January 18
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Events on This Day
1778 - Captain James Cook of the British Navy thought he was the first to find a group of islands in the Pacific. He named them the Sandwich Islands in honor of England’s Earl of Sandwich, the first lord of the British Admiralty. Little did he know that the islands already had a name. The people who lived on them called the islands Hawaii (known to us now as the 50th of the United States). Actually, these islands had been discovered long before this day by the Polynesians. Other explorers before Cook probably stopped at the Hawaiian Islands as early as the 1500s. However, it was Cook who spread the word of the existence of this group of tropical isles to the rest of the world.
1886 - The Hockey Association was formed in England. This date is celebrated as the birthday of modern field hockey ... not the kind of hockey played on ice. That came later.
1896 - The x-ray machine was exhibited (in New York City) for the first time. To see the machine, one had to pay a 25¢ admission charge. To see an x-ray machine at your friendly neighborhood doctor’s or dentist’s office will set you back at least $65 today. See the nurse at the desk, please...
1937 - CBS radio introduced listeners to Aunt Jenny’s Real Life Stories for the first time. A complete story was told in five, 15-minute episodes which aired Monday thru Friday each week. Aunt Jenny was played by Edith Spencer and later, by Agnes Young. The show continued on radio until 1956 and was sponsored over the years by Spry shortening and Lux soap. Aunt Jenny’s whistling canary, for those of you ready to inquire, was played by animal imitator, Henry Boyd.
1939 - Louis Armstrong and his Orchestra recorded Jeepers Creepers on Decca Records. Satchmo lent his vocal talents to this classic jump tune.
1943 - U.S. commercial bakers stopped selling sliced bread. Only whole loaves were sold until the end of World War II. The purpose of the ban was to reduce bakery demand for metal replacement parts needed for the war -- and wax paper -- and wheat.
1944 - The first jazz concert was held at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. The stars of the concert were Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Artie Shaw, Roy Eldridge, Art Tatum, and Jack Teagarden. What a ticket!
1948 - Ted Mack came to television as The Original Amateur Hour debuted on the DuMont network. The program continued on different networks for a 22-year run on the tube. We remember it being sponsored by Geritol. The original, Original Amateur Hour, on radio, was hosted by Major Bowes. In the TV version, Mack presented many up-and-coming stars who later claimed great fame in show biz. Teresa Brewer and Pat Boone are just a couple.
1951 - Joan Blondell made her debut on TV in the Pot of Gold episode of Airflyte Theatre on CBS-TV. Twenty-one-years earlier she had made her film debut in Sinner’s Holiday with James Cagney. They were both stage performers before Al Jolson discovered them for Warner Brothers.
1957 - The first, non-stop, ’round-the-world jet flight came to an end at Riverside, CA. The flight(s) by three B-52Bs lasted 45 hours, 19 minutes, with only three aerial refuelings en route.
1964 - Plans for the World Trade Center were unveiled in New York. The decision to build the WTC had been made in 1961. Commencement of site excavation began in 1966; and the steel construction phase started in 1968.
1967 - Yellowknife replaced Ottawa as capital of Northwest Territories in Canada. Though it’s a much-maligned choice now, Yellowknife in 1967 was a big step up from having things run out of Ottawa.
1968 - Singer Eartha Kitt made headlines, as she got into a now-famous confrontation with Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson -- wife of the President of the United States -- at a White House luncheon to discuss urban crime. Ms. Kitt told Lady Bird (the First Lady) that American youth were rebelling against the war in Vietnam, linking the crime rate with the war escalation. She had a lot to say and it definitely was not, C’est Si Bon.
1968 - Robert Goulet starred in The Happy Time as it opened at The Broadway Theatre in New York City on this day. Closing on September 28, 1968, after a run of 286 sparsely attended performances, The Happy Time was the first Broadway musical to lose a million dollars.
1973 - Pink Floyd began recording Dark Side of the Moon, which would become the longest-charting record in Billboard magazine’s history. It remained on the album chart for more than 14 years - until mid-1988 - selling over five-million copies.
1975 - The Jeffersons was seen for the first time on CBS-TV. The show was a spin-off; based on the black family that moved next door to the bigoted Archie Bunker in All in the Family. The show lasted for several seasons and is still seen in syndicated reruns. Sherman Hemsley plays the part of George Jefferson, Isabelle Sanford is in the role of Weezie.
