Events on This Day
1846 - The Oregon Spectator became the first newspaper published
in American territory west of the Rocky Mountains.
1861 - Samuel Goodale of Cincinnati, OH patented the moving picture peep show machine. One put in a coin and turned a crank
on the side of the ornately decorated box and voila, a flickering movie appeared! There still are
peep shows today, but of an entirely different variety. They cost between $5.00 and $25.00 a peep,
we’re told.
1901 - The loop-the-loop centrifugal roller coaster was patented by Ed Prescot. Known as
Boyton’s Centrifugal
Railway (at Coney Island), it had a 75-ft incline and a 20-foot-wide loop.
1916 - Enrico Caruso recorded O Solo Mio for the Victor Talking
Machine Company, which eventually became Victor Records, then RCA Victor.
1918 - The Soviet Union proclaimed the separation of church and state.
In accordance with a decree by the Sovnarkom (Council of Peoples Commissars) of the
RSFSR (Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic), the Russian Orthodox Church was
separated from the State, and schools were separated from the Church.
1922 - DeWitt and Lila Acheson Wallace offered 5,000 copies of their magazine
for sale for the first time. Today, the Reader’s Digest continues to be widely read in a dozen
languages the world over. In fact, it has become the most-read periodical in history with a
circulation of some ten million.
1928 - Singer Jessica Dragonette was seen on one of the first
television shows. She was used only to test the new medium. She didn’t even get to
sing. Now, before you start feeling too badly for Jessica, it must be noted that she
enjoyed an illustrious radio career. For more, be sure to tune in to Those Were the
Days on February 18th...
1931 - Eddie Cantor’s long radio career got underway as he appeared
on Rudy Vallee’s The Fleischmann Hour.
1936 - The National
Wildlife Federation was founded on this day.
1937 - Modern Times, the first Charlie Chaplin talkie,
was released. Actually, Chaplin’s voice was heard in the film, although he was difficult
to understand because he was just singing a bunch of gibberish that no one understood.
The star of the movie was Paulette Goddard, who played the part of a waif.
1940 - Amanda of Honeymoon
Hill debuted on radio. Joy Hathaway starred as ‘the beauty of flaming red
hair’. The program stayed for six years on the NBC radio network.
1940 - One of the great classic songs of the
Big Band era was recorded. Glenn Miller and his band played Tuxedo
Junction at the RCA Victor studios in Manhattan. The flip side of the
record (released on the Bluebird label) was Danny Boy.
1952 - New York adopted the first Walk/Don’t
Walk automatic traffic signs.
1953 - Walt Disney’s film, Peter Pan, opened at the Roxy Theatre in
New York City. Although the film is now recognized as a great work, not all of the
critics in 1953 took to the Disney stylization of the J.M. Barrie play.
1958 - A year after its founding, the National Academy
of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) formed a New York chapter.
NARAS is better known as the Grammy Awards organization.
1959 - A Tony Ward-winner opened at Broadway’s 46th Street Theatre in New York. The
Best Musical of the year was Redhead, a murder mystery in the setting of a wax museum. Bob Fosse
directed and choreographed the show. It starred Gwen Verdon and Richard Kiley and ran a respectable 452
performances, closing Mar 19, 1960.
1961 - The Shirelles were winding up their first week at #1 on
the music charts with Will You Love Me Tomorrow. The song was at the top for two
weeks. It was the group’s first #1 tune and the first #1 tune from the pen of a New York
Brill Building songwriter who worked right down the hall from Neil Sedaka. She became a
huge star in her own right with several #1 singles and albums in the 1970s. Her name:
Carole King.
1964 - The 24th
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution went into effect this day. The amendment held that U.S.
citizens’ right to vote “shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any
State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.”
1967 - The
Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour premiered on CBS-TV.
1969 - For one of the few times in television history,
a scheduled series (usually 13 or 26 weeks of shows) turned into a one-night wonder.
ABC-TV premiered Turn
On, hosted by Tim Conway, a show similar to NBC’s Rowan & Martin’s
Laugh-In. TV critics called the show, “offbeat and distasteful.” It never
aired again.
1971 - Apollo 14, the third U.S. manned Moon expedition,
landed near Fra Mauro. Alan Shepard (who smuggled a couple of golf balls on the trip for lunar whacking) &
Edward Mitchell walked on the Moon for four hours while Stuart A. Roosa took care of biz
in the command module.
