December 18
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Events on This Day
1787 - This is the day when New Jersey was counted as the third state to enter the United States of America. Where is old Jersey, you ask? Well, in 1664, when the British colonized the area, they named New Jersey after Jersey, one of the British Channel Islands. New Jersey’s many truck farms, orchards and flower gardens gave the state its nickname: The Garden State. Trenton, the capital of New Jersey, and once the capital of the new nation, was the locale of Washington’s famous Revolutionary war victory. He turned the tide when he led his forces across the Delaware River at Trenton. The New Jersey state flower is the purple violet, the state bird, the eastern goldfinch, and the state motto: "Liberty and Prosperity."1796 - On this day the Sunday Monitor of Baltimore, Maryland was published as the first Sunday newspaper. There were no comics, incidentally, as they hadn’t been invented yet. And there was no color. And there wasn’t much in sports coverage, as the Orioles weren’t invented yet. And there were no Colts and, certainly, no Ravens.
1862 - The first orthopedic hospital was organized -- in New York City. It was called the Hospital for Ruptured and Crippled. It hurts just to say it.
1865 - “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, save as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist in the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” With these words, slavery was abolished in the United States. On this day a proclamation by the U.S. Secretary of State announced the thirteenth amendment to the Constitution had been ratified by the legislatures of twenty-seven of the thirty-six states. Actual ratification was completed on December 6, but news travelled slowly in those days.
1920 - Conductor Arturo Toscanini made his first recording for Victor Records in Camden, New Jersey.
1934 - Willie Smith sang with Jimmy Lunceford and his orchestra on Rhythm is Our Business on Decca Records (serial number 369 A).
1935 - A $1 silver certificate was issued. It was the first currency to depict the front and back sides of the Great Seal of the United States.
1936 - Su Lin arrived in San Francisco, California. She was the first giant panda to come to the U.S. from China. The bear was sold to the Brookfield Zoo for $8,750.
1941 - Japanse troops landed in Hong Kong. British and Canadian defenders fought back as best they could, grimly holding on to their positions and counterattacking repeatedly, but Hong Kong surrendered on Christmas Day 1941.
1942 - Beau Jack defeated Tippy Larkin in New York City. Beau beat Tippy to a pulp to win the New York Lightweight Boxing Championship.
1944 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the army’s removal of Japanese-Americans from the West Coast early in 1942 was constitutional at the time it was carried out, but that citizens must be permitted to return to their homes when their loyalty to U.S. was established. The tribunal acted in two cases. It upheld constitutionality of the removal program by a 6 to 3 decision, and was unanimous in holding that loyal citizens should be released. The ruling came one day after the war department announced that loyal citizens of Japanese ancestry would be permitted to return to their former homes after 33 months of enforced absence in relocation centers.
1944 - The U.S. destroyers Hull, Monaghan and Spence sank in Typhoon Cobra (as it was later named) in the Phillipines. 778 men died.
1956 - One of America’s great panel shows debuted on CBS-TV. Bud Collyer, bow tie and all, hosted To Tell the Truth. The program enjoyed a 10-year run and made big stars of panelists: Phyllis Newman, Orson Bean, Kitty Carlisle (Hart), Sam Levinson, Tom Poston, Milt Kamen and Bess Myerson. The announcer: Johnny Olson. The show was a Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Production.
1957 - Shippingport Atomic Power Station, Pennsylvania was the first commercial central electric-generating station in the United States to use nuclear energy. It started producing juice this day, feeding electricity into the grid for the Pittsburgh area. On December 2, 1977, the first U.S. light water breeder reactor went to full power at Shippingport. (The power station was taken out of service October 1, 1982.)
1961 - The Tokens celebrated their first #1 hit single. The Lion Sleeps Tonight (Wimoweh for you purists) was a chart topper for four weeks in a row.
1963 - Australia's Ron Clarke set a world record. He ran 10,000 meters in 28 minutes, 15.6 seconds.
1965 - Gemini VII splashed down in the western Atlantic Ocean with command pilot Frank Borman and pilot Jim Lovell Jr. on board. They had blasted off Dec 4 on a mission of physiological testing and spacecraft performance evaluation.
1969 - The House of Commons abolished the death penalty for murder in Great Britain.
