August 8
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Events on This Day
1588 - The Spanish Armada, a fleet of 130 huge ships, met defeat at the hands of English sailors and their smaller, more maneuverable vessels. Then a series of wicked Atlantic storms off the coast of Southern England took their toll. Only half of the 130 Spanish ships managed to limp ... at best ... home. The 60 or so English ships had saved England from the Spanish invaders.1839 - Beta Theta Pi became the first Greek-letter fraternity west of the Alleghenies. The fraternity was a new arrival at Miami University in Oxford, OH.
1876 - Thomas A. Edison of Menlo Park, NJ patented the autographic printing (mimeograph) machine. He described it as a method of preparing autographic stencils for printing. We don’t use mimeographs much these days, thanks to paper copiers and computer word processors. Mimeograph machines used to be cranked by hand and later models were electric. The mimeograph worked by first creating a spirit master which was placed on a large rotating drum. A strong smelling, purple ink would then print out on paper. We used to use these a lot in school back in the 1950s and 1960s. We remember the fumes, especially.
1900 - Competition began for the International Lawn Tennis Challenge Trophy at the Longwood Cricket Club in Brookline, Massachusetts. Donating the trophy was America's Dwight Davis. He had been the runner-up in the 1898 U.S. Championships. From then on, the event, the men’s international team championship, was called the Davis Cup. There has been a Davis Cup match every year since 1900 except for 1901, 1910, and the war years of 1915-1918 and 1940-1945. Dwight Davis played on the winning team in 1900 and 1902.
1911 - Membership in the U.S. House of Representatives was established at 435 people. Every 211,877 residents of the U.S. were represented by one member of Congress.
1923 - Benny Goodman was 14 years old as he began his professional career as a clarinet player. He took a job in a band on a Chicago-based excursion boat on Lake Michigan.
1934 - Bing Crosby became the first singer to record for the newly created Decca Records. His songs, Just A-Wearyin’ for You and I Love You Truly, were waxed as Decca number D-100. Place your ear next to the monitor and you’ll hear some of this classic recording... “Just a-wearyin’ for you. All the time a-feelin’ blue; Wishin’ for you, wond’rin when you’ll be comin’ home again.” We know the next verse, about “birds awake, singing for your sake” and all that, but, frankly it makes us a-wearyin’ to add it here...
1940 - Nazi Germany warplanes launched air attacks against England and started bombing the southeastern part of the country in what is remembered today as the Battle of Britain.
1941 - Les Brown and His Band of Renown paid tribute to baseball’s ‘Yankee Clipper’, Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees, with the recording of Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio on Okeh Records. From that time on, DiMaggio adopted the nickname, Joltin’ Joe.
1941 - Spike Jones made his first recordings with The City Slickers. Spike was four months short of his 30th birthday. He and his band recorded The Covered Wagon Rolled Along, Red Wing, Barstool Cowboy from old Barstow and Behind Those Swingin’ Doors, using the musical styles of a washboard band, honky tonk band, ragtime, and some traditional jazz. None of the above was a smash hit (or anything close to it). It was Spike’s third Bluebird Records session, in July 1942, that made him a star. Der Fuehrer’s Face was an overnight sensation.
1945 - The Soviet Union declared war on Japan. This, two days after the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and seven days before Tokyo surrendered.
1953 - The United States and South Korea initialed a mutual defense treaty.
1960 - Tell Laura I Love Her, by Ray Peterson, wasn’t a big hit in Great Britain. Decca Records in England said the song was “too tasteless and vulgar for the English sensibility.” They destroyed 25,000 of the platters this day.
1963 - Seven million dollars was stolen in Britain’s Great Train Robbery by a gang of fifteen thieves. Scotland Yard called the holdup up, “Britain’s biggest robbery ever attempted.” All but three of the gang were identified by fingerprints.
1964 - Joan Baez and Bob Dylan shared the stage for the first time when the singers performed in a concert at the Forest Hills Music Festival in the Forest Hills Tennis Stadium in Forest Hills, NY.
1967 - Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore & Thailand formed Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).
1968 - Richard M. Nixon was nominated for president at the Republican national convention in Miami Beach, Florida. Nixon selected Maryland Governor Spiro T. Agnew to be his running mate.
