Friday, March 8, 2013

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS:

• Jim Bouton (former baseball player and Ball Four author) (74)
• Micky Dolenz (The Monkees' singer, actor) (68)
• Camryn Manheim (actress, The Practice's Eleanor Frutt, Ghost Whisperer, Eraser, Romy and Michele's High School Reunion) (52)
• Freddie Prinze, Jr. (actor, I Know What You Did Last Summer, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, the Scooby Doo movies, Down To You, She's All That; son of Freddie Prinze; married to Sarah Michelle Gellar) (37)
• Aidan Quinn (actor, Elementary, Desperately Seeking Susan, Legends Of The Fall, Benny & Joon) (54)
• James Van Der Beek (actor, Mercy, Dawson's Creek, Varsity Blues, Texas Rangers, The Rules Of Attraction) (36)
• Keith Jarrett (pianist) (68)
• "Little" Peggy March ("I Will Follow Him") (65)
• Carole Bayer Sager (songwriter, "Groovy Kind Of Love," "Midnight Blue," "Nobody Does It Better") (66)
• Randy Meisner (former singer-bassist, Poco, the Eagles) (67)
• Gary Numan (singer, "Cars") (55)
• Mike Allsup (guitarist, Three Dog Night) (66)
• Tom Chaplin (frontman, Keane) (34)
• Andy Ross (guitarist, OK Go) (34)
• Clive Burr (former drummer, Iron Maiden) (56)

ON THIS DAY:

• 1913, the Internal Revenue Service began to levy and collect income taxes, after Congress was given the authority to do so under the 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which was ratified one month earlier.
• 1918 Actor Alan Hale, Jr. (Gilligan's Island's Skipper Jonas Grumby) is born. He dies in 1990.
• 1950, the U.S.S.R.'s Marshall Voroshilov announced his country had developed an atomic bomb.
• 1959, the Marx Brothers -- Groucho, Chico, and Harpo -- made their final TV appearance together.
• 1960 The movie Psycho, starring Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, Martin Balsam, Simon Oakland, and Janet Leigh, opens.
• 1962 The Beatles, with Pete Best on drums, make their BBC Radio debut on the show Teenager's Turn.
• 1965, two U.S. Marine battalions arrived inSouth Vietnam. They were the first American combat troops openly assigned to the conflict.U.S. "military advisers" had already been inSouth Vietnam since 1961.
• 1968 Big Brother & the Holding Company, Albert King, and Tim Buckley play the first show at promoter Bill Graham's Fillmore East inNew York City.
• 1969, "Crossroads" by Cream peaks at Number 28 on the pop chart.
• 1969, "Proud Mary" by Creedence Clearwater Revival peaks at Number Two on the pop chart, where it stays for three weeks.
• 1971, a new undisputed world heavyweight boxing champion was crowned, as "Smokin'" Joe Frazier won a decision over Muhammad Ali, who was previously undefeated.
• 1973, Grateful Dead keyboardist Ron "Pigpen" McKernan is found dead in his apartment inCorte Madera,California, at age 27.
• 1973, Paul & Linda McCartney pled guilty to charges of growing marijuana outside his Scottish countryside farm and were fined 100 British pounds ($240). Paul claimed he didn't know the seeds would grow.
• 1975, "Lady" by Styx peaks at Number Six on the pop chart, where it stays for two weeks.
• 1975, "Lonely People" by America peaks at Number Five on the pop chart.
• 1977, Foreigner's self-titled debut album is released.
• 1983, during a speech in Orlando, Florida, President Reagan famously called theSoviet Union “The Evil Empire."
• 1985, The IRS announced that 407,700 Americans were millionaires -- more than double the total of just five years earlier.
• 1986, "Silent Running (On Dangerous Ground)" by Mike + the Mechanics peaks at Number Six on the pop chart.
• 1990 Rolling Stone readers vote U2's Bono "Sexiest Male Rock Artist."
• 1991, Dozens of troops returned home from thePersian Gulf to an emotional welcome from relatives.
• 1993 Beavis And Butthead premieres on MTV.
• 1994 Nirvana's Kurt Cobain is released from aRome hospital four days after lapsing into what was said to have been an accidental drug-induced coma.
• 1994 Soundgarden releases its Superunknown album.
• 1994, The United States Defense Department announced a smoking ban for workplaces, from the Pentagon to battle tanks on the front lines.
• 1996 Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness by Smashing Pumpkins is certified six times platinum for sales of six million copies.
• 1996, Dr. Jack Kevorkian was acquitted of assisted suicide for helping two suffering patients kill themselves.
• 1999 Joe DiMaggio, the New York Yankees baseball star, dies inHollywood,Florida, at the age of 84.
• 2000 Stone Temple Pilots shoot an episode of Storytellers for VH1.
• 2001 Pearl Jam breaks its own record for the number of titles to debut simultaneously on the Billboard 200 chart, as seven of the band's 23 live albums, recorded on the first leg of its North American tour, appear on the chart. The band set the previous record in October 2000 with five European live albums.
• 2001 The Dave Matthews Band debuts at Number One and has its biggest first-week sales ever with its fourth studio album, Everyday.
• 2004 3 Doors Down bassist Todd Harrell is charged with simple assault after he allegedly hits a newspaper carrier outside Moss Point, Mississippi.
• 2004 A.F.I. cancels the remaining dates of a North American tour after singer Davey Havok is diagnosed with nodes on his vocal cords.
• 2004 Actor Robert Pastorelli (Murphy Brown, Dances With Wolves, Eraser, Michael, Be Cool) dies at age 49.
• 2005 The trailer for Rob Zombie's second directorial effort, The Devil's Rejects, is posted online.
• 2006 "World Wide Suicide" by Pearl Jam is made available as a free download at the official pearljam.com website.
• 2006 The second album from Hawthorne Heights, If Only You Were Lonely, debuts at Number Three on the Billboard 200 chart, selling nearly 114,000 copies in its first week on the shelves.
• 2006 U2 postpones the remaining dates on its Vertigo world tour because of an undisclosed family illness.
• 2007 Guitarist Eddie Van Halen announces that he is going into rehab, which will force him to miss Van Halen's March 12th induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. At the same time, original singer David Lee Roth reveals that he will skip the event because he's been barred from performing.