Tuesday, October 23, 2012

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS:

• Pele (Brazilian soccer legend, regarded as the greatest soccer player ever) (72)
• Chi Chi Rodriguez (Hall Of Fame golfer) (77)
• "Weird" Al Yankovic (song parodist) (53)
• Dwight Yoakam (country star-actor) (56)
• Robert Trujillo (bassist, Metallica) (48)
• Cat Deeley (television personality, So You Think You Can Dance) (36)
• Ang Lee (director, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, The Hulk, Brokeback Mountain, Lust, Caution, Life Of Pi) (58)
• Sam Raimi (director, the Spider-Man movies, the Evil Dead movies, Drag Me To Hell) (53)
• Ryan Reynolds (actor, Van Wilder, Two Guys and a Girl, Blade: Trinity, The Amityville Horror, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, The Proposal, Green Lantern; formerly married to actress Scarlett Johansson, husband of Blake Lively) (36)
• Nancy Grace (CNN Headline News personality) (54, disputed)
• Doug Flutie (retired football star) (50)
• Jessica Stroup (actress, Silver on 90210) (26)

ON THIS DAY:

• 1892 Actor Gummo Marx (the Marx Brothers; brother of Groucho, Harpo, Chico, and Zeppo Marx) is born. He dies in 1977.
• 1918, Twenty-nine-year-old Charlie Chaplin married underage 16-year-old Mildred Harris, causing a scandal.
• 1925 Legendary Tonight Show host Johnny Carson is born. He dies in January 2005.
• 1942 Author Michael Crichton (Jurassic Park, Rising Sun, Disclosure, Twister, Sphere; created ER) is born. He dies in 2008.
  1946 The United Nations General Assembly convenes inNew York for the first time. The session is held in an auditorium in Flushing Meadow in the borough ofQueens.
• 1945, Twenty-six-year-old Negro Leagues star Jackie Robinson became the first black baseball player hired by a major league team, when the Brooklyn Dodgers announced that he would play for their Montreal Triple-A team.
• 1954,Great Britain,France, theU.S., and the U.S.S.R. agreed to end the post-World War II occupation ofGermany.
• 1966 The Jimi Hendrix Experience records its first sessions inLondon, which produce "Hey Joe" and "Stone Free."
• 1973 President Nixon agrees to surrender White House tape recordings that have been requested by the Watergate special prosecutor.
• 1976 Led Zeppelin makes its first-ever U.S. TV appearance on Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, where it performs "Black Dog" and "Dazed And Confused."
• 1978 Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious attempts suicide while being held at the Rikers Island Detention Center in New York City, following the death of his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen.
• 1983, Two hundred forty-oneU.S. service members mostly Marines and sailors atBeirut,Lebanon’s international airport, were killed by a suicide truck-bomber who crashed into their compound. An almost simultaneous attack on French forces inBeirut killed 58 paratroopers.
• 1987, the U.S. Senate voted down the appointment of conservative judge Robert Bork to the Supreme Court by a 58-42 vote.
• 1990 Back In Black by AC/DC is certified 10-times platinum.
• 1993, Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Joe Carter became only the second player to end the World Series with a home run. His three-run homer in the ninth inning gaveToronto an 8-6 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 6.
• 1995, Yolanda Saldivar was convicted of murdering Tejano singing star Selena outside aTexas motel on March 31st, 1995.
• 1996 The O.J. Simpson civil trial for the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and Robert Goldman begins.
• 1998, Dr. Barnett Slepian, an obstetrician who performed abortions, was killed by a bullet fired through a widow of his upstate New York home. Anti-abortion activist James Kopp was arrested for the crime in March 2001 inFrance, where he had fled. After being extradited back to theU.S., he was convicted of murder in March 2003 and sentenced to 25 years to life in jail.
• 2001 Incubus releases its third album, Morning View.
• 2001 R.E.M. plays a surprise show at Seattle's Crocodile Cafe, which guitarist Peter Buck co-owns with his wife, Stephanie Dorgan.
• 2002, Forty-one armed Chechen rebels stormed a crowdedMoscow theater during a performance, taking more than 800 people hostage. Russian special forces stormed the theater three days later, after first using a narcotic gas to knock out the rebels. The gas killed 129 of the hostages, and the rebels were all killed either by the gas or the Russian forces.
• 2004 The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Paul McCartney, and Tony Bennett are among the performers at the first day of Neil Young's 18th annual Bridge School Benefit Concert.
• 2007 Rob Zombie releases his first-ever concert album, simply titled Zombie - Live.
• 2007 South Africa's Seether issues its third full-length studio effort, Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces.
• 2007 System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian releases his debut solo album, Elect the Dead.