March 12
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Events on This Day
1755 - The first reported use of the steam engine was made -- at a copper mine in New Barbados Neck (now North Arlington), NJ.1841 - Englishman Orlando Jones patented that fabulous miracle food known as corn starch. Where would we be without it? What else is in most deodorants, heals diaper rash, and thickens gravy?
1884 - The State of Mississippi authorized the first state-supported college for women. It was called the Mississippi Industrial Institute and College.
1889 - Almon B. Strowger stepped up to the counter at the U.S. Patent Office to file for his invention, the automatic telephone system. The system was installed in Laporte, IN in 1892. It worked, but not well enough. Mr. Bell’s invention was deemed much more reliable. Good thing or we would have been complaining about Ma Stowger for years and years.
1912 - The Girl Scouts organization was founded on this day in 1912. Juliette Gordon Low of Savannah, Georgia is the person credited with starting this group for young girls, figuring, of course, that if there were Boy Scouts, why not Girl Scouts, too? At first, the girls weren’t called Girl Scouts at all. They were called Girl Guides until the name was officially changed a short time after the group’s founding. Volunteer, help a friend, set an example and complete a project, then pass those chocolate mint and peanut butter-filled cookies, please, as we ‘guide’ you along the path when Those Were the Days.
1928 - 431 people died when the San Francisquito Valley in California was inundated with water after the St. Francis Dam burst.
1933 - Eight days after he was inaugurated, U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt presented his first presidential address to the nation. It was the first of what were called Roosevelt’s famous Fireside Chats. The name, incidentally, was coined by newsman, Robert Trout. He thought that the President sounded as if he was sitting with us in living rooms all over the nation next to a roaring fire, just telling it like it was. These frequent, soothing, down-to-earth talks helped bolster President Roosevelt’s enormous popularity for four terms in office, making him, many say, the greatest President of the century, if not of all time.
1938 - German troops invaded and ‘annexed’ Austria.
1939 - Artie Shaw and his band recorded the standard, Deep Purple (with Helen Forrest singing the vocal), in New York for the Bluebird label. Larry Clinton and his orchestra had a number one song with a similar arrangement of the same tune that same year. It later was a hit for saxophonist, Nino Tempo and his sister, April Stevens in 1963. Hundreds of versions of this song have been recorded through the years, making it one of the most popular standards of all time.
1945 - Anne Frank, the Jewish teen-ager who kept a diary of her wartime experiences, died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany (of typhus at 15 years of age).
1947 - In a speech to Congress, U.S. President Harry Truman outlined what became known as the Truman Doctrine, calling for U.S. aid to countries threatened by communist revolution.
1951 - “Mr. Wiiiiillllssssson!” The comic strip, Dennis the Menace, appeared for the first time in 16 newspapers across the U.S. The strip became an international favorite in thousands of newspapers and spawned a CBS-TV program that starred Jay North as Dennis. The series lasted for several seasons and is still seen in syndicated re-runs. A somewhat popular movie starring Walter Matthau as Mr. Wilson and Christopher Lloyd as the bad guy was released in 1993.
1955 - Alto saxophonist Charlie (Bird) Parker died in a New York City apartment, of the excesses of drugs and alcohol. He was only 35. Parker was the key figure of the bebop movement in jazz in the 1940s, and is considered by many to rank with Louis Armstrong as the greatest jazz soloist. With musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker developed the bebop style in New York after-hours clubs like Minton’s Playhouse and Monroe’s.
1959 - The U.S. House joined the Senate in passing the Hawai’i Statehood Admission Act, approving statehood for Hawaii.
1966 - Bobby Hull of the Chicago Blackhawks became the first player in the National Hockey League to score more than 50 goals in a single season.
1969 - Wedding bells rang in London for singer, Paul McCartney and his new bride, photographer Linda Eastman.
1971 - Syrian Premier Hafez al-Assad was elected president in a national referendum.
1974 - Wonder Woman, the TV movie, came to ABC-TV, starring Cathy Lee Crosby. In November 1975, another Wonder Woman TV movie aired starring Lynda Carter. Eventually, after a series of specials, Wonder Woman became a regular CBS-TV show, still starring Lynda Carter in the title role. Wonder Woman’s real name, for those who have lost sleep wondering about such trivia, was Yeoman Diana Prince. As a bonus, Wonder Girl, Diana’s kid sister Druscilla, was played by Debra Winger. How about that?
