June 19
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Events on This Day
1846 - The first organized baseball game was played on this day. The location was Hoboken, New Jersey. The New York Baseball Club defeated the Knickerbocker Club, 23 to 1. This first game was only four innings long. The New York Nine, as the winners were known, must have really studied the rules to have twenty-three runs batted in. The rules had been formulated just one year earlier by a Mr. Alexander Cartwright, Jr.1865 - It took more than two-and-a-half years after Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation went into effect for Union troops to land in Galveston, Texas. They carried the message of freedom, the resolution of the Civil War between the States, to the many slaves throughout Texas. Union Major General Gordon Granger read General Order #3: “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.” The slaves rejoiced with cheers and tears as they learned of their liberation, calling their “day of deliverance.” Juneteenth (June 19) was officially made a federal holiday on June 17, 2021, it became one of five date-specific federal holidays along with New Year's Day (January 1), Independence Day (July 4), Veterans Day (November 11), and Christmas Day (December 25).
1910 - Father’s Day was celebrated for the first time in Spokane, Washington. The holiday was initiated by Sonora Louise Smart Dodd (Mrs. John B. Dodd) of Spokane.
1912 - The United States Congress passed a law establishing an eight-hour work day for all workers with federal contracts. Watch that lunch break, though. You never know if someone from the government might be clocking you...
1923 - Moon Mullins debuted. The comic strip was about a tough guy named Moon (short for Moonshine, which in the Prohibition era meant Mullins was a drinking man).
1934 - The U.S. Congress established the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The task of the commission was to regulate interstate communications by radio and (later) television, wire, satellite, and cable.
1936 - Max Schmeling knocked out Joe Louis in the 12th round of their heavyweight boxing match. The German boxer earned his victory at Yankee Stadium in New York.
1943 - The National Football League approved the merger of the Philadelphia Eagles and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Known as Phil-Pitt, but called the Steagles by the fans, the team lasted one 5-4-1 season. The NFl refused to approve a similar merger of the Chicago Cardinals and the Bears. The following year the Steelers merged with the Cardinals in another one-season combo. The reason teams were merging in the 1940s: so many men were in the armed forces due to WWII, football players were at a premium.
1944 - The Battle of the Philippine Sea (the so-called ‘Marianas Turkey Shoot’) was raging. 429 Japanese planes were shot down by U.S. carrier-based planes and anti-aircraft fire from U.S. ships. Twenty-nine U.S. planes were lost. The one-sided engagement marked the end of Japanese carrier-based air power.
1946 - The first championship prizefight to be televised was seen by boxing fans. Joe Louis tangled with Billy Conn in New York City. To see the fight in person, incidentally, would have cost you $100.
1947 - The Tucker automobile premiered at the Tucker plant in Cicero (south Chicago). The Tucker ’48 was shown off to the press, dealers, distributors and brokers.
1947 - Gangster Benjamin ‘Bugsy’ Siegel was shot to death at his girlfriend Virginia Hill’s mansion in Beverly Hills. (Some sources place Siegel’s murder on June 20, 1947.)
1952 - CBS-TV debuted one of television’s most popular hits, I’ve Got a Secret. Garry Moore was the first host, from 1952 to 1964. Steve Allen was next (1964 to 1967) and moderated a syndicated version in the 1972-1973 season. Bill Cullen hosted the attempted comeback of the show in 1976. Panelists included Allen’s wife, Jayne Meadows; Bill Cullen, Henry Morgan, Betsy Palmer, Faye Emerson, Melville Cooper and Orson Bean.
1953 - Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, convicted of passing U.S. atomic secrets to the Soviet Union, were executed at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York. The Supreme Court had vacated a stay granted by Justice William O. Douglas; President Eisenhower refused to intervene.
1954 - The Tasmanian Devil, a cartoon character, made its debut in Devil May Hare, from Warner Bros.
1956 - The Jerry Lee Lewis hit Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On debuted on the pop music charts.
