June 24
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Events on This Day
1880 - O Canada, with music by Calixa Lavallée, and French lyrics by Sir Adolphe-Basile Routhier, was performed for the first time this day. Three bands, playing together, performed O Canada during a banquet at a national convention of French Canadians at the Skaters’ Pavilion in Quebec City. Canada’s future national anthem was reported to have been recieved enthusiastically. The version on which the official English lyrics are based was written in 1908 by Mr. Justice Robert Stanley Weir. The official English version includes changes recommended in 1968 by a Special Joint Committee of the Senate and House of Commons. The French lyrics remain unaltered.1916 - The most lucrative movie contract to the time was signed by actress, Mary Pickford. She inked the first seven-figure Hollywood deal. Pickford would get $250,000 per film with a guaranteed minimum of $10,000 a week against half of the profits, including bonuses and the right of approval of all creative aspects of her films. Not a bad deal for the former vaudeville and stage actress, who once appeared on Broadway with Cecil B. DeMille in The Warrens of Virginia for a measly $25 a week.
1922 - The American Professional Football Association took on a new name. They decided to name themselves the National Football League.
1938 - A 500-ton meteorite hit just west of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Had the big rock fallen at a slightly different angle, it could have destroyed much of the city and killed at least half a million people.
1940 - TV cameras were used for the first time in a political convention as the Republicans convened in Philadelphia, PA. (There were only 100-200 TV sets in the Philadelphia market and most of those were owned by Philco and in the homes of employees. At that time, Philco wasn’t even offering TV sets for sale to the general public.)
1947 - Looking skyward this night, Kenneth Arnold of Boise, Idaho reported seeing flying saucers over Mt. Rainier, Washington.
1948 - Berlin, Germany was completely isolated from the outside world. Joseph Stalin, premier of Soviet Russia, who had already cut rail and road access to the city three months earlier, now blocked all ground and water access and cut electricity to the Western sector. Within a few days, the great Berlin Airlift began. U.S. planes dropped up to 13,000 tons of goods per day - for the next 10 months -- until Stalin lifted the blockade on May 23, 1949.
1949 - The movie features of Hopalong Cassidy premiered on TV. The films were edited to thirty and sixty-minute versions starring William Boyd as Hopalong and Edgar Buchanan as his sidekick, Red Connors. Eventually, all 66 original films were shown on TV, so Boyd produced more Hopalong Cassidy episodes just for TV.
1953 - Al Kaline signed with the Detroit Tigers this day (following his graduation from high school). The future all-star of the Tigers was 18 years old.
1957 - A 37-kiloton nuclear fission bomb, code-named Priscilla, was exploded in the Nevada desert at Frenchman Flat. The security of a bank vault was tested in the experiment. At the time the U.S. was manufacturing ten nuclear bombs a day.
1960 - The Romance of Helen Trent was heard for the last time on radio. Helen and her boy-toy, Gil Whitney, were about to be married, but the loving couple never made it to the altar -- just in case the show would ever be renewed. Helen Trent and her romance aired for 27 years -- a total of 7,222 episodes -- on the CBS radio network.
1962 - The New York Yankees’ longest extra-inning game was played. The 22-inning contest went on and on and on and on. The Yankees finally edged the Detroit Tigers, 9-7.
1964 - The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it would require warning labels on cigarette packages beginning in 1965.
1966 - Janis Joplin made her first onstage appearance at the age of 23. She performed at the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco with Big Brother and the Holding Company. The band was a sensation at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. Piece of My Heart was the only hit to chart for the group (1968). At the end of 1968, Janis Joplin left Big Brother and the Holding Company (they disbanded in 1972). Her solo career that followed included hits such as Down on Me and Me and Bobby McGee. Janis ‘Pearl’ Joplin died of a heroin overdose in Hollywood in October 1970. The movie The Rose, starring Bette Midler, was inspired by the life of the rock star.
