Thursday, November 1, 2012

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS:

• Toni Collette (actress, Muriel's Wedding, The Sixth Sense, Little Miss Sunshine, Shaft, The United States of Tara) (40)
• Rachel Ticotin (actress, Fort Apache, The Bronx, Total Recall, Con Air) (54)
• Larry Flynt (publisher, Hustler magazine) (70)
• Marcia Wallace (actress, The Bob Newhart Show's Carol the receptionist; also the voice of the teacher Edna Krabappel on The Simpsons) (70)
• Lyle Lovett (country singer, Julia Roberts's ex-husband) (55)
• Jenny McCarthy (model/comic actress and former Playboy Playmate, Singled Out, Scream 3) (40)
• Sophie B Hawkins (singer-musician) (45)
• Anthony Kiedis (lead singer of Red Hot Chili Peppers) (50)
• Ronald Bell (of Kool & the Gang) (61)
• Rick Allen (drummer, Def Leppard) (49)
• Bo Bice (American Idol runner-up) (37)
• Jim Steinman (pop-rock songwriter and producer, for Meat Loaf and many others) (65)
• Bill Anderson (country singer) (75)
• Penn Badgley (actor, Gossip Girl, The Stepfather, Easy A) (26)
• Logan Marshall Green (actor, Prometheus, Dark Blue, 24, Brooklyn's Finest, Devil) (36)

ON THIS DAY:

• 1512, Michelangelo's paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel were first exhibited.
• 1800, the second U.S. president, John Adams, and his family moved into the newly-completed White House, as Washington, D.C., became the nation's capital, moving from Philadelphia.
• 1848, theBostonFemaleMedicalSchool opened as the first medical school exclusively for women. The original enrollment was 12 students.
• 1870, the United States Weather Bureau made its first meteorological observations.
• 1894, Billboard Advertising was first published. It is now known as Billboard magazine.
• 1939 The characters "The Human Torch" and "The Sub-Mariner" first appear in Marvel Comics.
• 1950, two radical Puerto Rican nationalists tried to force their way into Blair House in Washington, D.C., to assassinate President Harry Truman. The attempt failed and one of the two men was killed, as was one of Truman's security guards.
• 1952 TheU.S. explodes the first hydrogen bomb in theMarshall Islands.
• 1959, the hockey mask was first used by Montreal Canadiens goalie Jacques Plante after he took a hit that knocked him unconscious and required seven stitches. He returned to the game wearing a new fiberglass face mask that he'd designed himself and only worn in practice, and it quickly caught on throughout the NHL.
• 1975 Kiss's Alive! enters the Billboard album chart.
• 1982 The Playboy Channel is launched.
• 1982, Honda becomes the first Asian automobile company to produce cars in theUnited States with the opening of their factory inMarysville,Ohio. The Honda Accord is the first car produced there.
• 1987 Actors Geena Davis and Jeff Goldblum are married. They later divorce.
• 1990, under pressure from environmental groups, McDonald's said it would replace styrofoam food containers with paper.
• 1992 Neil Young holds his sixth annual Bridge School benefit concert, with Pearl Jam, Sammy Hagar, Elton John, and James Taylor performing.
• 1993, the Maastricht Treaty came into effect, formally establishing the European Union (EU).1512 Michelangelo's paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel are first exhibited.
• 1994 Nirvana's MTV Unplugged Live In New York is released.
• 1999 The Red Hot Chili Peppers' Californication is certified double platinum.
• 2001 System Of A Down's second album, Toxicity, goes past the one million mark in sales.
• 2003 Marilyn Manson cuts short a concert inKansas City when fans stampede through a security barrier. The crowd becomes even more unruly after the show is halted, rushing the stage and throwing bottles at off-duty police officers moonlighting as security guards. About one hundred police officers are finally called to the scene to calm things down and only a few minor injuries were reported.
• 2003 The third annual Voodoo Music Festival kicks off in New Orleans's City Park, featuring performances by Godsmack, Staind, Marilyn Manson, the White Stripes, and P.O.D.
• 2004 U2's "Vertigo" becomes the band's eighth Number One Modern Rock hit. The achievement ties U2 with the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
• 2005 Gorillaz, the animated band created by Blur frontman Damon Albarn, begins a five-night stand at the Manchester Opera House in Manchester, England, marking their first musical performances ever in support of their second album, Demon Days.
• 2005 Green Day's full-length concert film, Bullet In A Bible, is shown in 68 movie theatres around the country in a special one-night screening two weeks before its release on DVD.
• 2005 Slipknot releases its first full-length concert album, called 9.0 Live.
• 2005 Under Cover by Ozzy Osbourne is released.
• 2006 My Chemical Romance's third album, The Black Parade, debuts at Number Two on the Billboard album chart, selling 240,000 copies in its first week of release.
• 2007 System Of A Down drummer John Dolmayan launches his online store, Torpedo Comics, which will offer some 15 million items for sale, including comic books, toys, graphic novels, action figures and other comic-related memorabilia.
• 2011 Polarizing fans around the world and earning some of the most scathing reviews of their career, Metallica's collaborative album with Lou Reed, titled Lulu, arrives in North America after coming out one day earlier (October 31st) worldwide.
• 2011 Us Weekly confirms that Death Cab For Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard and his wife of two years, actress/singer Zooey Deschanel, have separated.