1958 - The Lux Show Starring Rosemary Clooney, TV Variety; last aired on NBC. Actor Jose Ferrer was the guest star.
1960 - Singer Loretta Lynn made her debut on the country music charts with her first single release, I’m a Honky Tonk Girl, on the Zero label.
1961 - Kuwait regained its full independence from Great Britain.
1965 - I Can’t Help Myself, by The Four Tops, topped the pop and R&B charts. The Motown group got their second and only other number one hit with Reach Out I’ll Be There in 1966. Their other hits include: It’s the Same Old Song, Standing in the Shadows of Love, Bernadette and Ain’t No Woman (Like the One I’ve Got) (their only million seller). The group called Motown (Detroit, MI) home and got their start in 1953 as the Four Aims. Levi Stubbs, Renaldo ‘Obie’ Benson, Lawrence Payton and Abdul ‘Duke’ Fakir placed 24 hits on the charts from 1964 to 1988. They first recorded as The Four Tops for Leonard Chess and Chess Records in 1956; then went to Red Top and Columbia before signing with Berry Gordy’s Motown label in 1963. The Tops, who had no personnel changes in their more than 35 years together were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.
1970 - Former New York Yankees pitcher Jim Bouton’s controversial novel, Ball Four, was published. The book detailed the inside story of the lives of some professional baseball players.
1970 - The Tim Conway Show aired for the last time on CBS-TV.
1973 - Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds reached the 2,000-career-hit plateau. The milestone came a decade after his first professional baseball appearance in Cincinnati.
1973 - National Hockey League record-holder Gordie Howe of the Detroit Red Wings jumped leagues to join his sons, Mark and Marty, on the Houston Aeros (of the rival World Hockey Association). In doing so, Howe accepted a $1,000,000, four-year contract.
1973 - The stage production of The Rocky Horror Show opened in London at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs. It later played in Los Angeles and New York. Star Tim Curry reprised his role in the 1975 movie version, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which developed into a cult phenomenon. Fans, dressed up as their favorite characters from the film, continued to show up at midnight screenings for a decade.
1977 - Pope Paul VI proclaimed a 19th-century Philadelphia bishop, John Neumann, the first male U.S. saint.
1978 - Whether you're a cat lover or not has nothing to do with whether you chuckle at the antics of the famous, fat, lazy, lasagna-eating, snide cat named Garfield. Garfield came into the world on this day by way of the talented pen of cartoonist Jim Davis. Readers of 41 newspapers throughout the U.S. were the lucky first-time readers of the Garfield strip. There are now over 220-million folks who read Garfield every day in over 2500 newspapers worldwide.
1981 - Superman II set the all-time, one-day record for theatre box-office receipts. Moviegoers forked over $4,265,572 to see Christopher Reeve as the man of steel. The three-day record was also shattered on June 21st, 1981, when a total gross of $14 million was collected.
1985 - Take heart, duffers! Angelo Spagnolo shot an incredible 257 -- that’s two-hundred, fifty-seven strokes -- to win the Worst Avid Golfer’s Tournament held at Ponte Vedra, FL. He earned the title of America’s Worst Recreational Hacker for the effort. He lost 60 golf balls, got a 66 on the 17th hole, and hit 27 balls into the water!
1987 - The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Louisiana law that required public schools teaching the theory of evolution to also teach creationism.
1989 - The government of Burma renamed the country Myanmar; and Rangoon changed its names to Yangon. Hey, pay attention. You may need this stuff if you make it on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.
1991 - Actress Jean Arthur died at the age of 90. Arthur appeared in over ninety films between 1923 and 1953.
1992 - Batman returned in Batman Returns. The caped crusader was welcomed by Americans with their wallets open ($45.69 million) that first weekend.
1992 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin addressed the Canadian Parliament, saying his country had abandoned totalitarianism for democracy.
1993 - Author Sir William Golding died at his home in Cornwall, England. He was 81 years old. Golding was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1983. His work included Lord of the Flies.