1972 - Bob
Douglas became the first black man elected to the Basketball Hall of
Fame in Springfield, MA. Douglas not only coached the New York Renaissance, an
all-black team which won 88 consecutive games in 1933, he owned the team.
1974 - U.S. satellite Mariner 10
returned the first close-up photos of the cloud structure on Venus.
1981 - A military jury in North Carolina convicted Marine PFC Robert Garwood of
collaborating with the enemy while a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
1987 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above the
2,200-point mark for the first time. The market closed at 2201.49.
1989 - Rupert Murdoch launched Sky Television in Great Britain. Four channels were offered: Sky Channel,
Eurosport, Sky Movies and Sky News.
1991 - Pedro Arrupe (83), Spanish priest and head of the Jesuit order, died.
1993 - U.S. President Bill Clinton signed the
Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993. The bill requires companies
with 50 or more employees to allow those employees to take up to twelve weeks unpaid leave
in a twelve-month period to deal with the birth or adoption of a child or to care for a
relative with a serious health problem.
1994 - White separatist Byron De La
Beckwith was convicted in Jackson, Mississippi, of murdering civil
rights leader Medgar Evers in 1963. Beckwith was immediately sentenced to life in
prison. He died on January 21, 2001 at age 80.
1997 - Investment companies Morgan Stanley
Group Inc. and Dean Witter, Discover & Co. announced their intention to
merge. The $10 billion deal, completed on May 31, 1997, created the largest U.S.
securities firm.
1997 - U.S. Ambassador to
France, Pamela
Harriman, died in Paris. She was 76 years old.
1997 - Three Swiss banks announced that they
had put about $71 million into an account with the Swiss National Bank
to establish a Humanitarian Fund for victims of the Holocaust.
1999 - These films opened in the U.S.: Payback, wit
h Mel Gibson and Gregg Henry; Rushmore, starring Jason Schwartzman, Olivia Williams,
Brian Cox and and Bill Murray; and Simply Irresistible, with Sarah Michelle Gellar and Sean
Patrick Flanery.
1999 - Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike
Tyson was sentenced in Maryland to a year in jail for assaulting two
motorists following a traffic accident. He ended up serving 3 1/2 months of the sentence.
2001 - Four followers of
Osama bin Laden went on trial in New York in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in
Africa. The four were convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
2002 - A federal grand jury in Alexandria, VA
indicted American citizen John Walker Lindh. The charges were that Lindh conspired with the
Taliban to kill Americans in Afghanistan.
2002 - At a U.S. Senate hearing, Deborah
Perrotta, a laid-off Enron employee, wept as she described how her retirement
savings all but disappeared when the company failed.
2003 - U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell made his case before the U.N. Security Council that
Iraq had defied all demands to disarm. Powell presented tape recordings, satellite
photos and statements from informants that he said was “irrefutable and undeniable”
evidence that Saddam Hussein was concealing weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
2004 - CIA Director George Tenet acknowledged that U.S. spy
agencies may have over-estimated Iraq’s illicit weapons capabilities.
2004 - A U.S. federal judge ruled that high school football players could skip college and head straight
to the NFL.
2005 - The Screen
Actors Guild (SAG) awarded Jamie Foxx its best actor award for his role as Ray Charles in
Ray. Hilary Swank won best actress for her role as a boxer in Million Dollar Baby.
Cate Blanchett (The Aviator) and Morgan Freeman (Million Dollar Baby) won the
supporting actress and actor awards.
2006 - Super Bowl XL
(Ford Field, Detroit MI): Pittsburgh Steelers 21, Seattle Seahawks
10. The Steelers saved their best gimmick play for last, as Antwaan Randle El’s
43-yard TD pass to Hines Ward clinched their fifth
Super Bowl victory (tying the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys for the league’s
highest total). Pittsburgh prevailed in what was, overwhelmingly, a home game for the
Steelers. The fans wearing black and gold and waving their Terrible Towels outnumbered
their Seahawks counterparts by a ratio somewhere beyond 25-to-1. MVP: Hines Ward: The wide receiver had five catches for 123
yards and a touchdown. Steelers’ head coach Bill Cowher, who had made the playoffs
10 times in 14 seasons, finally won his first Super Bowl and followed through on his
driving goal to hand owner Dan Rooney that sterling silver trophy. Tickets: No longer
available to the general public; distributed through NFL teams only.