1970 - Raquel Welch starred in the movie Myra Breckinridge, which premiered in New York City. Movie reviewers headed for the exits and gave the movie not only “thumbs down,” but “fists down.” Audiences, however, thought the movie was pretty nifty and made it a box office smash, despite the fact that critic Rex Reed was also featured in the film.
1971 - The National Basketball Association modified its four-year eligibility rule to allow for collegiate hardship cases.
1972 - Baseball’s first woman umpire, Mrs. Bernice Gera, called the balls and strikes in her first game and resigned just a few hours after it was over.
1972 - I Am Woman, by Helen Reddy, was released by Capitol Records. The number one tune (December 9, 1972) became an anthem for the feminist movement. Reddy, from Australia, made her stage debut when she was only four years old. She had her own TV program in the early 1960s. Reddy came to New York in 1966 and has appeared in the films Airport 1975, Pete’s Dragon and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Reddy also had four million-sellers: I Am Woman, Delta Dawn, Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress) and Angie Baby. She had a total of 14 hits on the pop music charts.
1975 - 113 people were killed when an Eastern Airlines Boeing 727 crashed while attempting to land during a thunderstorm at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City.
1982 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the president cannot be sued for actions while in office.
1983 - The space shuttle Challenger, carrying America’s first woman in space, Sally K. Ride, coasted to a safe landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
1985 - The 1983 Heisman Trophy winner, Mike Rozier, jumped from the United States Football League to the Houston Oilers of the NFL. Rosier signed for more than two million dollars over a four-year period. That’s about the same as Mary Pickford’s deal in 1916.
1985 - The motion picture Cocoon, directed by Ron Howard, grossed some $7.9 million during its opening weekend across the country. Cocoon, which had a brilliant cast, including screen legend Don Ameche, beat out Rambo: First Blood, Part II starring Sylvester Stallone, in first-weekend receipts. Howard first became famous as a child star (Opie) on the Andy Griffith Show; and then later, as Richie Cunningham on Happy Days.
1987 - ‘The Great One’, Jackie Gleason, died on this day, at the age of 71. Gleason was one of TV’s biggest stars in the 1950s and 1960s. He started on the DuMont Television Network, became a celebrated fixture on CBS-TV, and later, a movie star. He starred in honored films such as, Gigot and The Hustler. He also starred in Smokey and the Bandit. Jackie Gleason is best remembered from TV, however, as bus driver Ralph Kramden in The Honeymooners, which still ranks as one of TV’s greatest sitcoms.
1991 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled the First Amendment did not shield news organizations from being sued when they publish the names of sources who had been promised confidentiality.
1995 - Pink Floyd’s Pulse was the #1 album in the U.S. -- the two-disk set was number one for a week.
1995 - The New Jersey Devils won the Stanley Cup as they completed a sweep of the Detroit Red Wings.
1996 - The U.S. Post Office issued its James Dean stamp for its Legends of Hollywood series.
1997 - Actor Brian Keith, a 75-year-old lung cancer and emphysema victim, was found by family members in his Malibu home with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Keith appeared in movies throughout the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, including The Parent Trap and With Six You Get Eggroll. He starred in the CBS sitcom Family Affair (1966-1971) and played retired Judge Milton G. Hardcastle in the ABC crime drama Hardcastle & McCormick (1983-1986).
1998 - AT&T announced that it was buying cable TV giant TCI for $31.7 billion. The deal let AT&T move closer to its goal of providing local phone and high speed Internet service to millions of U.S. homes. (The FCC approved the merger on Feb 18, 1999).
2000 - Revising an earlier plan, President Bill Clinton proposed using $58 billion from the growing U.S. budget surplus to help senior citizens pay for prescription drugs in 2002.
2001 - Karrie Webb won the LPGA Championship by two strokes and became the youngest woman to complete the Grand Slam.
2002 - A train crash in central Tanzania killed at least 288 people, and hundreds more were seriously injured.
