December 17
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Events on This Day
1843 - A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens was published in London and immediately sold out. He wrote the story in just two months, beginning in October, 1843 and finishing at the end of November. It was the first of five Christmas books by Dickens. Its successors were The Chimes (1844), The Cricket on the Hearth (1845), The Battle of Life (1846), and The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain (1848).1895 - George L. Brownell of Worcester, MA made history by getting a patent for his paper-twine machine.
1903 - The first successful powered airplane flight took place near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. First Orville, then Wilbur Wright kept their invention flying ... each flight lasted just under one minute.
1926 - Benny Goodman played a clarinet solo. This was not unusual for Benny except that it was his first time playing solo within a group recording session. Goodman was featured with Ben Pollack and His Californians on He’s the Last Word.
1936 - Ventriloquist Edgar Bergen kidded around with his pal, Charlie McCarthy (who was a bit wooden, we remember...), for the first time on radio. The two debuted on The Rudy Vallee Show on NBC. Soon, Bergen became one of radio’s hottest properties, and was called Vallee’s greatest talent discovery.
1940 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt outlined his Lend-Lease Plan to get arms and equipment to Britain during World War II.
1941 - Admiral Husband Kimmel, commander of Pearl Harbor, was replaced by Admiral Chester Nimitz as commander of the Pacific Fleet.
1944 - The U.S. Army announced it was ending its policy of excluding Japanese-Americans from residing on the West Coast. Effective Jan. 2, 1945 the evacuees were allowed to return home. For almost two years, they had been detained in various camps because the government questioned their loyalty. During the war, ten Americans were convicted of spying for Japan. All of them were Caucasian.
1948 - The Smithsonian Institution accepted the Wright brothers’ plane, the Kitty Hawk. The formal acceptance speech was given by Vice President Alben W. Barkley, a Smithsonian regent.
1953 - Following an earlier decision that favored CBS-TV, the wise minds at the Federal Communications Commission changed opinions and decided to approve RCA’s color television specifications. Guess who benefited most? That’s right, NBC, parent company (then) of RCA. NBC stations soon took the lead in displaying programs "...presented in living color."
1955 - Carl Perkins wrote Blue Suede Shoes. Less than 48 hours later, he recorded it at the Sun Studios in Memphis. The tune became one of the first records to be popular simultaneously on rock, country and rhythm & blues charts.
1959 - On the Beach premiered this day at the Astor Theatre in New York City -- and in 17 other cities. It was the first motion picture to debut simultaneously in major cities around the world.
1962 - American character actor Thomas Mitchell died at 70 years of age. Mitchell appeared in over sixty films, including Lost Horizon, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Gone with the Wind, It’s a Wonderful Life, and High Noon. Mitchell won the Supporting Actor Oscar in 1940 for his role as the drunken Doc Boone in John Ford’s Stagecoach.
1969 - Chicago Transit Authority became a gold record for the group of the same name (they later changed their name to Chicago). When the album was released by Columbia Records, it marked the first time an artist’s debut LP was a double record.
1969 - The U.S. Air Force closed its Project Blue Book by concluding there was no evidence of extraterrestrial spaceships behind thousands of UFO sightings. Air Force Secretary Robert C. Seamans, Jr. announced closure of the 21-year old investigation. Seamans said, “Continuation of the project cannot be justified either on the ground of national security or in the interest of science.”
1969 - Tiny Tim (Herbert Buchingham Khaury) married Miss Vickie (Victoria Budinger) on this night on The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson. This is the Tiny Tim of the falsetto version of Tiptoe Through the Tulips fame. Mr. Tiny Tim and Miss Vickie had a daughter, Tulip. Then in 1977 they stopped tiptoeing together. Tiny Tim died Saturday, November 30, 1996. He died as he lived, performing "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" to an audience at a benefit in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He cut the song short, commenting to his wife, Miss Sue (they were married in 1995), that he felt ill. As he was making his way with Sue to her table -- amidst the applause of his loyal fans -- he collapsed, was taken to a Minneapolis hospital and died without regaining consciousness.
