December 29
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Events on This Day
1845 - The flags of Spain, France, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the Confederate States of America and of the United States have flown over the area known as Texas, the state that became the 28th of the United States of America on this day. And, the state nickname, the Lone Star State, comes from the Texas state flag with its one star. Texas is an altered pronunciation of the Indian word, Tejas, meaning friends, and that’s why the Texas state motto is “Friendship.” The capital of the second largest state is Austin, its state bird, the mockingbird, the state flower, the bluebonnet, the state tree, the pecan tree.1848 - President James Polk turned on the first gas light at the White House.
1851 - The first U.S. Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) was organized -- in Boston, MA.
1876 - The Pacific Express, carrying some 159 passengers and crew, was traveling over a bridge near Ashtabula, Ohio. Only the first engine of the train made it to the other side as the bridge began to collapse. The rest of the train broke away and plummeted to the bottom of the ravine below. Approximately 92 men, women and children were killed. Most did not die from the fall itself, but were burned alive while trapped inside the crushed cars -- the result of oil lamps and stoves igniting the fatal fire.
1890 - The U.S. Seventh Cavalry in efforts to suppress the Native Americans of South Dakota, massacred over 200 men, women and children. The massacre occurred at Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota.
1910 - In the early 1900s, college football was a brutal game ... so rough that many students suffered serious injuries and sometimes, death. This prompted many schools to discontinue the sport. Others urged that football be reformed or abolished from intercollegiate athletics. U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt summoned college athletics leaders to two White House conferences to encourage such reforms. In early December 1905, Chancellor Henry M. MacCracken, of New York University, held a meeting with 13 institutions to initiate changes in football-playing rules. At a subsequent meeting on December 28 in New York City, the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (IAAUS) was founded by 62 members. The IAAUS was officially constituted the following spring. Then, on this day (in 1910), it changed its name to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).
1913 - The Unwelcome Throne was released by Selig’s Polyscope Company. This was a moving picture and the first of thirteen installments of the serial, The Adventures of Kathlyn, starring Kathlyn Williams. It was called the first serial motion picture and was co-produced by The Chicago Tribune. The Adventures of Kathlyn also appeared in the Chicago paper in serial form.
1934 - The first college basketball intersectional doubleheader was played at Madison Square Garden in New York City. New York University beat Notre Dame, 25-18 in, as you can see by the score, anything but an offensive battle. In the second game of the night, Westminster defeated St. Johns, 37-33.
1943 - San Fernando Valley was recorded by Bing Crosby. He chose the tune because he felt it would be a ba-ba-ba-big hit. Guess what? He was right. Within a week after its release, the song became a popular favorite everywhere, including the San Fernando Valley near Los Angeles, California.
1945 - The mystery voice of Mr. Hush was heard for the first time on the radio show, Truth or Consequences, hosted by Ralph Edwards. The feature was intended as a spoof of giveaway shows. However, the idea was taken seriously and lasted five weeks before fighter Jack Dempsey was identified as Mr. Hush -- for a prize of $13,500.
1945 - Sheb Wooley recorded the first commercial record made in Nashville, TN -- on the Bullet label: I Can’t Live on Without You and Oklahoma Honky-Tonk Gal. But it was 13 years later when Wooley finally scored with a big hit (The Purple People Eater was #1 for six weeks in June and July, 1958). Wooley (whose first name is Shelby) played the part of Pete Nolan on TV’s Rawhide, recorded novelty tunes under the name, Ben Colder, and acted in High Noon, Rocky Mountain, Giant and Hoosiers. The Country Music Association honored him with the title of Comedian of the Year in 1968. If you remember the TV show Hee Haw, with Buck Owens and Roy Clark, it was Sheb Wooley who wrote the theme song.
1949 - KC2XAK of Bridgeport, Connecticut became the first ultrahigh frequency (UHF) television station to begin operating on a regular daily schedule. UHF stations broadcast from where the VHF (very high frequency) stations leave off -- channels 14 through 83.