1976 - Super Bowl X (at Miami): Pittsburgh Steelers 21, Dallas Cowboys 17. Terry Bradshaw, Lynn Swann and the Steel Curtain made the difference. MVP: Steelers’ WR Swann. Tickets: $20.00.
1980 - Studio 54 owners Steve Rubell & Ian Schrager were sentenced to three years in prison for tax evasion. The New York City night club owners were also fined $20,000.
1982 - Four Thunderbirds pilots died when their T-38 Talon jets crashed at Indian Springs Auxiliary Airfield, NV. It was the worst accident in the history of the Thunderbirds.
1983 - The International Olympic Committee restored Jim Thorpe’s Olympic medals 70 years after they were taken from him for being paid $25 in semipro baseball.
1985 - Running in competition for the first time since her famed collision with Zola Budd during the 1984 Olympics, Mary Decker broke a world indoor record. She ran the women’s 2,000-meter race in just 5 minutes, 34.2 seconds. The indoor track meet was held in Los Angeles.
1986 - Dionne Warwick’s single for AID’s research, That’s What Friends are For, became her second #1 song on the music charts. Although Dionne had many hits in the 1960s, singing Burt Bacharach tunes like, I Say a Little Prayer and Do You Know the Way to San Jose; she first hit the top spot when she added an ‘e’ to Warwick and joined the Spinners in the 1974 hit, Then Came You. She changed her name back to Warwick (without the ‘e’) after making a couple of hits produced by Barry Manilow in the early ’80s. That’ll do it. Remember, I’ll Never Love This Way Again?
1991 - Financially strapped Eastern Airlines shut down after 62 years in the flying business.
1992 - The Hollywood Foreign Press Association presented its Golden Globe awards. The Beauty and the Beast, Bugsy, JFK and The Prince of Tides were among the winners.
1993 - The Martin Luther King Jr. holiday was observed in all 50 U.S. states for the first time. New Hampshire and Arizona were the last states to join in observance of the King holiday.
1994 - Iran-Contra prosecutor Lawrence Walsh released his final report in which he said former President Reagan had acquiesced in a cover-up of the scandal -- meaning that he had allowed it to happen, though he did not really agree with it. Reagan called the accusation “baseless.”
1995 - Media magnate Silvio Berlusconi stepped down as Italy’s prime minister, handing over power to Lamberto Dini.
1995 - The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, designed by Swiss architect Mario Botta, opened. It cost $62 million to build the 225,000 square foot structure.
1996 - Lisa Marie Presley-Jackson filed for divorce from Michael Jackson. They were married May 18, 1994.
1996 - Pool hustler Minnesota Fats (Rudolf Wanderone Jr.) died. He was 82 years old.
1997 - Oscar De La Hoya defended his World Boxing Council super lightweight title in Las Vegas. He won a 12-round unanimous decision over Miguel Angel Gonzalez.
1997 - Norwegian Borge Ousland completed the first solo crossing of Antarctica via the South Pole. Ousland travelled 1,675 miles and was the first to traverse the continent alone.
1997 - Former U.S. Senator Paul Tsongas (D-Massachusetts), who rebounded from cancer to briefly become the Democratic front-runner for president in 1992, died in Boston of pneumonia. He was 55 years old.
1998 - The annual Golden Globes were passed out in Beverly Hills. Titanic won for best drama, best director (James Cameron), best score and best original song. As Good as it Gets won best film comedy/musical, best actor for Jack Nicholson, and best actress for Helen Hunt. Ally McBeal was voted best TV comedy.
2000 - A U.S. test missile fired from the Marshall Islands failed to shoot down a mock warhead fired from a California air base. It was a blow to the Pentagon’s push to develop a national missile defense.
2001 - U.S. President Bill Clinton, in a farewell from the Oval Office, told the nation that America had done well during his presidency, with record-breaking prosperity and a cleaner environment.
2002 - Films debuting in U.S. theatres: Black Hawk Down, starring Josh Hartnett, Ewan Mcgregor, Tom Sizemore, Eric Bana, William Fichtner, Ewen Bremner, Sam Shepard, Gabriel Casseus, Kim Coates, Hugh Dancy, Ron Eldard, Ioan Gruffudd and Thomas Guiry; and Snow Dogs, with Cuba Gooding, Jr., James Coburn, Joanna Bacalso, Nichelle Nichols, Sisqo, M. Emmet Walsh, Graham Greene and Brian Doyle-Murray.
