January 12
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Events on This Day
1773 - The first public museum was organized -- in Charleston, South Carolina.1896 - Three Davidson College (near Charlotte NC) students took the the first x-ray photograph in the U.S. Osmond Barringer, Pender Porter and Eben Hardie had read of Wilhelm Roentgen’s experiments in Bavaria that proved x-ray pictures could be made through solids. The three realized that their school lab had the same equipment Roentgen had used. In the dissecting room of the medical college they used a pocketknife to cut the finger off a cadaver. “We stuck two straight pins through the finger, got a small folding pocket magnifying glass and some other small articles, put them in a round pill box, pushed them close together under a Crookes tube, and turned on the electric current,” Barringer explained. Three hours later, the students turned off the electricity and developed the picture. Researchers later determined that it was the first x-ray photograph made in America.
1926 - Sam ’n’ Henry debuted on WGN radio in Chicago, Illinois. The show’s name was soon changed to Amos ’n’ Andy and the voices of its creators, Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll played to Depression-era audiences; portraying two characters who were constantly looking for extra income. Although the players were white, the characters were supposed to be black. The popular radio show would attract over forty million fans during its radio tenure which ended in 1948. (Gosden and Correll returned to radio with the Amos ’n’ Andy Music Hall [1954-1960]).
1928 - Vladimir Horowitz debuted as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall in New York City. It was the very same night that Sir Thomas Beecham gave his first public performance in the United States.
1932 - Ed Sullivan joined CBS radio in a program that showcased new talent.
1939 - The Ink Spots gained national attention after five years together as they recorded, If I Didn’t Care, Decca record number 2286 A. Many other standards by the group soon followed.
1943 - Oh my gosh! It’s frankfurter day! The Office of Price Administration announced that the standard frankfurter/hot dog/wiener would be replaced by ‘Victory Sausage’; made of meat and soybean meal. Yum! Yum!
1945 - German troops in Belgium retreated in the Battle of the Bulge. Raging since Dec 16, 1944, the Battle of the Bulge, was the worst battle of WWII, in terms of losses, for U.S. forces.
1949 - Arthur Godfrey and His Friends was first seen on CBS-TV this day. The program stayed on the network for seven years.
1949 - The Chicago-based children’s show, Kukla, Fran and Ollie, made its national debut on NBC-TV. Fran Allison was hostess. The show was phenomenally successful.
1950 - A Swedish tanker ship struck the English submarine HMS Truculent during the sub’s trials in the River Thames. Fifty-five of the seventy men aboard the sub died.
1955 - The beginning of Rod Serling’s stellar career began with the TV production of Patterns, an original, hour-long drama. Within two weeks, the then struggling author had 23 other TV assignments.
1960 - Dolph Schayes of the Syracuse Nationals became the first pro basketball player in the NBA to score more than 15,000 points in his career.
1963 - Songwriter Bob Dylan sang Blowin’ in the Wind on the BBC radio presentation of Madhouse on Castle Street. The song soon became one of the classics of the 1960s protest movement.
1965 - The NBC-TV pop-music show Hullabaloo made its debut. A competitor of ABC’s successful Shindig show, Hullabaloo tried to attract a wider audience by featuring both rock music and Las Vegas-type acts. Guests on the first show included the New Christy Minstrels, Gerry and the Pacemakers, the Zombies and Woody Allen. Hullabaloo lasted on the air through Aug 29, 1966.
1966 - Batman debuted -- on ABC-TV. Adam West starred as Batman and Burt Ward was the Bat-Boy, Robin. Pow! Zork! Crunch! Holy hot cakes, Batman!
1967 - “This is the city...” One of broadcasting’s greatest hits, Dragnet, returned to NBC-TV after being off the network schedule for eight years. Harry Morgan was Jack Webb’s sidekick in the renewed series. “Just the facts, ma’am.”
1969 - Super Bowl III (at Miami): NY Jets 16, Baltimore Colts 7. Joe Namath and his Cinderella Jets snuck up on the heavily-favored Colts. MVP: Jets’ QB Namath. Tickets: $12.00.
1971 - All in the Family debuted on CBS-TV. Carroll O’Connor starred as Archie Bunker, Rob Reiner as Meathead, Sally Struthers as Gloria and Jean Stapleton as Edith, ‘The Dingbat’. “Stifle yourself!” Originally, ABC had plans to broadcast the series under the title, Those Were the Days.