1952 - The first transistorized hearing aid was offered for sale by Sonotone Corporation on this day. I SAID THE FIRST TRANSISTORIZED HEARING AID WAS OFFERED FOR SALE BY SONOTONE CORPORATION ON THIS DAY.
1953 - Jean Stapleton debuted in her first Broadway play. She starred with Judith Anderson in the production, In the Summer House, which opened in New York. It closed after only 55 performances.
1957 - Entertainers Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme were married at the home of Beldon Katleman in Las Vegas. Katleman was the owner of the El Rancho Hotel-Casino.
1963 - Much to the chagrin of the disc jockeys at 50,000-watt WABC in New York, the 5,000-watt blowtorch known as WMCA and its famed ‘Good Guys’ became the first New York radio station to play the Beatles’ I Want to Hold Your Hand. It didn’t take long for WABC to get revenge. It started calling itself the ‘official’ Beatles station (W-A-Beatle-C).
1967 - Orchestra leader Paul Whiteman died on this day at the age of 76. Known as the King of Jazz, Whiteman had 28 #1 hits between 1920 and 1934 including, Three O’Clock in the Morning, My Blue Heaven, All of Me and Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.
1972 - Following 36 years of publication, the last weekly issue of LIFE magazine hit the newsstands. The newsweekly is said to have “redefined photojournalism while showing America its own face.”
1972 - Eastern Airlines Flight 401, a Tristar Jumbo Jet crashed near the Everglades killing 101 people.
1975 - A powerful bomb ripped through the luggage claim area of the Delta terminal at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, killing 11 people and injuring 74. The perpetrators behind the attack were never brought to justice.
1982 - Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant led the Alabama Crimson Tide football team for the final time as Alabama beat Illinois, 21-15, at the Liberty Bowl in Memphis, TN. It was his 25th season at the University of Alabama. Coach Bryant, age 69, retired as the NCAA’s winningest coach. His overall record included winning 322 games as coach at Maryland, Kentucky, Texas A&M and Alabama. His teams won six national championships, played in 29 bowl games; winning 15 of them. Where’d he get the nickname of Bear? He once wrestled a bear in a traveling show. We figure he must have won. After all, that was Bear Bryant’s style.
1985 - Phil Donahue and Soviet radio commentator Vladimir Pozner hosted the ‘Citizen’s Summit’ via satellite TV. It was a way for people from the U.S. and the former Soviet Union to question each other about politics and policies.
1986 - After eighteen years and $47 million expended, the restored Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, FL, reopened for business.
1989 - Playwright Vaclav Havel was elected president of Czechoslovakia by the country’s Federal Assembly, becoming the first non-Communist to attain the post in more than four decades.
1991 - A Boeing 747 freighter of China Airlines crashed into a mountain at Taipei. All five crewmembers on board were killed.
1992 - New York Governor Mario Cuomo commuted the prison sentence of Jean Harris, the convicted killer of Scarsdale Diet author Herman Tarnower. Harris was granted clemency because of her ill health at the time.
1994 - The U.S. confirmed the release in North Korea of Army helicopter pilot Bobby Hall, twelve days after he was shot down and captured.
1995 - Dead Man Walking was released in New York City. The Tim Robbins film is about a convicted murderer on death row and the nun who becomes his spiritual adviser. Susan Sarandon won Italy’s David di Donatello Award for best actress in a foreign film. At the 46th Berlin International Film Festival, the film won the Silver Bear for best actor (Sean Penn), the Ecumenical Jury prize, the German Arthouse Cinemas prize, and the Berliner Morgenpost Readers’ Jury prize.
1996 - The Firm and Lasting Peace Accord was signed, ending 36 years of civil conflict in Guatemala. The accord included provisions for education in 23 regional languages.
1997 - Hong Kong began killing 1.4 million chickens to stem the spread of a mysterious bird flu that had already killed four people.
1998 - Khmer Rouge leaders apologized for the deaths of as many as two million people during their regime in the 1970s, and asked Cambodians to forget/forgive the past.
1999 - The Nasdaq stock index closed above 4,000 for the first time, ending the day at 4041.46.
2001 - A fireworks shop exploded in downtown Lima, Peru. The resulting fire spread over four downtown blocks. 290 people were killed.