1969 - Coco opened at Broadway’s Mark Hellinger Theatre. With book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by André Previn, the musical was inspired by the life of Coco Chanel. It starred Katharine Hepburn and was the only stage musical she performed in. Coco did well, with 329 performances, closing Oct 3, 1970.
1972 - Helen Reddy received a gold record for the song that became an anthem for women’s liberation, I Am Woman. The song had reached number one on December 9, 1972.
1975 - Rod Stewart announced that he was leaving the group, Faces, and was going solo in a deal with Warner Brothers.
1976 - Wonder Woman debuted on ABC-TV. Based on Charles Moulton’s comic-book superheroine of the 1940s, the show developed gradually into a regular TV series. Wonder Woman was first seen as a TV movie in March 1974 (with Cathy Lee Crosby in the title role), then in another try in Nov 1975 (with Lynda Carter), then in a series of specials called The New Original Wonder Woman beginning in March 1976. The show that started this day had a short run through Jan 1977. In the fall of 1977, Wonder Woman moved to CBS-TV and became a regular series.
1977 - TV and film actor Cyril Ritchard (Peter Pan) died. He was 80 years old.
1980 - Former Soviet Premier Aleksey Nikolayevich Kosygin died at age 76. His death was not publicly announced for two days.
1982 - Daryl Hall and John Oates reached the #1 spot on the music charts for the fifth time with Maneater. The song stayed in the top spot for four weeks, making it Hall and Oates’ most popular hit.
1984 - Christopher Guest of Saturday Night Live and actress Jamie Lee Curtis were married in the Los Angeles home of comedian Rob Reiner this day.
1985 - Beverly Hills Cop became the top movie grosser of the year with $229.9 million in tickets sold. Back to the Future, with Michael J. Fox, was second, followed by Rambo: First Blood, Part 2, starring Sylvester Stallone, gunning its way into third place.
1987 - Ivan F. Boesky was sentenced to three years in prison for plotting Wall Street’s biggest insider-trading scandal. (He served about two years of his sentence.)
1992 - Kim Young-sam was elected South Korea’s president. Kim’s victory returned the Korean presidency to a democratically-elected civilian president for the first time since the military coup d’etat of 1961.
1993 - Julio Cesar Chavez retained his WBC super lightweight title with a five-round victory over Britain’s Andy Holligan. It was the 27th time Chavez fought for a title without a loss since 1984, breaking Joe Louis’ record of 26.
1994 - Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter arrived in Bosnia and Herzegovina on a private mission to help find an end to 32 months of war.
1996 - TV industry executives agreed to adopt a ratings system. The TV-G, TV-PG, TV-14, TV-MA, TV-Y, TV-Y7 and TV-Y7-FV ratings began to appear in the upper left-hand corner of the screen on January 1, 1997.
1997 - A unique bridge-and-tunnel expressway across Tokyo Bay opened. The Trans-Tokyo Bay Motorway was named the Tokyo Bay Aqualine, a toll highway that spans the narrowest gap of Tokyo Bay. It opened to traffic this day, after 31 years of studies and construction at a total cost of 1.44 trillion yen (some $10.8 billion at the time). The 15-kilometer (9.3-mile) expressway, connecting Kisarazu City of Chiba Prefecture and Kawasaki City of Kanagawa Prefecture, makes it possible to make a round-trip of the bay by car. Of the total length, 4.4 kilometers (2.7 miles) from the Kisarazu side is a bridge and 9.5 kilometers (5.9 miles) from the Kawasaki side is an undersea tunnel, which is the world’s longest undersea tunnel, running 60 meters (197 feet) deep under the surface of the water.
1998 - These movies opened in the U.S.: The Prince of Egypt, starring the voices of Val Kilmer, Ralph Fiennes, Sandra Bullock, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Pfeiffer, six original songs by Stephen Schwartz and a score by composer Hans Zimmer; Shakespeare in Love, which grabbed Academy Awards for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Gwyneth Paltrow), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Judi Dench), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (Martin Childs & Jill Quertier), Best Costume Design (Sandy Powell), Best Music, Original Musical or Comedy Score (Stephen Warbeck), Best Picture (Donna Gigliotti, Marc Norman, David Parfitt, Harvey Weinstein & Edward Zwick), and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen (Marc Norman & Tom Stoppard); and You’ve Got Mail, with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.