2003 - Michelle Kwan won her sixth straight U.S. Figure Skating Championships title (her seventh overall); Michael Weiss won his third U.S. men’s title.
2004 - London billionaire twins Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay (69) announced their plan to buy a controlling interest in Hollinger Inc., the Toronto-based parent of Hollinger International, publisher of London’s Daily Telegraph.
2004 - The New England Patriots earned their second trip to the Super Bowl in three seasons by defeating the Indianapolis Colts 24-14 in the AFC championship game; the Carolina Panthers defeated the Philadelphia Eagles, 14-3, in the NFC championship game.
2005 - Cuba published a resolution by its commerce ministry that smoking would be prohibited in theaters, stores, buses, taxis and other enclosed public areas -- effective Feb 7, 2005.
2005 - Airbus unveiled the 840-passenger A380, the world’s biggest passenger jet, in a glitzy ceremony in Toulouse, France. The leaders of France, Britain, Germany and Spain hailed the aircraft as the new king of the commercial skies.
2006 - China recorded its sixth death from the avian flu virus, according to a report on the Chinese Health Ministry’s Web site.
2006 - The couple who conspired to extort money from Wendy’s restaurants by planting a severed finger in a bowl of chili and then suing the restaurant was sentenced to prison. Anna Ayala, 40, who said she bit into the digit, was sentenced to nine years. Her husband, Jaime Plascencia, 44, who obtained the finger from a co-worker who lost it in a workplace accident, was sentenced to more than 12 years.
2007 - Venezuelan lawmakers gave initial approval to a bill granting President Hugo Chávez the power to rule by decree for 18 months so that he could impose sweeping economic, social and political change.
2008 - New movies in the U.S.: 27 Dresses, starring Katherine Heigl, James Marsden, Malin Akerman, Ed Burns, Melora Hardin and Judy Greer; Cloverfield, with Michael Stahl-David, Mike Vogel, Odette Yustman, Lizzy Caplan, JessicaLucas and T. J. Miller Mad Money, starring Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah, Katie Holmes, Ted Danson, Roger Cross, Adam Rothenberg and Finesse Mitchell.
2008 - Russian President Vladimir Putin completed a pipeline deal with Bulgaria that strengthened Moscow’s grip on European gas markets.
2009 - And speaking of that Russian grip: The prime ministers of Russia and Ukraine agreed to resolve their natural gas dispute, with an understanding that prices would be pegged to the price of oil, but with a discount for 2009 that meant Ukraine could pay little more than it did the previous year.
2009 - TV actor and stuntman Bob May died at 69 years of age. May donned the Robot’s suit in the hit 1960s television show Lost in Space. May also served as a stuntman on programs like Cheyenne, Surfside 6, Hawaiian Eye, The Roaring 20s and Stagecoach. According to actress June Lockhart, who portrayed Lost in Space matriarch Maureen Robinson, May got the job as the space-faring family’s robot sidekick simply because he was able to fit into the costume.
2010 - Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turk who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981, was released from prison after more than 29 years behind bars.
2011 - A report to a parliamentary commission on equal opportunities revealed that some 187,000 women in Turkey are in polygamous marriages even though polygamy is illegal.
2011 - U.S. President Barack Obama ordered a government-wide review of regulations with the goal of eliminating those that hurt job creation and made the U.S. economy less competitive.
2012 - The European Union said it was doubling humanitarian aid to Africa’s Sahel area -- to 95 million euros -- in a ‘race against time’ to lift two million people facing food shortages out of danger.
2013 - New movies in the U.S.: Broken City, starring Mark Wahlberg, Russell Crowe, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Natalie Martinez, Kyle Chandler and Catherine Kim Poon; The Last Stand, with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rodrigo Santoro, Jaimie Alexander, Forest Whitaker, Genesis Rodriguez, Peter Stormare, Johnny Knoxville, Luis Guzmán and Harry Dean Stanton; Mama, starring Jessica Chastain, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Megan Charpentier, Jane Moffat, Daniel Kash, Julia Chantrey and Hannah Cheesman; Outside Satan, with David Dewaele, Alexandra Lemâtre, Christophe Bon, Juliette Bacquet, Aurore Broutin, Sonia Barthélémy, Valérie Mestdagh and Dominique Caffier; and LUV, starring Common (Lonnie Rashid Lynn), Michael Rainey Jr., Dennis Haysbert, Danny Glover, Charles S. Dutton, Meagan Good, Lonette McKee and Michael Kenneth Williams.