1970 - The Beach Boys played to royalty at Royal Albert Hall in London. Princess Margaret was in attendance and shook the royal jewelry to such classics as Good Vibrations, I Get Around and Help Me, Rhonda.
1976 - WTCG-TV, Atlanta, Georgia, owned by Ted Turner, changed call letters to WTBS, and was uplinked via satellite, to become the first commercial TV station to cover the entire U.S. TBS started on four cable systems, available in 24,000 homes.
1977 - Elvis Costello, making a rare TV appearance, agreed to perform on NBC’s Saturday Night Live when Sid Vicious and the Sex Pistols failed to show up for the gig.
1979 - Former Hollywood stuntman Stan Barrett became the first person to break the sound barrier on land. He reached a top speed of 739.666 miles per hour in a 60,000 horsepower rocket vehicle at Rogers Dry Lake, CA.
1983 -The Alcalá 20 discotheque in Madrid, Spain caught fire. 82 people were killed.
1984 - John McEnroe and Peter Fleming lost a doubles tennis match in the Davis Cup competition for the first time in 14 matches. Anders Jarryd and Stefan Edberg lead the Swedish team to the title. It marked the worst defeat for the United States team since 1973.
1991 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev agreed to dissolve the Soviet Union by the new year.
1992 - U.S. President George Bush (I), Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in separate ceremonies.
1993 - Fox Television outbid CBS-TV for the NFL NFC broadcast package. Fox bid $1.58 billion for four years of rights to the NFC, exceeding CBS' bid by more than $100 million a year.
1994 - Ini Kamoze’s Here Comes the Hotstepper was the #1. It was the biggest single in the U.S. for two weeks: “Hit it. Nah, na na na nah, na na na nah, Na na nah, na na nah, na na na nah...”
1996 - Kofi Atta Annan was named seventh secretary-general of the United Nations by acclamation during ceremony in the General Assembly Hall, attended by representatives of the world organization’s 185 members.
1997 - A U.S. court ordered Cuba to pay $187.6 million for three men killed when their planes were shot down in 1996 by MiG fighters.
1999 - These flicks flickered on U.S. screens for the first time: Bicentennial Man (“One robot’s 200 year journey to become an ordinary man.”), with Robin Williams, Sam Neill, Embeth Davidtz and Oliver Platt; and Stuart Little (“The Little Family Just Got Bigger”), combining live action with digital character creation, starring the voice of Michael J. Fox, Geena Davis, Hugh Laurie, Jonathan Lipnicki, Julia Sweeney and and many other famous voices.
2000 - President George W. Bush (II) named Stanford professor Condoleezza Rice his national security adviser and Texas Supreme Court Justice Alberto Gonzales to the White House counsel’s job.
2001 - Marines raised the Stars and Stripes over the long-abandoned American Embassy in Kabul. U.S. envoy James F. Dobbins promised a long commitment to the rebuilding of war-wrecked Afghanistan.
2002 - New York Governor George Pataki signed a bill extending civil rights protections to gays and lesbians.
2003 - The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King opened in the U.S. Peter Jackson’s (screenplay) much-lauded and lucrative multi-part adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s (novel) classic trilogy comes to a close; stars Elijah Wood, Sir Ian McKellen, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd, Orlando Bloom, Kevin Conway, Hugo Weaving, Brad Dourif, Martin Csoka, Bernard Hill, Sir Ian Holm, Christopher Lee, Dominic Monaghan, Viggo Mortensen, John Rhys-Davies, John Noble, Liv Tyler, Karl Urban, Cate Blanchett, David Wenham.
2004 - New movies in U.S. theatres: The Aviator, with Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, John C. Reilly, Kate Beckinsale, Jude Law, Adam Scott, Kelli Garner, Gwen Stefani, Nellie Sciutto, Alec Baldwin, Danny Huston, Matt Ross, Ian Holm, Alan Alda, Frances Conroy, Vincent Laresca, Justin Shilton, Brent Spiner, Josie Maran, Sam Hennings, Willem Dafoe and Stanley DeSantis; Beyond the Sea, starring Kevin Spacey (he also directed the film), Kate Bosworth, John Goodman, Bob Hoskins, Brenda Blethyn, Greta Scacchi and Caroline Aaron; Flight of the Phoenix, with Dennis Quaid, Giovanni Ribisi, Tyrese Gibson, Miranda Otto and Hugh Laurie; Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, starring Jim Carrey, Meryl Streep, Jude Law, Jennifer Coolidge, Liam Aiken, Emily Browning, Timothy Spall, Luis Guzman and Craig Ferguson; and Spanglish, starring dam Sandler, Téa Leoni, Paz Vega and Cloris Leachman.