1979 - Grenada’s prime minister, Sir Eric Gairy, and his government were overthrown and replaced by Maurice Bishop of the New Jewel Movement.
1980 - A Chicago jury found John Wayne Gacy Jr. guilty of the murders of 33 men and boys. After years on death row, he was executed May 10, 1994.
1985 - Auto dealer Tom Benson and several investors plunked down some cash to buy the New Orleans Saints football team. The bankroll was quite substantial -- about $64 million -- making quite a hurricane in the French Quarter.
1987 - Both Coca-Cola and Boeing Company joined the rank and file of the Dow Jones Industrials this day. The 30-stock average said “adieu” to the stock of Owens-Illinois Glass and Inco Ltd. to make room for the new issues.
1987 - After breaking all records for advance ticket sales, the British musical Les Misérables opened on Broadway. The musical set a few records in the U.S. as well -- going on for 6,680 performances, closing on May 18, 2003. The show was nominated for 12 Tony Awards and won eight, including Best Musical and Best Original Score.
1992 - The Indian Ocean island of Mauritius became the Republic of Mauritius, dropping its links with the British crown 24 years after Mauritius gained its independence.
1993 - At least 228 people were killed and more than 1,200 injured when a wave of 13 bombings rocked Bombay, India’s business capital.
1994 - The Anglican Church of England ordained its first (33) women priests.
1997 - Police in Los Angeles arrested Mikhail Markhasev as a suspect in the shooting death of Bill Cosby’s son, Ennis, almost two months earlier. In 1998 Markhasev was sentenced to life in prison for the murder.
1998 - Ceramist Beatrice Wood died at the age of 105. Wood had been called “Mama of Dada” for her liaisons with Marcel Duchamp, Henri-Pierre Roche and others associated with the Dada movement of the early 20th century.
1999 - Films opening in the U.S.: Baby Geniuses, starring Kathleen Turner, Christopher Lloyd, Kim Cattrall, Peter Macnicol, Dom DeLuise and Ruby Dee; , The Corruptor, with Chow Yun-Fat, Mark Wahlberg, Ric Young, Paul Ben- Victor, Andrew Pang, Byron Mann, Elizabeth Lindsey, Brian Cox, Jon Kit Lee and Marie Matiko; The Deep End of the Ocean, starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Treat Williams, Jonathan Jackson, John Kapelos, Ryan Merriman, Whoppi Goldberg and Alexa Vega; The Rage: Carrie 2, with Emily Bergl, Jason London, Amy Irving, Dylan Bruno, J. Smith-Cameron, Justin Urich, Zachery Ty Bryan, Elijah Craig, Rachel Blanchard, Charlotte Lopez, Mena Suvari, Eddie Kaye Thomas, John Doe and Kate Skinner; and Wing Commander, starring Freddie Prinze Jr., Saffron Burrows, Matthew Lillard, Tcheky Karyo, Jurgen Prochnow, David Suchet and David Warner.
1999 - The Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland formally joined NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization). The former Soviet Bloc countries had previously belonged to the Warsaw Pact, which was the Soviet-led rival of NATO.
2000 - Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar scored a major victory in general elections.
2001 - Morton Downey Jr. died at 68 years of age. The Morton Downey Show was the first of the ‘Trash TV’ talk shows, premiering in New York City in 1987.
2001 - Suspense novelist Robert Ludlum died in Naples, FL. He was 73 years old. Ludlum’s books include The Scarlatti Inheritance, The Chancellor Manuscript, the Bourne trilogy (The Bourne Ultimatum, The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy), The Matlock Paper, Trevayne.
2002 - Andrea Yates was convicted of murder in the drowning deaths of her five children in the family bathtub in Houston, Texas. Yates was later sentenced to life in prison.
2002 - Conoco and Phillips Petroleum stockholders approved a proposed $15.6 billion-dollar merger.
2003 - Tony Award-winnning actress (An American Daughter [1997]) Lynne Thigpen died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Los Angeles. She was 54 years old.
