Thursday, August 23, 2012

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS:

• Barbara Eden (Actress, Jeannie from TV's I Dream Of Jeannie) (78)
• Shelley Long (Actress, Diane from TV's Cheers, The Brady Bunch Movie) (63)
• Queen Noor (American-born queen ofJordan) (61)
• Rick Springfield (Actor-pop singer whose huge 1980s hit was "Jessie's Girl") (63)
• Jay Mohr (actor-comedian, Gary Unmarried, Saturday Night Live, Jerry Maguire, Pay It Forward, Last Comic Standing) (42)
• Julian Casablancas (lead singer of the Strokes) (34)
• Kobe Bryant (NBA basketball star) (34)
• Vera Miles (actress, Psycho, The Wrong Man, The Searchers) (82)
• Dean DeLeo (guitarist, Stone Temple Pilots, Army Of Anyone) (51, disputed)
• Scott Caan (actor, Hawaii Five-0, Entourage, Varsity Blues, Gone In Sixty Seconds, Ocean's Eleven; son of James Caan) (36)
• Ray Park (actor, played Darth Maul in Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace and Toad in X-Men) (38)
• Mark Hudson (long-time musical partner of Ringo Starr) (61)
• Jeremy Lin (NBA player) (24)
• Shifty Shellshock (real name Seth Binzer; frontman, Crazy Town) (38)

ON THIS DAY:

• 1833,Britain abolished slavery in its colonies, freeing 700,000 slaves.
• 1902, Fannie Farmer opened her cooking school inBoston.
• 1912, Actor-dancer Gene Kelly (Anchors Aweigh, On The Town, An American In Paris, Singin' In The Rain, Inherit The Wind) was born. He died in 1996.
• 1927, Italian-born anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were executed for the murders of two men during a 1920 robbery near Boston. In 1977, Sacco and Vanzetti were posthumously exonerated by Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis.
• 1939, Nazi Germany and theSoviet Union signed a non-aggression pact. Less than two years later,Germany launched an attack on the U.S.S.R.
• 1940 The Germans begin their World War II bombing ofLondon.
• 1946, Who drummer Keith Moon was born. He died in 1978.
• 1962, John Lennon married Cynthia Powell. Paul McCartney was the best man. The couple later divorced.
• 1966, the Lunar Orbiter 1 took the first photograph of the Earth from the Moon.
• 1969 "Honky Tonk Women" by the Rolling Stones hits Number One on the pop chart, where it stays for four weeks.
• 1969 "I'm Free" by the Who peaks at Number 37 on the pop chart.
• 1969 "Marrakesh Express" by Crosby, Stills & Nash peaks at Number 28 on the pop chart. Graham Nash originally wrote the song for the Hollies, but the group never finished recording it.
• 1969 "Questions 67 And 68" by Chicago peaks at Number 71 on the pop chart. It's the band's first single.
• 1969 The Soft Parade by the Doors peaks at Number Six on the album chart, where it stays for two weeks.
• 1970 Lou Reed plays his last show with the Velvet Underground.
• 1970, Actor River Phoenix (Stand By Me, Little Nikita, Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade) was born. He dies in 1993.
• 1975, Actor Hank Patterson (Green Acres' Fred Ziffel) died at age 86.
• 1978 The Cure receives rejection letters from Virgin and EMI Records.
• 1980 AC/DC's Back In Black enters the album chart. Their first album with singer Brian Johnson, it will go on to sell more than 20 million copies.
• 1988 Mike Tyson breaks a bone in his right hand in a 4 a.m. street brawl with professional fighter Mitch "Blood" Green in Harlem inNew York City.
• 1996 Oasis shoots an episode of MTV Unplugged with guitarist Noel Gallagher on vocals in place of his brother and usual lead singer Liam Gallagher.
• 1996 The Smashing Pumpkins play their first gig with new touring drummer Matt Walker, from Filter, and keyboardist Dennis Flemion, of the Frogs, at the Metro Club inChicago.
• 1998 That '70s Show debuts on the Fox network.
• 2000, an estimated 51 million viewers tuned in for the finale of the CBS reality series Survivor, in which contestant Richard Hatch won the $1 million prize.
• 2001 In a network TV interview, Congressman Gary Condit of California denies any involvement in the disappearance of intern Chandra Levy.
• 2001, Congressman Gary Condit of California gave an interview to ABC's Connie Chung during which he denied involvement in missing intern Chandra Levy's disappearance and avoided directly answering questions about whether they'd had an affair.
• 2006 My Chemical Romance plays its first show under the name The Black Parade, from the title of its new Black Parade album, in London. The band briefly fools fans with an announcement that the Black Parade would be performing instead of My Chemical Romance.