January 26
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Events on This Day
1784 - Ben Franklin wrote to his daughter to tell her that he was unhappy that the bald eagle had been chosen as the national bird of the United States. He mentioned that he believed the turkey would have been a much more respectable choice. In a few days, Ben received a letter from his daughter. “Oh boy! Oh boy!” he exclaimed. When he opened it, he read these touching words: “Dear Dad, Sorry about the eagle thing. Go fly a kite!” And so he did. The rest, kids, is history. Well, part of it is. The turkey part is true. The rest, is made up.1802 - U.S. President Thomas Jefferson approved the first law defining the role and functions of the Library of Congress. The measure created the post of Librarian of Congress and gave Congress, through a Joint Committee on the Library, the authority to establish the Library’s budget and its rules and regulations.
1837 - 32 years and 15 days after Michigan was organized as a territory, it became the 26th state of the United States of America. Named Michigan after the American Indian word, Michigama, meaning great or large lake, Michigan borders four of the Great Lakes, and is divided into two peninsulas by the Straits of Mackinac that connect Lakes Michigan and Huron. The two peninsulas are recognized in the state motto: If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look around you. In Latin: Si quaeris peninsulam amoenam circumspice (sounds like Latin words that someone made up because someone somewhere decided that state mottos have to be written in Latin). Michigan is nicknamed the Wolverine State (although wolverines are very rare there) and/or the Great Lake State (its shores touch four of the five Great Lakes). The state bird is the robin; the state flower: apple blossom; state tree: white pine; state fish: trout; state gem: Isle Royal Greenstone aka Chlorastrolite. This gemstone wasn't enough for Michigan. It had to have a real stone, too ... the Petoskey stone. The state flag, which is blue charged with the arms of the state, waves over the state capital of Lansing. And in Latin that’s ....
1875 - George F. Green of Kalamazoo, Michigan patented the electric dental drill for sawing, filing, dressing and polishing teeth. Considering what they used before George came up with his invention (hammer, pliers, pipe wrench, chain saw (YeeeeeeoW!), the thought of that spiffy electric drill is kind of comforting...
1913 - Jim Thorpe wrote to the chairman of the Amateur Athletic Union and revealed that he had played professional baseball in 1909 and 1910. He returned the two gold medals (decathlon and pentathlon) that he had won in the 1912 Olympic games in Stockholm, Sweden. Sixty years later, and twenty years after his death, the AAU returned Jim Thorpe’s Olympic medals to his family.
1915 - U.S. President Woodrow Wilson signed the bill Congress had passed to establish Rocky Mountain National Park.
1934 - The Apollo Theatre opened in New York City as a ‘Negro vaudeville theatre’. It became the showplace for many of the great black entertainers, singers, groups and instrumentalists in the country.
1943 - Soviet troops defeated all but 12,000 Germans who were trapped at Stalingrad. The Russians also freed three of their main railways.
1945 - Dan Topping and Del Webb bought the New York Yankees baseball team for $2,800,000. They installed Larry MacPhail as president, giving him a third of the club and a 10-year contract to run it. The volatile, innovative MacPhail, who had previously brought new life to Cincinnati and Brooklyn baseball, brought night ball to Yankee Stadium.
1947 - The Greatest Story Ever Told was first heard on ABC radio. It was the first radio series to portray the voice of Jesus Christ.
1950 - India officially proclaimed itself a republic as Rajendra Prasad took the oath of office as president.
1956 - Buddy Holly had his first of three 1956 recording sessions for Decca Records and producer, Owen Bradley, in Nashville. Nothing much came out of those sessions. He formed the group, The Three Tunes (changed later to The Crickets), and went on to find fame and fortune when he hooked up with producer Norman Petty in New Mexico. Holly died in a plane crash near Mason City, IA, February 3, 1959 (“the day the music died”). He was 22. Holly was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986.
1960 - Burnsville, West Virginia beat the tar out of Widen, West Virginia in basketball. Burnsville, 173, Widen, 43. Danny Heater starred by pouring in 135 points!
1960 - Pete Rozelle was elected commissioner of the National Football League. He held that position for more than 25 years.
1961 - President John F. Kennedy appointed Dr. Janet G. Travell (Mrs. John Powell) to the post of personal physician to the President. Dr. Travell was the first woman to hold that post.
1962 - Bishop Joseph Burke of the Catholic Diocese in Buffalo, New York banned The Twist from its schools, parishes and youth events. The bishop declared the Chubby Checker song to be “impure.”