2002 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that juries, not judges, must decide whether a convicted killer lives or dies.
2003 - Russian President Vladimir Putin flew to London as the guest of Queen Elizabeth II. His was the first state visit by a Russian leader to Britain since Czar Alexander II in 1874.
2005 - Films opening in the U.S.: Bewitched, starring Nicole Kidman, Will Ferrell, Shirley MacLaine, Michael Caine, Kristin Chenoweth, Jason Schwartzman, Joan Plowright, Todd Stashwick and Jim Turner; and Land of the Dead, with Simon Baker, John Leguizamo, Dennis Hopper, Asia Argento and Robert Joy.
2005 - Crude oil, at nearly $60 a barrel, caused widespread selling on global equity markets, as shares in transport and automobile companies fell sharply.
2005 - Three boys were found dead in the trunk of a car in New Jersey, following a two-day search. It was later decided that the boys had somehow locked themselves in thet car and had died from accidental suffocation.
2005 - Paul Winchell died in Los Angeles at 82 years of age. The ventriloquist, inventor and children’s TV show host was well-known in the 1960s for Winchell-Mahoney Time, where he starred with his dummies Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff. But he may be even more famous in the movies and on TV as the lispy voice of Winnie the Pooh’s animated friend Tigger.
2005 - A flash flood hit Great Britain’s famous Glastonbury (rock) Festival; some 120,000 people were trying to cope after parts of the site were soaked under neck-deep water.
2006 - Patsy Ramsey, mother of murdered JonBenet Ramsey [1990-1996], died in Roswell, GA following a long battle with ovarian cancer. She was 49 years old.
2007 - Incoming Prime Minister Gordon Brown took over the leadership of Britain’s Labour Party from outgoing PM Tony Blair. Brown vowed that the country’s foreign policy would recognize that defeating terrorism “involves more than military force.”
2009 - New movies showing in U.S. theatres: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, with Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, John Turturro, Isabel Lucas and Rainn Wilson; and Vertige, with Justin Blanckaert, Nicolas Giraud, Raphael Lenglet, Johan Libereau, Fanny Valette and Maud Wyler.
2009 - The deepest global recession in over 60 years was close to bottoming out. In its half-yearly economic outlook, the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said it expected its member countries’ economies to shrink by 4.1 percent in 2009, an improvement from the last forecast in March 2009 of a 4.3 percent decline.
2009 - Several Apple employees reported having seen Steve Jobs at the company's Cupertino, Calif., campus recently. Jobs had taken a medical leave in January 2009 to deal with what he initially described as a hormonal imbalance, but which was apparently serious enough to require a liver transplant. Meanwhile, a Memphis, TN hospital confirmed that the Apple founder did receive a liver transplant and that he had an excellent prognosis for recovery. Dr. James D. Eason said Jobs was the sickest patient on the waiting list at the time a donor organ became available.
2010 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that disclosing the names of people who sign initiative petitions generally does not violate their right to free speech. The case, Doe v. Reed, centered on the public’s right to know who signed petitions related to Referendum 71, a 2009 attempt to overturn Washington State’s expanded domestic partner law, which gives gay and lesbian couples the same rights as married couples.
2010 - Norwegian Cruise Line’s $1.2 billion, 4,100 passenger Norwegian Epic cruise ship, began its maiden transatlantic voyage from Southampton, U.K. -- bound for a July 1 arrival in New York City.
2010 - The longest tennis match in history ended with John Isner (USA) beating Nicholas Mahut (FRA) in an 11 hour, five minute on-again, off-again contest at Wimbledon court 18. The match started June 22 at 6:13 p.m., but was suspended before the begining of the fifth set at 9:07 due to darkness. Play resumed the next day at 2:05 p.m. and was again suspended at 9:10 with the fifth set tied at 59-59. The match started again at 3:43 p.m. and ended at 4:48, with Isner on top at 70-68. Mini-statues of both players now stand at the entrance to court 18.
