March 24
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Events on This Day
1792 - Benjamin West became the first American artist to be selected president of the Royal Academy of London.1882 - Professor Robert Koch announced the discovery of the tuberculosis germ -- in Berlin, Germany.
1926 - Safeway Stores was incorporated by M.B. Skaggs. He merged his 428 Skaggs stores in ten states with 322 Safeway (formerly Selig) stores to form the new chain.
1932 - Singing star Belle Baker hosted a radio variety show from a moving train ... a first for radio broadcasting. The program originated from a Baltimore and Ohio train that chugged its way around the New York area. The broadcast was heard on WABC in New York City.
1934 - The U.S. Congress passed a bill that granted independence to the Philippines. The measure, which took effect on July 4, 1946, ended nearly 50 years of U.S. control of the island nation.
1935 - After a year as a local show from New York City, Major Bowes’ Original Amateur Hour was heard on the entire NBC radio network. The show stayed on the air for 17 years. Later, Ted Mack took over for Bowes and made the move from radio to television.
1936 - The Detroit Red Wings defeated the Montreal Maroons in the longest hockey game to date. The game went on and on and on for 2 hours, 56 minutes.
1937 - The National Gallery of Art was established by the U.S. Congress (it opened March 17, 1941).
1941 - Glenn Miller began work on his first motion picture for 20th Century Fox. The film was Sun Valley Serenade.
1944 - The greatest mass escape of World War II occurred at Stalag Luft III when 76 allied airmen tunneled out. Only three made it home.
1945 - 600 transports and 1300 gliders stretching for over 300 miles carry the First Allied Airborne Army, comprised of 40,000 British, Canadian and U.S. paratroopers (17th Airborne Div.), across the Rhine near Wesel, Germany in Operation Varsity, the largest one-day airborne drop in history.
1949 - The Academy Awards were passed out for the 21st time on this night in 1949. Hamlet, produced by Lawrence Olivier, won Best Picture of 1948. Olivier also was pronounced Best Actor for his portrayal of Hamlet. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre won three Oscars and was the first time a father and son both won Academy Awards on the same night. Walter Huston was awarded an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor and his son, John, received honors for Best Director and for Best Screenplay (based on a B. Traven story). Other winners that night: Jane Wyman for Best Actress (film: Johnny Belinda); Claire Trevor for Best Supporting Actress (film: Key Largo); Jay Livingston and Ray Evans for Best Music/Song (Buttons and Bows from the Bob Hope/Jane Russell flick, The Paleface).
1955 - The Tennessee Williams play, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, opened on Broadway. The hit ran for 694 shows and won the Critics’ Circle Award as the Best American Play. The movie version was a big hit as well and featured Burl Ives, Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor in starring roles. Paul, Liz and the movie received Oscar nominations.
1958 - Elvis Presley reported to local draft board 86 in Memphis, TN. He became US 53310761. Oddly, since Elvis was now ‘government property’ serving his time in the Army, Uncle Sam stood to lose an estimated $500,000 in lost taxes each year that Private Presley was in the Army.
1960 - A U.S. appeals court ruled that the novel, Lady Chatterly’s Lover, was not obscene and could be sent through the mail. Try it and see...
1964 - The Kennedy half-dollar coin was first issued. It was minted in silver its first year, then switched to a copper-nickel alloy with other U.S. ‘silver’ coins the next year.
1965 - A team, including Robert F. Kennedy, reached the top (14,000+ ft) of Mt. Kennedy in the Yukon Territory, becoming the first person to scale the highest unclimbed mountain in North America. The mountain, near the Alaskan border, was named by the Canadian government in honor of the Senator’s brother, the late President John F. Kennedy.
1973 - Professional track debuted with Kip Keino defeating Jim Ryun in the mile run at the International Track Association meet held in Los Angeles, CA.
1976 - Argentina’s President Isabel Perón was deposed by her country’s military.
1980 - Capitol Records released some rare Beatles tracks. Included in the album were stereo versions of Penny Lane and She Loves You, sung by the group in German, under the title, Sie Liebt Dich. Also included was a German version of I Want to Hold Your Hand or, in the Teutonic tongue, Komm Gib Mir Deine Hand.
1985 - The Golden Raspberry Awards were presented to parody the Oscar Awards. The movie, Bolero, won the big award, for John and Bo (I’m a 10!) Derek; winning honors for worst director and worst actress, respectively.