1969 - Photographer Iain Macmillan took six pictures of the Beatles crossing the street outside their Abbey Road studio in London. A police officer held up traffic while the group walked back and forth several times. Paul McCartney chose one of those pictures for the cover of the Abbey Road album.
1973 - U.S. Vice President Spiro T. Agnew refuted, and branded as “damned lies,” charges that he had taken kickbacks from government contracts while he was governor of Maryland. He was under investigation for bribery, extortion, tax fraud, and conspiracy. As a result, Agnew:
(a) Did resign, but always stuck by the above denial.
(b) Did resign, agreeing not to contest the government charge of tax fraud.
(c) Never did resign, and is still the vice president.
If you picked (b), give yourself an A in U.S. political history.1974 - Roberta Flack received a gold record for the single, Feel Like Makin’ Love. Flack, born in Asheville, NC and raised in Arlington, VA, was awarded a music scholarship to Howard University in Washington, DC -- at the age of 15. One of her classmates became a singing partner on several hit songs. Donny Hathaway joined Flack on You’ve Got a Friend, Where is the Love and The Closer I Get to You. She had 10 hits on the pop charts in the 1970s and 1980s.
1974 - Faced with what seemed like almost certain impeachment (over Watergat-related charges), U.S. President Richard M. Nixon announced that he would resign the next day to begin “that process of healing which is so desperately needed in America.”
1975 - Jazz alto saxophonist Julian ‘Cannonball’ Adderley died of a stroke. He was 47 years old. Adderley recorded more than 60 albums as a feature artist and collaborated as a sideman on at least 60 more. He performed with many other legendary musicians such as Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Quincy Jones and Chuck Mangione. His collaborations include work with singers such as Sarah Vaughn, Dinah Washington and his protege, Nancy Wilson. He became one of the masters of hard bop and later originated what became known as soul jazz, taking his influence from the black church. During 1960s, Cannonball Adderley and his quintet hit the Billboard pop chart with Mercy, Mercy, Mercy. Adderely and such musicians as pianist Ramsey Lewis, who hit around the same time with The In Crowd did much to make jazz popular.
1978 - Pioneer 13, the “Pioneer Venus Multiprobe Mission,” with four atmospheric probes on board, was launched toward Venus.
1984 - Carl Lewis won his third gold medal at the Los Angeles Olympics. He won the 200-meter sprint. At the same time, Greg Louganis received his first gold medal in diving in the springboard competition.
1987 - The opening ceremonies of the Pan American Games were held in Indianapolis, Indiana. A two-hour extravaganza called "The Magic that’s America" was presented at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The big show included some 6,000 volunteer performers and stagehands who joined a 20,000-piece, animated, card section, along with 80 Disney characters and a 1,027-piece band.
1987 - Lynne Cox became the first to swim from the U.S. to Russia across the Bering Strait. How cold was the water, you ask? Th-th-th-thirty ei-ei-ei-eight d-d-d-degrees, we answer.
1988 - U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar announced a cease-fire between Iran and Iraq. The day became a Iraqi national holiday until it was abolished in 2003.
1990 - This was a watershed day in the Middle East. Iraq announced that it had annexed the kingdom of Kuwait -- moving over 200,000 troops into the tiny, oil-rich country. As Iraq declared Kuwait to be its 19th Providence, U.S. President George Bush (I) warned Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, “A line has been drawn in the sand,” and American forces began moving into Saudi Arabia.
1990 - Pete Rose began a five-month prison term at Marion (IL) Federal prison camp. Rose had pled guilty to filing false income tax returns. He was also fined $50,000.
1991 - Astronaut (Apollo 15) James B. Irwin died of a heart attack. The U.S. Air Force Colonel was 61 years old.
1992 - The U.S. basketball Dream Team clinched the gold at the Barcelona Summer Olympics, defeating Croatia 117-85.
1993 - An earthquake on the island of Guam moved the Richter scale to a raucous 8.1.
1997 - Conspiracy Theory and Free Willy 3 opened in U.S. theatres. Mel Gibson, Julia Roberts, Patrick Stewart and Cylk Cozart starred in the former. Jason James Richter, August Schellenberg, Annie Corley, Vincent Berry and Patrick Kilpatrick were featured in the latter.
1998 - The first newspaper in Iran dedicated to women’s issues, the daily Zan, was launched by Faezeh Hashemi. She was the daughter of former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. (All went well until April 1999, when the paper was banned for carrying a message by the widow of the former Shah.)