1999 - After living atop an ancient redwood in Humboldt County, California for two years (since Dec, 1997), environmental activist Julia ‘Butterfly’ Hill climbed down, ending her anti-logging protest.
2000 - The Electoral College voted, with President-elect George W. Bush receiving the expected 271 votes and winning the U.S. presidential election. Al Gore received 266 votes.
2000 - Newspaper heir Randolph Apperson Hearst, the last surviving son of William Randolph Hearst, died in New York. He was 85 years old.
2002 - The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers opened in the U.S.: “This Christmas the Journey Continues in the Two Towers.” The fantasy/adventure stars Elijah Wood as Frodo and Sean Astin as Sam. Also starring are Ian Mckellen, Liv Tyler, Viggo Mortensen, Cate Blanchett, John Rhys-Davies, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Orlando Bloom, Christopher Lee and Hugo Weaving.
2002 - The National Basketball Association awarded Robert Johnson (the billionaire founder of Black Entertainment Television) the rights to the expansion team franchise in Charlotte, NC.
2003 - Lee Boyd Malvo, 18, was convicted in Virginia for his role in the 2002 sniper shootings around Washington, DC.
2003 - A judge in Seattle, WA sentenced confessed Green River Killer Gary Ridgway to 48 consecutive life terms.
2003 - RealNetworks filed a U.S. federal anti-trust suit against Microsoft, alleging it has tried to use it monopoly power in PC operating systems to unlawfully dominate the digital media market. (A settlement was reached in 2005.)
2004 - United Nations climate-change talks in Buenos Aires ended with some progress, but the U.S., China, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia forced a halt to the European Union’s drive for deeper emissions cuts.
2005 - U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, on a trip to various countries including Oman, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, made a surprise stop in Iraq.
2006 - Legendary Hollywood animator Joseph Barbera died at 95 years of age. Barbera’s characters Fred and Wilma Flintstone and Scooby-Doo made generations of people laugh. The Television Academy Hall of Famer left MGM in 1957 to start Hanna-Barbera Studios (w/partner William Hanna). The studio produced popular cartoons such as Tom and Jerry, The Huckleberry Hound Show, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, and Scooby-Doo, as well as the musical film Charlotte’s Web.
2007 - Japan boasted that it had shot down a ballistic missile in space high above the Pacific Ocean. The test was part of joint efforts with the U.S. to erect a shield against a possible North Korean missle attack.
2007 - Pacific Gas and Electric Company announced plans to support the first commercial wave power plant off California’s Humboldt County coast. Eight power-generating buoys, were expected to begin operations in 2012.
2008 - 95-year old W. Mark Felt, former FBI second-in-command, died. In 2005, Felt had revealed himself to be the infamous ‘Deep Throat’, 30 years after he tipped off reporters to Watergate information that led to the resignation of U.S. President Richhard Nixon.
2009 - Films debuting in U.S. theatres: Avatar, starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez, Giovanni Ribisi, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder, Peter Mensah, Laz Alonso, Wes Studi, Stephen Lang and Matt Gerald; Did You Hear About the Morgans?, with Hugh Grant, Sarah Jessica Parker, Mary Steenburgen and Elisabeth Moss; Nine, starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cottilard, Penelope Cruz, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Kate Hudson, Nicole Kidman, Sophia Loren, Judi Dench and Fergie; and The Young Victoria, with Emily Blunt, Jim Broadbent, Mark Strong, Miranda Richardson, Paul Bettany, Rupert Friend and Thomas Kretschmann.
2010 - The U.S. Senate agreed to do away with the military’s 17-year ban on openly gay troops and sent President Barack Obama legislation to overturn the Clinton-era policy known as “don’t ask, don't tell.”
2010 - Fresh snow brought much of Great Britain to a standstill, on what is traditionally the busiest weekend for shopping and travel Christmas approached. Blizzards and freezing temperatures shut down runways, train tracks and highways across Europe.
2011 - Israel released hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in the second and final phase of a swap with Gaza Hamas militants that brought home one Israeli soldier who had been held in captivity for five years.