1970 - Commissioner Pete Rozelle of the NFL announced that the three major TV networks, NBC, CBS and ABC, had agreed to pay a total of $124,000,000 over four years to televise the National Football League games. CBS carried the NFC games and NBC had the AFC. ABC came in with an idea to broadcast a thing called Monday Night Football. Few thought it would go over well, but the broadcast soon made believers out of millions of fans.
1972 - A DC-9 exploded over Srbská Kamenice, Czechoslovakia, and flight attendant Vesna Vulovic fell 33,300 feet and survived (she was in a coma for 27 days).
1979 - Former U.S. Vice President Nelson A. Rockefeller died in New York. He was 70 years old.
1984 - CBS television was brave enough to bring back the sexist, violent, wisecracking Mike Hammer. Mickey Spillane’s extremely violent novels were equally as violent on TV. But this time, all the murder, extortion, kidnapping and robbery cases were solved by the handsome Stacy Keach. Not much else had changed from the original version except Velda, Mike’s secretary, played by Lindsay Bloom, was not only heard, but now was very easy on the primarily-male audience’s eyes. Tight, low-cut dresses were the rule. All female cast members were poured into their costumes. Mike’s best friend had a woman’s name, Betsy. Betsy was Hammer’s .45 caliber pistol that helped him out of many a scrap.
1985 - St. John’s University ended Georgetown’s 29-game winning streak with a 66-65 win. Chris Mullin lead St. Johns with 20 points. Patrick Ewing lead the Hoyas of Georgetown with 9 points, in this Big East Conference basketball game.
1986 - Super Bowl XX (at New Orleans): Chicago Bears 46, New England Patriots 10. Coach Mike Ditka, RT William ’The Refrigerator’ Perry, QB Jim McMahon, RB Walter Payton. Is it all coming back to you now? MVP: Bears’ DE Richard Dent. Tickets: $75.00. Nielsen TV ratings indicated that exactly 50 percent of the U.S. population watched at least some part of the game, making it, at the time, the most watched TV program in history.
1988 - Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical spectacular Phantom of the Opera, starring Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman, opened at the Majestic Theatre on Broadway. Phantom has broken all kinds of box-office records and continues to attract audiences.
1991 - Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev granted the KGB and Soviet Interior Ministry sweeping search-and-seizure powers to investigate ‘economic sabotage’ -- unauthorized economic reforms and privatization.
1992 - Super Bowl XXVI (at Minneapolis): Washington Redskins 37, Buffalo Bills 24. Washington led 37-10 before Buffalo scored a pair of TDs in the final six minutes. Bills’ QB Jim Kelly threw the football a record 58 times (with 4 interceptions) in the losing effort. MVP: Redskins’ QB Mark Rypien. Tickets: $150.00.
1992 - Provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), to aid the disabled, went into effect.
1993 - Former Czechoslovak President Vaclav Havel was elected president of the new Czech Republic.
1996 - Opening day in the U.S. for these movies: The romantic Bed of Roses, starring Christian Slater, Mary Stuart Masterson, Pamela Segall and Josh Brolin; and the comedy/drama Big Bully, with Rick Moranis, Tom Arnold, Julianne Phillips and Carol Kane.
1997 - Super Bowl XXXI (at New Orleans): Green Bay 35, New England 21. A classic team effort: QB Brett Favre passed for two TDs and Desmond Howard (MVP) returned a kickoff 99 yards for a score as the Packers won their 12th NFL championship and the first since Super Bowl II in 1968. Tickets: $275.00.
1998 - Compaq Computer Corp. and Digital Equipment Corp. announced plans to merge. In the largest computer biz acquisition to that time, the deal was worth $9.6 billion.
2000 - Tennis great Don Budge died in Scranton, Pennsylvania at the age of 84. In 1938, Don Budge became the first Grand Slam winner.
2001 - Movies debuting in U.S. theatres: The horror/drama Shadow of the Vampire, starring Willem Dafoe, John Malkovich, Udo Kier, Cary Elwes, Catherine Mccormack and Eddie Izzard; the comedy Sugar and Spice, with Marley Shelton, James Marsden, Mena Suvari and Marla Sokoloff; and The Wedding Planner, a romantic comedy starring Jennifer Lopez Matthew Mcconaughey Bridgette Wilson-Sampras Justin Chambers.