1995 - The Richmond VA Planning Commission approved a memorial statue of tennis pro Arthur Ashe. The statue was unveiled at the corner of Roseneath Road and Monument Avenue on July 10, 1996.
1997 - The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Cats became the longest-running show in Broadway history. The 6,138th performance of the musical broke the record held by A Chorus Line.
1997 - Singer Bobby Helms, whose Jingle Bell Rock (1957) became a Christmas standard, died of emphysema at his home in Martinsville, Indiana. He was 63. Helms had two other big hits in the 1950s: Fraulein and My Special Angel.
1997 - McDonald’s won a libel case in London against two vegetarian activists. The judge in the case did admit to agreeing with some of the defendants’ sharpest criticisms of the fast-food giant.
1998 - These films opened in U.S. theatres: The animated Mulan, featuring the voices of Ming-Na Wen, Lea Salonga, Eddie Murphy, B.D. Wong, Donny Osmond, Harvey Fierstein, Jerry Tondo, Gedde Watanabe, James Hong, Miguel Ferrer, Soon-Tek Oh, Freda Foh Shen, Pat Morita, June Foray and George Takei; and The X Files: Fight the Future, starring David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Martin Landau, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Blythe Danner, Mitch Pileggi, William B. Davis, John Neville, Terry O'quinn, Jeffrey De Munn, Glenne Headly and Lucas Black. Duchovny (FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder) and Anderson (Agent Dana Scully) fought despicable demons who were employed by the government, just as they have had to do so often in the TV series. The X Files opened in 2,629 theaters nationwide, grossing a not-so-despicable $30.14 million the first weekend.
1998 - 28-year-old Rick Schroder signed on with ABC’s NYPD Blue as Detective Danny Sorenson. Young Schroder/Sorenson stepped into the opening created by the painful death of Detective Bobby Simone/Jimmy Smits.
1999 - Horror king/author Stephen King was run down from behind by a van while walking on the shoulder of a road near his house in Maine. Motorist Brian Smith apparently lost control of his Dodge Caravan (he said his dog distracted him). King suffered a collapsed lung, 2 fractures of his right leg below the knee, a broken right hip, a fractured pelvis, 2 broken ribs and a scalp laceration. Now, that’s a horror story!
2000 - The U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed, 6-to-3, that praying in public schools had to be private, barring officials from letting students lead stadium crowds in prayer before football games. The ruling stemmed from a controversy over the practice by the Santa Fe High (Galveston TX) student council chaplain delivering a prayer over the public address system before each home varsity football game.
2000 - Former Japanese Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita died in Tokyo. He was 76 years old.
2000 - The Los Angeles Lakers won their first championship in 12 years, defeating the Indiana Pacers 116-to-111 in game six of the NBA Finals. The post-game celebration, however, was marred by the actions of violent fans.
2001 - A jury in San Jose, CA convicted Andrew Burnett of tossing a little dog to its death on a busy highway in a bout of road rage. He was sentenced to three years in prison for the death of Leo, a fluffy white Bichon Frise.
2002 - The space shuttle Endeavour returned to Earth with one Russian and two American crewmen. The two returning Americans, Daniel Bursch and Carl Walz, had broken the U.S. endurance mark for time in space by exceeding the 188 days spent by Shannon Lucid on the Russian space station Mir.
2003 - Cosmetics heir Andrew Luster was captured and put on a plane in Mexico, five months after he had been convicted in absentia of drugging and raping three women. Bounty hunter Duane ‘Dog’ Chapman caught up with Luster in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and took him to the local airport for the flight to California.
2003 - A wildfire wiped out 325 of 450 structures on Mount Lemon, north of Tucson, Arizona.
2005 - Vietnam’s Prime Minister Phan Van Khai arrived in Seattle, WA. It was the first visit to America by a prime minister from Vietnam in 30 years. Khai was hounded by protesters for his government’s human rights record.
2006 - Swiss chocolate-maker Nestle AG announced its purchase of weight-loss company Jenny Craig Inc. for $600 million.