2011 - The last U.S. soldiers rolled out of Iraq across the border into neighboring Kuwait. The war cost nearly 4,500 American and well more than 100,000 Iraqi lives and some $800 billion from the U.S. Treasury.
2012 - Gunmen shot and killed five women working on UN-backed polio vaccination efforts in two different cities in Pakistan. The killings were a major setback for a campaign that international health officials considered vital to contain the crippling disease. Taliban insurgents were convinced the UN program was a cover for espionage.
2013 - “With the 70s behind him, San Diego’s top rated newsman, Ron Burgundy, returns to take New York’s first 24-hour news channel by storm.” Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues opened in U.S. movie theatres. The comedy stars Will Ferrell, Christina Applegate, Paul Rudd, Kristen Wiig, Jim Carrey, Harrison Ford, Liam Neeson, Kirsten Dunst, Vince Vaughn and Steve Carell.
2013 - The Bank of England announced a plan to issue plastic banknotes for the first time. Windton Churchill’s likeness would grace the first run. The £5 note will be released in March of 2016.
2013 - A U.S. presidential advisory panel on government surveillance was released. It recommended sweeping limits on the government’s surveillance programs, including the requirment of a court to sign off on individual searches of phone records and stripping the National Security Agency of its ability to store that data gathered from citizens.
2014 - French regulators fined 13 consumer-products makers €951 million ($1.2 billion) for price fixing on goods like shampoos, detergents and toothpaste.
2015 - Movies debuting in U.S. theatres included: The animated, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip, featuring the voices of Christina Applegate, Kaley Cuoco, Anna Faris, Bella Thorne, Matthew Gray Gubler and Jason Lee; Sisters, starring Amy Poehler, John Cena and Madison Davenport; Star Wars: The Force Awakens, with Daisy Ridley, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Adam Driver; Extraction, starring Gina Carano, Bruce Willis and, Kellan Lutz; the documentary, Noma My Perfect Storm; and Son of Saul, with Géza Röhrig, Levente Molnár, and Urs Rechn.
2015 - The U.S. Congress passed a bill barring citizens from 38 mainly European countries from traveling to the United States without a visa -- if they have previously visited Iran, Iraq, Syria or Sudan since 2011. The law was passed in the wake of terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California.
2016 - Mexico’s Colima Volcano sent three eruptions in the space of a few hours, spewing ash and vapor more than a mile into the air. The biggest columns of ash reached 1.25 miles in height, and the smallest was just under a mile tall.
2016 - The original hall-of-mirrors celebrity, Zsa Zsa Gabor, famous for being famous, died in Los Angeles. The 99-year-old former beauty queen and actress had been in ill health after a fall in July 2010.
2017 - 10 people were killed and another 40 injured in a human stampede in the port city of Chittagong, Bangladesh. The stampede happened at a crowded religious ritual for a popular former mayor who had recently died. A police investigation found mismanagement by the organizers and overcrowding were to blame.
2017 - An Amtrak train derailed while making its first-ever run along a new, faster route. It hurtled off an overpass at an estimated 78 mph south of Seattle, Washington. Three people were killed and 62 were injured when the lead locomotive and all twelve cars derailed, sending the locomotive and six cars onto the highway below the overpass.
2018 - POTUS Donald Trump signed a memorandum launching the Pentagon’s Space Command. The program was estimated to cost over $800 million over five years. U.S. Defense Department said, “The goal of U.S. Space Command is to oversee and organize space operations, accelerate technical advances and find more effective ways to defend U.S. assets in space.”
2018 - POTUS Trump rolled out a federal regulation officially banning bump stocks, which allow semiautomatic weapons to fire rapidly. Officials at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had previously concluded that bump stocks were merely a gun accessory or firearm part, not subject to federal regulation. But Trump called for outlawing the devices after a gunman in Las Vegas rigged his weapons with the devices to fire on concertgoers, killing 58 people.
2018 - The New York attorney general’s office said the Donald J. Trump Foundation had agreed to close following a court decision that allowed a lawsuit against the foundation to proceed. The suit had exposed a “shocking pattern of illegality.”