2003 - Elizabeth Smart, the 15-year-old girl who had vanished from her bedroom nine months before, was found alive on this day -- in a Salt Lake City suburb. Smart was in the company of two ‘drifters’, who turned out to be Brian Mitchell, her kidnapper, and a Wanda Barzee, a companion of Mitchell’s. Relatives said Elizabeth Smatrt was in good physical condition.
2004 - New flicks in U.S. theatres this day were: Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London, starring Frankie Muniz, Anthony Anderson, Keith David, Daniel Roebuck and Cynthia Stevenson; NASCAR 3D: The IMAX Experience, with Kiefer Sutherland and Jeff Gordon; Secret Window, starring Johnny Depp, Maria Bello, Timothy Hutton, Ving Rhames, Charles Dutton and John Turturro; and Spartan, with Val Kilmer, Derek Luke, William H. Macy, Johnny Messner, Alexandra Kerry, Tia Texada and Kristen Bell.
2004 - Kanat Zhangaskin, vice president of the Kazakhstan National Railway Co. in China announced a 1,930-mile railway project to link China and Europe.
2005 - Algeria’s minister for energy and mines said OPEC had reached its production limit. Chakib Khalil said prices were high because of world economic growth -- particularly in the United States and China.
2006 - The Capital One financial giant announced that it was buying North Fork (New York) bank, for $14.6 billion in cash and shares. Capital One was spun off from Virginia’s Signet Bank in 1994 to become an all-credit-card company.
2006 - Swarms of tornadoes killed 11 people across the Midwest states of Indiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas, South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin. The storms caused so much damage in Springfield, IL that the mayor compared it to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
2007 - Israel confirmed that it had recalled Tsuriel Raphael, its openly gay ambassador to El Salvador, after he was found drunk, naked, and tied up with bondage gear.
2007 - Actress Betty Hutton died in Palm Springs, CA at 85 years of age. Her many film and TV appearances include Annie Get Your Gun, Somebody Loves Me, The Fleet’s In, The Greatest Show on Earth and The Betty Hutton Show.
2008 - New York Governor Eliot Spitzer resigned (effective 3/17) over revelations of his links to a high-priced prostitution ring. Lt. Governor David Paterson would become the new governor.
2008 - The U.S. Treasury said the government had run a $175.56 billion budget deficit for February, a record for any month.
2009 - Serbia’s war crimes court convicted 13 Serbs of war crimes for the execution-style killings of some 200 Croats in 1991 during the Balkan conflicts. Seven of the former soldiers received the maximum 20-year sentence.
2009 - Bernard Madoff pleaded guilty to charges that he carried out an epic fraud that robbed investors around the world of billions of dollars. “I knew what I was doing was wrong, indeed criminal,” Madoff said. “When I began the Ponzi scheme, I believed it would end shortly and I would be able to extricate myself and my clients.”
2010 - Movies opening in the U.S.: Green Zone, starring Matt Damon, Greg Kinnear, Amy Ryan, Brendan Gleeson, Jason Isaacs and Khalid Abdalla; Our Family Wedding, with Forest Whitaker, America Ferrera, Carlos Mencia, Regina King, Lance Gross and Charlie Murphy; Remember Me, starring Robert Pattinson, Emilie de Ravin, Chris Cooper, Lena Olin and Pierce Brosnan; and She’s Out of My League, with Jay Baruchel, Alice Eve, T.J. Miller, Nate Torrence, Krysten Ritter, Geoff Stults and Lindsay Sloane.
2010 - India signed five contracts in New Delhi to purchase more than $7 billion in hardware and expertise from Russia. The agreements included the construction of 12 civilian nuclear reactors, an aircraft carrier and a fleet of MiG-29 fighters.
2010 - The U.S. government’s ‘vaccine court’ ruled in three separate cases that the mercury-containing preservative thimerosol does not cause autism.
2011 - An explosion at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station in Japan destroyed a building housing the reactor. Japanese nuclear agency spokesman Shinji Kinjo acknowledged there were fears of a meltdown from damage caused by the March 11 tsunami.