2004 - New York City pop artist Tom Wesselmann died at 73 years of age. Wesselmann was known for his “Bedroom Painting” series.
2005 - A group of some 40 people, dressed in Santa Claus costumes, went on a rampage through downtown Auckland, New Zealand, robbing stores and assaulting security guards.
2006 - Kelly James of Dallas, TX, one of three missing climbers, was found dead in a snow cave on Mount Hood in Oregon. James had made a four-minute call to his family a week early, saying he was in a snow cave, the climbing party was in trouble and that the other two climbers had headed back down.
2007 - New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine signed into law a measure that abolished the death penalty.
2007 - A U.S. judge ruled that the White House visitor logs are public. The ruling rebuffed President George Bush (II), who did not want visits by religious conservatives to be disclosed.
2008 - The United Nations said it would double the budget of its Afghan mission, taking on hundreds of new staff and opening more offices.
2009 - The Obama administration handed out the first $182 million of a $7.2 billion fund of stimulus money. The initial dollars were intended for building high-speed Internet networks and encouraging more Americans to use them.
2009 - A St Matthews church billboard showing an apparently naked Virgin Mary and Joseph in bed together was erected in New Zealand. The poster quickly sparked the ire of conservative Christians. The church’s vicar, Archdeacon Glynn Cardy, said the billboard was meant to challenge stereotypes about the way Jesus was conceived.
2010 - Movies debuting in the U.S.: Casino Jack, starring Kevin Spacey, Kelly Preston, Rachelle Lefevre, Barry Pepper and Jon Lovitz; How Do You Know, starring Jack Nicholson, Reese Witherspoon, Paul Rudd, Owen Wilson and Andrew Wilson; Rabbit Hole, with Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhart, Dianne Wiest, Sandra Oh and Jon Tenney; TRON: Legacy, starring Jeff Bridges, Michael Sheen, Olivia Wilde, Garrett Hedlund and Serinda Swan; and the 3D ‘live and animated’ Yogi Bear, featuring Anna Faris, T.J. Miller, Dan Aykroyd, Justin Timberlake and Tom Cavanagh.
2010 - Barbara Picower, widow of Jeffrey Picower, a Florida philanthropist who died in 2009, agreed to return $7.2 billion that her husband reaped from the giant Ponzi scheme of Bernard Madoff.
2011 - North Korean leader Kim Jong Il (b.1941) died of a heart attack. His third son, Kim Jong Un, succeeded his father.
2012 - Hawaii’s U.S. Senator Daniel Inouye died at 88 years of age at Walter Reed Military Medical Center in Maryland. Inouye, a senator since 1963, was the most senior U.S. senator at the time of his death and was the second-longest serving U.S. Senator in history after Robert Byrd. He was a Medal of Honor recipient, a recipient (posthumously) of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and President pro tempore of the U.S. Senate from 2010 until his death, making him the highest-ranking Asian American politician in U.S. history.
2013 - Japan approved a plan to increase defense spending by 5% over five years and purchase its first surveillance drones, more jet fighters and naval destroyers. This, in the face of China’s military expansion.
2013 - A gunman opened fire at the Center for Advanced Medicine in Reno, Nevada, killing one person and wounding two others before killing himself. The killer left a suicide note at his home claiming to have undergone a ‘botched’ surgery in 2010 -- from which he still suffered pain.
2014 - Movies opening in the U.S. included: The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, starring Lee Pace, Benedict Cumberbatch, Luke Evans, Evangeline Lilly, Cate Blanchett, Richard Armitage, Orlando Bloom and Martin Freeman; If You Don’t, I Will (Arrête ou je continue), with Emmanuelle Devos, Mathieu Amalric and Anne Brochet; and Goodbye to All That, starring Paul Schneider, Melanie Lynskey and Audrey P. Scott.