2018 - The Washington-based Fulbright Association said its 2018 J. William Fulbright Prize for International Understanding was being awarded to German Chancellor Angela Merkel. “With this award, the Fulbright Association honors Chancellor Merkel for her remarkable, compassionate leadership and her strong commitment to mutual understanding, international cooperation, and peace.”
2019 - The U.S. House of Representatives voted to impeach POTUS Donald Trump on charges that he abused his power and obstructed Congress. The action left a lasting mark on his tenure at the White House. “The president is impeached,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared after the vote. She called it a “great day for the Constitution of the United States, a sad one for America that the president’s reckless activities necessitated us having to introduce articles of impeachment.” Trump was only the third American chief executive to be formally charged under the Constitution’s ultimate remedy for high crimes and misdemeanors.
2019 - A grand jury in Savannah, Georgia, returned an indictment bringing a new murder charge against 79-year-old Samuel Little. He had confessed to more than 90 killings from Florida to California, prompting detectives with cold cases from across the U.S. to seek interviews with him at the Texas prison where he’s already serving multiple life sentences. The FBI called Little the deadliest serial killer in U.S. history.
2020 - Motion pictures scheduled to open this day included: The Dissident, with Omar Abdulaziz, Fahrettin Altun and John O. Brennan; The Father, starring Olivia Colman, Anthony Hopkins and Mark Gatiss; Hunter Hunter, with Camille Sullivan, Summer H. Howell and Devon Sawa; Sister of the Groom, starring Alicia Silverstone, Tom Everett Scott and Mathilde Ollivier; Zombie Bro, with Lauren Grego, Anthony Taufa and Cooper Flynn; and the documentary, Sunken Roads: Three Generations After D-Day.
2020 - POTUS Trump signed legislation that would kick Chinese companies off U.S. stock exchanges unless they adhere to American auditing standards. The act passed by Congress also requires public companies to disclose whether they are owned or controlled by a foreign government.
2020 - The U.S. filed charges against China-based Zoom executive Xinjiang Jin, accusing the software engineer of using the company’s systems to censor speech. Prosecutors said the former China-based executive had disrupted video meetings commemorating the 31st anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown -- following orders from the Chinese government.
2020 - Sweden implemented its toughest measures yet because of soaring COVID-19 infections, including a recommendation to wear masks at peak hours on public transport. The government stopped short of ordering a general lockdown. Sweden had suffered a record 9,654 new coronavirus cases. Total number of deaths reached 7,993.
2021 - The Royal Caribbean Symphony of the Seas ship docked at Port Miami with 48 passengers testing positive for the coronavirus. 98% of the those testing positive had been fully vaccinated. The 7-night cruise had left Miami on Dec. 11 with 95% of passengers and crew fully vaccinated.
2021 - The World Health Organization said the omicron variant of the coronavirus had been detected in 89 countries, and COVID-19 cases involving the variant were doubling every 3 days.
2022 - Movies opening in U.S. theatres included: Top Gun: Maverick (re-release), starring Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, Miles Teller and Jennifer Connelly; and Violent Night, with David Harbour, Beverly D’Angelo and John Leguizamo.
2022 - The Vatican defrocked anti-abortion U.S. priest, Frank Pavone, for what it said were “blasphemous communications on social media ... as well as ... persistent disobedience” of his bishop. A letter to U.S. bishops from the Vatican ambassador to the U.S., Archbishop Christophe Pierre, said the decision against Pavone, who headed the anti-abortion group Priests for Life, had been made Nov 9, and that there was no chance for an appeal.
2022 - At the FIFA World Cup Final at Lusail Stadium in Qatar: Argentina beat France in a 4-2 penalty shootout. The teams had locked at 3-3 after extra time; Lionel Messi then scored 2 for Argentina, while Kylian Mbappé got a hat-trick (3 goals) win for France.
and more...