1975 - Super Bowl IX (at New Orleans): Pittsburgh Steelers 16, Minnesota Vikings 6. The Steelers draft picks (spring, 1974) were Lynn Swann, Jack Lambert, John Stallworth and free agent Donnie Shell. Between them, 28 Pro Bowl appearances, 20 Super Bowl rings, and probably five Pro Football Hall of Fame selections. MVP: Steelers’ RB Franco Harris. Tickets: $20.00.
1976 - Mystery writer Dame Agatha Christie died in Wallingford, England. She was 85 years old.
1985 - After a record 24 weeks as the #1 album in the nation, Prince slipped to the #2 spot with Purple Rain. Replacing Prince at the top spot: ‘The Boss’ Bruce Springsteen’s Born In the USA, which had spent 24 weeks waiting for Purple Rain to fall.
1987 - Europe was snowed-in with a pounding of white stuff and frigid temperatures as a ‘Siberian Express’ spread across the continent.
1991 - Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814 became the first album to generate seven top-five singles on the Billboard Hot 100 (four went to number one). Love Will Never Do (Without You) reached #4 this day and it hit #1 the following week.
1992 - The Washington Redskins won the NFC championship, defeating the Detroit Lions 41 to 10; the Buffalo Bills won the AFC title, beating the Denver Broncos 10 to 7.
1994 - U.S. President Bill Clinton, en route to Russia, achieved an agreement with Ukraine to eliminate that country’s nuclear arsenal -- the third-largest in the world.
1996 - These films debuted in U.S. theatres: Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace (“God made him simple. Science made him a god. Now, he wants revenge.”), with Patrick Bergin and Matt Frewer; and Two If By Sea (“A new comedy about love, laughter, and larceny.”), starring Sandra Bullock and Denis Leary.
1997 - The Green Bay Packers defeated the Carolina Panthers, 30-13, to win the NFC Championship; and the New England Patriots beat the Jacksonville Jaguars 20-6 to lock up the AFC Championship.
1997 - The Atlantis space shuttle was launched for a rendezvous with the MIR space station. Jerry Linenger, physician, was on his way to replace astronaut Jim [John] Blaha.
1998 - Santana, The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, and The Mamas and the Papas were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Also imortalized in Cleveland were rockabilly legend Gene Vincent, rock singer, musician Lloyd Price, jazz composer Jelly Roll Morton and producer Allen Toussaint.
1998 - CBS signed a $4-billion, eight-year deal to televise American Football Conference games. The Fox network signed a $4.4-billion, eight-year contract to continue showing National Football Conference games.
1999 - Mark McGwire’s 70th home run ball was sold at auction in New York for $3 million to an anonymous bidder. It was the most money ever paid for a sports artifact. McGwire's ball was retrieved Sep 27, 1998 by 26-year-old research scientist Philip Ozersky, who had been attending the game with a group of office friends from Washington University in St. Louis when the ball came flying at him.
2000 - The U.S. Supreme Court gave local police broad authority to stop and question people who run at the sight of an officer.
2001 - Movies premiering in the U.S.: Antitrust, with Ryan Phillippe and Rachael Leigh Cook; Double Take, with Eddie Griffin and Orlando Jones; and Thirteen Days, starring Kevin Costner, Bruce Greenwood and Steven Culp.
2001 - William Hewlett, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard Co., died in Palo Alto, CA. He was 87 years old. The engineer founded HP in a garage with friend David Packard and watch it grow into one of the high-tech industry’s great successes.
2002 - Michelle Kwan won her fifth successive U.S. Figure Skating Championship -- her sixth win in all.
2002 - Cyrus R. Vance, former U.S. Secretary of State under Jimmy Carter, died in New York. He was 84 years old.
2003 - Steve Case revealed that he was stepping down as chairman of the conglomerate he had helped to create. Shareholders blamed Case for AOL Time Warner’s sharp fall in fortunes.
2003 - Maurice Gibb, 53, member of the Bee Gees musical group, died in Miami following surgery for a blocked intestine.
2004 - The $780-million Queen Mary 2 ‘set sail’ from Southampton, England on her maiden voyage. The ship, built by Chantieres de l'Atlantique in St. Nazaire, France, was headed for Fort Lauderdale, FL.