2003 - The roof of the 800-year-old Mewa Tsadkan Gabriel church in Ethiopia collapsed while it was packed with worshippers. Fifteen people were killed. News of the collapse took days to reach the outside world because the church was in a remote location some 100 kilometres north of Gondar, the main town in the region.
2003 - The U.S. government said it would require some international air carriers to place armed law enforcement officers on cargo and passenger flights to, from and over the United States.
2004 - The first Indonesian military teams reached the devastated west coast of Sumatra island and found thousands of bodies; the death toll from the earthquake/tsunamis reached 77,000 across twelve nations.
2005 - It was reported that Farris Hassan, a Iraqi-American teenager who travelled to Iraq without informing his parents, had been picked up by the 101st Airborne.
2006 - Two American sailors died after falling overboard from a U.S. submarine in Plymouth Sound off the southern coast of England.
2006 - U.S. regulators gave final approval for the $86-billion merger between AT&T and BellSouth to create the biggest merger in telecommunications history. This only after AT&T gave additional commitments regarding billing, Internet availability and jobs.
2007 - An Islamic militant group in Pakistan said it was not involved in the assassination of Benazir Bhutto; the opposition leader’s aides accused the government of a cover-up, disputing the official account of her death. The Pakistan government said mass rioting has killed 38 people and caused tens of millions of dollars in damage.
2008 - The British pound fell to a record low against the euro -- to one pound per euro.
2008 - The U.S. government approved $6 billion in aid to GMAC LLC, the financing of arm General Motors.
2009 - Mexico City enacted Latin America’s first law recognizing gay marriage. Goverment officials said they hoped to attract same-sex couples from around the world to wed.
2010 - New movies showing in U.S. theatres: Another Year, with Jim Broadbent, Lesley Manville, Ruth Sheen, Peter Wight and Oliver Maltman; and The Way Back, starring Colin Farrell, Mark Strong, Saoirse Ronan, Jim Sturgess and Ed Harris.
2010 - Frustration and fears of disease mounted in Northern Ireland as some 36,000 people were left without water, some for more than a week. This, after a deep freeze and sudden thaw caused water pipes to burst.
2011 - Verizon announced that it would start charging a $2 ‘convenience fee’ to subscribers who made their phone payments via their phone or online with their credit cards. The communications giant retracted the decision the next day following a storm of criticism.
2012 - A 74-year-old man was arrested in the shooting deaths of two tenants inside an apartment he rented to them at his home in Biddeford, Maine. Police said the shootings were the result of a dispute about where the tenants parked their cars during a snowstorm.
2013 - A criminal court in Amman sentenced two Jordanian men to death for killing their sister “to cleanse the family’s honour,” a court official said. The two men, aged 23 and 20, had taken their divorced sister, also in her twenties, to the garden of their house and strangled her. Some 15 to 20 women die in so-called ‘honor’ murders each year in Jordan, despite government efforts to curb such crimes.
2014 - The Russian ruble extended its losses after a report showed the economy had started shrinking for the first time since 2009, buffeted by falling oil prices and Western sanctions.
2015 - Reporters Without Borders (RWB) reported that a total of 110 journalists had been killed around the world in 2015. The report noted that while many died in war zones, the majority were killed in supposedly peaceful countries.
2015 - Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan signed an agreement that decided the two firms that would carry out studies on the potential impact Ethiopia’s $4.8 billion Grand Renaissance Dam would have on the flow of the Nile River. The dam, expected to be operational in mid 2017, is the centerpiece of Ethiopia’s bid to become Africa’s biggest power exporter.
2016 - POTUS Obama sanctioned Russian intelligence services and their top officials, kicked out 35 Russian officials and closed two Russian-owned compounds in the U.S. This, in response to Russian election hacking.
2016 - Michael Flynn, national security advisor to POTUS-elect Donald Trump, spoke by phone in Washington to Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Flynn later lied about having discussed those new U.S. sanctions on Russia. On Feb 13, 2017, POTUS Trump removed Flynn as national security advisor and on Dec 1, 2017 Flynn pleaded guilty to misleading the FBI.