2000 - Audiotaped conversations between Enron employees proved the company manipulated the energy market and gouged rate payers millions, if not billions, of dollars. In one audiotape transcript, an Enron employee says, “If the line’s not congested I just look to congest it ... If you can congest it, that's a moneymaker no matter what.” Meaning that as energy became more scarce, prices the companies could charge soared.
2001 - Mohammad Khatami was sworn in for his second term as president of Iran.
2001 - Former U.S. President Ronald Reagan’s daughter Maureen Reagan died of skin cancer. She was 60 years old. Ms. Reagan was the daughter of the former president and actress Jane Wyman.
2002 - The FCC ordered TV manufacturers to install tuners for digital signals in new TV sets by 2007. (The order was modified in 2005 setting a July 1, 2007 deadline for manufacturers to equip half of their most popular sets with digital tuners.)
2003 - Films opening in U.S. movie houses: The Princess Blade, with Hideaki Ito, Yumiko Shaku, Yoichi Numata, Kyusaku Shimada, Yoko Maki and Takashi Tsukamoto; and S.W.A.T., starring Samuel L. Jackson, Colin Farrell, Michelle Rodriguez and Jeremy Renner.
2003 - Billionaire hedge fund investor and philanthropist George Soros pledged $10 million to a political action committee called America Coming Together. The goal: to defeat George Bush in 2004.
2004 - Actress Fay Wray died at 96 years of age. She was best known for her 1933 performance as Ann Darrow (aka The Eighth Wonder) in King Kong.
2005 - An estimated 156 million reais (US$69.8 million, £38.6 million, €56 million) was discovered stolen over the weekend from Banco Central in Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil. It was one of the world’s largest bank robberies. The thieves dug a 200m (656ft) tunnel into the bank from a nearby house.
2006 - Democratic primary voters in Connecticut voted out three-term U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman, opting for Ned Lamont, a political newcomer. (On Nov 7, 2006 Lieberman won reelection to the Senate as an independent candidate.)
2007 - Daddy Day Camp debuted in the U.S. The comedy stars Cuba Gooding Jr., Paul Rae, Lochlyn Munro, Richard Gant, Buck Hinton, Spencir Bridges, Josh McLerran, Talon G. Ackerman, Tamala Jones, Brian Doyle-Murray, Taggart Hurtubise, Tad D'Agostino, Bart Johnson, Tyger Rawlings, Molly Jepson and Dallin Boyce.
2007 - Researchers reported that coral coverage in the Indo-Pacific, an area stretching from Indonesia’s Sumatra island to French Polynesia, had dropped 20 percent in the previous two decades. The group from the the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill said the decline was driven by climate change, disease and coastal development.
2008 - New movies in U.S. theatres: Beer For My Horses, with Toby Keith, Rodney Carrington, Ted Nugent, Brit Morgan, Greg Serano, Barry Corbin, Claire Forlani, Tom Skerritt and Willie Nelson; Elegy, starring Penélope Cruz, Ben Kingsley, Patricia Clarkson, Peter Sarsgaard, Dennis Hopper and Deborah Harry; and Hell Ride, starring Larry Bishop, Michael Madsen, Dennis Hopper, Vinnie Jones, David Carradine, Eric Balfour, Julia Jones, Michael Beach, Leonor Varela, Francesco Quinn and Alison McAtee.
2008 - Home finance giant Fannie Mae reported a second quarter loss of 2.3 billion dollars.
2008 - Former North Carolina senator and Democratic presidential candidate, John Edwards, admitted to an extramarital affair with a film producer in 2006.
2008 - The 29th Olympic Games opened in Beijing, China. Costing an estimated 40 billion dollars and shrouded by political controversies, the games burst into life with a spectacular opening ceremony at the “bird’s nest” stadium.
2008 - U.S. President George Bush (II) blended carefully worded political messages for China and Russia with enthusiasm for his nation’s athletes as he became the first U.S. president to attend an Olympics abroad.
2009 - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and South African President Jacob Zuma pledged to cement closer ties between their new administrations.
2009 - Continental Express Flight 2816, en route with 47 passengers to Minneapolis from Houston, was stranded -- on the runway -- overnight at Rochester, MN after being forced to land due to storms. On Nov 24 the U.S. Dept. of Transportation levied $175,000 in fines against Continental, ExpressJet and Mesaba Airlines for keeping the plane and its passengers on the tarmac for such a long time.