2013 - Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin was indicted on charges that he used his office for personal gain, accepting payoffs, free trips and gratuities from contractors while the city was struggling to recover from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. The 21 counts of corruption were issued by a U.S. federal grand jury. (In Feb 2014 Nagin was convicted on 20 of 21 criminal counts. That July he was sentenced to ten years in federal prison.)
2014 - The Annual SAG [Screen Actors Guild] Awards were handed out for the 20th time. The show at the Shrine Exposition Center in Los Angeles featured American Hustle winning for outstanding film cast. Other movie awards went to Actor Matthew McConaughey [Dallas Buyers Club], Actress Cate Blanchett [Blue Jasmine], Supporting Actor Jared Leto [Dallas Buyers Club] and Supporting Actress Lupita Nyong’o [12 Years a Slave]. TV award winners included the cast of Breaking Bad, Actress Maggie Smith [Downton Abbey] and Comedy Actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus [Veep]. The TV film Actor award went to Michael Douglas for his portrayal of Liberace in Behind the Candelabra.
2015 - Iran and major powers made “limited” progress in narrowing differences over its nuclear program, but agreed to step up efforts as the Obama administration lobbied to stave off fresh sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
2016 - Oxfam, an international confederation of charitable organizations, reported that 62 people owned the same wealth as half the world’s population. In 2012 the number of people as wealthy as half the world was 388.
2017 - A former U.K. ambassador to Russia, Sir Andrew Wood, said the Kremlin’s use of sexual entrapment is “widespread.” It was the persistent rumors of the Trump/Russia dossier that had Wood concerned. The retired British ambassador to Russia was concerned enough that he met with U.S. Senator John McCain at a security conference in November 2016. Wood said he didn’t know if the allegations were true, but the tactic of sexual entrapment by Russia’s intelligence services, the FSB, is widespread. “It is just a very common practice and for the FSB to say they never use it is laughable,” he said.
2017 - Barack Obama gave his last press conference as U.S. president, during which he said that he would not stay silent if he saw what he called the nation’s core values at risk in a Trump presidency. Obama also thanked the press and spoke about the role they played during his presidency. “Having you in this building has made this place work better,” the president said. “It keeps us honest. It makes us work harder. You have -- it made us think about how we are doing what we do and whether or not we’re able to deliver on what’s been requested by our constituents.”
2018 - U.S. safety regulators released a list of models from 14 different automakers being recalled to replace potentially deadly Takata air bag inflators. Ford, Nissan, Mercedes-Benz, Ferrari, Daimler Vans, Toyota, Tesla, BMW, Fiat Chrysler, Mazda, Subaru, Jaguar-Land Rover, McLaren and Volkswagen were all on the list. In December 2017 Takata had recalled an additional 3.3 million faulty air bag inflators as it expanded the largest automotive recall in U.S. history.
2018 - A pair of Australian swimmers became the first people to be rescued at sea by a drone when the aerial lifesaver dropped a safety device to distressed teens caught in rough seas. Two boys got caught in three-metre (10-foot) swells while swimming off Lennox Head in New South Wales. Beachgoers onshore raised the alarm to the lifeguards who alerted the drone pilot, and the aerial lifesaver was deployed. “I was able to launch it, fly it to the location, and drop the pod all in about one to two minutes,” lifeguard supervisor Jai Sheridan said. Along with their ability to spot swimmers in trouble and deliver life saving devices faster than traditional lifesaving techniques, like launching surfboards or rubber dinghies, drones were also being used in Australia to spot underwater predators like sharks and jellyfish.
2019 - Movies debuting in U.S. theatres included: Glass, starring Sarah Paulson, Bruce Willis, James McAvoy, Anya Taylor-Joy and Samuel L. Jackson; An Acceptable Loss, with Tika Sumpter, Jamie Lee Curtis and Ben Tavassoli; Adult Life Skills, starring Jodie Whittaker, Lorraine Ashbourne and Brett Goldstein; Canal Street, with Michael Beach, Lance Reddick and Will Yun Lee; I Hate Kids, with Tom Everett Scott, Tituss Burgess and Julian Feder; The Last Man, starring Hayden Christensen, Harvey Keitel and Marco Leonardi; and The Standoff at Sparrow Creek, with Happy Anderson, Patrick Fischler and James Badge Dale.
