Friday, December 28, 2012

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS:

• Sienna Miller (actress, Alfie, Casanova, Factory Girl, Layer Cake) (31)
• Nichelle Nichols (Actress/singer, played Lt. Uhura on the original Star Trek TV series, toured with Lionel Hampton and Duke Ellington big bands) (80)
• Denzel Washington (Two-time Academy-Award winning actor, Malcolm X, Philadelphia, Crimson Tide, Remember The Titans, Training Day, The Manchurian Candidate, American Gangster, Unstoppable, Flight) (58)
• Linus Torvalds (Finnish inventor of the free open-source Linux software that challenges Microsoft's DOS and Windows) (43)
• Maggie Smith (British actress, A Room With A View, Gosford Park, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, the Harry Potter films) (78)
• Seth Meyers (actor, Saturday Night Live) (39)
• Edgar Winter (singer-guitarist-pianist-saxophonist) (66, disputed 65)
• Martin Milner (actor, Gunfight At The OK Corral, Adam-12) (81)
• Stan Lee (Marvel Comics co-founder; co-creator of Spider-Man, The Hulk, Iron Man, the X-Men and other characters) (90)
• Marty Roe (lead singer of Diamond Rio) (52)
• Martha Wash (disco singer) (59)
• John Legend (R&B singer-songwriter) (34)
• Charles Neville (saxophonist, the Neville Brothers) (74)
• David Archuleta (singer, American Idol runner-up) (22)
• Noomi Rapace (actress, Lisbeth Salander in the Swedish versions of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows) (33)

ON THIS DAY :

• 1832, John C. Calhoun became the first vice president of the United States to resign, stepping down over differences with President Andrew Jackson.
• 1895, French film pioneers Auguste and Louis Lumiere publicly unveiled their Cinematographe in Paris, showing short films of ordinary French life, including the feeding of a baby, a game of cards, street activity, a working blacksmith, and soldiers marching. Their screening marked the birth of the film industry.
• 1897, the play, Cyrano de Bergerac, by Edmond Rostand, premiered inParis.
• 1945, Congress officially recognized the Pledge of Allegiance to theU.S. flag.
• 1958, in a NFL championship game often called the greatest game ever played, Baltimore Colts quarterback Johnny Unitas led his team to a 23-17 win over the New York Giants in sudden death overtime.
• 1968 "I Put A Spell On You" by Creedence Clearwater Revival, a cover of the Screamin' Jay Hawkins song, peaks at Number 58 on the pop chart.
• 1968 "Season Of The Witch" by Vanilla Fudge, a cover of the Donovan song, peaks at Number 65 on the pop chart.
• 1968 "White Houses" by Eric Burton & the Animals peaks at Number 67 on the pop chart.
• 1968 The Beatles -- otherwise known as The White Album -- hits Number One on the album chart, where it stays for nine weeks.
• 1968 The Miami Festival, the first large-scale East Coast rock festival, kicks off in Hallendale, Florida. Over 100,000 attend the three-day event, which features the Grateful Dead, Steppenwolf, Jose Feliciano, Procol Harum, Three Dog Night, Chuck Berry, Fleetwood Mac, Marvin Gaye, Joni Mitchell, the Turtles, and Canned Heat.
• 1973 Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath by Black Sabbath is released.
• 1973, Alexander Solzhenitsyn published Gulag Archipelago, an expose of the Soviet prison system. The book, which got Solzhenitsyn kicked out of the Soviet Union, was named by Time magazine as the best nonfiction book of the 20th century.
• 1974 War Child by Jethro Tull peaks at Number Two on the album chart, where it stays for three weeks.
• 1976, CBS last aired the variety show, Tony Orlando and Dawn.
• 1979 The Who, the Pretenders, the Specials, and others perform at the third of four benefit shows for the people ofKampuchea.
• 1980 Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band play Charles Brown's R&B holiday standard "Merry Christmas, Baby" for the first time. It's their opening song at the Nassau Veteran's Memorial Coliseum inUniondale,New York.
• 1981, Elizabeth Jordan Carr, the first American "test-tube" baby, is born inVirginia.
• 1983 Actor William Demarest (My Three Sons' Uncle Charley) dies at age 91.
• 1983, Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys drowns at the age of 39.
• 1984, the daytime soap opera, The Edge Of Night, last aired after a 28-year run.
• 1985 "Alive & Kicking" by Simple Minds peaks at Number Three on the pop chart.
• 1985 "Love Is The Seventh Wave" by Sting peaks at Number 17 on the pop chart.
• 1985 "Small Town" by John Mellencamp peaks at Number Six on the pop chart, where it stays for three weeks.
• 1992 Keith Richards & the X-Pensive Winos shoot a concert in Chicago for the PBS series Centerstage.
• 1999, Clayton Moore, the star of TV's Lone Ranger, died. He was 85.
• 2000 Styx singer-guitarist Tommy Shaw marries Jeanne Mason inLas Vegas.
• 2005 A historic, 100-year-old house in Olympia, Washington owned by Courtney Love is put up for auction to pay off debts of approximately $367,000, including legal fees and the balance of Love's mortgage.
• 2009 Avenged Sevenfold drummer James "The Rev" Sullivan dies in his home at the age of 28. Sullivan's death is attributed to a lethal combination of several prescription drugs, including OxyContin and Valium, with alcohol.