2007 - U.S.President George Bush (II)
sent a $2.9-trillion spending plan to the Democratic-controlled
Congress and proposed spending billions more on his war in Iraq.
2008 - Super Tuesday
Democratic voting: Barack Obama won 13 states; Hillary Rodham Clinton won 8 plus
American Samoa; but Clinton won California and scored the most delegates (her total
was 845 to Obama’s 765). Republican voting: John McCain won 9 states; Mitt Romney
won 7. Huckabee said he would press on, emboldened by 5 wins in the South.
2009 - Germany’s biggest lender, Deutsche Bank,
posted its first annual loss since World War II after a terrible fourth quarter.
But, officials said the bank would survive the global meltdown without state aid. Deutsche
Bank reported a 2008 loss of €3.9 billion, including €1 billion attributed to a group run
by Wall Street trader Boaz Weinstein.
2010 - New movies in the U.S.: Dear John, with
Channing Tatum, Amanda Seyfried, Henry Thomas, Richard Jenkins and Keith Robinson; From Paris with
Love, starring John Travolta, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Kasia Smutniak, Amber Rose
Revah, Melissa Mars, Richard Durden and Farid Elouardi; Frozen, with
Kevin Zegers, Shawn Ashmore, Emma Bell; and the documentary, The Most Dangerous Man in
America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, directed by Judith Ehrlich
and Rick Goldsmith.
2010 - The White House increased its
criticism of Republican Senators following the revelation that U.S. Senator
Richard Shelby of Alabama had placed a hold on more than
70 administration nominees in order to secure funding for projects in his state.
2010 - New Zealand explorers reported the
five crates of whisky and brandy belonging to polar explorer Ernest
Shackleton. The crates had been buried for more than 100 years under the Antarctic ice. The booze
excavation followed by a month or two the discovery of two blocks of butter in an
Antarctic hut used by British explorer Robert Falcon Scott on his doomed 1910-1912 expedition.
2011 - The United States and Russia inaugurated
their new START nuclear arms treaty, capping two years of work to restart
the strained ties between the former Cold War enemies.
2011 - Thousands of people attended a rally in Italy to demand Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s
resignation. This, following allegations that he had paid for sex with a 17-year-old
girl and used his office to cover it up. (Berlusconi did resign as Prime Minister on Nov 16, 2011, but only after
losing his majority in parliament amid growing fiscal problems related to the European
debt crisis.)
2012 - Super Bowl XLVI
(Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis, IN): New York Giants 21, New England Patriots 17.
The Giants and Patriots went toe to toe and the game came down to one final Hail Mary pass
into the end zone (which just missed) from Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. New England
(15-4), winner of 10 straight since a loss to the Giants in November, was done. MVP (his
second) Eli Manning, on the other hand, did everything asked of him in the final minutes.
It was the Giants’ fourth Super Bowl championship (two of those over the Patriots), more than any
franchise except Pittsburgh with six and San Francisco and Dallas with five, and they became
the first team to finish the regular season 9-7 and still win the title. Tickets: No longer
available to the general public; distributed through NFL teams only.
2013 - The state of California charged Standard & Poor’s with fraudulent practices
that resulted in some $1 billion in losses to state institutional investors. 15 other states
and the U.S. Department of Justice were also suing S&P for
approving mortgage backed securities that turned out to be bad risks.
2014 - The European Union’s antitrust watchdog accepted
‘far-reaching’ concessions
offered by U.S. search giant Google. Google agreed to display results from
three competitors in a similar way to its own whenever it promoted its specialized
search services. It also agreed to label its search results more clearly to allow
searchers to distinguish between ‘natural’ search results and those promoted by Google.
2014 - The German newspaper, the Süddeutsche Zeitung,
reported that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) had bugged the phone of former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder --
since at least 2002. “We had reason to believe that (Schroeder) was not contributing to the
success of the (German/U.S.) alliance,” the newspaper quoted one person with direct knowledge
of the monitoring as saying.