2001 - A magnitude 7.7 earthquake hit the Kachchh area in Gujarat, India. It was the most damaging earthquake in India in 50 years. Official Indian Government statistics: 19,403 dead and 68,478 injured.
2002 - Jennifer Capriati pulled off the biggest comeback in a Grand Slam final to beat Martina Hingis. Capriati scored 4-6, 7-6 (7), 6-2 to win the Australian Open.
2003 - Super Bowl XXXVII (at San Diego): Tampa Bay Buccaneers 48, Oakland Raiders 21. (The Raiders had been 3½ point favorites.) Coach Jon Gruden and his Bucs won their first NFL championship, routing the Raiders in the first matchup of the NFL’s best offense vs. its best defense. The Tampa Bay defense won the game, returning three of a record five interceptions for touchdowns. “There was nothing they could do to us,” Bucs defensive tackle Warren Sapp said. “Nothing.” Oakland quarterback Rich Gannon hardly looked like the NFL’s MVP. “We were just absolutely terrible. It was a nightmarish performance,” he said. Bucs owner Malcolm Glazer gave all the credit to the man he hired the previous year; the devilish, blond taskmaster known as ‘Chucky’ after the horror show doll. “I want to thank Coach Gruden for what he did,” said Glazer, who was the butt of jokes for his revolving coach search that finally brought Gruden from the Raiders. “He came from heaven and he brought us to heaven. We were waiting for the right man and the right man came - Jon Gruden.” Gruden, at 39, became the youngest coach to win a Super Bowl. Super Bowl MVP Dexter Jackson had two interceptions, as did Dwight Smith, who returned both of his picks for touchdowns, including a 50-yarder to finish off the scoring with 2 seconds left. Derrick Brooks also returned an interception for a touchdown. The Tampa Bay defense limited the Raiders to 19 yards rushing, 269 total yards and just 11 first downs. Tickets: $400-$500.
2005 - A Metrolink commuter train struck a sport utility vehicle in Glendale, CA. The train derailed and sideswiped another train, killing 11 people and injuring 120 others. Juan Manuel Alvarez (25) had left his SUV on the track after changing his mind about committing suicide.
2006 - During Republic Day celebrations in India, Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud put in an appearance as ‘chief guest’.
2007 - Movies opening in the U.S.: Blood and Chocolate, with Agnes Bruckner, Hugh Dancy, Olivier Martinez, Katja Riemann, Bryan Dick, Chris Geere, Tom Harper, John Kerr, Jack Wilson, Vitalie Ursu, Bogdan Voda, Kata Dobó, Rodica Mandache, Lia Bugnar and Mihai Calin; Catch and Release, starring Jennifer Garner, Timothy Olyphant, Sam Jaeger, Juliette Lewis and Kevin Smith; Epic Movie, with Crispin Glover, Kal Penn; and Smokin’ Aces, starring Ben Affleck, Andy Garcia, Alicia Keys, Ray Liotta, Jeremy Piven, Ryan Reynolds, Peter Berg, Martin Henderson, Taraji Henson, Common (Lonnie Rashid Lynn).
2007 - The United States banned exports of luxury items to North Korea, including jet skis, i-Pods, jewelry and fancy cars, in an effort to put pressure on dictator Kim Jong Il.
2007 - British police concluded that former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned by a lethal dose of radioactive Polonium-210 added to his tea while he was at a London hotel. (In January 2016, a U.K. public inquiry, headed by Sir Robert Owen, found that Andrey Lugovoy and Dmitry Kovtun were responsible for the poisoning of Litvinenko. The inquiry also found that there was a strong probability that Lugovoy and Kovtun were acting under the direction of the FSB, and that their actions were approved by both Nikolai Patrushev, Director of the FSB, and Russian President Vladimir Putin.)
2007 - The Maine Legislature passed a resolution objecting to the Real ID Act of 2005. The federal law set a national standard for driver’s licenses and required states to link their record-keeping systems to national databases. As of October 2009, 25 states had approved either resolutions or binding legislation not to participate in the Real ID Act.
2008 - Barack Obama routed Hillary Rodham Clinton in the South Carolina Democratic primary, regaining presidential nomination momentum. Obama won 55% of the vote, Clinton had 27%. John Edwards captured 18%, winning only his home county of Oconee.
2009 - Pfizer Inc. announced its purchase of rival drug maker Wyeth in a $68-billion deal that would increase its revenue by 50%.