2010 - Academy Award-winning actress (Hud, 1964) Patricia Neal died at her home in Edgartown, Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. Neal’s films included The Fountainhead (1949), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961), The Homecoming (TV 1971) and A Face in the Crowd (1957). Her 1988 autobiography is titled As I Am.
2010 - Mexico’s former President Vincente Fox, who was a key U.S. ally in the war on drugs, endorsed the legalization of drugs, reasoning that prohibition had failed to curb Mexico’s spiraling violence and corruption.
2011 - Global stock markets sank as worries over the downgrade of U.S. debt outweighed relief at a European Central Bank pledge to buy up Italian and Spanish bonds to help the two countries avoid defaults. In the U.S., the DJIA dropped over 600 points.
2012 - Misty-May Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings took their third consecutive Olympic gold medal with straight-sets win in the all-American beach volleyball final.
2012 - London’s Olympics organizers (LOCOG) confirmed that 7 competitors from Cameroon were missing from the Olympics and British police had been informed. The following day the Cameroon Tribune reported that the missing athletes, five boxers, one swimmer and one woman soccer player had defected in London.
2013 - Judith Oakes resigned as accountant of Rialto Unified school district in San Bernardino, California. This, the day after she had been arrested on suspicion of grand theft, embezzlement and burglary. Video surveillance had shown her stuffing cash from student lunch money into her bra.
2014 - Motion pictures opening in U.S. theatres included: The Hundred-Foot Journey, starring Helen Mirren, Manish Dayal and Rohan Chand; Into the Storm, with Sarah Wayne Callies, Richard Armitage and Jeremy Sumpter; Step Up All In, starring Alyson Stoner, Briana Evigan and Ryan Guzman; Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, with Megan Fox, Will Arnett and William Fichtner; About Alex, starring Aubrey Plaza, Maggie Grace and Max Minghella; After, with Kathleen Quinlan, John Doman and Pablo Schreiber; James Cameron’s documentary Deepsea Challenge; and the documentaries, Fifi Howls from Happiness and Keep on Keepin’ On.
2014 - Filmmaker Menahem Golan, co-owner (with his cousin Yoram Globus) of Golan-Globus films, died in Tel Aviv. He was 85 years old. Golan-Globus produced over 200 movies and Golan directed a fourth of them. They included Cobra (1986), the Death Wish sequels 2-5 (1982-1994), Entebbe: Operation Thunderbolt (1977), Delta Force (1986), Bloodsport (1987) and Over the Top (1987).
2014 - The Malaysian government announced that Malaysia Airlines would be taken over by the country’s state investment fund. This, as plans proceded for a complete overhaul to rescue the company from oblivion after two crippling air disasters.
2015 - Several dozen boats of all sizes paraded across the Guanabara Bay in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It was a demonstration in protest of the contamination of the waters where sailing events would be held during the 2016 Olympic Games. Brazil pledged to clean up waterways around the Olympic sites, and to remove 80 percent of the sewage flowing into Guanabara Bay.
2016 - Team USA widened its lead in the overall medal count at the Rio Olympics while tying China in the gold-medal count thanks to a strong finish in the swimming events. Ryan Murphy earned his first Olympic gold medal in impressive fashion in the men’s 100-meter backstroke. He set the Olympic record in the finals with a time of 51.97 seconds. Lillia King swam an incredible race in the women’s 100-meter breaststroke. The 19-year-old had made headlines in the lead-up to the race for her strong stance on doping in the sport and backed up her talk with a gold-medal time of 1:04.93. And Lilly King and Katie Meili were the first pair of Americans to medal in the Women’s 100m Breast at the same Olympics.
2016 - Which U.S. state had the worst drivers? Using data from the Insurance Research Council, Federal Highway Administration and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, SmartAsset, a financial tech firm, concluded that the worst drivers live -- and die -- in Florida. The best state in SmartAsset’s survey was Maine.