Birthdays on This Day December 18
1778 - Joseph Grimaldi
clown: ‘father of clowns’, ‘greatest clown in history’, ‘king of pantomime’: Joey the Clown; singer, dancer, acrobat; died May 31, 18371870 - Saki (Hector Hugh Munro)
author: The Rise of the Russian Empire, Reginald, The Chronicles of Clovis, Beasts & Super-beasts, The Square Egg; killed in WWI in France Nov 13, 19161879 - Paul Klee
artist: abstractionist: Twittering Machine; died June 29, 19401886 - Ty (Tyrus Raymond) Cobb
‘The Georgia Peach’: Baseball Hall of Famer: Detroit Tigers [World Series: 1907-1909/American League MVP: 1911], Philadelphia Athletics; played in 3,000+ games [1905-1928]; .367 batting average; died July 17, 19611904 - George Stevens
Academy Award-winning director: A Place in the Sun [1951], Giant [1956]; died Mar 8, 19751906 - Kam Tong
actor: Have Gun - Will Travel, Kill a Dragon, Mister Buddwing, It Happened at the World’s Fair, Who Was That Lady?, This Is My Love, A Yank in Indo-China; died Nov 8, 19691907 - Christopher Fry (Harris)
poet, dramatist: The Boy with a Cart, A Phoenix Too Frequent, The Lady’s Not for Burning; died June 30, 20051910 - Abe (Abram Solman Borowitz) Burrows
Tony Award-winning director and playwright: How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying [1962]; died May 17, 19851913 - Lynn Bari (Marjorie Schuyler Fisher)
actress: The Young Runaways, Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops, Sunny Side of the Street, The Bridge of San Luis Rey; died Nov 20, 19891913 - Willy Brandt (Herbert Frahm)
Nobel Peace Prize-winner [1971]; Chancellor of West Germany; died Oct 8, 19921915 - Bill Zuckert
character actor: Perry Mason, The Fugitive, Hawaii Five-O, Death Valley Days, Gunsmoke, Bonanza, The F.B.I. Story: The FBI Versus Alvin Karpis..., Disneyland, Emergency!, Barnaby Jones, In the Heat of the Night, Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Critters 3, Snowballing, The Time Machine [1978]; died Jan 23, 19971916 - Betty (Ruth Elizabeth) Grable
the original ‘Pinup Girl’: actress: Whoopee!, Hold ’Em Jail, Probation, The Gay Divorcee, Follow the Fleet, College Swing, Down Argentine Way, Tin Pan Alley, Moon Over Miami, Song of the Islands, Springtime in the Rockies, Sweet Rosie O’Grady; her famous legs were insured by Lloyds of London for somewhere between a quarter million and a million dollars; died July 2, 19731917 - Ossie Davis
writer, actor: A Raisin in the Sun, Grumpy Old Men, Evening Shade; died Feb 4, 20051918 - Hal Kanter
screenwriter: Three Coins in the Fountain, Dear Brigitte, Pocketful of Miracles, Blue Hawaii, Once Upon a Horse...; died Nov 6, 20111927 - Ramsey (William) Clark
U.S. Attorney General under President Lyndon Johnson [1967-1969]; died Apr 9, 20211928 - Galt MacDermot
composer: Hair, Cotton Comes to Harlem, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Take This Bread, Karl Marx Play, Isabel’s a Jezebel; died Dec 17, 20181930 - Bill (William Joseph) ‘Moose’ Skowron
baseball: NY Yankees [World Series: 1955-1958, 1960-1962/all-star: 1957-1961], LA Dodgers [World Series: 1963], Chicago White Sox [all-star: 1965], Washington Senators, California Angels; died Apr 27, 20121931 - Gene Shue
basketball: Univ. of Maryland, Golden State Warriors, Baltimore Bullets, Washington Bullets; died Apr 3, 20221932 - Roger Smith
actor: 77 Sunset Strip, Man of a Thousand Faces, Wagon Train, Auntie Mame; husband of actress Ann-Margret; died Jun 4, 20171936 - Gary Dahl
entrepreneur: inventor of the Pet Rock [1975 fad]; died Mar 23, 20151938 - Bryan ‘Chas’ Chandler