2019 - Some 134 people were killed and many others were injured after a pipeline ruptured by suspected fuel thieves exploded near the town of Tlahuelilpan, Hidalgo state (central Mexico).
2019 - The scandal-plagued Swedish body that awards the Nobel Prize for Literature announced poet Katarina Frostenson would be leaving the Academy. An investigation had determined that Frostenson had leaked the names of winners. Frostenson, and her photographer husband Jean-Claude Arnault, had been at the center of turmoil at the Swedish Academy, which led to its decision to skip the awarding of a Nobel Prize for Literature in 2018.
2020 - Florida authorities arrested 60-year-old Robert Eugene Koehler, a registered sex offender from Palm Bay. He was thought to be the notorious Pillowcase Rapist who raped more than 40 women in South Florida between 1981 and 1986. The big break in the case came when Koehler’s 29-year-old son was arrested for domestic violence; the DNA collected from him closely matched the Pillowcase Rapist’s, which led investigators to focus on the elder Koehler.
2020 - Church and civic leaders in Missouri said nearly $13 million in medical debt had been wiped out for 11,108 families in the St. Louis area. This, with money raised by more than a dozen United Church of Christ congregations and the Deaconess Foundation. The charitable effort of eliminating medical debt for families was said to be increasingly popular with churches and other groups.
2020 - Chinese authorities said they had discovered four more cases of pneumonia following an outbreak of what is believed to be a new coronavirus strain in the central city of Wuhan, raising concerns that the disease could spread further.
2021 - Steven Dillingham resigned as director of the Census Bureau. His stepping down brought to an end a tumultuous tenure that culminated in charges that hem had allowed politics to override policy. News of Dillingham’s resignation came days after the Trump administration gave up trying to exclude unauthorized immigrants from the 2020 census results, halting what would have been an unprecedented change to numbers that, according to the Constitution, must include the “whole number of persons in each state.”
2021 - The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) launched a $40 million scholarship program to support a new generation of civil rights lawyers, dedicated to pursuing racial justice across the South. With a whopping gift from a single anonymous donor, the fund planned to put 50 students through law school. In return, they had to commit to eight years of racial justice work in the South, starting with a two-year, post-graduate fellowship in a civil rights organization.
2021 - U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson unveiled a £23 million fund to compensate the fishing industry for losses caused by Brexit red tape. More than a dozen large lorries -- one bearing the words “Brexit carnage!” -- drove past the Houses of Parliament in central London and parked outside the Downing St. home of the P.M.
2021 - Coronavirus infections in the Philippines surged past 500,000 -- a new bleak milestone -- with the government facing criticism for failing to immediately launch a vaccination program amid a global scramble for COVID-19 vaccines.
2022 - AT&T said it would temporarily halt turning on some wireless towers near key airport runways to avert a looming aviation crisis -- and the White House was pushing Verizon Communications to follow suit. Worries were that 5G radio signals could interfere with navigational systems on some aircraft. The FAA later said that some altimeters were susceptible to 5G interference. To preserve safety, aircraft with those altimeters were prohibited from performing low-visibility landings where 5G is deployed because those altimeters could provide inaccurate information.
2022 - Drugmaker Endo International plc agreed to pay some $65 million to resolve claims by the state of Florida and local governments that the drugmaker had helped fuel the U.S. opioid epidemic.
2022 - Hong Kong warned people not to kiss pets and ordered a mass cull of hamsters after 11 of the rodents tested positive for COVID-19.
2023 - A series of atmospheric river storms pummelling California finally subsided, after causing some 500 mudslides with extensive damage to 40 of the 58 counties. 20 people were killed by the storms. According to NOAA, the parade of storms dropped nearly 33 trillion gallons of precipitation on California.
2023 - The Church of England said it would allow blessings for same-sex civil marriages for the first time -- but still would not allow same-sex couples to get married in its churches. The decisions came after five years of discussions. England and Wales legalized same-sex marriage in 2013.
and more...