2005 - U.S. government Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005 recommended 30 minutes of daily physical activity to reduce the risk of chronic disease, 60 minutes to maintain a healthy weight, and 90 minutes to lose weight.
2005 - Firefighters brought Australia’s deadliest bushfires in twenty years under control -- after nine people died in the blazes in the Eyre Peninsula.
2006 - A stampede during the Stoning the Devil ritual on the last day at the hajj in Mina, Saudi Arabia, killed some 350 Muslim pilgrims.
2007 - New in U.S. movie houses: Alpha Dog, starring Ben Foster, Shawn Hatosy, Emile Hirsch, Christopher Marquette, Sharon Stone, Justin Timberlake, Anton Yelchin and Bruce Willis; and Stomp the Yard, starring Columbus Short, Meagan Good, Darrin DeWitt Henson, Ne-Yo and Brian J. White.
2007 - President George Bush (II) signed a bill into law that made it a crime in the U.S. to lie to obtain telephone records of private citizens. The procedure, known as pretexting, is the practice of getting someone’s personal information under false pretenses. Pretexters then sell the information to people who may use it to get credit in someone else’s name or steal their assets, etc.
2007 - 28-year-old Jennifer Lea Strange of Rancho Cordova, CA died after guzzling a large quantity of water as part of Sacramento radio station KDND-FM’s contest.
2008 - The U.S. formally opened its new $174-million base at the south Pole. It had taken some twenty years to design and build the place.
2009 - Sofa retailer Land of Leather went into administration (filed for bankruptcy protection) -- the latest British retailer to succumb to a downturn in consumer spending amid the global economic slowdown.
2009 - China state media reported that the government had shut down 91 Web sites for pornographic and other ‘vulgar’ content. The move was the latest in a series of attempts to ensure internet morality.
2009 - The U.S. slapped sanctions on people and businesses linked to Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan’s black market nuclear network.
2010 - Search giant Google announced that it was no longer willing to censor content on its Chinese site, after what it said were attacks from China on human rights activists using its Gmail service and on dozens of companies. Google reversed itself again in 2013, when it removed a feature that warned Chinese citizens when they were searching for terms banned by the Chinese government.
2010 - A catastrophic magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti and crushed thousands of structures, from schools and shacks to the National Palace. Thousands of people were killed and untold numbers were trapped. An estimated 3 million people were in need of emergency aid. The quake left over 200,000 people dead. Some 4,500 prison inmates escaped during the earthquake. By April they were terrorizing neighborhoods and fighting turf battles.
2011 - A winter storm that had closed much of the southern U.S. churned up the East Coast, dumping snow across the Northeast U.S. In Connecticut more than 2 feet of snow fell in some places.
2012 - Afghanistan, Washington and the Taliban condemned a video showing U.S. Marines urinating on corpses of insurgents. U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said, “I have seen the footage, and I find the behavior depicted in it utterly deplorable.” In Dec 2012 a U.S. Marine staff sergeant who took part in the event pleaded guilty to dereliction of duty for failing to properly supervise junior Marines. He also pleaded guilty to wrongfully urinating on a deceased enemy combatant. He was sentenced to a reduction in rank and forfeiture of $500 in pay.
2012 - The Australian military was rocked by more sex scandals, including allegations of assault, child porn, rape and drug-dealing within its ranks.
2013 - 800 people began month-long ‘Python Challenge’ in Florida. The hunt was part of an effort to deal with an infestation of Burmese pythons that were eating their way through a fragile ecosystem. Roughly 2,050 pythons have been harvested in Florida since 2000.
2013 - New York Governor Andrew Cuomo declared a public health emergency, giving pharmacists permission to administer flu vaccinations to more people. This, as officials sought to stem the worst flu outbreak in the Empire State in several years.
2014 - Pope Francis named his first group of cardinals, including men from Asia, Africa, Latin America and the developing nations of Haiti and Burkina Faso.
2014 - Beautiful: The Carole King Musical opened on Broadway at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre. The show debuted starring Jessie Mueller and Jake Epstein as Carole King and Gerry Goffin. Carole King attended the April 3, 2014 performance and appeared on stage with the cast at the curtain call, singing You’ve Got a Friend together with them. The show ran until Oct 27, 2019 -- with 2,416 performances.
2015 - Darrell Winfield, the Marlboro Man from 1968 to 1989 of the Philip Morris Tobacco Co. advertising campaigns, died in Riverton, Wyoming. The company began using Marlboro men in its advertising in 1954.