2017 - British Airways owner IAG announced it was buying (for €20m) bankrupt Austrian airline Niki, and outlined plans to save the jobs of hundreds of the carrier’s staff.
2017 - Puerto Rico authorities reported that nearly half of all of its power customers still lacked electricity. This, more than three months after Hurricane Maria decimated the U.S. territory.
2018 - The U.S. captured Russian citizen Dmitry Makarenko on the Northern Mariana Islands, (a U.S. commonwealth in the Pacific Ocean). Makarenko was immediately transferred to Florida, accused of conspiring with Vladimir Nevidomy to export defense items, including night-vision scopes, from the U.S. to Russia without U.S. approval. Nevidomy pleaded guilty in June 2018 and was sentenced to 26 months in prison -- with three years of supervised release.
2018 - Torrential rains triggered landslides and flash flooding in the Philippines. The death toll from the storm eventually rose to 126. The deaths were mostly due to landslides and drowning in the Bicol region and Eastern Visayas in the central Philippines.
2019 - Deranged gunman Keith Thomas Kinnunen pulled out a shotgun at a church service and fired on worshippers at West Freeway Church of Christ in White Settlement, Texas (near Fort Worth). Two people were killed before Kinnunen was shot to death by a member of the church’s volunteer security team.
2019 - A database compiled by the Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University reported 41 mass-killing events with a total of 211 deaths in the U.S. in 2019. It was the highest number since the 1970s. Mass killings were defined as four or more people killed, excluding the perpetrator.
2020 - Phyllis McGuire (89), the last of the three singing McGuire Sisters, died in Las Vegas. The McGuire Sisters earned six gold records for hits including 1954’s Sincerely and 1957’s Sugartime.
2020 - Moscow extended its school holiday by one week -- to Jan 17 -- in hopes of stabilizing new coronavirus infections and avoiding new COVID-19-related restrictions.
2020 - Alabama, long one of the unhealthiest and most impoverished states in the U.S., emerged as one of the nation’s most alarming coronavirus hot spots. COVID-19 had killed over 4,700 in the state.
2021 - Hundreds of Hong Kong police officers arrested seven people connected to an outspoken pro-democracy news website and raided the site’s headquarters, in yet another government crackdown on the city’s once-vibrant independent press. And you though China was going to abide by the 1997 agreement to keep Hong Kong free.
2021 - A Manhattan jury convicted Ghislaine Maxwell, the former companion of the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, of conspiring with him for at least a decade to recruit, groom and sexually abuse underage girls.
2022 - Benjamin Netanyahu was sworn in as prime minister of Israel, re-entering office to lead the country’s right-wing government. Netanyahu was ousted as leader 18 months before, but won a narrow victory in November to retake office alongside his Likud party. The prime minister’s return to office came after five elections paralyzed Israeli politics for nearly four years...
and more...
Birthdays on This Day December 29
1800 - Charles Goodyear
inventor of vulcanized rubber after he accidentally (after five years of research) dropped some rubber mixed with sulfur on a hot stove; died Jul 1, 1860; note: Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company was founded and named after Goodyear in 1898 by Frank Seiberling1808 - Andrew Johnson
17th U.S. President [1865-1869]: succeeded to presidency upon the death of Abraham Lincoln; married to Eliza McCardle [three sons, two daughters]; died July 31, 18751809 - William Gladstone
British Prime Minister; author; luggage named after him: the Gladstone bag; died May 19, 18981876 - Pablo Casals