2017 - Country music legend Glen Campbell died at 81 years of age in Nashville, TN. Campbell’s hits include Gentle on My Mind (1967), By the Time I Get to Phoenix (1967), Wichita Lineman (1968), Dreams of the Everyday Housewife (1968), Galveston (1969), Rhinestone Cowboy (1975) and Southern Nights (1977). The TV show The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour ran from 1969 to 1972 on CBS. Campbell spent several years early in his career playing with the group of instrumentalists later known as The Wrecking Crew, whose services were employed for thousands of studio recordings in the 1960s and early 1970s, including several hundred Top 40 hits. Following his late 2010 Alzheimer’s diagnosis, Campbell embarked on a final Goodbye Tour, with three of his children joining him in his backup band. His final show was on Nov 30, 2012, in Napa, California.
2018 - Malaysia’s former Prime Minister Najib Razak pleaded not guilty to money laundering charges. The country’s new government was looking for answers to how billions of dollars went missing from a state fund during his term. Najib and his wife, Rosmah Mansor, had been barred from leaving Malaysia after his decade in power ended in an election defeat in May, and the new prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, relaunched an investigation into the 1MDB (1Malaysia Development Berhad) fund.
2018 - Italian police said gangsters dropped 55-pound (25-kilo) weights on the limbs of drug addicts, alcoholics and other indigents in an insurance fraud racket that faked car accidents to obtain hundreds of thousands of euros in claim payments. Police said 11 persons, including a nurse suspected of procuring anesthetics, were arrested in the crackdown on two Palermo-based criminal organizations.
2019 - Los Angeles County sheriff’s detective Neil Kimball was sentenced to three years in prison for having sex with 15-year-old girl whom he met while investigating her report of being sexually assaulted in 2017.
2019 - A judge in Montana ordered Andrew Anglin, the publisher of a neo-Nazi website, to pay Tanya Gersh, a Jewish real estate agent, $14 million for inciting his readers to harass her family with hundreds of threatening and anti-Semitic messages and calls.
2020 - Italy’s health minister announced that women in Italy would be allowed to use the abortion pill -- on an outpatient basis -- rather than be hospitalized to terminate a pregnancy. Health minister Roberto Speranza said the change was based on scientific evidence and was “an important step forward” in line with Italy’s 1978 law legalizing abortion.
2020 - Brazil surpassed a grim milestone of 100,000 deaths from COVID-19. The Health Ministry said there had been a total of 3,012,412 confirmed infections with the coronavirus.
2021 - The Olympic cauldron was extinguished in Tokyo, Japan, ending -- because of the COVID-19 pandemic -- a Summer Games like no other. The U.S. won 113 medals, more than any other country. China finished second with 88. And host country Japan won 58.
2021 - A federal judge granted Norwegian Cruise Line’s request for a preliminary injunction, allowing the company to require proof of vaccination from passengers despite a Florida law that bans businesses from doing so.
2021 - The USA women’s basketball team won a record-extending 7th consecutive Olympic gold medal in a 90-75 win over Japan in Tokyo; guards Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi each won their 5th straight gold.
2022 - Singer, actress Olivia Newton-John died from breast cancer at her California ranch. She was 73. “Olivia has been a symbol of triumphs and hope for over 30 years sharing her journey with breast cancer,” her husband, John Easterling, wrote on Instagram and Facebook. Newton-John was perhaps best known for her role as Sandy alongside John Travolta in the film version of Grease, as well as for hit songs, including here 1981 hit, Physical. She had 14 top 10 singles from 1973 to 1983, and won four Grammys. Her You’re the One That I Want duet with Travolta sold more than 15 million copies. Travolta said in an online post that Newton-John “made all our lives so much better.”
2022 - President Biden and first lady Jill Biden visited Kentucky, where they surveyed flood damage from storms and met with families and first responders. At least 37 people died when floodwaters had swept through areas swamped with up to 10 1/2 inches of rain in 48 hours. Governor Andy Beshear said the flooding was “unlike anything we’ve ever seen," and credited Biden with providing federal aid quickly.
2023 - Colombian drug dealer Dairo Antonio, called “the most dangerous drug trafficker in the world,” was sentenced to 45 years in prison in the U.S. Prosecutors had described him as the most significant Colombian narcotics trafficker since Medellín cartel leader Pablo Escobar and said Úsuga, also known as Otoniel, had helped ship nearly 100,000 kilograms (220,500 pounds) of cocaine to the U.S.