2009 - China greeted the arrival of the Year of the Ox with fireworks and celebrations. Colorful pyrotechnic displays lit up the midnight sky over Beijing, as firecrackers exploded deep into the early morning hours in the capital.
2009 - Halliburton agreed to pay $559 million to the U.S. to settle charges that one of its former units bribed Nigerian officials during the construction of a gas plant.
2010 - Guatemalan police captured ex-President Alfonso Portillo at a beach preparing to flee the country by boat. This, a day after U.S. authorities had charged him with laundering money stolen from foreign donations to buy children’s books.
2010 - NATO and Russia formally resumed military ties as they moved to boost cooperation in the fight against insurgents in Afghanistan.
2011 - Thousands of Egyptians defied a ban on protests and returned to Cairo’s streets, calling for President Hosni Mubarak to leave office. Police quickly moved in and used tear gas and beat the demonstrators. The crackdown saw hundreds detained with six people dead over two days.
2012 - 18-year-old Jordanian activist Odai Abu-Issa was found guilty of “harming the king’s dignity” for burning a street poster of King Abdullah. Abu-Issa was sentenced to two years in prison for the offense. (On Feb 29, 2012 King Abdullah ordered a special pardon for Abu-Issa.)
2013 - Ontario’s Liberals chose Kathleen Wynne, a former Cabinet minister, to become the province’s first female premier and the first openly gay leader of a Canadian province. (Wynne was sworn into office as the 25th Premier of Ontario on Feb 11, 2013.)
2014 - The Royal Caribbean cruise liner Explorer of the Seas cut short a planned 10-day trip in the Caribbean early after hundreds of passengers and crew members came down with a gastrointestinal illness.
2014 - A crocodile snatched a 12-year-old boy after attacking his friend as they swam in a water hole in a popular outback tourist destination in northern Australia. The boy was taken as he and four other boys swam on Sunday afternoon at Mudginberri Billabong in Kakadu National Park near Darwin.
2015 - The Church of England ended centuries of male-only leadership and promoted Libby Lane to become its first female bishop.
2016- Bikram Chaudhury, the founder of Bikram yoga, was ordered in Los Angeles to pay nearly $5.5 million to his former legal advisor, who said he sexually harassed her and wrongfully fired her for investigating another woman’s rape complaint.
2016 - TV actor, comedian Abe Vigoda died in New Jersey at 94 years of age. Vigoda was best known for playing the elderly detective Phil Fish in the Barney Miller TV series (1975-1982).
2017 - The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists warned that comments by POTUS Donald Trump about nuclear weapons and climate change had helped make the world less safe. As a result, the group moved its symbolic Doomsday Clock 30 seconds closer to midnight.
2017 - Employees from more than a dozen U.S. government agencies established a network of unofficial ‘rogue’ Twitter feeds in defiance of attempts by President Donald Trump to muzzle federal climate change research and other science. Following a new Trump directive mandating that all EPA research must undergo “political review” prior to release, a number of anonymous employees from more than a dozen U.S. government agencies established a network of unofficial ‘rogue’ Twitter feeds in defiance of what they see as attempts to censor federal climate change research and other science. Seizing on Trump’s favorite mode of discourse, scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency, NASA and other bureaus privately launched Twitter accounts - borrowing names and logos of their agencies - to protest restrictions they view as censorship and provide unfettered platforms for information the new administration has curtailed.
2018 - New movies showing in the U.S. included: Maze Runner: The Death Cure, with Rosa Salazar, Thomas Brodie-Sangster and Dylan O’Brien; American Folk, with Joe Purdy, Amber Rubarth and Krisha Fairchild; The Clapper, starring Amanda Seyfried, Ed Helms and Leah Remini; The Competition, with Thora Birch, Claire Coffee and Chris Klein; Kickboxer: Retaliation, with Alain Moussi, Christopher Lambert and Jean-Claude Van Damme; Please Stand By, starring Dakota Fanning, Toni Collette and Alice Eve; and Primal Rage, with Casey Gagliardi and Andrew Joseph Montgomery.
2018 - Russian police raided Moscow’s Pioner movie theater that screened a satirical film about Soviet leader Josef Stalin in defiance of an official Russian government ban. Moscow police didn’t immediately declare the purpose of their visit to Pioner theater, but it followed the Russian Culture Ministry’s rescinding of the theatre’s permit allowing Scottish writer-director Armando Iannucci’s The Death of Stalin to be shown. The ministry had warned that it might ban IanucciArmandos black comedy, which Communist Party lawmakers described as Western “psychological warfare.”