2016 - POTUS Barack Obama delivered his last annual State of the Union speech to Congress, calling for leaders to “fix” U.S. politics. And in a direct slap at Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, Obama said insulting Muslims hurt the United States and betrayed its identity.
2017 - Human Rights Watch accused the Ukrainian government and Russian-backed separatists of holding dozens of civilians in arbitrary detention in Ukraine’s industrial east, where fighting had killed more than 9,600 people since 2014.
2017 - POTUS Obama awarded Vice-President Joe Biden the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. Calling the former longtime Delaware senator “the best vice president America's ever had” and a “lion of American history,” Obama gave his White House partner the surprise award in an emotional ceremony, initially billed as a farewell.
2018 - Motion pictures debuting in the U.S. included: The Commuter, starring Liam Neeson, Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Jonathan Banks, Sam Neill and Elizabeth McGovern; the animated Paddington 2, featuring the voices of Michael Gambon, Imelda Staunton, Ben Whishaw, Madeleine Harris, Samuel Joslin, Sally Hawkins, Hugh Bonneville and Julie Walters; Proud Mary, with Taraji P. Henson, Neal McDonough and Danny Glover; The Post, starring Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks and Sarah Paulson; Acts of Violence, starring Bruce Willis, Cole Hauser and Shawn Ashmore; Saturday Church, with Margot Bingham, Regina Taylor and Evander Duck Jr.; and Wastelander, with Brendan Guy Murphy, Jon Proudstar and Carol Cardenas.
2018 - Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello slammed the U.S. government’s response to Hurricane Maria, saying residents of the island, who are U.S. citizens, were being treated like “second-class citizens.”
2018 - Another from our "You Just Can’t Make This Stuff Up Department": British surgeon Simon Bramhall (53), who burned his initials into patients’ livers during transplant operations, was fined £10,000 ($13,600), and ordered to perform community service.
2018 - And still another one: The Wall Street Journal reported that Michael Cohen, POTUS Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, had arranged a $130,000 payment in October 2016 to adult film star Stormy Daniels. The payment to Daniels, aka Stephanie Clifford, was to keep her from disclosing during the 2016 presidential campaign a sexual encounter that she had with Trump.
2019 - Japan-based Nissan confirmed that Chief Performance Officer Jose Munoz had resigned. His was the first high-profile departure at the Japanese automaker as related to the arrest of former Chairman Carlos Ghosn. Ghosn, once one of the most celebrated executives in the auto industry and the anchor of Nissan’s alliance with France’s Renault SA, had been charged with underreporting his income, and with aggravated breach of trust, accused of shifting personal investment losses worth ¥1.85 billion to Nissan.
2019 - The U.S. government shutdown entered a record 22nd day, as POTUS Donald Trump remained steadfast in his demand for $5.7 billion to build a Mexico border wall -- and Democrats in Congress refused to give him the funds.
2020 - A massive fire in Bound Brook, New Jersey destroyed three buildings and damaged a fourth, causing more than 100 residents to be evacuated and leaving thousands of people without power.
2020 - Iran’s security forces deployed in large numbers across the capital city of Tehran, in anticipation of protests. This, after its Revolutionary Guard admitted to shooting down a passenger plane. The crash of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 killed all 176 people on board, mostly Iranians and Iranian-Canadians. After initially pointing to a technical failure and insisting the armed forces were not to blame, Iran admitted to “accidentally” shooting it down.
2021 - YouTube suspended Donald Trump’s channel over concerns about the “ongoing potential for violence,” making it the latest platform to limit Trump’s online activities.
2021 - General Motors stock jumped to its highest level since the company’s post-bankruptcy IPO in 2010, as the automaker announced its entry into the growing electric delivery vehicle business.
2021 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada has ordered an additional 20 million doses of Pfizer Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine after provinces complained about inadequate supplies.
2022 - Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson apologized after ITV reported that the PM’s senior adviser had invited about a 100 people to a drinks party in the No. 10 garden in May 2020 -- a time when the U.K. was battling its first wave of the coronavirus.
2022 - U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled that Virginia Giuffre could pursue claims that Britain’s Prince Andrew battered her and intentionally caused her emotional distress. Giuffre said she was forced to have sex with the prince when she was a teenager at a London home of Jeffrey Epstein’s then-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, and also that he allegedly abused her at Epstein’s properties in Manhattan and the Caribbean.