2023 - Abortion rights advocates in Ohio beat back a measure that would have made their push to enshrine abortion rights in the state’s constitution more difficult. Voters rejected the proposal, known as "Issue 1", which would have raised the threshold to pass constitutional amendments from a simple majority to a 60% vote. It was widely seen as a proxy battle over a constitutional amendment guaranteeing abortion rights that was to be on Ohio’s ballots in November. (The abortion measure was approved by voters on Nov 7, 2023 and did override Ohio’s 2019 law that had banned abortion after six weeks.)
2023 - Wildfires on the Hawaiian Island of Maui destroyed the historic town of Lahaina and killed more than 100 people. The wind-driven fires prompted widespread evacuations. The proliferation of the wildfires was attributed to dry, gusty conditions created by a strong high-pressure area north of Hawaii and Hurricane Dora to the south. The Pacific Disaster Center (PDC) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) estimated that over 2,200 buildings had been destroyed, including many historic landmarks. In September 2023, the U.S. Department of Commerce published the official damage total of the wildfires as $5.5 billion (2023 USD).
and more...
Birthdays on This Day August 8
1866 - Matthew Henson
explorer: North Pole expedition [1908-09 w/Robert Peary]; died Mar 9, 19551884 - Sara Teasdale
poet: won the first Pulitzer Prize for Poetry [1918, Love Songs]; Flame and Shadow, Rivers to the Sea; died Jan 29, 19331899 - Russell Markert
choreographer: founded, directed: Radio City Music Hall Rockettes; died Dec 1, 19901901 - Victor Young
composer: When I Fall In Love, Love Letters, Stella By Starligt; he recorded the first album of songs from The Wizard of Oz [1939]; died Nov 10, 19561907 - Benny Carter
jazz musician: Honeysuckle Rose, Crazy Rhythm; arranger: I’m Putting All My Eggs in One Basket, One, Two, Button Your Shoe; composer: Jazz Cocktail, When Lights are Low; LPs: Benny Carter’s All Stars, American Jazz Orchestra, Central Cities Sketches, Somebody Loves Me; died July 12, 20031910 - Sylvia Sidney (Sophia Kosow)
actress: Beetlejuice, You Only Live Once, Les Miserables, Love from a StrangerFantasy Island [1998 series]; died July 1, 19991913 - John Facenda
‘The Voice of God’: announcer, sportscaster: Philadelphia: WIP radio, [1935-1952], WCAU-TV [1948-1973], voice of NFL Films [1965-1984]; died Sep 25, 19841913 - Axel Stordahl
composer, music director, arranger: worked on movies: Lucky Strike Salesman's Movie 48-A, Anchors Aweigh, Step Lively, Girl Crazy, Du Barry Was a Lady; died Aug 30, 19631919 - Dino De Laurentiis
producer: The Bible, Barbarella, Jaws IV; died Nov 10, 20101920 - Jimmy Witherspoon
singer: Ain’t Nobody’s Business, Some of My Best Friends are the Blues, You’re Next; died Sep 18, 19971921 - Webb Pierce
singer: In the Jailhouse Now, Honky Tonk Song, Tupelo County Jail, I’ve Got Leaving on My Mind, Back Street Affair, There Stands the Glass; died Feb 24, 19911921 - Esther Williams
swimmer, actress: Take Me Out to the Ball Game, Dangerous When Wet, Neptune’s Daughter, Million Dollar Mermaid; died Jun 6, 20131922 - Rory Calhoun (Francis Durgin)
actor: Angel, Apache Uprising, River of No Return, Treasure of Pancho Villa; died Apr 28, 19991926 - Richard Anderson
actor: The Six Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman, Escape from Fort Bravo, The Long Hot Summer, Hit the Deck; died Aug 31, 20171926 - Urbie (Urban) Green
musician: trombone: played w/Cab Calloway; died Dec 31, 20181927 - Johnny (John Ellis) Temple
baseball: Cincinnati Reds, Cincinnati Redlegs [all-star: 1956, 1957, 1959], Cleveland Indians [all-star: 1961], Baltimore Orioles, Houston Colt .45’s; died Jan 9, 19941930 - Joan Mondale (Adams)
wife of 42nd U.S. Vice-President Walter ‘Fritz’ Mondale; died Feb 3, 20141930 - Jerry Tarkanian
basketball coach: Riverside CC [1961–1966]; Pasadena CC [1966–1968]; Long Beach State [1968–1973]; UNLV [1973–1992]; San Antonio Spurs [1992]; Fresno State [1995–2002]; died Feb 11, 20151932 - Mel Tillis
singer, songwriter: I Believe in You, Coca-Cola Cowboy, Ruby Don’t Take Your Love to Town, Detroit City, I Ain’t Never, Commercial Affection, Good Woman Blues; autobiography: Stutterin’ Boy; died Nov 19, 20171933 - Joe Tex (Arrington, Jr.)