Birthdays on This Day January 18
1779 - Peter Roget
lexicographer: the man behind the thesaurus; inventor: log-log slide rule; died Sep 12, 18691782 - Daniel Webster
statesman: “Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable.”; subject of Benet’s The Devil and Daniel Webster; died Oct 24, 18521882 - A.A. (Alan Alexander) Milne
author: Winnie the Pooh, When We Were Very Young, Now We Are Six, The House at Pooh Corner; died Jan 31, 19561892 - Oliver (Norvell) Hardy
comedian, actor: vaudeville team with Stan Laurel: uncountable number of Laurel and Hardy feature films, most from the early 1930s; died Aug 7, 19571904 - Cary Grant (Archibald Alexander Leach)
actor: Hollywood heartthrob for 30+ years: She Done Him Wrong, Bringing Up Baby, The Philadelphia Story, Arsenic and Old Lace, To Catch a Thief, North by Northwest; never said, “Judy, Judy, Judy.”; died Nov 29, 19861908 - Lilian Bond
actress: The Westerner, Affairs of a Gentleman, Pirates of Tripoli, The Californians; died Jan 25, 19911911 - Danny Kaye (David Daniel Kaminski)
comedian, dancer, singer, actor: Up In Arms, Hans Christian Anderson, White Christmas, The Danny Kaye Show; UNICEF ambassador; broadcaster: partner in Kaye/Smith Broadcasting: KJR AM/FM, Seattle, KJRB, Spokane; died Mar 3, 19871915 - Syl Apps
Hockey Hall of Famer: Toronto Maple Leafs: won three Stanley Cups, Calder and Lady Byng Trophies, averaged 20 goals per season; died Dec 24, 19981921 - Constance Moore
actress: You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man, Show usinessB, Atlantic City, In Old Sacramento, Earl Carroll Sketchbook, Buck Rogers; died Sep 16, 20051922 - Johnny Costa
musician: piano: Flying Fingers, A Portrait of George Gershwin, Classic Costa, Dream; musical director: Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood; died Oct 11, 19961938 - Curt (Curtis Charles) Flood
baseball: Cincinnati Redlegs, SL Cardinals [World Series: 1964, 1967, 1968/all-star: 1964, 1966, 1968], Washington Senators; died Jan 20, 19971941 - Bobby Goldsboro
singer: Honey, See the Funny Little Clown, Summer: The First Time, Watching Scotty Grow1941 - David Ruffin (Davis Eli Ruffin)
lead singer: group: The Temptations; solo: My Whole World Ended [The Moment You Left Me], Walk Away from Love, Stand By Me [w/brother, Jimmy]; died June 1, 19911944 - Carl (Wendle) Morton
baseball: pitcher: Montreal Expos [National League Rookie of the Year: 1970], Atlanta Braves; died Apr 12, 19831944 - ‘Legs’ Larry Smith
musician: drums: group: The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band: I’m the Urban Spaceman; group: Bob Kerr’s Whoopee Band1945 - Jimmy Caruthers
auto racer: USAC National Midget Championship [1970]; died Oct 26, 19751948 - M.C. Gainey
actor: Pennies from Heaven, Leave, All About Steve, The Death and Life of Bobby Z, Two Tickets to Paradise, Wonderland, The New Guy, Breakdown, Two Idiots in Hollywood, Con Air, The Mighty Ducks, Are We There Yet, Terminator 3, Sideways, The Dukes of Hazzard [2005]1950 - Bud Stallworth
basketball: Univ of Kansas; NBA: Seattle SuperSonics [1972–1974]; New Orleans Jazz [1974–1977]1950 - Pete Laframboise
hockey: Oshawa Generals, Ottawa 67s, Providence Reds, Baltimore Clippers, California Golden Seals, Washington Capitals, Pittsburgh Penguins, Hershey Bears, Springfield Indians, Edmonton Oilers, Binghamton Dusters1950 - Pat Sullivan
football: Atlanta Falcons quarterback; Auburn: Heisman Trophy winner [1971]1953 - Brett Hudson
singer, comedian: Hudson Brothers1954 - Scott McGregor
baseball: pitcher: Baltimore Orioles [World Series: 1979, 1983]1955 - Kevin Costner
actor: Yellowstone, Field of Dreams, JFK, The Bodyguard, The Untouchables, Waterworld, The Postman, Thirteen Days; Academy Award- winning director: Dances with Wolves [1990]; builder of controversial entertainment complex on sacred Lakota Indian land in Black Hills of South Dakota1956 - Sharon Mitchell