2007 - Mexican mariachi singer and actor Antonio Aguilar died at 88 years of age. Aguilar began his acting career during Mexico’s ‘Golden Era’ of cinema and appeared in some 170 films, including The Undefeated starring John Wayne. Antonio Aguilar recorded more than 150 albums.
2007 - The Vatican issued the Ten Commandments for Drivers, including one urging people not to drink and drive, another telling motorists not to kill, and one to help fellow travelers in case of accidents.
2008 - The European Union agreed to lift its 2003 diplomatic sanctions against Cuba, but imposed tough conditions on the communist island to maintain sanction-free relations.
2008 - Serbia’s Supreme Court sentenced Radomir Markovic, security chief for the late strongman Slobodan Milosevic, to 40 years in prison for trying to kill opposition leader Vuk Draskovic in October 1999.
2009 - New movies in the U.S.: The Proposal, starring Sandra Bullock, Ryan Reynolds, Malin Akerman, Mary Steenburgen, Craig T. Nelson, Oscar Nunez, Betty White and O’Hare; the documentary Under Our Skin; and Year One, starring Jack Black, Olivia Wilde, Michael Cera, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Oliver Platt, David Cross, Vinnie Jones, Juno Temple, June Diane Rapheal, Eden Riegel and Hank Azaria.
2009 - Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader sought to end the deepening crisis over disputed elections with a speech declaring the vote would stand, sternly warning opposition leaders to end street protests or be held responsible for any “bloodshed and chaos” to come.
2009 - The U.S. housing downturn sent the unemployment rate in the West past 10 percent. It was the first time in more than 25 years that a region of the United States had suffered double-digit joblessness. A Labor Department report showed the West absorbing the worst of the recession. California, Nevada and Oregon endured particularly heavy job losses in construction, manufacturing and tourism.
2009 - The number of people in the world facing starvation was heading toward a record high of 1.02 billion – or one-sixth of the global population, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) projected.
2010 - The entire board of Australia’s Sundance Resources company, including mining tycoon Ken Talbot, was killed when their plane went down on route from Cameroon to Congo-Brazzaville, Africa. The wreckage was found two days later in the Congo jungle.
2011 - Police in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil raided Mangueira shantytown, and area dominated by drug trafficking gangs. The raid was part of an ongoing program to bring stability to areas near Maracana stadium ahead of the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics.
2012 - The U.S. and New Zealand signed an agreement to increase their defensive cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region. The new deal did not alter New Zealand’s longstanding aversion to port visits by nuclear-armed American warships.
2013 - Film/TV star James Gandolfini died suddenly in Italy of a “massive heart attack.” Ganolfini was nominated for the Emmy Award six times for his portrayal of Tony Soprano in the HBO TV series The Sopranos. He won the award three times. Gandolfini was a frequent visitor to Italy, where his parents both grew up. His family owns land near Milan.
2014 - An injured caver was rescued from the Germany’s deepest cavern by a multinational rescue operation involving more than 700 people. Johann Westhauser, an experienced caver, had gone into the Riesending cave system in the Alps with two companion on June 8, but was injured during a rock fall.
2014 - Divorced former journalist, Letizia Ortiz, became Spain’s first commoner queen when her husband, Felipe VI, was sworn in as king.
2015 - Motion pictures debuting in U.S. theatres included: Dope, starring Zoë Kravitz, Forest Whitaker and Kiersey Clemons; the animated Inside Out, featuring the voices of Diane Lane, Rashida Jones, Amy Poehler, Kyle MacLachlan, Mindy Kaling and Bill Hader; Infinitely Polar Bear, with Zoe Saldana, Mark Ruffalo and Keir Dullea; Manglehorn, starring Al Pacino, Holly Hunter and Chris Messina; and Phantom Halo, with Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Rebecca Romijn and Clare Grant.