2011 - Thousands of people demonstrated against plans to extend the life of Germany’s nuclear power stations. This, as the tsunami-triggered explosion at a Japanese nuclear plant sharpened the dispute.
2012 - The Obama administration blocked a new Texas law requiring voters to show photo identification before they could cast a ballot. The U.S. Department of Justice cited a concern that the law could harm Hispanic voters who lacked ID.
2012 - The city of San Bruno, California (near San Francisco) agreed to accept $70 million in restitution from Pacific Gas & Electric Company. The payment was to be used to establish a nonprofit organization to help the community recover from the September 2010 gas pipeline explosion that killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes in a San Bruno residential neighborhood.
2013 - The Archdiocese of Los Angeles announced that it had reached a $10 million settlement with four men who said they were abused by former priest Michael Baker. Baker was convicted in 2007 of child molestation and paroled in 2011.
2014 - Two New York City residential buildings in East Harlem exploded and collapsed. The ensuing fire engulfing the area in thick smoke. Eight people were killed and 70 others were injured. City officials said a natural gas leak was responsible for the blast.
2014 - Egyptian military reported that it had destroyed 1,370 tunnels under its border with the Gaza Strip. Cairo’s ties to the Hamas movement took a turn for the worse after the military’s July 2014 ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, who belonged to the Muslim Brotherhood, an affiliate of Hamas.
2015 - U.S. government investigators said fake tax agents had targeted more than 366,000 people to collect payments totalling over $15 million. The scammers made harassing phone calls to unsuspecting taxpayers demanding money and threatening jail time as part of a scheme that involved some call centers in India.
2015 - Cuba began allowing free, public Internet service for the first time. The open Wi-Fi was made available at a Havana cultural center.
2016 - U.S. and South Korean troops staged an amphibious landing exercise, storming simulated North Korean beach defenses. The big drill came amid heightened tension and threats by the North to annihilate its enemies.
2017 - Democrats criticized POTUS Donald Trump for firing U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, saying it was a further window into the character of Trump and an effort to sideline critical voices in the judicial branch. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York), who represents the state in which Bharara was based, said he was “caught off guard” and that Bharara will be “sorely missed” in New York. Maryland Representative Elijah Cummings said, “Just not very long ago, the president was saying that he was going to keep the U.S. attorney there in New York and then suddenly he’s, I guess, changed his mind. There’s a lot of questions coming up as to whether … President Trump is concerned about the jurisdiction of this U.S. attorney.”
2018 - Donald Trump issued an executive order blocking Singapore-based Broadcom from acquiring U.S.-based Qualcomm in a $117 billion deal. POTUS acted on a recommendation by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., which reviews acquisitions of American firms by foreign investors. The decision was unveiled just hours after Hock Tan, the chief executive officer of Singapore-based Broadcom, met with officials at the Pentagon in a last-ditch effort to salvage what would have been the biggest technology deal in history. Trump said, “There is credible evidence that leads me to believe that Broadcom Ltd., by acquiring Qualcomm, might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States.”
2019 - British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal was defeated 391-242 in a historic vote in parliament, sending Britain into the unknown just 17 days before it was scheduled to leave the European Union.
2019 - U.S. Prosecutors charged dozens of well-heeled parents, including actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, in what the Justice Department says was a multimillion-dollar scheme to cheat college admissions standards. Andrew Lelling (U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts) said, “We’re talking about deception and fraud — fake test scores, fake credentials, fake photographs, bribed college officials.” Lelling said 33 parents “paid enormous sums” to try to ensure that their children got into universities such as Stanford and Yale, sending money to entities controlled by a California man named William Rick Singer in return for obtaining false records and false scores on important tests such as the SAT and ACT.
2020 - COVID-19 news: 1)California Governor Gavin Newsom announced new restrictions on public gatherings, limiting them to no more than 250 people, while smaller events can proceed only if the organizers can implement social distancing of 6 feet per person. About 200 people in California had tested positive for coronavirus to that point. 2)Global stocks plunged and oil slumped after stimulus efforts from the European Central Bank failed to calm investors alarmed by U.S. moves to restrict travel from Europe over the spread of the coronavirus. 3)Canadian authorities confirmed that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau had tested positive for COVID-19, following her visit to the United Kingdom. At least 117 cases of the novel coronavirus had been confirmed in Canada -- with one death. 4)Italy’s Premier Giuseppe Conte ordered restaurants, cafes and retail shops closed after imposing a nationwide lockdown on personal movement. Supermarkets, pharmacies and outdoor markets were still open. 5)Expedition operators on Mount Everest said Chinese mountaineering officials would not allow spring climbs from their side of the mountain due to coronavirus fears. 6)The number of cases worldwide had surpassed 120,000.