actress [1975-2009]: X-rated films: Les Nympho Teens, Wanda Whips Wall Street, Good Girls, Bad Girls, Confessions of a Middle-Aged Nympho, 69 Pump Street, Motorcycle Mistress Mamas, Horny Throat, S.M.U.T. 16: Bright Lights/Dark City1957 - Tom Bailey
singer, musician: bass: group: The Thompson Twins: LP: Into The Gap, single: Hold Me Now1961 - Mark Messier
hockey: Edmonton Oilers, NY Rangers, Vancouver Canucks1964 - Brady Anderson
baseball: California-Irvine; Boston Red Sox, Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Indians1964 - Jane Horrocks
singer, [voice] actress: The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, Bring Me the Head of Mavis Davis, Lion of Oz, Watership Down, Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties, Tinker Bell1969 - Jesse L. Martin
actor: Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Law & Order: Trial by Jury, Rent, A Christmas Carol, Season of Youth, Burning House of Love, Deep in My Heart, Restaurant
1969 - Larry Webster
football [defensive tackle]: Univ of Maryland; NFL: Miami Dolphins, Cleveland Browns, Baltimore Ravens, New York Jets1970 - Scott Thomas
hockey: Buffalo Sabres, LA Kings1972 - Dwayne Carswell
football: Liberty Univ; NFL: Denver Broncos1972 - Ryan Kuehl
football: Univ of Virginia; NFL: Washington Redskins, Cleveland Browns, NY Giants1974 - Shane Burton
football: Univ of Tennessee; NFL: Miami Dolphins, Chicago Bears, NY Jets, Carolina Panthers1974 - Devon Odessa
actress: My So-Called Life, Broken Angel, Punks, The Others, Down Delaware Road, Pumpkin Head1975 - Radim Bicanek
hockey: Ottawa Senators, Chicago Blackhawks, Columbus Blue Jackets1975 - Rob Morris
football: Brigham Young Univ; NFL: Indianapolis Colts1975 - Derek M. Smith
football: Arizona State Univ; NFL: Washington Redskins, SF 49ers1975 - Jermaine Wiggins
football: Univ of Georgia; NFL: NE Patriots, Carolina Panthers, Minnesota Vikings1978 - Brian Falkenborg
baseball [pitcher]: Baltimore Orioles, LA Dodgers1978 - Josh Holden
hockey: Vancouver Canucks, Carolina Hurricanes, Toronto Maple Leafs1978 - Bryan Johnson
football: Boise State Univ; NFL: Washington Redskins, Chicago Bears1980 - Julius Peppers
football [defensive end]: Univ of North Carolina; NFL: Carolina Panthers [2002–2009: team career sacks leader (81)]; Chicago Bears [2010–2013]; 8× Pro Bowler: 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012' Green Bay Packers [2014–2016]; Carolina Panthers [2017–2018])1980 - Jason Segel
actor: How I Met Your Mother, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, I Love You Man, LolliLove, Certainly Not a Fairytale, Slackers, SLC Punk!, Dead Man on Campus, Can’t Hardly Wait1983 - Samantha Mumba
singer: Gotta Tell You, You Raise Me Up, Samantha Sings Christmas, I’m Right Here; actress: The Time Machine, Loose Women, Dancing on Ice1986 - Becca Tobin
actress: Glee, The New Rachel, Drop Dead Diva, Mystery Girls, House of DVF1987 - Zane Holtz
actor: From Dusk till Dawn: The Series, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Hunter Killer, Tempting Fate, NCIS, White Famous, Katy Keene, Beyond the Night1988 - Ashleigh Murray
singer, actress: Riverdale, Welcome to New York, Grind, Workout Girl, Deidra & Laney Rob a Train, Valley Girl1993 - Morgan York
actress: Hannah Montana, Cheaper By the Dozen [2003, 2005], The Pacifier, The Vest, Life With Bonnie, The Practice; sister of actress Wendy York1995 - Leonard Fournette
football [running back]: NFL: Jacksonville Jaguars [2017–2019]; Tampa Bay Buccaneers [2020–2022]: Super Bowl LIV; Buffalo Bills [2023– ]
and still more...
Hit Music on This Day January 18
1948Ballerina (facts) - Vaughn Monroe
How Soon (Will I Be Seeing You (facts) - Jack Owens
1957
1966
1975
1984
1993
2002
2011
2020
and even more...
Those were the days, my friend. We thought they’d never end...
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