2015 - Stanford biologist Paul Ehrlich warned that the world is embarking on its sixth mass extinction with animals disappearing about 100 times faster than at any time since the dinosaurs’ demise. Ehrlich said there is no longer any doubt that “we are entering a mass extinction that threatens humanity’s existence.”
2016 - The Cleveland Cavaliers defeated the Golden State Warriors 93-89 in game 7 of the NBA finals (played in Oakland, CA).
2016 - Iran announced that it had reached an agreement with American aerospace giant Boeing to purchase 100 aircraft to renew its ageing fleet. The Islamic Republic had ordered about 200 planes from three Western manufacturers since mid-January, when economic sanctions were lifted following a deal on Tehran’s nuclear program.
2017 - China announced bans of the designer drug called U-47700 and three others, following U.S. pressure to do more to control synthetic opioids. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) reported that China was the top source country for synthetic opioids like fentanyl and its precursors. Some of the pills taken from singer Prince’s estate after the musician’s overdose death in 2016 contained U-47700.
2018 - The Trump Administration withdrew from the United Nation’s Human Rights Council. The U.S. was the first country to drop out voluntarily in the 12-year history of the 47-member council.
2019 - A jury in Brooklyn, New York convicted 58-year-old Keith Raniere, head of the Albany-area NXIVM, on all counts of sex-trafficking and coercing women into sex. Raniere had been arrested at a Mexican hideout in 2018.
2019 - Millions of people were dependent on water tank trucks in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. This, as taps ran dry because of an acute water shortage caused by drying lakes and depleted groundwater.
2020 - Movies scheduled to open on this day (many theatres were still closed by the Covid-19 crisis) included: Babyteeth, starring Ben Mendelsohn, Essie Davis and Eliza Scanlen; A Girl Missing, with Mariko Tsutsui, Mikako Ichikawa and Sôsuke Ikematsu; Guest Artist, starring Jeff Daniels, Thomas Macias and Richard McWilliams; and The Transcendents, with Rob Franco, Savannah Welch and Kathy Valentine.
2020 - The Justice Department said Geoffrey S. Berman, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan had resigned. Berman, who was overseeing key prosecutions of POTUS Trump’s allies -- and an investigation of Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, said he had not resigned and his investigations would continue. The following day, Attorney General William Barr told Berman that he had been fired by Donald Trump. (Barr himself was eventually replaced by Merrick Garland in the Biden Administration and the investigation of Trump continued.)
2020 - Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed a sweeping police reform bill that, among other reforms, banned chokeholds and made officers personally liable if they were found guilty of violating a person’s civil rights.
2021 - Tropical Storm Claudette dumped heavy rain across the Gulf Coast from Louisiana to Florida, triggering flash floods and tornado warnings along its soggy course across the Southeast. Claudette left 14 dead. A suspected tornado demolished or badly damaged at least 50 homes near the Alabama towns of Brewton and East Brewton.
2021 - Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed three gun reform bills into law. The legislation expanded firearm background checks, created a dedicated office for gun violence prevention and allowed municipalities to have even stricter gun laws than the state.
2022 - Matt Fitzpatrick edged out Will Zalatoris and Scottie Scheffler to win the U.S. Open by one stroke. It was Fitzpatrick’s first major golf championship. A 27-year-old from England, Fitzpatrick, was ranked No. 18 in the world, and entered the tournament the world’s second-highest ranked golfer without a PGA Tour victory. “No words,” Fitzpatrick said. “It’s what you grow up dreaming of.”
2022 - Pixar’s Lightyear movie had a disappointing opening weekend, coming in second place behind Jurassic World Dominion and grossing $51 million, missing projections of $70 million or more. For comparison, Toy Story 4 opened to $120 million in 2019, while Toy Story 3 opened to $110 million in 2010. Lightyear was Disney’s first film spinoff of the Toy Story franchise.
2023 - The United Nations adopted the first-ever legally binding international treaty to govern the high seas. The Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Treaty. Greenpeace called it “the biggest conservation victory ever.” The biggest achievement of the treaty was the new possibility of creating marine protected areas in international waters.