2015 - POTUS Barack Obama hailed the Dalai Lama as a good friend during a symbolic first public
encounter between the two men at a high-profile Washington prayer breakfast.
2016 - Movies debuting in the U.S. included: The
Choice, with Alexandra Daddario, Teresa Palmer and Benjamin Walker; Hail,
Caesar!, starring Channing Tatum, Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton, Ralph
Fiennes and Jonah Hill; Regression, with Emma Watson, Ethan Hawke and David
Thewlis; Misconduct, starring Malin Akerman, Alice Eve and
Anthony Hopkins; The Pack, with Anna Lise Phillips, Katie Moore and
Jack Campbell; and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, with Lily James,
Lena Headey and Douglas Booth.
2016 - The U.S. announced that HSBC had reached a $470 million settlement with the federal
government, and nearly all states. The banking giant had committed mortgage lending and foreclosure abuses that helped intensify the
country’s economic meltdown.
2016 - Japan deported Ric O’Barry, founder/director of Dolphin Project,
and star of an Oscar-winning documentary showing how dolphins were hunted in a
Japanese village. O’Barry was featured in the Academy Award-winning feature-length documentary
The Cove, directed by Louie Psihoyos which investigates links between the killing, capture,
trade and display of dolphins all over the world. The 2009 film centers on Taiji, Wakayama, Japan
(the connection that got him deported), drawing attention to the hunt of about 2,000 dolphins taking
place there every year. O’Barry and his son Lincoln O’Barry are also behind the Blood Dolphin$ TV show
for Discovery’s Animal Planet, which continues on where The Cove left off.
2016 - Honda Motor Co. said that it was recalling 5.7
million cars worldwide. It was another round of recalls involving Takata Corporation
air bag inflators that could explode and fire shrapnel into the vehicle.
2017 - Super Bowl LI (NRG Stadium, Houston, TX): Tom Brady led the New England Patriots on five straight scoring drives for 31 straight points.
The last touchdown (in overtime) wrapped up a 34-28 victory over the Atlanta Falcons in
the first-ever overtime in the Super Bowl’s 51-year history. After a scoreless first quarter, Atlanta
scored 21 points before New England made a field goal with two seconds left in the second quarter. The
Falcons had a 21–3 halftime lead. The Falcons increased their lead to 28–3 midway through the third
quarter, but the Patriots then scored 25 unanswered points to tie the game, 28–28, with 57 seconds
left in regulation. Patriots’ quarterback Tom Brady, who also broke single-game Super Bowl records with
43 completed passes, 62 pass attempts, and 466 passing yards, was named Super Bowl MVP for a record
fourth time. Estimated average ticket price: $4,744.
2018 - Kern County, California Superior Court Judge David Lampe
ruled that the owner of a Bakersfield bakery had a free-speech right to refuse to sell a wedding cake to a lesbian couple.
“The right to freedom of speech under the First Amendment outweighs the State’s interest in
ensuring a freely accessible marketplace,” Lampe wrote in his ruling. “The right of freedom
of thought guaranteed by the First Amendment includes the right to speak, and the right to
refrain from speaking. Sometimes the most profound protest is silence.”
2019 - POTUS Donald Trump gave his second State of the Union speech to Congress. Trump
spoke about bipartisanship, the economy, jobs, unemployment, tax reform, energy production,
unity, the opioid crisis, prison reform, immigration, border security, his proposed border wall,
trade, infrastructure, prescription drugs, HIV/AIDS, cancer, family leave, abortion, national
security, North Korea, Venezuela, the Middle East, ISIS, Afghanistan, Iran, antisemitism,
veterans, and opportunity. The POTUS also talked about the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces
Treaty, socialism, and the War in Afghanistan. And Trump chose this appearance to announce an
upcoming ‘summit’ with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.
2019 - Pope Francis acknowledged that Catholic priests and bishops had sexually abused nuns, and that his
predecessor, Benedict XVI, had dissolved a France-based order of women because of “sexual slavery”
at the hands of the priest who founded the order -- and other priests. Francis said some clergy had
been suspended for mistreating sisters. But he also noted that the mistreatment of women was a
problem in society at large, where women were still considered “second-class citizens.” “It’s a
cultural problem. I dare say that humanity hasn’t matured, he said, adding that “in some parts of
the world the mistreatment gets to the point of feminicide.”