2011 - Motion Pictures opening in the U.S.: The animated Cars 2, featuring the voices of Larry the Cable Guy, Owen Wilson, Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer, Eddie Izzard, John Turturro, Brent Musburger and Joe Mantegna; Bad Teacher, starring Cameron Diaz, Lucy Punch, Jason Segel, Justin Timberlake, Phyllis Smith and John Michael Higgins; A Better Life, with Demián Bichir, Eddie ‘Piolin’ Sotelo, Joaquín Cosio, José Julián and Nancy Lenehan; A Love Affair of Sorts, with Lili Bordán, David Guy Levy, ... Iván Kamarás and Jonathan Beckerman; and the documentary, Turtle: The Incredible Journey, with Miranda Richardson, Daniel Braga and Hannelore Elsner.
2011 - New York became the sixth and largest state in the U.S. to legalize gay marriage. Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the bill into law just before midnight -- to become effective on July 24.
2011 - The former editor of Playboy Indonesia was released from prison. This, after the Indonesia Supreme Court court overturned his indecency conviction for publishing pictures of scantily clad women.
2012 - New York state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman reported that he had secured a civil settlement in which J. Ezra Merkin would reimburse clients $405 million that they had lost in Bernard Madoff’s investment scam. Merkin was a Wall Street hedge fund manager accused of steering client money to the swindler.
2013 - $1.2 million disappeared from a shipment of cash on a flight from Switzerland to New York City. The cash--all $100 bills--was part of a banking transaction and was reported missing after a count of the money at the Federal Reserve came up short. Authorities believe the theft was an inside job that was pulled off at JFK airport — not Zurich, where the flight originated. A $100,000 reward was offered for info, but the bad guys (or gals) have not been found.
2014 - Former News of the World editor Andy Coulson was convicted of telephone hacking but fellow editor Rebekah Brooks was acquitted. Coulson, the former spin doctor of British Prime Minister David Cameron, was found guilty of conspiring to intercept communications by eavesdropping on mobile phone voicemails. Brooks was acquitted of that charge and of counts of conspiring to bribe officials and obstruct police.
2014 - An Egyptian court convicted Kerolos Ghattas, an Egyptian Christian, to six years imprisonment for blasphemy and contempt of religion. He was arrested for posting pictures deemed insulting to Islam on his Facebook page.
2015 - French lawmakers voted to create a $60-million fund to compensate Holocaust victims transported by the French state rail firm SNCF to Nazi concentration camps. The law was also intended to protect the company from future U.S. litigation.
2016 - New movies in the U.S. included: The Free State of Jones, starring Matthew McConaughey, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Keri Russell; Independence Day: Resurgence, with Maika Monroe, Joey King and Liam Hemsworth; The Duel, starring Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson and Emory Cohen; Hunt for the Wilderpeople, starring Sam Neill, Julian Dennison and Rima Te Wiata; and Wiener-Dog, with Charlie Tahan, Greta Gerwig and Zosia Mamet.
2016 - Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron said he would resign to make way for a new leader by early October. This, after voters opted to exit the 28-nation European Union alliance in defiance of his predictions of economic disaster and isolation.
2016 - Germany imposed limits on fracking, dealing a blow to efforts to develop shale gas. Under legislation passed by its lower house of parliament, fracking was banned in clay formations, which typically lie between 1,000 and 2,500 meters deep.
2017 - South Korean President Moon Jae-in invited North Korea to the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, saying sports could serve as a peace maker. President Moon made the remarks at the opening of the 23rd edition of the World Taekwondo Championships in the southern county of Muju, adding that he believed in the strength of sports for “brokering peace.”
2018 - Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi approved a law governing ride-hailing apps Uber and Careem. The action came after the companies appealed a court ruling that had revoked their licenses.
2019 - The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a section of federal law that had prevented businesses from registering trademarks seen as scandalous or immoral. The ruling was a victory for California fashion brand FUCT.