2014 - The U.S. imposed sanctions on Dutch and Swiss oil trading firms for their dealings with the Syrian government. This put Netherlands-based Staroil B.V., as well as two Swiss-based firms, Rixo International Trading Ltd and Bluemarine SA, on its list of sanctioned entities, which effectively cut them off from the U.S. financial system.
2014 - The United States announced a plan to reopen its embassy in Cuba -- and to normalize relations with the island nation.
2015 - The U.S. and Cuba announced plans to restore scheduled commercial airline service between the two countries. The deal would allow as many as 110 regular flights a day.
2015 - The New Orleans, Louisiana City Council voted to remove prominent Confederate monuments along some of its busiest streets.
2015 - China Southern, China’s biggest airline, announced its purchase of more than a hundred Boeing 737 jets. The deal was worth about $10 billion and came a few months after Boeing announced plans to build a final assembly plant in China for 737 passenger jets.
2016 - Rome’s Mayor Virginia Raggi was stripped by her populist Five Star Movement (M5S) party of the power to make “important decisions”. The action came after a close advisor was arrested for suspected corruption.
2016 - Freezing rain and wet snow left at least nine people dead in the U.S. Midwest and East Coast. Hundreds of accidents were blamed on slick roads. And cold temperatures brought freeze advisories to Southern California.
2017 - A fire caused an 11-hour power outage at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Georgia, leading to the cancellation of more than 1,500 flights. The fire erupted in a tunnel that housed both the main power lines -- and a backup supply, according to officials investigating the incident.
2017 - A Soyuz capsule carrying three astronauts from Russia, Japan and the U.S. blasted off from In Kazakhstan for a two-day trip to the International Space Station. Anton Shkaplerov, Norishige Kanai and Scott Tingle joined Russia’s Alexander Misurkin and Joe Acaba and Mark Vandde Hei of NASA, who had been on the station since September.
2018 - Penny Marshall, co-star of the Laverne and Shirley sitcom (1976-1983), died at her home in Los Angeles. She was 75 years old. Marshall received three Golden Globe nominations for her portrayal of Laverne DeFazio in the sitcom. And she moved on to a successful career as a director with such films as A League of Their Own (1992), Renaissance Man (1994), The Preacher’s Wife (1996) and Riding in Cars With Boys (2001).
2018 - German authorities reported five Frankfurt police officers were under investigation for organizing a neo-Nazi cell. The four allegedly accessed confidential data on a prominent Turkish-German lawyer and used it to threaten to murder her baby.
2018 - Switzerland and Britain agreed that flights between the two countries would continue uninterrupted even if London opted to leave the European Union without a deal on departure terms.
2019 - A small group of Donald Trump’s fiercest conservative critics launched a super PAC designed to fight his reelection and punish congressional Republicans who were enabling his behavior. The new organization, known as The Lincoln Project, represented a formal step forward for the so-called Never Trump movement.
2019 - It was reported that the Sackler family, owners of Purdue Pharma, had withdrawn more than $10 billion from the company during the previous dozen years amid scrutiny brought on by the opioid crisis. Purdue’s OxyContin opioid drug was approved in 1995 -- but the company was facing some 2,800 lawsuits related to its’ role in the ongoing addiction epidemic.
2020 - The Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC] said that Robinhood, a fast-growing financial app, had misled customers about how it was paid by Wall Street firms for passing along customer trades. Robinhood agreed to pay a $65 million fine to settle the charges.
2020 - German firm BioNTech’s chief medical officer reported Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine had been given to 140,000 people in Britain, and the feedback on side effects and tolerability was reassuring.
2020 - Turkey reported 27,515 new coronavirus cases. The death toll hit a record high of 243 in the previous 24 hours, bringing the total at that point to 17,364. The country had registered 1.95 million COVID-19 infections since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020.
