Saturday, August 11, 2012

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS:

• Hulk Hogan (pro wrestler and actor) (59)
• Chris Hemsworth (actor, Thor, The Avengers) (29)
• Pervez Musharraf (former president ofPakistan) (69)
• Claus Von Bulow (socialite, notoriously acquitted of killing his wife Sunny, was played by Jeremy Irons in the film Reversal of Fortune) (86)
• Amber Brkich (Survivor champion) (34)
• Joe Jackson (pop star, "Steppin Out," "Is She Really Going Out With Him?") (58)
• Steve Wozniak (co-founder of Apple Computers) (62)
• Ian McDiarmid (actor, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine and Darth Sidious in the Star Wars movies) (68)
• Joe Rogan (actor-comedian, NewsRadio, Fear Factor, The Man Show) (45)
• Kenny Gamble (producer and songwriter, of Gamble & Huff) (69)
• Arlene Dahl (actress and singer, widow of actor Fernando Lamas and mom to actor Lorenzo Lamas) (87, disputed)
• Eric Carmen (leader, the Raspberries) (63)
• Jim Kale (former bassist, the Guess Who) (69)
• Anna Gunn (actress, Skyler White on Breaking Bad, Deadwood) (44)
• Marilyn vos Savant (columnist, who was once described as having the highest I.Q. recorded) (66)
• Ben Gibbard (frontman, Death Cab For Cutie) (36)
• Richie Ramone (drummer, the Ramones) (55)

ON THIS DAY:

• 1866, the world's first roller rink opens inNewport,Rhode Island.
• 1917 Comic-strip creator Dik Browne (Hi & Lois, Hagar The Horrible) is born. He dies in 1989.
• 1921 Author Alex Haley (Roots, The Autobiography Of Malcolm X) is born. He dies in 1992.
• 1933 Religious right evangelist Jerry Falwell is born. He dies in 2007.
• 1934, the first federal prisoners arrived at the island prison Alcatraz inSan Francisco Bay,California.
• 1965, a clash between the California Highway Patrol and two young black men set off six days of rioting in the predominantly black Watts section of Los Angeles. In six days, 34 people were killed, over 1,000 injured, and there were damages of $200 million.
• 1966, at a Chicago press conference, John Lennon apologized for remarks he had made in a British newspaper several months earlier in which he said the Beatles were more popular than Jesus Christ.
• 1972, Elvis and Priscilla Presley filed for divorce after less than five years of marriage.
• 1973 "Live And Let Die" by Wings peaks at Number Two on the pop chart, where it stays for three weeks.
• 1973 After seeing Kiss play at a New York hotel, Bill Aucoin offers to become their manager and promises to get them a record deal.
• 1973 Made In Japan by Deep Purple peaks at Number Six on the album chart, where it stays for two weeks. That same day, Machine Head peaks at Number Seven on the album chart.
• 1979 Get The Knack by the Knack hits Number One on the album chart, where it stays for five weeks.
• 1984 "Sad Songs (Say So Much)" by Elton John peaks at Number Five on the pop chart.
• 1984, during a voice test of the microphone for his weekly radio address, President Ronald Reagan made a joking comment that says he had "signed legislation outlawingRussia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes." The comments were picked up by TV news organizations and broadcast, causing an international uproar and debate over the use of "off-the-record" comments.
• 1987 Actress Clara Peller (The "Where's the beef?" lady from the Wendy's commercials) dies at age 84.
• 1991 The Nickelodeon shows Doug, Rugrats, and Ren & Stimpy debut.
• 1992, the Mall of America,America's biggest shopping mall, opened inBloomington,Minnesota.
• 1993 Salman Rushdie joins U2 onstage at the group's Wembley Stadium concert in London. The author of The Satanic Verses had been in hiding since 1989, when the Iranian government decided that his book was blasphemous and publicly announced that they would try to have him assassinated.
• 1994 Actor Peter Cushing (famous for his portrayals of Baron Frankenstein, Dr. Van Helsing, Sherlock Holmes, and Star Wars' Grand Moff Wilhuf Tarkin) dies at age 81.
• 1994 Major league baseball players go on strike following the conclusion of that day's games.
• 1995 An hour before R.E.M. is scheduled to perform in Prague, the show is almost canceled when Michael Stipe is diagnosed with a hernia. As the show had been rescheduled twice already (once due to Bill Berry's brain surgery and once due to Mike Mills' abdominal surgery), the band plays, then travels right back toAtlanta.
• 1995, President Bill Clinton banned allU.S. nuclear tests.
• 1999 Kiss receives its star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame.
• 2000 The movie The Replacements, starring Keanu Reeves and Gene Hackman, opens.
• 2001 Singer-guitarist Dickey Betts is arrested and charged with misdemeanor domestic battery after punching his wife, Donna Marie Betts, in the face while she was driving. The incident report from the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office quoted Betts as saying that he "did not know how the victim (Donna Betts) received her injury."
• 2002 Beck is joined onstage by White Stripes frontman Jack White in Ann Arbor, Michigan for a run through Beck's "Cold Brains," Robert Johnson's "Last Fair Deal Gone Down," and the blues standard, "99."
• 2006 Southern California punk band Supernova files a preliminary injunction to stop the supergroup on the CBS-TV reality show Rock Star: Supernova from using its name. The suit is filed after the band and CBS fail to settle the matter out of court. The supergroup eventually changes its name to Rock Star Supernova.