2019 - Britain’s Lloyds Banking Group said it had frozen 8,000 customer accounts under a crackdown on money-laundering. LBG had responded to a change to money-laundering rules in Jersey, home to the lender’s international division. “In January 2016, we began to contact certain expatriate banking customers to ensure we were provided with up-to-date information for our records, where customer information was missing,” a spokesman said. “This was required to meet international regulatory standards... Unfortunately, where a customer has not provided us with this necessary information, we have had to freeze their account until we get the information.”
2020 - The Democratic National Committee announced the 2020 national convention (to nominate candidates for president, VP, etc.) would take place virtually from Aug 17-20, with delegates being asked not to travel to Milwaukee (where the convention had been scheduled to be held).
2020 - The U.S. recorded 36,880 coronavirus cases, the highest single-day total so far. The virus was spreading more rapidly than it was a few weeks earlier. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,378,648 with the death toll at 121,932.
2020 - The governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut announced that visitors from states with high coronavirus infection rates must self-quarantine for 14 days on arrival. Those states were Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and Washington, according to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
2020 - Charleston, South Carolina removed a symbol of its legacy, sending crews to take away a statue honoring John C. Calhoun (d.1850). He was a U.S. vice president whose zealous defense of slavery led the nation toward civil war. The Calhoun Monument had stood since 1898 in the heart of downtown Charleston.
2020 - Bayer AG agreed to pay some $10.9 billion to settle as many as 125,000 lawsuits by Roundup users in the U.S. who said the herbicide caused them to develop a form of blood cancer.
2021 - The U.S. and Germany launched an initiative to stem the rise in antisemitism and Holocaust denial around the world. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas and several Holocaust survivors were present for the launch at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin. All the parties cited links between Holocaust denial, revisionism and ignorance to growing antisemitism as well as to broader discrimination against minorities.
2021 - The sudden collapse of a condominium left 98 people dead in a wing of the Champlain Towers South in the Miami suburb of Surfside, Florida. It was later reported that an inspector had warned three years earlier that there was evidence of major structural damage to the concrete slab below the pool deck -- and abundant cracking and crumbling in the underground parking garage.
2021 - Microsoft released Windows 11, with a slightly different Start Menu (than Windows 10) and other features. It became available later in the year on new computers and other devices and as a free update for people who had Windows 10 and qualifying hardware.
2022 - Movies set to open in the U.S. included The Black Phone, with Ethan Hawke, Jeremy Davies and James Ransone; and Elvis, starring Tom Hanks, Austin Butler and Olivia DeJonge.
2022 - The most significant piece of gun safety legislation in decades was sent to President Biden’s desk, after easily passing the House 234-193. 14 Republicans joined all Democrats in supporting the bill. The bipartisan legislation, concocted by a group of senators in response to an influx of mass shootings nationwide (including those inside an elementary school in Texas and a supermarket in Buffalo), had cleared the Senate 65-33 the previous day. The gun safety bill included increased funding for mental health, incentives for states to pass so-called ‘red flag’ laws, enhanced background checks, and the end of the ‘boyfriend loophole.’
2022 - The U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The 6-3 vote was the culmination of a conservative judicial movement that rejected the interpretation of constitutional rights underpinning the 1973 Supreme Court decision. A Pew Research Center survey concluded that 62% of Americans disagreed with the Court, saying abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
2022 - By the end of the day, Missouri, Louisiana, Kentucky, South Dakota, Alabama, Arkansas and Utah had all announced that abortion was illegal in the state. Abortion clinics in Texas and Wisconsin — which still has a pre-Roe ban on the books — shut down, while clinics in Oklahoma had been closed since May. Five states had ‘delayed trigger’ laws that automatically outlawed abortion in a few weeks.
2022 - President Biden said “It’s a sad day for the court and for the country,” calling the ruling a “tragic error” that meant the “health and life of women in this nation is now at risk.”