singer: I Gotcha, Hold What You’ve Got, Skinny Legs and All, Ain’t Gonna Bump No More (With No Big Fat Woman; died Aug 13, 19821936 - Frank (Oliver) ‘Hondo’ Howard
‘The Capital Punisher’: baseball: LA Dodgers [Rookie of the Year: 1960/World Series: 1963], Washington Senators [all-star: 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971], Detroit Tigers, Texas Rangers1937 - Dustin Hoffman
Academy Award-winning actor: Rain Man [1989], Kramer vs. Kramer [1980]; The Graduate, Tootsie, Midnight Cowboy, Little Big Man, Dick Tracy, Hook, Search for Tomorrow, Outbreak, Sphere1938 - Marcia Lewis
actress: Broadway: Grease, Chicago; films: Orpheus Descending, Money, Power, Murder, The Ice Pirates, Bobby and Sarah, Night Warning, When She Was Bad..., The Night They Took Miss Beautiful; died Dec 21, 20101938 - Connie Stevens (Concetta Ingolia)
singer: Sixteen Reasons, Kookie, Kookie [Lend Me Your Comb]; actress: Hawaiian Eye, The Grissom Gang, Parrish, Back to the Beach1939 - Phil Balsley
singer: group: The Statler Brothers: Flowers on the Wall, Bed of Roses1942 - Jay David
musician: drums: group: Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show: Sylvia’s Mother, Cover of the Rolling Stone, A Little Bit More, Only 16, Sharing the Night Together, When You’re in Love With a Beautiful Woman, Sexy Eyes1944 - John Holmes
actor [1969-1988]: X-rated films: Door to Door Salesman, Tropic of Passion, Johnny Wadd, Oriental Sex Kitten, Casanova 2, The Erotic Adventures of Candy, The Senator’s Daughter, Swedish Erotica series, Nasty Nurses, The Good, the Bad and the Horny; died Mar 13, 19881944 - Michael Johnson
musician: guitar; songwriter, singer: Bluer Than Blue, Almost Like Being in Love, The Moon Is Still Over Her Shoulder, Give Me Wings1947 - José (Dilan) Cruz
baseball: SL Cardinals, Houston Astros [all-star: 1980, 1985], NY Yankees1947 - Larry Wilcox
actor: Lassie, CHiPs, The Dirty Dozen, Mission Manila, National Lampoon’s Loaded Weapon 11949 - Keith Carradine
actor: Pretty Baby, The Long Riders, The Moderns, Kung Fu, Will Rogers Follies, Nashville; singer: I’m Easy1949 - Airrion Love
singer: group: The Stylistics: Betcha By Golly Wow!, You Are Everything, Stop, Look, Listen [To Your Heart]1949 - Brian Sipe
football: Cleveland Browns: NFL Player of the Year [1980]; U.S. Football League [1985-1986]1950 - Andy Fairweather Low
musician: guitar, singer: group: Amen Corner: Gin House Blues, Bend Me Shape Me, [If Paradise Is] Half as Nice, Natural Sinner1950 - Willie Hall
musician: drums: group: Booker T. and the MGs: Green Onions, Time Is Tight, Soul-Limbo1951 - Randy Shilts
journalist, writer: And the Band Played On: Politics, People and the AIDS Epidemic; died Feb 17, 19941952 - Mike (Michael Wilson) Ivie
baseball: SD Padres, SF Giants, Houston Astros, Detroit Tigers1953 - Donny Most
actor: Happy Days, Stewardess School, Dead Man’s Island1956 - Chris Foreman
musician: guitar: group: Madness: The Prince, Don’t Quote Me on That, Our House, My Girl, Baggy Trousers, Embarrassment, Return of the Los Palmos Seven, Cardiac Arrest, House of Fun, Tomorrow’s Just Another Day, Ghost Train1958 - Harry Crosby
singer; actor: Friday the 13th, Private History of a Campaign that Failed; Son of Bing Crosby and Kathryn Grant1958 - Deborah Norville
TV host: Today, Inside Edition1961 - David Evans