musician: bass: group: Animals: House of the Rising Sun; manager: Jimi Hendrix, then Slade; died Jul 17, 19961939 - Zoilo (Casanova Rodriguez) ‘Zorro’ Versalles
baseball: Washington Senators, Minnesota Twins [all-star: 1963, 1965/World Series: 1965/Baseball Writers’s MVP Award: American League: 1965], LA Dodgers, Cleveland Indians, Atlanta Braves; died June 9, 19951941 - Sam Andrew
songwriter, musician: guitar: group: Big Brother and the Holding Company; died Feb 12, 20151943 - Keith Richards
guitar: group: The Rolling Stones: Time is on My Side, (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, Get Off of My Cloud, Start Me Up1946 - Greg Landry
football: Univ. of Massachusetts; Detroits Lions QB/QB coach1946 - Steven (Allan) Spielberg
Academy Award-winning director: Lincoln, Schindler’s List [1993], Saving Private Ryan [1998]; E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Indiana Jones series, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Jurassic Park, The Color Purple Shrek, Artificial Intelligence: AI; Oscar’s Irving G. Thalberg Award [1986]1947 - Len Garrett
football: Green Bay Packers [1971-1973]; New Orleans Saints [1973-1975]; San Francisco 49ers [1975]1950 - Su Elliot
actress: Starter for 10, A Dinner of Herbs, The Missing Postman, Dear Rosie, The Worst Witch1950 - Leonard Maltin
movie critic; author: Leonard Maltin’s TV Movies and Video Guide1951 - Doug Dennison
football: Dallas Cowboys [1974-1978]1953 - Elliot Easton (Shapiro)
musician: guitar: group: The Cars: My Best Friend’s Girl, Just What I Needed, Let’s Go, You Might Think, Magic, Drive, Tonight She Comes1954 - Ray Liotta
actor: Unforgettable, Operation Dumbo Drop, Corrina, Corrina, Goodfellas, Field of Dreams, Dominck & Eugene, Something Wild, The Lonely Lady, Our Family Honor, Casablanca; died May 26, 20221955 - Ted Musgrave
NASCAR race car driver: American Speed Association (ASA) Rookie of the Year [1987]1956 - T.K. Carter
actor: Punky Brewster, Good Morning, Miss Bliss, The Corner, Good Times, The Steve Harvey Show, A Different World, Polly, The L.A. Riot Spectacular, Jamal the Funny Frog: Dentist, The Corner, My Favorite Martian, Yesterday’s Target1963 - Charles Oakley
basketball: Virginia Union College, Chicago Bulls [1985-1988]; [New York Knicks [1988-1998]; Toronto Raptors [1998-2001]; Chicago Bulls [2001-2002]; Washington Wizards []; 2002-2003; Houston Rockets [2003-2004]1963 - Brad Pitt
actor: 12 Monkeys, Seven, Legends of the Fall, A River Runs Through It, Thelma and Louise, Cutting Class, Head of the Class, Dallas, Twelve Monkeys, The Devil’s Own, Meet Joe Black, Fight Club, Ocean’s Eleven trilogy, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood1964 - Steve Austin
pro wrestler/actor: WCW Saturday Night, King of the Ring, Survivor Series, WWF Judgement Day, Wrestlemania, Summerslam, Beyond the Mat, Hell Yeah, Armageddon, Royal Rumble, Lita: It Just Feels Right, Joplin: The Movie1964 - Robson Green
actor: Wire in the Blood, Unconditional Love, Trust, Me and Mrs. Jones, Blind Ambition, The Last Musketeer, Touching Evil1965 - Willie Blair
baseball [pitcher]: Toronto Blue Jays, Cleveland Indians, Houston Astros, Colorado Rockies, San Diego Padres, Detroit Tigers, Arizona Diamondbacks, New York Mets1965 - Shawn Christian
actor: Days of Our Lives, Summerland, Birds of Prey, Shopgirl, Undercover Christmas, Tremors 3: Back to Perfection, Beautiful, CTS: Toronto1967 - Bob Corkum
hockey [center]: Buffalo Sabres, Anaheim Mighty Ducks, Philadelphia Flyers, Phoenix Coyotes, LA Kings, New Jersey Devils, Atlanta Thrashers1967 - Nikki Sinn