2023 - The Wagner Group agreed to end its rebellion of Vladimir Putin’s leadership, with the leader of the mercenaries, Yevgeny Prigozhin, agreeing to halt the push toward Moscow. The agreement was hatched by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who brought Prigozhin to a deal with Putin. (On Aug 23, Prigozhin and nine others were killed in a plane crash as his private jet traveled from Moscow to Saint Petersburg. A Wagner-associated Telegram channel claimed the jet was shot down by Russian air defenses over Tver Oblast.)
2023 - Several freight train cars carrying hazardous materials plummeted into the Yellowstone River in Montana after a bridge collapsed. The crash occurred some 60 miles west of Billings. At least three of the train cars that collapsed into the river were carrying hot asphalt and molten sulfur, both of which could be toxic to the surrounding environment. The train crew was safe and no injuries were reported.
2023 - Major League Baseball trivia: Los Angeles Angels’ Mike Trout, Brandon Drury, and Matt Thaiss hit home runs on three consecutive pitches as the Angels beat the Rockies 25-1 at Coor’s Field, Denver, Colorado.
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Birthdays on This Day June 24
1895 - Jack Dempsey
boxer: ‘The Manassa Mauler’: world heavyweight boxing champion [1919-1926]; NY restaurateur; died May 31, 19831901 - Chuck Taylor
basketball; Converse sneaker spokesperson [his name was/is on their high-top canvas basketball sneakers [“Chucks”: over 500 million pairs sold since 1917]; died June 23, 19691904 - Phil Harris
bandleader, singer: That’s What I Like About the South, The Thing; actor: The Gatling Gun, The Last Generation, The Cool Ones, The Jungle Book; died Aug 11, 1995
1910 - Irving Kaufman
judge: First Amendment, civil rights, antitrust cases: U.S. vs. N.Y. Times, Taylor vs. Board of Education; sentenced Julius and Ethel Rosenberg to death for espionage; died Feb 1, 19921911 - Juan-Manuel Fangio
Indy race car driver: won his first Formula 1 Championship in 1951, followed by four more consective wins; retired in 1958; died July 17, 19951915 - Norman Cousins
journalist: Anatomy of an Illness; died Nov 30, 19901916 - John Ciardi
poet: Homeward to America, Other Skies, Live Another Day, I Marry You, Lives of X; died Mar 30, 19861919 - Al Molinaro
actor: Happy Days, Joanie Loves Chachi, The Odd Couple, The Family Man; died Oct 30, 20151922 - Manny Albam
composer: Drum Suite, La Vie en Rose, Afro-Dizzyac, Country Man; music educator: Eastman School of Music; died Oct 2, 20011923 - Jack Carter (Chakrin)
comedian, actor, host: The Jack Carter Show, Cavalcade of Stars, American Minstrels of 1949; died Jun 28, 20151930 - Claude Chabrol
director: La Femme Infidele, The Cousins, Madame Bovary; died Sep 12, 20101930 - Charles ‘Pete’ Conrad Jr.