2020 - Ren Zhiqiang went ‘missing’. He was a member of China’s ruling Communist Party and a former property executive and had called President Xi Jinping “a clown stripped naked who still wants to be the emperor” over the handling of China’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ren said that the lack of free press and freedom of speech had delayed the official response to the pandemic, worsening its impact.
2021 - Movies released in the U.S. (theatres and virtual) this day included: Come True, with Skylar Radzion, Landon Liboiron and Julia Sarah Stone; Dutch, starring Robert Costanzo, Malcolm David Kelley and Lance Gross; Honeydew, with Sawyer Spielberg, Malin Barr and Barbara Kingsley; Long Weekend, starring Wendi McLendon-Covey, Damon Wayans Jr and Finn Wittrock; and Trust, with Victoria Justice, Katherine McNamara and Matthew Daddario.
2021 - The U.S. condemned China’s treatment of Uighurs and other minorities at a meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Council, citing “crimes against humanity and genocide” in the province of Xinjiang.
2021 - The WHO (World Health Organization) granted an emergency use listing for the single-shot COVID-19 vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson. Data from the Phase 3 ENSEMBLE study showed that the vaccine was well tolerated.
2022 - Italian police seized a superyacht owned by Russian billionaire Andrey Igorevich Melnichenko, after the businessman was placed on a European Union sanctions list following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
2022 - Thousands of people packed into one of Florence, Italy’s biggest squares to show their support for Ukraine and to listen to a videoed speech from President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
2022 - Wacky weather day: A late-winter storm knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people and snarled travel across the eastern U.S. Very few places were untouched by the wild weather, and even some long-standing record highs were broken in cities in the Midwest, mid-Atlantic and Southeast.
2023 - Players Championship (at TPC Sawgrass, Ponte Vedra Beach, FL): Scottie Scheffler became the third golfer, after Jack Nicklaus & Tiger Woods, to hold Masters & Players titles at same time; Scheffler won the Players by 5 strokes over England’s Tyrrell Hatton.
2023 - 95th Academy Awards were passed out. Everything Everywhere All at Once was voted Best Film. Best Director(s) were Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert for Everything Everywhere...). Michelle Yeoh won the Best Actress Oscar (Everything Everywhere...). And Brendan Fraser was the Best Actor (Nope. Surprise, it was The Whale).
2023 - For the tenth week in a row, hundreds of thousands of Israelis protested plans by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to overhaul the Israel’s judicial system (his plan would have given Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, the power to overrule Supreme Court decisions with a simple majority.)
and more...
Birthdays on This Day March 12
1806 - Jane (Means Appleton) Pierce
First Lady [1853-1857]: wife of Franklin Pierce, 14th President of the U.S.; died Dec 2, 18631832 - Charles Boycott
real estate agent: refused to lower rents, served eviction notices instead [1880]; tenants refused to deal with him; in other words, they boycotted Boycott making his name a part of the English language from then on; died Jun 19, 18971895 - Edgar Diddle
Basketball Hall of Fame coach: won 759 of 1,061 games at Western Kentucky; first to coach 1,000 games at one school; died Jan 2, 19701910 - Roger L. Stevens
producer: West Side Story, Bus Stop, A Man for All Seasons, Tea and Sympathy, Deathtrap, First Monday in October, Mary, Mary; founding chairman: National Council on the Arts, the Kennedy Center; died Feb 2, 19981912 - Paul Weston (Wetstein)
orchestra leader, arranger: Nevertheless [I’m in Love with You], Theme from Shane; songwriter: I Should Care, Shrimp Boats for wife: Jo Stafford; died Sep 20, 19961917 - Leonard Chess
Rock and Roll Hall of Famer [non-performer]: founded Aristocrat and Chess Record companies w/his brother, Phil; died Oct 16, 19691917 - Googie Withers (Georgette Lizette Withers
actress: Northanger Abbey, Devil on Horseback, Accused, Dead of Night; died Jul 15, 20111921 - Gordon MacRae
actor: Oklahoma!, Carousel, The Desert Song; singer: I Still Get Jealous, It’s Magic, Hair of Gold Eyes of Blue, C’est Magnifique, The Secret [with Jo Stafford]; died Jan 24, 19861922 - Jack Kerouac
author: On the Road, The Town and the City, The Dharma Bums, The Subterraneans, Doctor Sax, Maggie Cassidy, Lonesome Traveler, Big Sur, Desolation Angels, Visions of Cody; died Oct 21, 19691923 - Capt. Walter ‘Wally’ M. Shirra Jr.