2020 - U.S. film star, producer, director, philanthropist, and writer
Kirk Douglas died at 103
years of age. His films included The Strange Loves of Martha Ivers (1946),
Champion (1949), The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), Lust for Life
(1956), Spartacus (1960), Town Without Pity (1961), Lonely Are the
Brave (1962), Seven Days in May (1964), In Harm’s Way (1965).
2020 - Senate Republicans voted to acquit POTUS Trump of abuse of power (by 52 votes to 48) --
for pressing Ukraine to investigate political rival Joe Biden; and of obstructing a congressional
investigation of the matter (by 53 votes to 47).
2020 - FBI Director Chris Wray said Russia had engaged in “information warfare” heading into the 2020 presidential
election. Wray said law enforcement had not seen ongoing efforts by Russia to target America’s
election infrastructure. But the threat of far-right domestic violent extremism had risen to a “national threat priority”
for 2020, posing a “steady threat of violence and economic harm” to the U.S.
2021 - Movies released in the U.S. (theatres and virtual) this day included:
Cinderella,
starring Camila Cabello, Billy Porter and Idina Menzel; Dara in
Jasenovac, starring Vuk Kostic, Natasa Ninkovic and Nikolina Jelisavac; Falling, with
Viggo Mortensen, Lance Henriksen and Sverrir Gudnason; Little Fish, starring Olivia Cooke, Jack O’Connell, and Soko; The Mimic, with
Thomas Sadoski, Jake Robinson and Austin Pendleton; Minamata, starring Johnny Depp, Bill Nighy and Hiroyuki Sanada; Rams, with Sam
Neill, Miranda Richardson and Asher Keddie; The Reckoning, starring Sean Pertwee, Joe Anderson and Charlotte Kirk; and Two of Us, with
Barbara Sukowa, Martine Chevallier and Léa Drucker.
2021 - Canada-born actor Christopher Plummer died at his
home in Connecticut. He was 91 years old. His films included The Insider, A Beautiful Mind
and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Plummer’s career spanned seven decades in film, TV and stage. He made his Broadway
debut in 1954 and acted in leading roles on stage playing Cyrano de Bergerac in Cyrano, Iago in
Othello, as well as playing the titular roles in Hamlet at Elsinore, Macbeth,
King Lear, Barrymore, J.B., No Man’s Land, and Inherit the Wind. He won
widespread acclaim for his performance as Captain Georg von Trapp in the musical film The Sound of
Music alongside Julie Andrews.
2021 - Fox Business (TV) Network canceled Lou Dobbs Tonight, hosted by the
business journalist and vocal Trump supporter. The termination came a day after Dobbs was named as
a defendant in a defamation lawsuit filed by voting machine maker Smartmatic.
2021 - President Joe Biden said Donald Trump’s erratic behavior
should prevent him from receiving classified intelligence briefings. Biden said there was “no need” for
former POTUS Donald J. Trump to get the briefings that were traditionally given to ex-presidents as a
courtesy and to keep them informed if their advice is needed.
2021 - The U.S. Supreme Court said California could not ban indoor worship because virus cases were high. The justices
did rule that the state could cap indoor services at 25% of a building’s capacity.
2022 - Queen Elizabeth said it was her “sincere wish” that Camilla Parker
Bowles would be known as Queen Consort when Charles became king. (That wish was granted after the Queen died later that year.)
2022 - A United Nations panel cited a report from a cybersecurity
firm saying North Korean attacks on cryptocurrency platforms had earned North Korea almost
$400 million in digital assets. And between 2020 and 2021 North Korean crooks stole more than
$50 million from at least three cryptocurrency exchanges.
2023 - At the 65th Grammy Awards: Best album went to Harry Styles Harry’s House,
best record was won by Lizzo About Damn Time, best song awarded to Bonnie Raitt Just
Like That, Beyoncé broke the record for most wins with her 32nd Grammy (for Dance/Electronic
Album). Viola Davis won the Grammy for best audiobook, narration, and storytelling recording for
her memoir Finding Me, giving the 57-year-old actress EGOT status with an Emmy, a Grammy, an
Oscar, and a Tony.
and more...