2023 - Chinese President Xi Jinping met with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Great Hall of the People. Xi urged actions to stabilize and improve China-U.S. relations, and emphasized that the two countries finding the right way to get along bears on the future and destiny of humanity. Blinken said POTUS Joe Biden believed that the U.S. and China have an obligation to responsibly manage their relations, which is in the interest of both countries and the world.
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Birthdays on This Day June 19
1623 - Blaise Pascal
scientist, philosopher: Provincial Letters; died August 19, 16621856 - Elbert Hubbard
author: A Message to Garcia, Little Journeys; founder: Roycroft Press; lost his life aboard the ill-fated Lusitania [May 7, 1915]1881 - (James J.) Jimmy Walker
politician: New York City mayor [1926-1932]; died Nov 18, 19461897 - Moe Howard (Moses Horowitz)
actor: one of the original Three Stooges; Dr. Death, Seeker of Souls, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World; died May 4, 19751902 - Guy (Gaetano) Lombardo
bandleader: The Royal Canadians: “The most beautiful music this side of heaven.”: Auld Lang Syne, The Third Man Theme; died Nov 5, 19771903 - Lou (Henry Louis) Gehrig
‘The Iron Horse’: Baseball Hall of Fame first baseman: NY Yankees [World Series: 1926, 1927, 1928, 1932, 1936, 1937, 1938/all-star: 1933, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1939]; played 2,130 consecutive games; drove in 100 runs 13 seasons in a row; topped 150 RBI’s on seven occasions; first 20th century player to hit 4 consecutive homers in one game; his uniform [No. 4] was the first to be retired; died June 02, 19411905 - Mildred Natwick
actress: Dangerous Liaisons, Barefoot in the Park, The Snoop Sisters, Tammy and the Bachelor; died Oct 25, 19941906 - Earl W. Bascom
rodeo showman and inventor: first side-delivery rodeo chute, first hornless bronc saddle, first one-handed bareback rigging; died Aug 28, 19951910 - Abe Fortas
U.S. Supreme Court Justice [1965-69]: resigned in 1969 after published reports that he had accepted lecture fees and a legal retainer while serving on the Court; died Apr 5, 19821912 - Martin Gabel
actor: Smile Jenny You’re Dead, Lady in Cement; TV game show panelist: What’s My Line?; died May 22, 19861914 - Lester Flatt
country music entertainer: guitar: group: Flatt and Scruggs: Foggy Mountain Breakdown, The Ballad of Jed Clampett, Roll in My Sweet Baby’s Arms, Old Salty Dog Blues; died May 11, 19791915 - Pat Buttram
actor: Green Acres, Choices, The Gatling Gun, I Sailed to Tahiti with an All Girl Crew, Twilight of Honor, Back to the Future Part III; died Jan 8, 19941921 - Louis Jourdan (Gendre)
actor: Gigi, Three Coins in the Fountain, The VIPs, Columbo: Murder Under Glass, Octopussy; died Feb 14, 20151928 - Tommy DeVito
musician: guitar: founding member of The Four Seasons: Sherry, Big Girls Don’t Cry, Walk Like a Man, Candy Girl; died Sep 21, 20201928 - Nancy Marchand
actress: The Sopranos, Lou Grant, Brain Donors, The Naked Gun, North and South Book 2; died June 18, 20001930 - Gena Rowlands
actress: Peyton Place, A Woman under the Influence, Night on Earth; daughter of Wisconsin State Senator1932 - Pier Angeli (Anna Pierangeli)
actress: Battle of the Bulge, One Step to Hell, The Silver Chalice, S.O.S. Pacific; died Sep 10, 19711932 - Marisa Pavan