1985 - Actress Jacqueline Bisset made her television debut in Forbidden, a Home Box Office (HBO) presentation. Her second TV role came just two nights later in the CBS-TV adaptation of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina.
1986 - The 58th Academy Awards show was held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles. It took three hosts (Alan Alda, Jane Fonda and Robin Williams) to handle the MC duties this time. The Best Picture was Out of Africa (Sydney Pollack, producer). It also won Best Director (Sydney Pollack); Best Writing/Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium (Kurt Luedtke); Best Cinematography (David Watkin); Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (Stephen B. Grimes, Josie MacAvin); Best Sound (Chris Jenkins, Gary Alexander, Larry Stensvold, Peter Handford); and Best Music/Original Score (John Barry). But Out of Africa didn’t win everything. Other Oscars went to Kiss of the Spider Woman (Best Actor: William Hurt); The Trip to Bountiful (Best Actress: Geraldine Page); Cocoon (Best Supporting Actor: Don Ameche - his first Oscar) and Prizzi’s Honor (Best Supporting Actress: Anjelica Huston). The award for Best Music/Song was given to Lionel Richie for Say You, Say Me from White Nights. Other memorable movies in 1985 (some Oscar winners, some not): The Color Purple (11 nominations - no Oscars), Back to the Future, Ladyhawke, Rambo: First Blood Part II, Agnes of God, Silverado and Witness, to name just a few...
1989 - At four minutes past midnight, the Exxon Valdez, a 987-foot supertanker loaded with 1,264,155 barrels of North Slope crude oil, ran aground on Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska. 11.2 million gallons of oil spilled into the sea, mucking up nearly five hundred miles of shoreline. Thousands of workers spent three years cleaning things up. The costs exceeded $2.1 billion. It is estimated that some 300,000 birds were killed. Some common forms of algae were reduced by half. 2,650 sea otters in Prince William Sound were killed. The spill was even damaging to south central Alaska’s fisheries, with the local population suffering economic, social and psychological consequences that lasted for years. Exxon wound up paying well over a billion dollars in civil settlements and fines.
1993 - Ezer Weizman was elected Israel’s seventh president.
1996 - Stargazers around the world scanned the skies in hopes of seeing Hyakutake, the brightest comet to pass by the Earth in two decades.
1997 - It was time to party, party, party at Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) awarded prizes for the best of the movie biz in 1996. Comedian/actor Billy Crystal hosted this 69th awards show. Let’s rip into the envelopes and get on with it . Best Picture: The English Patient (Saul Zaentz, producer); Best Director: Anthony Minghella for The English Patient; Best Actor: Geoffrey Rush for Shine; Best Actress: Frances McDormand for Fargo; Best Supporting Actor: Cuba Gooding, Jr. for Jerry Maguire; Best Supporting Actress: Juliette Binoche for The English Patient; Best Music, Song: Andrew Lloyd Webber (music), Tim Rice (lyrics) for You Must Love Me from Evita. And the Oscar goes to ... "The English Patient", "The English Patient", "The English Patient" ... for a total of 9 Oscars.
1997 - Harold Melvin died in Philadelphia at age 57. Melvin, leader of Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, had suffered two strokes. If You Don't Know Me by Now (1972) and The Love I Lost (1973) were top-ten hits.
1999 - The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) concluded that Boeing 737 rudder problems caused two fatal airline crashes and nearly triggered a third.
2000 - Here on Earth opened in U.S. theatres. The romantic drama stars Chris Klein and Leelee Sobieski.
2000 - A federal judge awarded former hostage Terry Anderson $341 million from Iran, holding Iranian agents responsible for Anderson’s nearly seven years of captivity in Lebanon.
2001 - U.S. skater Michelle Kwan won her fourth World Figure Skating title. Irina Slutskaya of Russia was second, just ahead of American Sarah Hughes.