Birthdays on This Day
February 5
1744 - John
Jeffries
physician and one of America’s first weather forecasters: kept detailed records of weather conditions
[1774-1816]; died Sep 16, 1819
1788 - Robert Peel
English statesman who established the Irish constabulary; London’s Bobbies are named
after him; died July 2, 1850
1900 - Adlai Stevenson
politician:
Democratic party candidate for US president [1952, 1956]; governor of Illinois, UN
representative from U.S. [1961-1965]; died July 14, 1965
1906 - John Carradine
‘The Bard of the Boulevard’ actor: appeared in over 200 films including: The Bride of
Frankenstein, Captains Courageous, Alexander’s Ragtime Band, The
Hound of the Baskervilles, Stagecoach, The Grapes of Wrath, House
of Dracula; died Nov 27, 1988
1914 - William Seward Burroughs II
Beat Generation writer: Naked Lunch, The Ticket That Exploded,
Soft Machine, Nova Express, The Last Words of Dutch Schultz,
The Adding Machine, The Western Lands; died Aug 2, 1997
1918 - Tim Holt
actor: Stagecoach,
Swiss Family Robinson, Wagon Train, The Fargo Kid, Along the Rio
Grande, My Darling Clementine, Dynamite Pass, This Stuff’ll Kill Ya!,
The Yesterday Machine, The Monster that Challenged the World, Pistol
Harvest, Border Treasure, The Mysterious Desperado; died Feb 15, 1973
1919 - Red Buttons (Aaron Chwatt)
comedian, Academy
Award-winning [supporting] actor:
Sayonara [1957]; The Red Buttons Show, The Longest Day, The Poseidon
Adventure, They Shoot Horses Don’t They; died July 13, 2006
1923 - Claude King
singer: Wolverton Mountain, All for the Love of a Girl;
actor: The Blue & The Gray; died Mar 7, 2013
1927 - Ruth Fertel
founder: Ruth’s Chris Steak
Houses: she mortgaged her house to purchase the original Chris’s steakhouse; a fire in that
New Orleans restaurant forced her to relocate a few blocks away and at that time she renamed it
Ruth’s Chris Steak House -- she had grown tired of guests calling her Chris but she did not want
to lose her loyal customer base who knew the restaurant by its longtime name; died Apr 16, 2002
1928 - Andrew Greeley
author: Happy are the Merciful,
An Occasion of Sin; died May 29, 2013
1929 - Hal Blaine
studio musician:
drummer: member of the so-called Wrecking
Crew: played on such songs as: Wouldn’t It Be Nice [Beach Boys], Bridge
Over Troubled Water [Simon and Garfunkel], Mr. Tambourine Man [Byrds],
California Dreamin’ [The Mamas and the Papas]; died Mar 11, 2019
1929 - Al (Allan Fulton) ‘Red’ Worthington
baseball:
pitcher: NY Giants, SF Giants, Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Minnesota
Twins [World Series: 1965]
1930 - Don Goldie
trumpeter: Basin
Street Blues [vocal by Jack Teagarden]; died Nov 19, 1995
1934 - Hank Aaron
‘Hammerin’ Hank’: Baseball
Hall of Famer: Milwaukee
Braves [all-star: 1955-1965, 1975/World Series: 1957, 1958], Atlanta Braves [all-star:
1965-1974]; home run champ [755]: eclipsed Babe Ruth’s record of 714; baseball executive:
Atlanta Braves; died Jan 22, 2021
1934 - Don Cherry
hockey player:
16 seasons in the minor leagues and one game for the Boston Bruins; coach: Boston Bruins, Colorado
Avalanche, Rochester Americans; TV commentator: CBC
1937 - Stuart Damon
actor: General
Hospital, Chairman of the Board, Perry Mason: The Case of the Killer
Kiss, Star 80, Young Doctors in Love, Nightmare for a Nightingale,
A Touch of the Casanovas; died Jun 29, 2021
1939 - Jane Bryant Quinn
financial
commentator, Newsweek contributing editor
1940 - H.R. (Hans Rudolf) Giger
surrealist painter,