2022 - Ronnie Spector died at 78 years of age. Spector, the lead singer of the Ronettes, gave a bad-girl edge to pop music’s girl-group sound in the 1960s. The vocal trio’s hits included Be My Baby and Baby, I Love You.
2023 - Singer, songwriter Lisa Marie Presley, the only child of Elvis Presley, died after going into cardiac arrest at her home in Calabasas, CA. She was 54. Presley’s personal life made her famous, as the daughter of Elvis, and wife of pop star Michael Jackson (1994-1996). And she made her own musical mark with three studio albums. Cause of her death was a small bowel obstruction. The Los Angeles County medical examiner’s office determined that the obstruction was caused by adhesions -- buildups of scar tissue that cause organ tissue or walls to stick together -- that Presley developed after she had bariatric surgery years ago. Her death cast new attention to the rare risks and long-term complications of that surgery (induces weight loss by modifying the stomach or small intestine to reduce how much food the stomach can hold).
2024 - Movies opening in U.S. theatres included: The Beekeeper, starring Jason Statham, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Bobby Naderi, Josh Hutcherson and Jeremy Irons; The Book of Clarence, with Benedict Cumberbatch, James McAvoy, David Oyelowo and Alfre Woodard; and Mean Girls, starring Angourie Rice, Jon Hamm, Jenna Fischer and Reneé Rapp.
and more...
Birthdays on This Day January 12
1729 - Edmund Burke
statesman, philosopher: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”; died July 9, 17971856 - John Singer Sargent
American painter/portraitist: Girl in a Pink Dress, Lady Agnew of Lochnaw, Mrs. Fiske Warren and Her Daughter; died Apr 15, 19251876 - Jack London (John Chaney)
author: The Sea Wolf, The Call of the Wild, White Fang; died Nov 22, 19161902 - Joe E. Lewis (Klewan)
comedian, actor: Lady in Cement, Private Buckaroo; died June 4, 19711905 - Tex (Woodward Maurice) Ritter
country singer: High Noon, Blood on the Saddle; actor, John Ritter’s father; died Jan 2, 19741910 - Patsy Kelly
actress: The North Avenue Irregulars, The Pigeon, Rosemary’s Baby, C’mon, Let’s Live a Little, The Naked Kiss, The Crowded Sky; died Sep 24, 19811910 - Luise Rainer
Academy Award-winning actress: The Great Ziegfeld [1936], The Good Earth [1937]; died Dec 30, 20141915 - Martin (Zama) Agronsky
journalist, TV moderator: Face the Nation [1965-69]; TV host: At Issue; died July 25, 19991916 - P.W. Botha
President of South Africa [1978-1984, 1987-1989]; died Oct 31, 20061925 - Katherine ‘Scottie’ MacGregor
actress: Little House on the Prairie, Mannix, Ironside, Emergency, All in the Family, Tell Me Where It Hurts, The Girls of Huntington House, The Death of Me Yet, The Student Nurses, The Traveling Executioner; died Nov 13, 20181926 - Ray Price
singer: Crazy Arms, Make the World Go Away, For the Good Times, I Won’t Mention it Again, Nightlife; died Dec 16, 20131928 - Lloyd Ruby
auto racer: 18 Indianapolis 500 races, completed all 200 laps in the Indy 500 five times; died Mar 23, 20091930 - Tim Horton
hockey: NHL: Toronto Maple Leafs, NY Rangers, Pittsburgh Penguins, Buffalo Sabres; killed in car crash Feb 21, 19741930 - Bruce Lansbury
writer, producer, director: Murder, She Wrote, The Return of the Six-Million-Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman; brother of actress Angela Lansbury; died Feb 13, 20171930 - Glenn Yarbrough
singer: group: The Limeliters; solo: Baby the Rain Must Fall; died Aug 11, 20161935 - Kreskin (George Kresge)
psychic and mind reader; actor: Horror; TV host: The Amazing World of Kreskin1936 - Ron Harper
actor: Wendy and Me, The Planet of the Apes, The Jean Arthur Show, Garrison’s Gorillas, 87th Precinct1937 - Shirley Eaton