astronaut: one of original 7 Project Mercury astronauts: Flew on Mercury 8 [1962: 6 earth orbits]; Gemini 6 [1965: first rendezvous in space: with Gemini 7]; Apollo 7 [1968]; died May 3, 20071926 - Hildy Parks
Emmy Award-winning producer: The 34th Annual Tony Awards [June 8, 1980], Night of 100 Stars [1982]; TV panelist: To Tell the Truth, Down You Go; actress: Studio One; died Oct 7, 20041928 - Edward Albee
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright: A Delicate Balance [1967], Seascape [1974], Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; died Sep 16, 20161930 - Bronco Horvath
hockey: NHL: NY Rangers, Montreal Canadiens, Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks, Toronto Maple Leafs, Minnesota North Stars; died Dec 17, 20191930 - Vern (Vernon Sanders) ‘Deacon’ Law
baseball: pitcher: Pittsburgh Pirates [World Series: 1960/all-star: 1960/Cy Young Award: 19601932 - Andrew Young
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations [under President Jimmy Carter]; 2-term mayor of Atlanta, GA; U.S. United Nations ambassador; president of National Council Churches1933 - Barbara Feldon (Hall)
actress: Get Smart, The Man from U.N.C.L.E.1938 - Lew Dewitt
singer: group: The Statler Brothers: Flowers on the Wall, Bed of Roses; died Aug 15, 19901938 - Johnny Rutherford
auto racer: Indianapolis 500 winner: [1974, 1976, 1980]1939 - Johnny (John Wesley) Callison
baseball: Chicago White Sox, Philadelphia Phillies [all-star: 1962, 1964, 1965], Chicago Cubs, NY Yankees; died Oct 12, 20061940 - Al Jarreau
singer: Breakin’ Away, We’re in This Love Together, theme from TV series Moonlighting; died Feb 12, 20171942 - Brian O’Hara
musician: guitar, singer: group: The Fourmost: Hello Little Girl, I’m in Love, A Little Loving, Baby I Need Your Loving; died June 27, 19991942 - Jim (James Sherman) Wynn
baseball: Houston Colt .45’s, Houston Astros [all-star: 1967], LA Dodgers [all-star: 1974, 1975/World Series: 1974], Atlanta Braves, Milwaukee Brewers, NY Yankees1946 - Liza Minnelli
Academy Award-winning actress: Cabaret [1972]; The Sterile Cuckoo, Arthur, Liza with a ‘Z’!; daughter of Judy Garland and Vincente Minnelli1946 - Frank Welker
voice actor: Transformers, Scooby-Doo, Inspector Gadget, Mister Mxyzptlk, Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show, The Real Ghostbusters, The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, Curious George, The Smurfs, Aladdin1947 - Mitt Romney
politician: U.S. Governor [Massachusetts: 2003-2007]; President and CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the 2000 Winter Olympics; Republican Party POTUS nominee [2012]; U.S. Senator from Utah [2016- ]1948 - Mark Moseley
football: NFL record for scoring 161 points [1983]: kicking 62 extra points and 33 field goals for Washington Redskins; fifth all-time scorer1948 - James Taylor
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame singer: You’ve Got a Friend, Handy Man, Fire & Rain, How Sweet It Is [To Be Loved By You]; formerly married to Carly Simon1949 - Mike Gibbins
musician: drums: group: Badfinger: Maybe Tomorrow, No Matter What, Day After Day, Feel like Makin’ Love; died Oct 4, 20051949 - Bill Payne
musician: keyboards: group: Little Feat: Willin’, LPs: The Last Record Album, Time Loves a Hero; songwriter w/wife Fran Tate1953 - Ron Jeremy