2018 - A Dutch newspaper and TV show jointly reported that in 2014 the Netherlands’ spy service broke into the computers used by a powerful Russian hacking group. The service watched the hackers for at least a year, managed to catch them on camera, and may be sitting on evidence relating to the breach of the U.S. Democratic National Committee.
2019 - Japan’s Naomi Osaka battled past Czech eighth seed Petra Kvitova 7-6 (7/2), 5-7, 6-4 and won her first Australian Open tennis crown -- and become the new world number one.
2020 - Basketball legend Kobe Bryant (41) and his daughter (13) died along with seven others in a helicopter crash outside Los Angeles.
2020 - 62nd Annual Grammy Awards show was held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Billie Eilish took home all four of the night’s biggest awards: best new artist, album of the year for When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? and both song of the year and record of the year for her hit Bad Guy.
2020 - Five people in the United States, all of whom had recently traveled from Wuhan, China, had been diagnosed with the new coronavirus. The count included patients identified in the Los Angeles and Phoenix areas, as well as cases reported earlier in Chicago and Seattle.
2021 - The Biden administration began restoring relations with the Palestinians and resumed supporting assistance programs that delivered humanitarian aid to refugees. This was a reversal from former POTUS Trump’s policies.
2021 - The Justice Dept. rescinded a Trump-era memo that established a ‘zero tolerance’ enforcement policy for migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally.
2021 - Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc said its antibody cocktail was found effective in preventing COVID-19 in people exposed to those infected with the new coronavirus in an ongoing late stage trial.
2021 - The Swiss-based World Health Organization (WHO) issued clinical advice for treating COVID-19 patients, including those displaying persistent symptoms after recovery. The WHO also issued recommendations on the use of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine and said it was working with the company to accelerate its approval of the shot for WHO emergency use listing.
2022 - The U.S. formally rejected Russia’s demands (that NATO retreat from Eastern Europe and bar Ukraine from ever entering NATO). The U.S. did propose several areas, including nuclear arms control and limits on military exercises where they were willing to negotiate.
2022 - Pope Francis said that parents of gay children should not condemn them but should offer them support.
2023 - A federal jury in Manhattan found a man guilty of murder and attempted murder. 34-year-old Uzbek native Sayfullo Saipov drove a rented truck down a Hudson River bike path in 2017, killing eight people. Authorities called the attack the deadliest terrorist act in New York City since the Sep 11, 2001, attacks. Saipov said he had been inspired by Islamic State videos he watched on his phone.
2023 - U.S. Special Operations commandos killed a senior Islamic State leader and ten of the terrorist group’s operatives in northern Somalia. Bilal al-Sudani, the raid’s target, was responsible for “fostering the growing presence of ISIS in Africa and funding the group’s operations worldwide, including in Afghanistan,” Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said. U.S. officials also said no civilians were killed in the helicopter raid, which President Biden ordered on the recommendation of Austin and General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
2023 - The California State Bar filed disciplinary charges seeking the disbarment of attorney John Eastman for his role in then-POTUS Donald Trump’s effort to overturn his 2020 election loss to President Biden. Eastman was behind memos for Trump’s campaign encouraging Vice President Mike Pence to block the certification of the 2020 election results, and urging key states to declare Trump the winner -- even though Trump lost. The State Bar accused Eastman of continuing to promote the lie that the election was stolen after it was clear there was no evidence that fraud could have tipped the election. The State Bar also said Eastman’s speech at a Jan 6, 2021, rally “contributed to provoking a crowd to assault and breach the Capitol.”
2024 - Miller’s Girl was scheduled to open in U.S. theatres. The comedy, drama stars Martin Freeman, Jenna Ortega, Bashir Salahuddin, Gideon Adlon, Dagmara Dominczyk and Christine Adams.
and more...