actress: Goldfinger, The Seven Secrets of Sumuru, Around the World Under the Sea, Dentist on the Job, Carry on Sergeant, Sailor Beware1939 - William Lee Golden
singer: group: The Oak Ridge Boys: Talk About the Good Times, Where the Soul Never Dies, Cryin’ Again, American Made, Love Song, I Guess It Never Hurts to Cry Sometimes, Everyday, Make My Life with You, Little Things, Touch a Hand Make a Friend, Elvira1943 - Tucker (Ivan) Frederickson
football: Auburn Univ., New York Giants [Pro Bowl: 1965] RB1944 - Joe Frazier
boxer: ‘Smokin’ Joe’: World Heavyweight Champion [1970-1973]; died Nov 7, 20111945 - Maggie Bell
rock artist: Group: Stone the Crows1946 - Cynthia Robinson
singer, musician: trumpet; groups: Sly and the Family Stone: Dance to the Music, Everyday People, [I Want to Take You] Higher, Hot Fun in the Summertime, Thank You [Falettinme be Mice Elf Agin]; The Stoners; died Nov 23, 20151948 - Anthony Andrews
actor: Haunted, Hands of a Murderer, Hanna’s War, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Ivanhoe, Brideshead Revisited1950 - Randy (Randall Leo) Jones
baseball: pitcher: San Diego Padres [all-star: 1975, 1976/Cy Young Award: 1976], NY Mets1951 - Kirstie Alley
Emmy Award-winning actress: Cheers [1991]; Look Who’s Talking1951 - Rush Limbaugh (Rush Hudson Limbaugh III)
right-wing radio talk show host: The Rush Limbaugh Show1951 - Drew Pearson
football: Dallas Cowboys WR; Super Bowl X, XII, XIII1952 - Ricky Van Shelton
country singer: albums: Love and Honor, A Bridge I Didn’t Burn, Greatest Hits Plus, Don’t Overlook Salvation, Backroads, RVS III, RVS Sings Christmas, Loving Proof, Wild-Eyed Dream; singles: Backroads, Living Proof, Keep It Between the Lines, From a Jack to a King, I Am a Simple Man, I’ll Leave This World, Rockin’ Years (w/Dolly Parton), Don’t We All Have the Right, I’ve Cried My Last Tear for You, Life Turned Her That Way, Statue of a Fool, Somebody Lied1954 - Howard Stern
syndicated/satellite radio talk-show host, TV host: The Howard Stern Show; actor: Private Parts1955 - Felipe Rose
American Indian-attired singer: group: The Village People: Y.M.C.A, In the Navy, Macho Man1957 - John Lasseter
animator, screenwriter, producer: chief creative officer for Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios; Principal Creative Advisor for Walt Disney Imagineering; film director: Toy Story, Toy Story 2, A Bug’s Life, Cars, Cars 21958 - Christiane Amanpour
TV news correspondent: Chief International Correspondent for CNN; host of CNN International’s nightly interview program Amanpour; Global Affairs Anchor for ABC News1959 - Per Gessle
musician: guitar, singer: group: Roxette1959 - Bob West
voice actor: voice of Barney: Barney and Friends, Sesame Street1960 - Oliver Platt
actor: The Bear, Huff, Bulworth, Married to the Mob, Crusoe, Flatliners, Indecent Proposal, The Three Musketeers, Doctor Dolittle, Simon Birch, Bicentennial Man, Gun Shy, Ash Wednesday1960 - Dominique Wilkins
basketball: Univ of Georgia; NBA: Atlanta Hawks, LA Clippers, Boston Celtics, SA Spurs, Orlando Magic1964 - Jeff Bezos
founder/CEO of Amazon.com; owner of The Washington Post1965 - Madison Stone
actress [1990-1999]: X-rated films: Jail Babes, Eyewitness Nudes, Voodoo Vixens, Juicy Sex Scandals, Genie in a Bikini, Private Dancer, Up Against It, Best of Leather and Lace1965 - Henry Thomas
football: Louisiana State Univ; NFL: Minnesota Vikings, Detroit Lions, New England Patriots1965 - Alexandra Wentworth
actress: Head Case, Jerry Maguire, Office Space, It’s Complicated, In Living Color, Seinfeld, Felicity, The Marriage Ref1966 - Olivier Martinez
actor: Before Night Falls, Unfaithful, S.W.A.T. [2003], Un, deux, trois, soleil, The Horseman on the Roof, The Chambermaid on the Titanic, Cybergeddon1967 - Vendela Kirsebom
model, actress: The Parent Trap, Batman and Robin, Cuore di ladro1968 - Farrah Forke