director, actor [1979-2012]: X-rated films: Orgazmo, Super Hornio Brothers, Can I Do It ’Till I Need Glasses?, Wizard of Ahh’s, Return to Sex Fifth Avenue, I Can’t Get No... Satisfaction, Return to Camp Beaver Lake, Depraved Fantasies 4: The Undead, I Know Who You Did Last Summer, Charlie’s Devils Porn Stars from Mars, Operation: Desert Stormy, Emmanuelle in Wonderland1956 - Steve Harris
composer, musician: bass: group: Iron Maiden: Number of the Beast, Run to the Hills, Flight of Icarus, Trooper, 2 Minutes to Midnight, Wasted Years1957 - Marlon Jackson
singer: group: The Jackson Five; Michael’s brother1957 - Jerry Levine
director, actor: Moose Mating, Wag the Dog, Ghosts of Mississippi, Born on the Fourth of July, K-9, Out of Bounds, Iron Eagle, Will & Grace, Monk, Everybody Hates Chris1960 - Courtney B. Vance
actor: The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, Whitewash: The Clarence Brandley Story, Space Cowboys, Cookie’s Fortune, Blind Faith, Love and Action in Chicago1961 - Titus Welliver
actor: Bosch, Deadwood, Lost, Sons of Anarchy, The Good Wife, Gone Baby Gone, The Town, Powers, Argo, Midnight Sun, Promised Land1962 - Julia Campbell
actress: Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion, The Project, The Legend of Tillamook’s Gold, Kicking & Screaming, Bounce, Rose Red, A Slight Case of Murder1962 - Darryl (Eugene) Strawberry
baseball: NY Mets [Rookie of the Year: 1983/NL MVP [26 HR, 74 RBIs in 122 games: 1983]/all-star: 1984-1990/World Series: 1986], LA Dodgers [all-star: 1991], SF Giants, NY Yankees [World Series: 1996]1965 - Steve Finley
baseball [center field]: Southern Illinois Univ; Baltimore Orioles, Houson Astros, San Diego Padres, Arizona Diamondbacks, Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Angels, San Francisco Giants1967 - Rick Worthy
actor: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Enterprise, Duplicity, Fallen, Collateral Damage, Steel, Eye of the Stalker, Richie Rich1968 - Aaron Eckhart
actor: The Dark Knight, Thank You for Smoking, In the Company of Men, Your Friends & Neighbors, Nurse Betty, Possession, Erin Brockovich, The Pledge, The Core, Rabbit Hole1969 - Jake Tapper
CNN-TV news correspondent: The Lead with Jake Tapper1978 - Terrelle Smith
football [running back]: Arizona State Univ; NFL: New Orleans Saints, Cleveland Browns, Arizona Cardinals1979 - Charlie Bell
basketball [guard]: Michigan State Univ; NBA: Dallas Mavericks, Phoenix Suns, Milwaukee Bucks1982 - Samm Levine
actor: Freaks and Geeks, Club Dread, Anderson’s Cross, After School Special, Follow Tidly, Homeward Bound, Strippers Pole, Not Another Teen Movie1984 - Jaimie Alexander
actress: Kyle XY, Thor, Thor: The Dark World, London Fields, Broken Vows, Nurse Jackie, CSI: Miami, Covert Affairs, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.1994 - Tyler Patrick Jones
actor: Ghost Whisperer, G-Force, Ben 10: Race Against Time, Yours, Mine and Ours, Silver Lake, Minority Report1999 - Kendall Applegate
actress: Desperate Housewives, Opposite Day, Ranger Rob: The Movie
and still more...
Hit Music on This Day March 12
1947The Anniversary Song (facts) - Dinah Shore
Managua, Nicaragua (facts) - The Guy Lombardo Orchestra (vocal: Don Rodney)
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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