‘The Edge’: musician: guitar: soundtrack: Captive; group: U2: I Will Follow, Fire, Gloria, New Year’s Day, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Pride [In the Name of Love]1961 - Rikki Rockett (Richard Allan Ream)
musician: drums: group: Poison: Every Rose Has It’s Thorn, Something to Believe In, Fallen Angel, Ride the Wind, Talk Dirty to Me, Nothing But a Good Time, Stand1966 - Chris Eubank
British boxing champ [1985-1998]: world champion for some five years, was undefeated in his first ten years as a professional, remained undefeated at middleweight1967 - Rena Mero (Sable)
professional wrestler: WWE/WWF; actress: The Final Victim, Ariana’s Quest, Corky Romano1973 - Scott Stapp
musician: guitar, drums, bass; singer: group: Creed: LPs: My Own Prison, Human Clay, Weathered, Full Circle; solo LPs: The Great Divide, Between Lust and Love1975 - Devon Lee
actress [2006-2012]: X-rated films: MILF Bound, All That Jizz, Dude, That’s My Mom, Beyond The Call of Booty, Big Boob Orgy1975 - Chris Terry
football [tackle]: Univ of Georgia; NFL: Carolina Panthers, Seattle Seahawks1976 - J.C. Chasez
singer: group: NSYNC: I Want You Back, Tearin’ Up My Heart, Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday, God Must Have Spent A Little More Time On You, I Drive Myself Crazy, Music Of My Heart1976 - Tawny Cypress
actress: Heroes, House Rules, Bella, Autumn in New York, Rescue Me, K-Ville1977 - Anthony Becht
football [tight end]: Univ of West Virginia; NFL: NY Jets, TB Buccaneers1977 - Lindsay Sloane
actress: Mr. Rhodes, The Wonder Years, Dharma & Greg, Working, My So-Called Life, Between Mother and Daughter1979 - Rashard Lewis
basketball [forward]: NBA: Seattle SuperSonics [1998–2007] Orlando Magic [2007–2010] Washington Wizards [2010–2012] Miami Heat [2012–2014]: 2013 NBA champs1980 - Michael Urie
actor: Ugly Betty, WTC View, Kat Plus One, Uptown Girls1981 - Vanessa Amorosi
songwriter, singer: This Is Who I Am, Shine, Perfect, Mr. Mysterious, Absolutely Everybody, The Power, Everytime I Close My Eyes1981 - Roger Federer
tennis champ: 11 Grand Slam men’s singles titles; 3 Tennis Masters Cup titles; 13 ATP Masters Series titles; won 3 of 4 Grand Slam singles tournaments in same year [2004]: Australian Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open1981 - Meagan Good
actress: Deception, Eve’s Bayou, Stomp the Yard, D.E.B.S., Waist Deep, Roll Bounce, Think Like a Man; more1985 - Webb Simpson
golf champ: 2011 Wyndham Championship, 2011 Deutsche Bank Championship, 2012 U.S. Open, 2013 Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, 2018 Players Championship1986 - Pierre Garçon
football [wide receiver]: NFL: Indianapolis Colts [2008–2011]: 2010 Super Bowl XLIV; Washington Redskins [2012–2016]; San Francisco 49ers [2017–2018]1986 - Peyton List
model, actress: Mad Men, FlashForward, Deep Winter, The Greatest Game Ever Played1988 - Beatrice (Beatrice Elizabeth Mary Windsor)
Princess of York1989 - Anthony Rizzo
baseball [first base]: San Diego Padres [2011]; Chicago Cubs [2012– ]: 2016 World Series champs1994 - Lauv (Ari Staprans Leff)
songwriter, singer: I Like Me Better; LPs: How I’m Feeling, I Met You When I Was 18 [The Playlist]
and still more...
Hit Music on This Day August 8
1947Peg o’ My Heart (facts) - The Harmonicats
That’s My Desire (facts) - The Sammy Kaye Orchestra (vocal: Don Cornell)
1956
1965
1974
1983
1992
2001
2010
2019
and even more...
Those were the days, my friend. We thought they’d never end...
TWtD Calendar