actress: Diary of Anne Frank, The Rose Tattoo, What Price Glory?, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit; died Dec 6, 20231936 - Shirley Goodman
singer: group: Shirley and Lee: Let the Good Times Roll, I’m Gone, Feel So Good, The Proposal, Two Happy People; died Jul 5, 20051938 - Bob (Robert Thomas) Aspromonte
baseball: Brooklyn Dodgers, LA Dodgers, Houston Colt .45’s, Houston Astros, Atlanta Braves, NY Mets1939 - Al Wilson
musician: drummer, singer: Show and Tell, The Snake, Do What You Gotta Do; died Apr 21, 20081942 - Elaine ‘Spanky’ McFarlane
singer: group: Spanky and Our Gang: Sunday Will Never Be the Same, Lazy Day, Like to Get to Know You, Give a Damn1947 - Walt McKechnie
hockey: NHL: Minnesota North Stars, California Golden Seals, Boston Bruins, Detroit Redwings, Washington Capitals, Cleveland Barons, Toronto Maple Leafs, Colorado Rockies, Detroit Red Wings1947 - Salman Rushdie
author: The Jaguar Smile, Midnight’s Children, The Satanic Verses1948 - Phylicia (Allen) Rashad
Tony Award-winning actress: A Raisin in the Sun; TV: The Cosby Show, One Life to Live, Murder, She Wrote: The Last Free Man; dancer Debbie Allen’s sister; married to football announcer Ahmad Rashad1949 - Jerry Reuss
baseball: pitcher: SL Cardinals, Houston Astros, Pittsburgh Pirates [all-star: 1975], LA Dodgers [all-star:1980/World Series: 1981], California Angels, Cincinnati Reds, Chicago White Sox, Milwaukee Brewers1951 - Ann Wilson
singer: group: Heart: Crazy on You, Magic Man, Barracuda, Straight On1953 - Larry Dunn
musician: keyboards: group: Earth, Wind & Fire: Shining Star, Sing a Song, Got to Get You into My Life, After the Love Has Gone, Boogie Wonderland, Let’s Groove1954 - Kathleen Turner
actress: Body Heat, Peggy Sue Got Married, Romancing the Stone, The Jewel of the Nile, Serial Mom, Naked in New York, House of Cards, Accidental Tourist, The War of the Roses, The Doctors, The Virgin Suicides, The Kominsky Method; voice of Jessica Rabbit in Roger Rabbit1956 - Doug Stone
musician: guitar, singer: I’d Be Better Off (In a Pine Box), These Lips Don’t Know How to Say Goodbye, In a Different Light, Too Busy Being in Love, I Never Knew Love, Jukebox With a Country Song, Addicted to a Dollar1959 - Mark DeBarge
musician: trumpet, sax: group: DeBarge: Rhythm of the Night1961 - Alison Moyet
singer: group: Yazoo: Only You, Don’t Go; solo: LPs: Alf, Raindancing, Hoodoo, Essex1962 - Paula Abdul
singer: Forever Your Girl, Straight Up, Opposites Attract, Promises of a New Day; actress: The Waiting Game, Mr. Rock ’n’ Roll: The Alan Freed Story; dancer: Laker Girl; TV talent judge: American Idol1963 - Simon Wright
musician: drums: group: AC/DC: Highway to Hell, Wall All Over You, Shot Down in Flames, Get It Hot, Dirty Deeds Done Cheap, Rocker, Problem Child1964 - Laura Ingraham
author, conservative political commentator, radio talk show host: The Laura Ingraham Show1964 - Boris Johnson
politician: Member of Parliament for Henley [2001-2008]; Mayor of London [2008-2016]; journalist: editor of The Spectator [1999]1965 - Andrew Lauer
actor: H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds, Just Desserts, Fish Burglars, Jane White Is Sick and Twisted, August Underground, I’ll Be Home for Christmas1967 - Mia Sara
actress: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Timecop, Caroline at Midnight, Bullet to Beijing1968 - Jud Buechler
basketball [guard, forward]: Univ of Arizona; NBA: New Jersey Nets, Golden State Warriors, San Antonio Spurs, Chicago Bulls) Detroit Pistons, Orlando Magic and Phoenix Suns1969 - Lara Spencer