sculptor, set designer: Academy Award: Alien [1980]; died May 12, 2014
1941 - Stephen J. Cannell
TV writer: Mission: Impossible, It Takes a Thief; story editor:
Adam-12; producer:
The Rockford Files, Baa Baa, Black Sheep, Hunter, Silk
Stalkings, The Commish; died Sep 30, 2010
1941 - Henson Cargill
singer:
Skip a Rope, Row Row Row, None of My Business, The Most
Uncomplicated Goodbye I Ever Heard; TV host: Country Hayride; died Mar 24, 2007
1941 - David Selby
actor: Falcon Crest,
Rich and Famous, Flamingo Road
1941 - Barrett Strong
singer: Money
[That’s What I Want]; songwriter: Just My Imagination, Papa Was a Rolling Stone,
Ball of Confusion
1942 - Roger Staubach
Heisman Trophy
Winner: Navy [1963]; Pro Football Hall of Famer: Dallas Cowboys QB: Super Bowl V, VI, X, XII, XIII
1943 - Michael Mann
film producer: Miami
Vice [2006], Ali, The Insider, Heat, The Last of the Mohicans,
Manhunter, The Keep, L.A. Takedown, The Aviator, Collateral
1943 - Craig Morton
football:
Dallas Cowboys QB: Super Bowl V, VI; Denver Broncos: Super Bowl XII
1943 - Chuck Winfield
musician: group: Blood, Sweat & Tears: Hi De Ho
1944 - John Beasley
basketball: Texas A&M
1944 - Al Kooper
songwriter, singer, musician:
guitar, keyboards: groups: The Royal Teens: Short Shorts; Blood, Sweat and Tears: You’ve
Made Me So Very Happy, Spinning Wheel, And When I Die
1946 - Charlotte Rampling
actress: The Verdict,
Farewell My Lovely, Georgy Girl
1947 - David Ladd
actor: The Treasure of Jamaica Reef,
Catlow, Misty, A Dog of Flanders
1947 - Darrell Waltrip
auto racer:
Daytona 500 winner [1989]
1948 - Christopher Guest
Emmy Award-winning comedy writer:
Lily Tomlin [1976]; comedian: Saturday Night Live
1948 - Barbara Hershey (Herzstein)
actress: Hannah and Her
Sisters, With Six You Get Eggroll, Beaches, The Right Stuff,
The Natural, From Here to Eternity, The Monroes
1961 - Tim Meadows
actor: Saturday Night
Live, The Cookout, Mean Girls, The Ladies Man, It’s Pat,
Wayne’s World 2, Coneheads
1962 - Jennifer Jason Leigh (Morrow)
actress: Shortcuts,
The Hudsucker Proxy, Single White Female, Rush, Backdraft,
Miami Blues, The Big Picture, Easy Money, Fast Times at Ridgemont
High, Eyes of a Stranger
1963 - Elle Rio (Maria Tereza)
actress [1985-1988]: X-rated films: Gourmet Quickies 730, Sex Lives of
the Rich and Beautiful, Oral Majority 3, What Kind of Girls Do You Think
We Are?, Mammary Lane
1964 - Laura Linney
actress: Primal Fear,
Congo, Absolute Power, The Truman Show, Running Mates, Tales
of the City series, You Can Count on Me, Mystic River, Love
Actually
1964 - Duff McKagan
musician: bass
guitar; singer: groups: Guns N’ Roses: Welcome to the Jungle,
November Rain, Sweet Child O’ Mine, Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,
Nightrain, Estranged; Velvet Revolver; Duff McKagan’s Loaded
1966 - Jonathan Morgan
actor [1988-2010]:
X-rated films: White Men Can Hump, Bonnie & Clyde: Outlaws of
Love, Thighs & Dolls, Buck Naked in the 21st Century, The
Beverly Thrillbillies, Arabian Nights, NYDP Blue
1967 - Chris Parnell
commedian, actor:
Saturday Night Live, 30 Rock, Suburgatory, Hollywood & Wine,
Kung Fu Magoo, Answer This!, 21 Jump Street, The Five-Year
Engagement, The Dictator, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy,
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues
1968 - Roberto Alomar
baseball:
SD Padres, Toronto Blue Jays, Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Indians, NY Mets, Chicago
White Sox, Arizona Diamondbacks; son of former player Sandy Alomar Sr., brother of
player Sandy Alomar Jr.