NASA astronaut: piloted Gemini 5, commanded Gemini 11, walked on moon [Apollo 12], commanded Skylab 2 space station mission; died July 8, 19991931 - Billy Casper
golf champ: Masters [1970], U.S. Open [1959, 1966]; PGA Player of the Year [1966, 1968, 1970]; died Feb 7, 20151933 - Sam Jones
Basketball Hall of Famer: Boston Celtics: 10 championship teams; NBA Silver Anniversary Team [1971]; coach: Federal City College, North Carolina A&T U; died Dec 30, 20211935 - Pete Hamill
journalist, syndicated columnist: New York Post; editor in chief: New York Daily News; writer: Piecework: Writings on Men and Women, Fools and Heroes, Lost Cities, Vanished Friends, Small Pleasures, Large Calamities, and How the Weather Was, A Drinking Life; died Aug 5, 20201935 - Ron Kramer
football: Green Bay Packers tight end: Associated Press All-Pro [1962]; College Football Hall of Famer; died Sep 11, 20101942 - Michele Lee (Dusick)
actress: Knots Landing, The Love Bug, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying; more1943 - Georg Stanford Brown
actor: Colossus: The Forbin Project, The Rookies; director: Alone in the Neon Jungle1944 - Jeff Beck
musician: guitar: groups: The Yardbirds, The Jeff Beck Group, The Honeydrippers; car collector: classic Fords1944 - Arthur Brown (Wilton)
singer: group: The Crazy World of Arthur Brown: Fire; actor: Tommy1944 - John ‘Charlie’ Whitney
musician: guitar: group: Family: Hung Up Down, The Weaver’s Answer, No Mule’s Fool, In My Own Time, Burlesque1945 - Colin Blunstone aka Neil MacArthur
singer: solo: She’s Not There, I Don’t Believe in Miracles; group: The Zombies: Time of the Season1946 - Lt. Col. Ellison S. Onizuka
astronaut: mission specialist aboard ill-fated space shuttle Challenger [he was killed when shuttle exploded 1 minute 13 seconds after launch Jan 28, 1986]; more1947 - Mick Fleetwood
musician: drums; founder, leader of Fleetwood Mac: Don’t Stop, The Chain, Dreams, Go Your Own Way, Black Magic Woman, Rumours1947 - Peter Weller
actor: Screamers, Mighty Aphrodite, Decoy, Sunset Grill, Naked Lunch, RoboCop series, A Killing Affair, Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai across the Eighth Dimension1949 - John Illsley
musician: bass: group: Dire Straits: Sultans of Swing, Romeo & Juliet, Tunnel of Love, Skateaway, Telegraph Road, Private Investigation, Money for Nothing, Walk of Life, The Man’s Too Strong, Goin’ Home, Smooching1950 - Nancy Allen
actress: Carrie, Robocop, Blow Out, Dressed to Kill, I Wanna Hold Your Hand1952 - Dave Lapham
football: Cincinnati Bengals guard: Super Bowl XVI; Bengals radio analyst1956 - Joe Penny
actor: Jake and the Fatman, The Gangster Chronicles, Riptide, Blood Vows: The Story of a Mafia Wife, The Prophet’s Game1957 - Astro (Terence Wilson)
musician: drums, trumpet; singer: group: UB40: Here I Am [Come and Take Me], One in Ten, Red, Red Wine, Kingston Town, If It Happens Again, Don’t Break My Heart, Cherry Oh Baby1958 - Tommy Lister
actor: Friday film series, The Fifth Element, No Holds Barred, Star Trek: Enterprise, Matlock, The Dark Knight, Vegas Vampires, Forbidden Fruits, Miss B’s Hair Salon, White T1958 - John Tortorella
hockey: coach: NHL: Tampa Bay Lightning [2001–2008]: 2004 Stanley Cup champs; New York Rangers [2009–2013]; Vancouver Canucks [2013–2014]1959 - Andy McCluskey
singer: group: Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark: Electricity, Red Frame, White Light, Messages, Enola Gay, The More I See You, Souvenir, Joan of Arc, Genetic Engineering, Talking Loud & Clear, Telsa Girls, Forever [Love & Die]1961 - Jim Carter
golf champ: Arizona Open [1989, 1996]; NIKE New Mexico Charity Classic [1994]; Touchstone Energy Tucson Open [2000]1961 - Iain Glen