TV host: Good Morning America, ABC News, Nightline, The Insider, The Early Show, Antiques Roadshow1970 - Chris Gray
football [center]: Univ of Auburn; NFL: Miami Dolphins, Chicago Bears, Seattle Seahawks1970 - Brian ‘Head’ Welch
musician: guitar: founding member of group: Korn: LPs: Korn, Life Is Peachy, Follow the Leader, Issues, Untouchables, Take a Look in the Mirror; solo LP: Save Me from Myself; more1972 - Jean Dujardin
Academy Award-winning actor: The Artist [2012]; OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies, OSS 117: Lost in Rio, 99F [99 francs], The Wolf of Wall Street, The Monuments Men1972 - Robin Tunney
actress: The Mentalist, The Craft, Encino Man, Empire Records, Niagara, Niagara, Vertical Limit1974 - Doug Mientkiewicz
baseball [first base]: Minnesota Twins [1998-2004], Boston Red Sox [2004], NY Mets [2005], Kansas City Royals [2006] New York Yankees [2007] Pittsburgh Pirates [2008] Los Angeles Dodgers [2009])1975 - Hugh Dancy
actor: Hannibal, Elizabeth I, Adam, David Copperfield, Daniel Deronda, Ella Enchanted, King Arthur, The Path; stage: Venus in Fur1975 - Brandon Mitchell
football: Texas A&M Univ; NE Patriots, Seattle Seahawks, Atlanta Falcons1975 - Poppy Montgomery
actress: Reef Break, Unforgettable, True Blue, Magic Beyond Words: The JK Rowling Story, Without a Trace, Glory Days, Relativity, Silk Stalkings, Lying to Be Perfect1976 - Ryan Hurst
actor: Remember the Titans, Sons of Anarchy, Rango, We Were Soldiers, King & Maxwell, CBGB1976 - Patrick Surtain
football [cornerback]: Southern Mississippi Univ; NFL: Miami Dolphins, KC Chiefs1977 - Bruce Chen
baseball [pitcher]: Atlanta Braves, Philadelphia Phillies, NY Mets, Montreal Expos, Cincinnati Reds, Boston Red Sox, Houston Astros, Baltimore Orioles1977 - Peter Warrick
football [wide receiver]: Florida State Univ; NFL: Cincinnati Bengals1978 - Mía Maestro
actress: Alias, Crusoe, The Twilight Saga, Frida, The Motorcycle Diaries, Poseidon [2006], The Music Never Stopped, Grand Street, The Strain1978 - Dirk Nowitzki
basketball [power forward: NBA: Dallas Mavericks [1998–2019]: 2011 NBA champs1978 - Zoe Saldana
actress: Center Stage, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Star Trek [2009], Avatar, The Losers, Takers, Burning Palms, Vantage Point, Dirty Deeds, The Terminal1982 - Diana Munz
Olympic swimming champ: 2000 Olympic Games, Sydney [gold, silver medals]; 2002 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships, Yokohama [four gold medals]1983 - Macklemore (Ben Haggerty)
Grammy Award-winning rapper [w/partner Ryan Lewis]: The Heist, Thrift Shop1983 - Aidan Turner
actor: The Hobbit film series, Desperate Romantics, The Clinic, Being Human, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones1984 - Paul Dano
actor: Little Miss Sunshine, There Will Be Blood, 12 Years a Slave, Cowboys & Aliens, Prisoners, Love and Mercy1988 - Jacob deGrom
baseball [pitcher]: New York Mets [2014–2022]: 2015 World Series; Texas Rangers [2023– ]1989 - Giacomo Gianniotti
actor: Grey’s Anatomy, Reign, Murdoch Mysteries, The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe
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Hit Music on This Day June 19
1951Too Young (facts) - Nat King Cole
On Top of Old Smokey (facts) - The Weavers (vocal: Terry Gilkyson)
1960
1969
1978
1987
1996
2005
2014
2023
and even more...
Those were the days, my friend. We thought they’d never end...
TWtD Calendar