1969 - Bobby Brown
Grammy Award-winning singer: Every Little Step [1989]; My Prerogative,
LP: King of Stage, Don’t be Cruel; married to singer, Whitney Houston
1969 - Michael Sheen
actor: stage: Masters
of Sex, Romeo and Juliet [1992], Don’t Fool With Love, Peer Gynt,
The Seagull, The Homecoming, Henry V [1997], Amadeus, Look
Back in Anger; films: Dirty Filthy Love, Fantabulosa!, The Queen,
Caitlin, The League of Gentlemen’s Apocalypse, The Banker, Timeline,
Underworld, The Four Feathers, Mary Reilly, Wilde, Gallowglass
1971 - Sara Evans
singer: Cryin’ Game, True Lies, No Place that Far, Born
to Fly, Almost New, Three Chords and the Truth
1981 - Sara Foster
actress:
90210, The Other End of the Line, Psych 9, Demoted, The
Big Bounce, D.E.B.S.
1981 - Nora Zehetner
actress: Spooner,
Remarkable Power, Brick, Point of Origin, An American Town,
Heroes, Everwood
1983 - Vanessa Rousso (‘Lady Maverick’)
poker pro:
finished in the money in numerous live poker events and accumulated nearly $3.5 million [2005-2011];
spokesperson: GoDaddy.com [2009-2013]
1987 - Darren Criss
actor:
A Very Potter Musical, Glee, Girl Most Likely; singer: LPs: Me and My Dick, Glee: The Music Presents the
Warblers; Broadway: How to Succeed in sBusiness Without Really Trying [revival]
1987 - Henry Golding
actor:
Crazy Rich Asians, A Simple Favor, Last Christmas,
Surviving Borneo; TV host: BBC’s The Travel Show, Welcome to the Railworld
Malaysia/Japan
1989 - Jeremy Sumpter
actor: Peter Pan
[2003], Into the Storm, Soul Surfer, The Sasquatch Gang, Animal,
Just a Dream, Local Boys, Frailty, Clubhouse,
Friday Night Lights; more
2000 - Jordan Nagai
voice actor: Up [voice of Russell, the boy scout]
and still more...
Hit Music on This Day
February 5
1948
Golden Earrings
(facts) -
Peggy Lee
How Soon
(facts) -
Jack Owens
Ballerina
(facts) -
Vaughn Monroe
I’ll Hold You in
My Heart (Till I Can Hold You in My Arms)
(facts) -
Eddy Arnold
1957Too Much
(facts) -
Elvis Presley
Young Love
(facts) -
Tab Hunter
Banana Boat (Day-O)
(facts) -
Harry Belafonte
Young Love
(facts) -
Sonny James
1966My Love
(facts) -
Petula Clark
Barbara Ann
(facts) -
The Beach Boys
No Matter What Shape
(Your Stomach’s In)
(facts) - The T-Bones
Giddyup Go
(facts) -
Red
Sovine
1975Laughter in the Rain
(facts) -
Neil Sedaka
Fire
(facts) -
Ohio Players
Boogie on Reggae
Woman (facts) -
Stevie Wonder
City Lights
(facts) -
Mickey Gilley
1984Karma Chameleon
(facts) -
Culture
Club
Joanna
(facts) -
Kool & The
Gang
Running with the Night
(facts) -
Lionel Richie
Show Her
(facts) -
Ronnie Milsap
1993I Will Always Love You
(facts) -
Whitney Houston
If I Ever Fall in Love
(facts) -
Shai
A Whole New World
(Aladdin’s Theme)
(facts) - Peabo Bryson & Regina Belle
Too Busy Being in Love
(facts) -
Doug Stone
2002Get the Party Started
(facts) -
P!nk
U Got It
Bad
(facts) -
Usher
Hey Baby
(facts) -
No Doubt
Good Morning Beautiful
(facts) -
Steve Holy
2011Grenade (facts) - Bruno Mars
Firework (facts) - Katy Perry
Black and Yellow (facts) - Wiz Khalifa
Somewhere with You
(facts) - Kenny Chesney
2020The Box (facts) - Roddy Ricch
Life Is Good (facts) - Future featuring Drake
Godzilla
(facts) -
Eminem featuring Juice WRLD
10,000 Hours
(facts) - Dan + Shay & Justin Bieber
and even more...
Those were the days, my friend. We thought they’d never end...
TWtD Calendar