musician: cellist; died Oct 22, 19731909 - Thomas Beck
actor: Charlie Chan film series, Supercarrier, Walking Down Broadway, Heidi 1937], Seventh Heaven, Crack-Up, White Fang, Under Two Flags; died Sep 23, 19951910 - Ruth Hall
actress: Monkey Business, How to Marry a Millionaire, Desert Command, Ride Him, Cowboy, Local Boy Makes Good, The Doorway to Hell; married to cinematographer Lee Garmes; died Oct 9, 20031917 - Thomas Bradley
mayor of Los Angeles [1973-1993]; died Sep 29, 19981920 - Viveca (Elsa Viveca Torstensdotter) Lindfors
actress: Backstreet Justice, Adventures of Don Juan, Stargate, A Question of Guilt, Natural Enemies; died Oct 25, 19951922 - William Gaddis
novelist: The Recognitions, JR, Carpenter’s Gothic, A Frolic of His Own; died Dec 18, 19981922 - Rose Lee Maphis
entertainer: half of the team Joe & Rose Lee Maphis with husband Joe; Hee Haw regular; died Oct 26, 20211923 - Dina Merrill (Nedenia Hutton Rumbough)
actress: Suture, Fear, Caddyshack 2, The Sundowners, Butterfield 8, Operation Petticoat, Hot Pursuit; heir to Post cereal fortune; died May 22, 20171932 - Inga Swenson
actress: The Miracle Worker, Advise and Consent, North and South TV miniseries1933 - Fuzzy (Frederick) Thurston
football: Green Bay Packers; died Dec 14, 20141934 - Ed Flanders
Emmy Award-winning actor: St. Elsewhere [1982-83]; A Moon for the Misgotten, True Confessions, Bye Bye Love, Eleanor and Franklin, The Pursuit of D.B. Cooper; died Feb 22, 19951934 - Tom Jarriel
newscaster: ABC News, 20/201936 - Mary Tyler Moore
Emmy Award-winning actress: The Mary Tyler Moore Show [1972-1973, 1973-1974, 1975-1976], Stolen Babies [1992-93]; The Dick Van Dyke Show, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Ordinary People; her legs starred on Richard Diamond, Private Eye; started in TV as ‘Happy Hotpoint’ [Hotpoint Appliance elf: 1955]; died Jan 25, 20171936 - Ray Nitschke
Pro Football Hall of Famer: Green Bay Packers LB: All-Pro [1964-66]; MVP in 1962 NFL Championship; died Mar 8, 19981937 - Barbara Steele
actress: The Prophet, War and Remembrance, The Winds of War, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden1938 - Jon Voight
Academy Award-winning actor: Coming Home [1979]; Midnight Cowboy, Deliverance, The Odessa File, The Tin Soldier, Mission: Impossible, Enemy of the State, Pearl Harbor, Ali1941 - Ray Thomas
musician: flute, saxophone, harmonica, singer: group: The Moody Blues: Nights in White Satin, LPs: In Search of the Lost Chord, On the Threshold of a Dream, To Our Children’s Children’s Children, A Question of Balance, Every Good Boy Deserves Favor, Seventh Sojourn, Moving Mountains, Other Side of Life, Sur la Mer; died Jan 4, 20181942 - Rick Danko
musician: bass, songwriter, singer: group: The Band: Music From Big Pink, The Basement Tapes; died Dec 10, 19991946 - Marianne Faithfull
singer: As Tears Go By, Summer Nights; actress: I’ll Never Forget Whatsisname1947 - Ted Danson
Emmy Award-winning actor: Cheers [1989-1990 and 1992-1993]; Three Men and a Baby, The Onion Field, Gulliver’s Travels, Becker, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Cyber, Fargo [2015 TV], Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Good Place1950 - Jon Polito
actor: Homicide: Life on the Street, Crime Story, The Rocketeer, The Crow, Gangster Squad, The Gangster Chronicles, Miller’s Crossing, Barton Fink,The Big Lebowski; Broadway: The Curse of the Aching Heart, Death of a Salesman; died Sep 1, 20161952 - Gelsey Kirkland
ballerina, author: The Little Ballerina and Her Dancing Horse, Dancing on My Grave: An Autobiography, Shape of Love1953 - Yvonne Elliman
actress, singer: Jesus Christ Superstar: I Don’t Know How to Love Him, If I Can’t Have You; joined Eric Clapton in his 1974 comeback tour1959 - Patricia Clarkson