actress: Wings, Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Kate’s Addiction, Hitman’s Run; voice actress: Batman Beyond, Justice League Unlimited; died Feb 25, 20221968 - Rachael Harris
comedian, actress: Lucifer, Star Trek: Voyager, Sister, Sister, The Daily Show, The Sarah Silverman Program, Reno 911!, The West Wing, The Good Guys, Friends, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Monk, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Desperate Housewives, Fat Actress, Notes from the Underbelly, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, For Your Consideration, Kicking & Screaming, Daddy Day Care, The Hangover, Diary of a Wimpy Kid1968 - Lee Stone
actor [1999-2012]: X-rated films: Sorority Shower Cam, Three on a Honeymoon, Trailer Trash Nurses 6, Outlaw Nymphets, Open Up and Say Ahhh, Tails from the Hollywood Hills, Sodom: The Beginning, Farmer’s Daughters Make You Go Yee-Haw!, More Than a Handful 16, Bedside Manners, Barely Legal 1251971 - Shane Dronett
football: Univ of Texas; NFL: Denver Broncos, Atlanta Falcons, Detroit Lions; died Jan 21, 20091971 - Andy Fox
baseball: NY Yankees, Arizona Diamondbacks, Florida Marlins, Texas Rangers and Montreal Expos1972 - Rich Loiselle
baseball [pitcher]: Odessa Jr. College; Pittsburgh Pirates1973 - Rich Parent
hockey: SL Blues, TB Lightning, Pittsburgh Penguins1974 - Melanie Chisholm
singer: group: Spice Girls [Sporty]: LPs: Forever, Spice, Goodbye, Spiceworld1975 - Lisa Rieffel
actress: Drowning Mona, The Patron Saint of Liars, Forget Paris, The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw, In the Line of Duty: The F.B.I.1975 - Jocelyn Thibault
hockey: Quebec Nordiques, Colorado Avalanche, Montreal Canadiens, Chicago Blackhawks1975 - Nate Wayne
football: Univ of Mississippi; NFL: Denver Broncos, Green Bay Packers, Philadelphia Eagles1977 - Jeno James
football: Auburn Univ; NFL: Carolina Panthers, Miami Dolphins1979 - Marian Hossa
hockey [winger]: NHL: Ottawa Senators [1997-2004]; Atlanta Thrashers [2005-2007], Pittsburgh Penguins [2007-2008], Detroit Red Wings [2008-2009], Chicago Blackhawks [2009-2016]: 2010, 2013, 2015 Stanley Cup champs1980 - Bobby Crosby
baseball: Cal State-Long Beach; Oakland Athletics1984 - Chaunté Lowe
star high jumper: U.S. record holder in women’s high jump: outdoors [2.05 m], indoors [2.02 m]1985 - Issa Rae
writer, director, actress: Insecure, I Hate L.A. Dudes, Awkward Black Girl [YouTube web series], The Hate U Give; more1986 - Gemma Arterton
actress: St Trinian’s, Quantum of Solace, Clash of the Titans, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, Byzantium, Runner, Runner1987 - Naya Rivera
actress: Glee, Glee: The 3D Concert Movie, Frankenhood, The Bernie Mac Show, Pajama Rama, The Royal Family; Rivera drowned Jul 8, 2020 at Lake Piru, CA (she had been swimming with her four-year-old son, who was found alone on their rented pontoon boat; her body was recovered on the morning of Jul 13, following a five-day search)1987 - Will Rothhaar
actor: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: New York, Ghost Whisperer, Cold Case, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Mad About You, Listen Up!, Must Love Dogs, Battle: Los Angeles1988 - Andrew Lawrence
actor: Hawaii Five-0 [2013+], Jack Frost, Bean, Brotherly Love, Tom, The Kids from Room 4021993 - Zayn Malik
singer: group: One Direction: What Makes You Beautiful, Gotta Be You, Live While We’re Young, Little Things, One Way or Another [Teenage Kicks], Best Song Ever, Story of My Life
and still more...
Hit Music on This Day January 12
1951Tennessee Waltz (facts) - Patti Page
The Thing (facts) - Phil Harris
1960
1969
1978
1987
1996
2005
2014
2023
and even more...
Those were the days, my friend. We thought they’d never end...
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