.
• 1999, the ashes of John F. Kennedy, Jr., his wife, Carolyn Bessette, and her sister, Lauren Bessette, were buried at sea off the coast of Massachusetts. The three had died in a plane crash offMartha's Vineyard six days earlier.
• 2003 Jane's Addiction releases Strays, their first album of all-new studio material since 1990's Ritual De Lo Habitual.
• 2003 The Kiss album The Kiss Symphony: Alive IV is released.
• 2008 Paramore's 2007 sophomore album, Riot!, is certified platinum for sales of one million copies.
• 2011 Captain America: The First Avenger, starring Chris Evans, Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving, Hayley Atwell and Stanley Tucci, arrives in theatres.