Birthdays on This Day January 26
1826 - Julia Dent Grant
First lady of U.S., wife of 18th President Ulysses S. Grant [1869-1877]; died Dec 14, 19021880 - Douglas MacArthur
U.S. Army General and Commander of Allied Forces, WWII: “I shall return.”, “Old soldiers never die, they just fade away.”; died Apr 5, 19641905 - Charles Lane
actor: It’s a Wonderful Life, Twentieth Century, You Can’t Take It with You, The Winds of War, War and Remembrance, The Affairs of Dobie Gillis, Dear Phoebe, Teacher’s Pet, The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock, Petticoat Junction, The Beverly Hillbillies, Bewitched; founding member of the founders of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences; died July 9, 20071912 - Cora Baird
puppeteer with husband Bil Baird: TV: The Baird Marionettes; died in 1967; died Dec 7, 19671913 - William Prince
actor: Destination Tokyo, The Taking of Beverly Hills, The Portrait, Objective Burma!, Spies Like Us; died Oct 8, 19961913 - Jimmy Van Heusen (Edward Chester Babcock)
Academy Award-winning composer: Swinging on a Star [1944], All the Way [1957], High Hopes [1959], Call Me Irresponsible [1963]; wrote the music to over 75 songs for Frank Sinatra with lyricists Johnny Burke and Sammy Cahn: My Kind of Town, Second Time Around; died Feb 6, 19901915 - William Hopper
actor: Rebel Without a Cause; Perry Mason; died Mar 6, 19701920 - Derek Bond
actor: Nicholas Nickleby, Svengali, The Hand; died Oct 15, 20061922 - Page Cavanaugh
pianist: Page Cavanaugh Trio: That’s How Much I Love You; died Dec 19, 20081923 - Anne Jeffreys (Carmichael)
actress: I Married an Angel, Dick Tracy [1945], Boys’ Night Out, General Hospital [soap], Clifford; died Sep 27, 20171925 - Joan Leslie (Joan Agnes Theresa Sadie Brodel)
actress: Yankee Doodle Dandy, Rhapsody in Blue, Born to be Bad, High Sierra; died Oct 12, 2015; more1925 - Paul Newman
Academy Award-winning actor: The Color of Money [1986]; Cool Hand Luke, Hud, The Sting, The Hudsucker Proxy, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Verdict, Exodus; director: Rachel, Rachel, Harry and Son; race car driver; salad dressing and spaghetti sauce maker; died Sep 26, 20081926 - Dick McGuire
Basketball Hall of Famer [guard]: New York Knicks, Detroit Pistons coach: Detroit Pistons, New York Knicks; died Feb 3, 20101927 - William Redfield
actor: Mr. Billion, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, For Pete’s Sake, Such Good Friends, Companions in Nightmare, Fantastic Voyage; died Aug 17, 19761928 - Roger Vadim (Roger Vladimir Plemiannikov)
director: Barbarella, Pretty Maids All in a Row, And God Created Woman; died Feb 11, 20001929 - Jules Feiffer
Pulitzer prize-winning cartoonist [1986]; scriptwriter: Carnal Knowledge, Little Murders, Popeye1931 - Mary Murphy
actress Carrie, Houdini, 40 Pounds of Trouble; died May 4, 20111932 - Claude Gray (The Tall Texan)
country singer: I’ll Just Have Another Cup of Coffee, My Ears Should Burn1934 - Bob (Robert George) Uecker
baseball: catcher: Milwaukee Braves, SL Cardinals, Philadelphia Phillies, Atlanta Braves; sportscaster; actor: Major League series1935 - Henry Jordan
Pro Football Hall of Famer: Cleveland Browns, GB Packers; career: All-NFL six times, two Super Bowls, four Pro Bowls; died Feb 21, 19771941 - Scott Glenn
actor: Apocalypse Now, The Right Stuff, Silverado, The Hunt for Red October, The Silence of the Lambs1944 - Angela Davis
civil rights activist, teacher1946 - Gene (Eugene Kal) Siskel
movie critic; half of Siskel and [Roger] Ebert team: Siskel & Ebert & the Movies; died Feb 20, 19991950 - Jack (Herbert Jackson) Youngblood III
Pro Football Hall of Famer: LA Rams defensive end: Super Bowl XIV1952 - Tom Henderson
basketball: Houston Rockets1953 - Lucinda Williams
songwriter, singer: Can’t Let Go, Essence, Passionate Kisses, Real Live Bleeding Fingers and Broken Guitar Strings, Buick Blues, Rambling on My Mind1955 - Eddie Van Halen
Grammy Award-winning musician: guitar, singer: group: Van Halen: For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge [1991]; owns recording studio: 5150; died Oct 6, 20201958 - Anita Baker