actor: Game of Thrones, Downton Abbey, Silent Scream, The Young Americans, Tomb Raider1961 - Curt Smith
musician: bass, singer: group: Tears For Fears: Suffer the Children, Mad World, Change, Pale Shelter1965 - Richard Lumsden
actor: Morris: A Life With Bells On, Julian Fellowes Investigates: A Most Mysterious Murder - The Case of the Croydon Poisonings, Silent Cry, The Avengers; TV: Sugar Rush, radio: Clare in the Community1965 - Danielle Spencer
actress: What’s Happening!!, Peter Rabbit and the Crucifix, As Good as It Gets, Christmas at Walt Disney World1966 - Betsy Randle
actress: Boy Meets World, Home Improvement, Urban Mythology, The Nightmare Room, The Beat, Charmed, Guess Who’s Coming for Christmas?1967 - Jeff Cease
musician: guitar: group: The Black Crowes1967 - Bill Huard
hockey [left wing]: Boston Bruins, Ottawa Senators, Quebec Nordiques, Dallas Stars, Edmonton Oilers, LA Kings, Atlanta Thrashers1967 - Sherry Stringfield
actress: N.Y.P.D. Blue, ER1968 - Chennin Blanc
actress [1996-2010]: X-rated films: Gang Bang Angels 4, Three on a Honeymoon, I’ve Never Done That Before 6, West Coast Whoppers, It’s Okay! She’s My Mother in Law 41968 - Jeff Daniels
hockey [left wing]: Pittsburgh Penguins, Florida Panthers, Hartford Whalers, Nashville Predators, Carolina Hurricanes1970 - Glenn Medeiros
singer: [w/Bobby Brown]: She Ain’t Worth It1972 - Mitch Berger
football [punter]: Univ of Colorado; NFL: Philadelphia Eagles, Minnesota Vikings, SL Rams, NO Saints1974 - Adam Treu
football [center]: Univ of Nebraska; NFL: Oakland Raiders1975 - Christie Rampone
footballer [defender]: Sky Blue FC [2009- ]; won three consecutive Olympic gold medals with U.S. women’s soccer team [2004, 2008, 2012]; 2015 World Cup gold medalist1976 - Jean-Yves Leroux
hockey [left wing]: NHL: Chicago Blackhawks1976 - Daniel Santiago
basketball [center]: St. Vincent; NBA: Phoenix Suns, Milwaukee Bucks1977 - Shaun Ellis
football [defensive end]: Univ of Tennessee; NFL: NY Jets1977 - Antoine Winfield
football [cornerback]: Ohio State Univ; NFL: Buffalo Bills, Minnesota Vikings1979 - Mindy Kaling
actress: The Mindy Project, The Office, Despicable Me, No Strings Attached, The Five-Year Engagement, Wreck-It Ralph, This Is the End1980 - Liane Balaban
actress: Definitely, Maybe, Last Chance Harvey, One Week, NCIS: Los Angeles, Covert Affairs, Alphas, Supernatural1980 - Minka Kelly
actress: Friday Night Lights, Parenthood, Charlie’s Angels, Almost Human1981 - Vanessa Ray
actress: Blue Bloods, Pretty Little Liars, Suits, The Rumperbutts, Best-Selling Murder1982 - Lotte Verbeek
actress: The Fault in Our Stars, Suspension of Disbelief, Outlander, Nothing Personal, The Borgias1987 - Lionel Messi
Argentine footballer [forward]: plays in La Liga for FC Barcelona; captain of the Argentina national team: 2014 World Cup championship game1988 - Candice Patton
actress: The Game, The Bold and the Beautiful, The Flash, Arrow, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow1991 - Max Ehrich
actor: Ugly Betty, Parenthood, iCarly, The Young and the Restless1993 - Beanie Feldstein
actress: Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising, Lady Bird, Booksmart, What We Do in the Shadows; Broadway: Hello, Dolly! [2017–2018]2001 - Mo’ne Davis
Little League Baseball pitcher: one of two girls who played in the 2014 Little League World Series: first girl to earn a win, and pitch a shutout, in Little League World Series history.
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Hit Music on This Day June 24
1947Peg o’ My Heart (facts) - The Harmonicats
Mamselle (facts) - Art Lund
1956
1965
1974
1983
1992
2001
2010
2019
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Those were the days, my friend. We thought they’d never end...
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