2021 - Spider-Man: No Way Home was released in U.S. theatres. The action adventure stars Zendaya, Benedict Cumberbatc, Tom Holland, Marisa Tomei, Jon Favreau and J.K. Simmons. Other films opening this day were Nightmare Alley, starring Rooney Mara, Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett and Willem Dafoe; and The Novice, with Isabelle Fuhrman, Amy Forsyth and Dilone.
2021 - A federal judge sentenced U.S. Capitol rioter Robert Scott Palmer to 63 months in prison for throwing a wooden plank and a fire extinguisher at police during the Jan 6 attack. He was the first rioter to be sentenced on the charge of assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers using a dangerous or deadly weapon.
2021 - Washington state Senator Doug Ericksen died. He had tested positive for the coronavirus while in El Salvado. The 52-year-old staunch conservative was an outspoken critic of Democratic Governor Jay Inslee’s COVID-19 emergency orders, and had introduced legislation aimed at protecting the rights of people who did not wish to get vaccinated.
2022 - The Minnesota Vikings recovered from a 33-0 halftime deficit to beat the Indianapolis Colts, 39-36 -- in overtime. It was the biggest comeback in NFL history.
2022 - One of Iran’s most well-known actresses was arrested by her country’s ruling regime after expressing solidarity for an executed protester. Taraneh Alidoosti, who starred in the 2016 Oscar-winning film The Salesman, was detained by Iranian forces in Tehran. A renowned feminist and activist within Iran, Alidoosti had previously shown support for the ongoing protests. Following the execution of Mohsen Shekari, who was put to death in relation to the protests, Alidoosti heavily criticized the Iranian government’s actions, and called on the global community to offer their assistance to the protesters. Iran’s state news agency said she had been arrested for spreading false information relating to the execution. (She was released some three weeks later.)
2022 - Libyan officials accused the U.S. of abducting a man who played a major role in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. According to his family, Mohammed Abouagela Masud was “kidnapped” from his home in Tripoli by a local militia group. Following a few days in the custody of this group, Masud was turned over for extradition to the United States. (The bombing killed 270 people and was the deadliest terrorist attack in British history.)
and more...
Birthdays on This Day December 17
1797 - Joseph Henry
scientist: discovered the principle of self-induction; constructed 1st model of an electric telegraph with audible signal; president [1868-1878] and charter member of National Academy of Sciences; died May 14, 18781807 - John Greenleaf Whittier
poet: Barbara Frietchie, Maud Miller, Snowbound; Quaker: devoted to the abolitionist cause in U.S.; died Sep 7, 18921894 - Arthur Fiedler
conductor: The Boston Pops Orchestra; died July 10, 19791903 - Erskine Caldwell
novelist: Tobacco Road, God’s Little Acre; died Apr 11, 19871908 - Willard Libby
Nobel prize-winning atomic scientist [1960]: inventor of Carbon-14, the method for dating ancient plant, animal and mineral remains; died Sep 8, 19801910 - Sy (Melvin James) Oliver
trumpeter, singer, arranger, bandleader, composer: Easy Does It, Swing High, Well, Git It, Opus No. 1; died May 28, 19881915 - Joan (Joanne) Woodbury
actress: The Time Travelers, Northwest Trail, Song of the Gringo, Bulldog Courage; died Feb 22, 19891925 - Julia Meade (Kunza)
entertainer: Club Embassy; TV hostess: Spotlight Playhouse, Gas Company Playhouse; died May 16, 20161928 - George ‘Goober’ Lindsey
actor: The Andy Griffith Show, Mayberry R.F.D, Hee-Haw; died May 6, 20121929 - William Safire
journalist, author: Words of Wisdom, Coming to Terms; died Sep 27, 20091930 - Bob Guccione