singer: Sweet Love, Rhythm of Love, Giving You the Best that I Got1958 - Ellen DeGeneres
Emmy Award-winning comedienne, actress: Ellen: The Ellen DeGeneres Show [2004, 2005]; Emmy Award-winning writer: Ellen [1994]; Open House, Mr. Wrong, Finding Nemo [voice]1961 - Wayne Gretzky
hockey: Edmunton Oilers, LA Kings: NHL Season Point Record [215][1985-1986]; MVP nine times [1980-1987 & 1989]; Stanley Cup Individual Career Record: 110 goals, 346 points scored [1979-1993]1963 - Jazzie B (Beresford Romeo)
rap artist: group: Soul II Soul1963 - Andrew Ridgeley
musician: guitar: group: Wham!: Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, Careless Whisper1964 - Paul Johansson
actor: Window Theory, Darkness Falling, John Q, The Last Dance, Wishmaster 2: Evil Never Dies, She’s So Lovely, One Tree Hill1964 - Cathy Podewell
actress: Dallas, Paradise, Earth Angel, Murder, She Wrote, Beverly Hills 90210, Walker, Texas Ranger1967 - Jeff Branson
baseball: Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, LA Dodgers1968 - Eric Davis
football: Jacksonville State Univ; NFL: SF 49ers, Carolina Panthers, Denver Broncos, Detroit Lions1968 - Reggie Jordan
basketball [guard]: New Mexico State Univ; NFL: Los Angeles Lakers, Atlanta Hawks, Minnesota Timberwolves, Portland Trail Blazers, Washington Wizards1970 - Tracy Middendorf
actress: Days of our Lives, Ally McBeal, Six Feet Under, Beverly Hills, 90210, 24, House, Boy Wonder, Just Add Water, The Perfect Husband: The Laci Peterson Story, Shadow Realm, For Love of the Game, El Cortez1971 - Dorian Gregory
TV host: Soul Train; actor: Charmed, Baywatch Nights, Show Stoppers1972 - Mike Fountain
hockey: Vancouver Canucks, Carolina Hurricanes, Ottawa Senators1973 - Jennifer Crystal Foley
actress: House, Once and Again, They Would Love You in France, 61*, Father’s Day, The American President, 35 Miles From Normal, City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly’s Gold1976 - Gilles Marini
actor: Sex and the City: The Movie, Brothers & Sisters, Ugly Betty, Dirty Sexy Money, Criminal Minds, Nip/Tuck, The Bold and the Beautiful, Passions, One and the Other (L’Une et L’Autre), The Boys & Girls Guide to Getting Down; more1977 - Vince Carter
basketball [forward, guard]: Univ of North Carolina; NBA: Toronto Raptors, New Jersey Nets1979 - Sara Rue
actress: Popular, Less Than Perfect, Shedding for the Wedding, Rules of Engagement, Eastwick, RuPaul’s Drag Race 3, My Future Boyfriend, Psych, Malibu Country1981 - Colin O’Donoghue
actor: Once Upon a Time, The Clinic, The Dust Storm, Carrie Pilby, The Rite1986 - Ciera Payton
actress: The Closer, Californication, Graceland, Bad Teacher; star of one-woman show: Michael’s Daughter1989 - Torrey Smith
football [wide receiver]: NFL: Baltimore Ravens [2011– ]: 2013 Super Bowl XLVII champs1990 - Christopher Massey
actor: Zoey 101, City Girls, Color Me Gay, Everybody Hates Chris, The Electric Company, Switched at Birth1990 - Kherington Payne
dancer: The Pussycat Dolls; actress: Fame [2009], The Dance Scene, Leading Ladies, No Strings Attached, The Dance Scene, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, True Blood1991 - Manti Te’o
football [line backer]: Notre Dame Univ: won Lott Trophy, Maxwell Award, Lombardi Award during his senior year and placed second in 2012 Heisman Trophy voting; NFL: San Diego Chargers [2013–2016]; New Orleans Saints [2017–2019]; Chicago Bears [2020])1993 - Cameron Bright
actor: The Twilight Saga film series, Godsend, Birth, Running Scared, Ultraviolet, X-Men: The Last Stand, Thank You for Smoking1994 - Joseph Quinn
actor: Stranger Things, Dickensian, Howards End, Les Misérables, Catherine the Great, A Quiet Place: Day One, Gladiator 2
and still more...
Hit Music on This Day January 26
1947For Sentimental Reasons (facts) - Nat King Cole
A Gal in Calico (facts) - Johnny Mercer
1956
1965
1974
1983
1992
2001
2010
2019
and even more...
Those were the days, my friend. We thought they’d never end...
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