actress [1991-2010]: X-rated films: Voices in My Bed, Porn in the Pen, Diary of Casanova, Cheerleader Nurses, N.Y.D.P., More Than a Handful 5: California or Bust, Confessions of a Slutty Nurse, Blackbroad Jungle1968 - Rachel Griffiths
actress: Six Feet Under, Muriel’s Wedding, Hilary and Jackie, Brothers & Sisters, Beautiful Kate, Comanche Moon, My Best Friend’s Wedding1968 - Casper Van Dien
actor: Tarzan and the Lost City, Beverly Hills, 90210, Beastmaster III: The Eye of Braxus, Starship Troopers, Sleepy Hollow, Titans1969 - Marco Coleman
football [defensive end]: Georgia Tech Univ; NFL: Miami Dolphins, San Diego Chargers, Washington Redskins, Jacksonville Jaguars, Philadelphia Eagles, Denver Broncos1969 - Joe Randa
baseball: Univ of Tennessee; Kansas City Royals, Pittsburgh Pirates, Detroit Tigers, Cincinnati Reds, San Diego Padres1970 - DMX (Earl Simmons)
rapper: Get It on the Floor, You Can’t Hide Your Love, I Miss You, Slippin’, What You Want, Get at Me Dog, Lookin’ at Me; died Apr 9, 20211970 - Lucious Harris
basketball [guard]: Long Beach State Univ; NBA: Dallas Mavericks, Philadelphia 76ers, New Jersey Nets, Cleveland Cavaliers1970 - Rob Van Dam
pro wrestler: 3-time world champ [WWE Championship, ECW World Championship, TNA World Heavyweight Championship]; won World Heavyweight Championships for both American Wrestling Rampage and World Stars of Wrestling; only man to achieve both WWE and ECW’s version of the Triple Crown; actor: Wrong Side of Town, Black Mask 2: City of Masks, Spy TV, V.I.P., The X-Files1970 - Victoria Pratt
actress: Deadly Water, House of the Dead 2: Dead Aim, Murder at the Presidio, Hush, Blacktop, Whatever It Takes, Comedy Hell, Day Break1972 - Keith Washington
football [defensive end]: Nevada-Las Vegas; NFL: Minnesota Vikings, Detroit Lions, Baltimore Ravens, Denver Broncos, New York Giants1977 - Booger McFarland
football [defensive tackle]: Louisiana State Univ; NFL: Tampa Bay Buccaneers [1999–2006], Indianapolis Colts [2006–2007]1978 - Josh Dallas
actor: Manifest, Once Upon a Time, Thor, The Last Days of Lehman Brothers, Five, Red Tails1978 - Katie Holmes
actress: Dawson’s Creek, Wonder Boys, The Gift1980 - Christina Aguilera
singer: Genie in a Bottle, LP: What a Girl Wants, Dirrty, Come On Over Baby [All I Want Is You]; actress: MMC1980 - Benjamin Watson
football [Tight End]: Univ of Georgia; NFL: New England Patriots [2004–2009]: 2005 Super Bowl XXXIX champs; Cleveland Browns [2010–2012]; New Orleans Saints [2013–2015]; Baltimore Ravens [2016–2017]; New Orleans Saints [2018]; New England Patriots [2019]1984 - Pierre Thomas
football [running back]: Univ of Illinois; NFL: New Orleans Saints [2007-2014]: 2010 Super Bowl XLIV champs; San Francisco 49ers [2015]; Washington Redskins [2015]1989 - Ashley Benson
dancer, actress: Days Of Our Lives [2004–2007], Bring It On: In It to Win It, Pretty Little Liars, Fab Five: The Texas Cheerleader Scandal, 13 Going on 301992 - Bridgit Mendler
actress: Good Luck Charlie, Good Luck Charlie, It’s Christmas, Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2, The Secret World of Arrietty, Lemonade Mouth1995 - Barbora Krejčíková
tennis pro: singles rank world #2 [2022]; doubles world #1 [2018]; won one Grand Slam singles title and ten major doubles titles; seven singles and eighteen doubles titles on the WTA Tour2001 - Billie Eilish
singer: Bad Guy, Bury a Friend, When the Party’s Over, You Should See Me in a Crown, Don’t Smile at Me
and still more...
Hit Music on This Day December 18
1944White Christmas (facts) - Bing Crosby
The Trolley Song (facts) - The Pied Pipers
1953
1962
1971
1980
1989
1998
2007
2016
and even more...
Those were the days, my friend. We thought they’d never end...
TWtD Calendar