publisher: Penthouse magazine; died Oct 20, 20101933 - Nat Stuckey
singer: Got Leaving on Her Mind, Days of Sand and Shovels, She Wakes Me Every Morning with a Kiss, Young Love [w/Connie Smith]; songwriter: Sweet Thang, Oh Woman, Waitin’ in Your Welfare Line; died Aug 24, 19881936 - Pope Francis (Jorge Mario Bergoglio)
266th Pope of the Catholic Church [2013- ]1936 - Tommy Steele (Hicks)
singer: Rock with the Caveman; actor: The Happiest Millionaire, Half a Sixpence1937 - Art Neville
musician: keyboards, percussion, singer: group: The Neville Brothers; died Jul 22, 20191938 - Leo (Leonardo Lazaro Alfonso) ‘Chico’ Cardenas
baseball: Cincinnati Reds [World Series: 1961/all-star: 1964, 1965, 1966, 1968], Minnesota Twins [all-star: 1971], California Angels, Cleveland Indians, Texas Rangers1938 - Peter Snell
Olympic Gold Medalist: 800-meter run [1960, 1964] and 1500-meter run [1964]; died Dec 12, 2019)1939 - Eddie Kendricks
singer: group: The Temptations: My Girl, I Can’t Get Next To You; solo: Keep on Truckin’, Boogie Down, Shoeshine Boy; died Oct 5, 19921942 - Paul Butterfield
musician: group: Paul Butterfield Blues Band: East-West; died May 4, 19871943 - Christopher Cazenove
actor: Aces: Iron Eagle 3, Three Men and a Little Lady, Windmills of the Gods, Mata Hari, Children of the Full Moon, Eye of the Needle, Zulu Dawn, Royal Flash, A Fine Romance, Dynasty; died Apr 7, 20101943 - Dave Dee (Harmon)
musician: tambourine, singer: group: Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich: You Make It Move, Hold Tight, Hideaway, Bend It, Save Me, Touch Me Touch Me, Okay, Zabadak, Legend of Xanadu, Last Night in Soho, Wreck of the Antoinette; solo: My Woman’s Man; record promoter1944 - Bernard Hill
actor: Mountains of the Moon, Shirley Valentine, Bellman and True, Drowning by Numbers, No Surrender, The Bounty, Gandhi1945 - Ernie Hudson
actor: Tornado!, The Substitute, Congo, Wild Palms, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, Ghostbusters series, Joy of Sex, The $5.20 an Hour Dream, Broken Badges, Grace and Frankie1945 - Chris Matthews
news anchor, MSNBC political commentator: Hardball with Chris Matthews, The Chris Matthews Show1946 - Eugene Levy
Emmy Award-winning writer: The Energy Ball/Sweeps Week, SCTV Network [1982-1983]; actor: Second City TV, A Mighty Wind, Best in Show, Schitt’s Creek1946 - Russ Washington
football; San Diego Chargers1947 - Wes Studi
actor: has earned notability for his portrayal of Native Americans in films: Dances with Wolves, The Last of the Mohicans [1992], Geronimo: An American Legend, The New World, Kings, Avatar1949 - Paul Rodgers
songwriter, singer: groups: Free: All Right Now; Bad Company: Shooting Star; solo: LPs: Cut Loose, Muddy Water Blues: A Tribute to Muddy Waters, The Hendrix Set, Live: The Loreley Tapes, Now, Live, Electric1950 - Joe Rizzo
football: Denver Broncos linebacker: Super Bowl XII1953 - Barry Livingston
actor: My Three Sons, Sons and Daughters1953 - Bill Pullman
actor: The Sinner, Independence Day, Ruthless People, Spaceballs, Lost Highway, Casper, Scary Movie 4; more1958 - Mike Mills
musician: bass: group: R.E.M.: Radio Free Europe, Talk About the Passion, So Central Rain, Seven Chinese Brothers, [Don’t Go Back to] Rockville1959 - Albert King
basketball: Univ. of Maryland, New Jersey Nets1961 - Sarah Dallin
singer: group: Bananarama1961 - Lynn LeMay
actress [1988-2010]: X-rated films: The Pleasure Chest, Journey Into Bondage, Immorals 2: The Good, the Bad and the Banged, The Beverly Thrillbillies, Oral Majority 10, Foreskin Gump, Older Girlfriends with Benefits1964 - Frank Musil
hockey: Minnesota North Stars, Calgary Flames, Ottawa Senators, Edmonton Oilers1965 - Craig Berube
hockey [left wing]: NHL: Philadelphia Flyers, Toronto Maple Leafs, Calgary Flames, Washington Capitals, New York Islanders1965 - Clive Robertson
