A quick look at Today in History, check out some Celebrity Birthdays, and find out what Days of the Year to celebrate.
TODAY IN HISTORY:
1817 – Mississippi became the 20th state.
1845 – British civil engineer Robert Thompson patented the first pneumatic tires.
1869 – Women were granted the right to vote in the Wyoming Territory.
1884 – Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” was published.
1901 – The first Nobel prizes were awarded.
1906 – President Theodore Roosevelt became the first American to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for helping mediate an end to the Russo-Japanese War.
1927 – The Grand Old Opry made its first radio broadcast from Nashville, TN.
1931 – Jane Addams became a co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, she was the first American woman to do so.
1953 – Hugh Hefner published the first “Playboy” magazine with an investment of $7,600.
1955 – The cartoon “Mighty Mouse Playhouse” premiered on television.
1958 – The first domestic passenger jet flight took place in the United States when 111 passengers flew from New York, NY, to Miami, FL, on a National Airlines Boeing 707.
1962 – The movie “Lawrence of Arabia” debuted in theaters and went on to win an Oscar for Best Picture.
1963 – President Lyndon Johnson called on Congress to pass civil rights legislation without delay, saying “the issue cannot be ignored for another 100 years or even another 100 days.”
1963 – Donny Osmond made his debut with the Osmonds on the NBC television show “The Andy Williams Show.”
1965 – Sugar Ray Robinson permanently retired from boxing. By winning the middleweight title five times, he had more successful title bouts to his credit than any fighter in history.
1978 – The film, “Superman: The Movie”, starring Christopher Reeves premiered in theaters. The film cost $55 million to make, and was the most expensive movie ever made at that time.
1984 – The single “Do They Know It’s Christmas” was released by Band-Aid. The group was assembled to aid in famine relief.
1990 – The U.S. Food & Drug Administration approved the long-acting contraceptive implant Norplant.
1991 – Alan Freed, the legendary disc jockey who coined the term “rock and roll,” got a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1993 – The crew of the Space Shuttle Endeavor deployed the repaired Hubble Space Telescope into Earth’s orbit.
1994 – Advertising executive Thomas Mosser of North Caldwell, NJ, was killed by a mail bomb that was blamed on the Unabomber.
1998 – 250 miles above the Earth, six astronauts opened the doors to the new International Space Station.
1999 – The movie “The Green Mile”, starring Tom Hanks, premiered in theaters.
2001 – The movie “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” premiered in theaters.
2008 – Gary Sinise, who played the fictional Lieutenant Dan in “Forrest Gump”, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George Bush in the Oval Office.
2009 – James Cameron’s sci-fi movie “Avatar” premiered in theaters in London, becoming the highest grossing movie ever at the time.
2016 – The movie “Rogue One: The Star Wars Story” debuted in theaters.
2017 – Detroit Tigers Alan Trammell and Jack Morris were elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
BIRTHDAYS:
Fionnula Flanagan – 82 years old (1941) – Actress (“Waking Ned”, “The Others”, “Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood”)
Gloria Loring – 77 years old (1946) – Actress, singer (TV’s “Days of Our Lives”)
Johnny Rodriguez – 72 years old (1951) – Country Singer (“You Always Come Back to Hurting Me”, “Desperado”)
Susan Dey – 71 years old (1952) – Actress (TV’s “L.A. Law,” Played Laurie on “The Partridge Family”, movies “Echo Park”, “Looker”)
Kenneth Branagh – 63 years old (1960) – Actor, director (“Henry V”, “Swan Song”, “Celebrity”, “The Gingerbread Man”, “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein”, “Wild Wild West”, “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets”)
Nia Peeples – 62 years old (1961) – Actress, TV host (TV’s “Pretty Little Liars”, “The Young and the Restless”, “Walker, Texas Ranger”, host “Party Machine”)
Bobby Flay – 59 years old (1964) – TV chef
Emmanuelle Chriqui – 48 years old (1975) – Actress (“You Don’t Mess With the Zohan”, “Detroit Rock City”, TV’s “Murder in the First”, “The Mentalist”, “Entourage”)
Summer Phoenix – 45 years old (1978) – Actress (“Wasted”, “The Laramie Project”, “SLC Punk!”, “Dinner Rush”, “The Believer”, “The Faculty”)
Xavier Samuel – 40 years old (1983) – Actor (“September”, “Further We Search”, “Newcastle”, “The Loved Ones”, “Frankenstein”, “A Few Best Men”, “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse”, “Spin Out”)
Raven-Symoné – 38 years old (1985) – Actress (TV’s “That’s So Raven,” “The Cosby Show”, movies “For One Night”, “The Cheetah Girls”, “Dr. Dolittle”)
TODAY IS:
International Animal Rights Day
For additional information check out websites like: www.on-this-day.com, www.born-today.com, www.famousbirthdays.com, www.daysoftheyear.com, and www.nationaldaycalendar.com.