actress: Pieces of April, Six Feet Under, The Green Mile, The Station Agent, High Art, Far from Heaven1959 - Paula Poundstone
actress, comedienne: The Paula Pundstone Show, Hollywood Squares, To Tell the Truth1961 - Mark Day
musician: guitar: group: Happy Mondays1963 - Sean Payton
football coach: NFL: Philadelphia Eagles [1997–1998]; New York Giants [1999]; New York Giants [2000–2002]; Dallas Cowboys [2003–2005]; head coach: New Orleans Saints [2006-2021]: 2009 Super Bowl XLIV champs1964 - Michael Cudlitz
actor: Southland, The Walking Dead, Band of Brothers, The Kids Are Alright, A River Runs Through It, Lost, The Negotiator, Running Scared, Surrogates1967 - Ashleigh Banfield
CNN TV host: Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield, Early Start, CNN Newsroom1969 - Jennifer Ehle
actress: TV/films: Pride and Prejudice, Alpha Male, The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Adventures in the Secret Service, Sunshine, Melissa, Pride and Prejudice; Broadway: The Coast of Utopia, Design for Living [Revival], The Real Thing [Revival]1971 - Jay Fiedler
football [quarterback]: Dartmouth Univ; NFL: Philadelphia Eagles, Minnesota Vikings, Jacksonville Jaguars, Miami Dolphins, New York Jets1972 - Jim Brower
baseball [pitcher]: Cleveland Indians, Cincinnati Reds, Montreal Expos, San Francisco Giants, Atlanta Braves, Baltimore Orioles, San Diego Padres, Florida Marlins1972 - Jude Law
actor: The Talented Mr. Ripley, Gattaca, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Enemy at the Gates, Artificial Intelligence: AI1973 - Tomas Perez
baseball: Toronto Blue Jays, Philadelphia Phillies1974 - Mekhi Phifer
actor: ER, 8 Mile, Lie to Me, Torchwood: Miracle Day, Dawn of the Dead [2004], Puff, Puff, Pass, A Talent for Trouble, White Collar1975 - Jaret Wright
baseball [pitcher]: Cleveland Indians, Atlanta Braves, San Diego Padres, New York Yankees, Baltimore Orioles1977 - Katherine Moennig
actress: The L Word, Young Americans, Three Rivers, Love the Hard Way, The Lincoln Lawyer, Man on a Ledge, Gone1977 - Jack Wilson
baseball [shortstop]: Seattle Mariners, Pittsburgh Pirates1978 - Alexis Amore
actress [1999-2012]: X-rated films: Alexis Amore’s Stocking Tease, Good And Gooed, Thumb Suckers, Lascivious Latinas, Sassy Latinas, Naughty Slumber Party1979 - Diego Luna
actor: Milk, The Terminal, Rogue One, Frida, Dirty Dancing, Y Tu Mama Tambien1978 - La Toya London
singer: Scandalous, Learn to Breathe, State of My Heart, Meet Me Halfway, Anything, I Can’t Hide [What’s in My Heart], All By Myself; American Idol 4th-place finalist [2004]1982 - Alison Brie
actress: Mad Men, Community, Scream 4, The Five-Year Engagement, Adventures of the Dunderheads, Montana Amazon, GLOW, BoJack Horseman1982 - Martin Laird
golf champ: PGA: 2009 Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open; 2011 Arnold Palmer Invitational; 2013 Valero Texas Open1983 - Jessica Andrews
singer: Humanity, I Will Be There for You , You Go First [Do You Wanna Kiss], Who Am I, Unbreakable Heart, I Do Now, Karma, Helplessly, Hopelessly1987 - Iain De Caestecker
actor: Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Not Another Happy Ending, Lost River1988 - Christen Press
footballer [forward]: U.S. team [2013- ]: 2015 World Cup champs1989 - Jane Levy
actress: Suburgatory, Evil Dead, Don’t Breathe, What/If, Monster Trucks, I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore, Office Uprising, The Pretenders, Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist1996 - Dylan Minnette
actor: Saving Grace, Oranges, The Year Without a Santa Claus, Goosebumps
and still more...
Hit Music on This Day December 29
1946The Christmas Song (facts) - Nat King Cole
White Christmas (facts) - Bing Crosby
1955
1964
1973
1982
1991
2000
2009
2018
and even more...
Those were the days, my friend. We thought they’d never end...
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