actor: Sunset Beach, Starhunter, General Hospital, DARKSTAR - The Interactive Movie, Before the Killing Starts, Paparazzo, Cinderumplestiltskin, Topper [1992]1969 - Laurie Holden
actress: The X-Files, The Majestic, Silent Hill, The Mist, The Shield, The Magnificent Seven [1998 TV series], The Walking Dead, Dumb and Dumber To1970 - Sean Patrick Thomas
actor: The District, A Raisin in the Sun [2008], Halloween: Resurrection, Barbershop, Barbershop 2: Back in Business, Dracula 2000, Cruel Intentions, Conspiracy Theory1971 - Tony Richardson
football [running back]: Auburn Univ; NFL: Dallas Cowboys [1994]; Kansas City Chiefs [1995–2005]; Minnesota Vikings [2006–2007]; New York Jets [2008–2010]1972 - Don Davis
football [linebacker]: Univ of Kansas; NFL: New Orleans Saints, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, St. Louis Rams, New England Patriots1974 - Duff Goldman (Jeffrey Adam Goldman)
pastry chef: owner of Charm City Cakes shop; TV personality: Ace of Cakes [Food Network], Food Network Challenge, Iron Chef America, Oprah, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno1974 - Sarah Paulson
actress: 12 Years a Slave, Game Change, Mud, Martha Marcy May Marlene, American Horror Story, American Gothic, Jack & Jill, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip1974 - Marissa Ribisi
actress: Lightfield’s Home Videos, Lip Service, Some Girl, Hollywood Confidential, Encino Woman, According to Spencer1975 - Milla Jovovich
model: featured in Revlon’s ‘Most Unforgettable Women in the World’ ad; singer: LP: The Divine Comedy; actress: The Fifth Element, The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc, Resident Evil; created [w/model Carmen Hawk] Jovovich-Hawk clothing line; more1977 - Katheryn Winnick
actress: CSI: Miami, Bones, Nikita, Law and Order, Amusement, A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III, The Art of the Steal, Vikings; more1978 - Shiri Appleby
actress: Roswell, A Time for Dancing, Swimfan, Havoc, Charlie Wilson’s War, ER, Life Unexpected, Dating Rules from My Future Self1978 - Manny Pacquiao
boxer: lineal welterweight champ, WBO welterweight champ; first and only 8-division world champion, having won eleven major world titles; first boxer to win the lineal championship in five different weight classes; politician: Philippines Senator [2016-2022]1978 - Chase Utley
baseball: second base: Philadelphia Phillies [2003-2015]: 2008 World Series champs; Los Angeles Dodgers [2015–2018]: 2017, 2018 World Series1978 - Cedrick Wilson
football [wide receiver]: Univ of Tennessee; NFL: San Francisco 49ers, Pittsburgh Steelers1979 - Jaimee Foxworth
actress: Family Matters; porn films [as Crave]: More Black Dirty Debutantes, Adventures of Peeping Tom No. 28, More Black Dirty Debutantes 32, Jeffersons: A XXX Parody1984 - Shannon Marie Woodward
actress: Dot, Man of the House, True Women, Tornado!, Family Reunion: A Relative Nightmare, Raising Hope1986 - Emma Bell
actress: Dallas [2013]; Frozen, Final Destination 5, The Walking Dead, See You in Valhalla, Bipolar1986 - Vanessa Zima
actress: Murder One, The Far Side of Jericho, Cavedweller, Zoe, The Brainiacs.com, Wicked, Ulee’s Gold, The Baby-Sitters Club, The Absent1994 - Nat Wolff
songwriter, actor: The Naked Brothers Band, Paper Towns, Admission, Behaving Badly, Palo Alto, The Fault in Our Stars, Ashby, Death Note, Stella’s Last Weekend
and still more...
Hit Music on This Day December 17
1952I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus (facts) - Jimmy Boyd
Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer (facts) - Gene Autry
1961
1970
1979
1988
1997
2006
2015
and even more...
Those were the days, my friend. We thought they’d never end...
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