Saturday, November 3, 2012

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS:

• Ken Berry (actor, F Troop's Capt. Wilton Parmenter) (79)
• Kate Capshaw (actress, Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom; wife of Steven Spielberg) (59)
• Michael Dukakis (former Massachusetts Governor and 1988 Democratic presidential candidate) (79)
• Larry Holmes (former heavyweight boxing champion) (63)
• Dennis Miller (comedian and talk show host, Saturday Night Live, Dennis Miller Live) (59)
• Roseanne Barr (actress-comedienne-talk show host) (60)
• Dolph Lundgren (brawny action-movie star, Masters Of The Universe, The Expendables) (55)
• Kathy Kinney (actress-comedienne, The Drew Carey Show's Mimi) (58, disputed)
• Lulu (singer, "To Sir With Love") (64)
• Adam Ant (1980s pop star, "Goody Two Shoes") (58)
• Paula DeAnda (pop singer) (23)
• Tim McIlrath (guitarist, Rise Against) (33, disputed 34)
• Kendall Jenner (reality TV star, sister of Kourtney, Kim and Khloe Kardashian) (17)
• Mick Thomson (guitarist, Slipknot) (39)
• Anna Wintour (editor, Vogue magazine) (63)
• Michael Dukakis (former Massachusetts Governor and 1988 Democratic presidential candidate) (79)

ON THIS DAY:

• 1921 Actor Charles Bronson (The Great Escape, The Dirty Dozen, Death Wish I through V) is born. He dies in 2003.
• 1926 Old West sharpshooter Annie Oakley dies at age 66.
• 1934 The Our Gang comedy Mama's Little Pirate opens, marking the debut of Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas as a member of the Little Rascals.
• 1954, Gojira, the first Godzilla movie, opened inJapan.
• 1955 The movie Guys And Dolls, starring Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, Frank Sinatra, and Sheldon Leonard, opens.
• 1957 "Great Balls Of Fire" by Jerry Lee Lewis is released on Sun Records.
• 1957, The dog Laika became the first living creature to travel in space, onboard Sputnik 2.
• 1964 Incumbent Democrat President Lyndon Baines Johnson defeats Republican challenger Barry Goldwater in the presidential election, winning the presidency in his own right after succeeding President John F. Kennedy upon his assassination.
• 1965 The pre-Grateful Dead band the Warlocks, using the name the Emergency Crew, enter Golden State Studio in San Francisco for their one and only recording session. They lay down six tracks -- the originals "Caution (Do Not Stop On Tracks)," "I Can't Come Down," "Mindbender," and "The Only Time Is Now," along with covers of Gordon Lightfoot's "Early Morning Rain" and the traditional number "I Know You Rider." The session is actually an audition for Autumn Records, which turns the band down.
• 1972 James Taylor and Carly Simon are married. They later divorce.
• 1978 The TV show Diff'rent Strokes, starring Conrad Bain, Gary Coleman, Todd Bridges, Dana Plato, and Charlotte Rae, debuts.
• 1979 "Tusk" by Fleetwood Mac, which was recorded with the U.S.C. Trojans Marching Band, peaks at Number Eight on the pop chart, where it stays for three weeks.
• 1979 The Long Run by the Eagles hits Number One on the album chart, where it stays for eight weeks.
• 1979, five members of an anti-Ku Klux Klan demonstration in Greensboro, North Carolina, made up mostly of members of the American Communist Party and African-Americans, were killed when Klansmen and Neo-Nazis opened fire on the demonstrators.
• 1984 "Blue Jean" by David Bowie peaks at Number Eight on the pop chart, where it stays for two weeks.
• 1986, the Iran-Contra scandal began when a Lebanese magazine revealed the Reagan administration's secret sale of arms toIran in exchange for the release of hostages.
• 1988, Geraldo Rivera's nose was broken during a brawl between African-American civil-rights leader Roy Innis and skinheads at a taping of Rivera's talk show.
• 1990 "Cherry Pie" by Warrant peaks at Number 10 on the pop chart.
• 1990 Actress Mary Martin (Peter Pan) dies at age 76. She was actor Larry Hagman's mother.
• 1991 More than 300,000 people attend a free concert in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park in memory of rock promoter Bill Graham. Among the acts performing are the Grateful Dead, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Santana, Journey, and Joan Baez. John Fogerty also played a set, backed by the members of the Dead.
• 1992, Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton won the 1992 presidential election, defeating the incumbent President George H. W. Bush to become the 42nd President of theUnited States.
• 1992, Illinois Democrat Carol Moseley Braun became the first black femaleU.S. senator.
• 1993 The TV show The Nanny, starring Fran Drescher and Charles Shaughnessy, debuts.
• 1994, Susan Smith was arrested for drowning her two young sons, nine days after claiming they had been abducted by a black carjacker.
• 1995 A couple shows the lengths they'll go to for Pearl Jam tickets when they stand at a busy traffic intersection inSan Jose,California, with him in a G-string and her in a bikini, while she pretends to whip him. It's part of a local radio station contest.
• 1996, the Los Angeles Lakers' Kobe Bryant made his NBA debut at the age of 18, becoming the youngest player in NBA history.
• 1997 Rage Against The Machine's second album, Evil Empire, is certified double platinum by the RIAA.
• 1998 Bob Kane, creator of Batman, dies at the age of 83.
• 1998 The album Mutations by Beck is released.
• 1998, Minnesotans elected former pro wrestler Jesse "The Body" Ventura governor.
• 1999 Creed's debut album, My Own Prison, is certified quadruple platinum, while its follow-up, Human Clay, is certified double platinum.
• 1999, Aaron McKinney was convicted of murder in the beating of gay Wyoming college student Matthew Shepard. McKinney and Russell Henderson, who pleaded guilty to kidnapping and murder, were sentenced to life in prison.
• 2000 Charlie's Angels, starring Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu and Bill Murray, opens in theatres.
• 2000 Four days before Election Day, Texas governor and Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush is questioned about his newly revealed 1976 drunk driving arrest.
• 2001, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld met with his Russian counterpart in Moscow to discuss nuclear arsenal cuts, American plans for a missile defense system, and U.S.-Russian cooperation in the campaign against terror.
• 2002 Bob Dylan is inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall Of Fame.
• 2003 Late singer and songwriter Elliott Smith is honored with a tribute concert featuring Beck at the Fonda Theatre inHollywood.
• 2004 Eric Clapton receives his Commander Of The Order Of The British Empire (CBE) Award from Queen Elizabeth II's daughter Princess Anne atBuckinghamPalace inLondon.
• 2005 High winds force Korn's tour bus off the road on its way toColorado Springs, and the band ends up stuck at a highway diner for approximately four-and-a-half hours. But hundreds of Korn fans learn the location from a local radio station and head to the restaurant for a marathon autograph session.
• 2008 Deftones bassist Chi Cheng is gravely injured in a car crash inSanta Clara,California that puts him in a coma. He remains in a semi-comatose state four years later.