2002 - It was a beautiful night in Hollywood as the 74th Annual Academy Awards ceremony returned -- after 42 years -- to the city synonymous with movies. The new Kodak Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard was surrounded by police, bomb squads and hazmat teams; concrete barriers lined its entry, and air traffic was banned over the area. The extensive security, a result of the terrorist attacks of 9-11, did not put a damper on the festivities, hosted by Whoopi Goldberg. A Beautiful Mind, the Best Picture winner, also garnered Best Director (Ron Howard); Best Supporting Actress (Jennifer Connelly); and Best Screenplay-Adapted (Akiva Goldsman). Tying for four Oscars was The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring winning for: Cinematography (Andrew Lesni); Makeup (Peter Owen, Richard Taylor); Original Score (Howard Shore); and Visual Effects (Jim Rygiel, Randall William Cook, Richard Taylor, Mark Stetson). A favorite to win in the Visual Effects category, Pearl Harbor, won for Sound Editing (George Watters II, Christopher Boyes) while another war movie, Black Hawk Down, took the prize for Sound (Mike Minkler, Myron Nettinga, Chris Munro) and Film Editing (Pietro Scalia). Another double winner and a contender for Best Picture was Moulin Rouge, winning for Art Direction (Catherine Martin, Brigitte Broch) and Costume Design (Catherine Martin, Angus Strathie). Doubling the pleasure for Kodak Theatre and TV audiences were the many Oscar night firsts: A new category, Best Animated Feature Film, had its first winner, Aron Warner for Shrek which featured the voices of Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy and Cameron Diaz. Jim Broadbent won his first Academy Award in an upset over the favorite, Ian McKellen. Broadbent was chosen Best Supporting Actor for his role in Iris. And, after 16 nominations, Randy Newman finally was awarded the real thing for the Original Song, If I Didn’t Have You from Monsters, Inc. Another monster of a winner for her performance in Monster’s Ball was Halle Berry, who also should have received an award for Best Dress. Berry was overcome with emotion as she accepted the first Best Actress Oscar awarded to a black woman. She and Denzel Washington who won the Best Actor award for Training Day were only the second and third blacks to be awarded the golden statuette for leading roles. The first, Sidney Poitier, received a career-achievement award this night, as did Robert Redford. The biggest surprise of the evening was the appearance of Woody Allen, the consummate New Yorker, known for shunning the Hollywood establishment. Allen paid tribute to the people of New York and received a standing ovation, then said, “Thank you very much … that makes up for the strip search.” (His reference to the strict security.)
2003 - The 6th day of Operation Iraqi Freedom saw U.S. forces begin strikes against the Medina Division of the Republican Guard guarding Baghdad. Saddam Hussein appeared on Iraqi TV saying, “victory is soon.”
2004 - European Union regulators slapped a $613 million anti-trust fine on the Microsoft Corporation.
2005 - Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous opened in U.S. theatres. The action-comedy stars Sandra Bullock, Regina King, Enrique Murciano, Diedrich Bader, Heather Burns, William Shatner, Nick Offerman, Abraham Benrubi, Treat Williams, Elisabeth Rohm, Ernie Hudson, Lusia Strus, Leslie Erin Grossman, Susan Chuang, William O’Leary and John DiResta.
2006 - Movies debuting in the U.S.: Inside Man, starring Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Jodie Foster, Willem Dafoe, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Christopher Plummer, Peter Gerety, Peter Frechette, Jason Manuel Olazabal, Darryl ‘Chill’ Mitchell and Ashlie Atkinson; Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector, with Larry the Cable Guy, Iris Bahr, Bruce Bruce, Joanna Cassidy, Brooke Dillman, Tony Hale, David Koechner, Lisa Lampanelli, Megyn Price, Tom Wilson and Joe Pantoliano; and Stay Alive, starring Jon Foster, Samaire Armstrong, Frankie Muniz, Sophia Bush and Adam Goldberg.
2007 - Operation Iraqi Freedom (mentioned in 2003 above) had long-since become a full-blown military conflict. On this day, at least 74 people were killed or found dead in Iraq. A suicide truck bomber struck a police station in mostly-Sunni Dora, killing 20 people. Two mortar shells landed on a Shiite enclave elsewhere in Dora, killing three people and wounding seven. Gunmen ambushed an Iraqi army checkpoint in Baghdad’s western Sunni neighborhood of Jami’a, killing a soldier and wounding two others. At least 11 other people were killed or found dead, including a civilian who died after a parked truck packed with explosives struck a Shiite mosque in Haswa, and the bullet-riddled bodies of eight men showing signs of torture in Fallujah. A U.S. Marine was killed during combat in Anbar province.
2008 - A fishing boat sank off Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, killing the captain and three crew members. Forty-two other crew members were rescued. The ship was carrying 145,000 gallons of diesel fuel when it sank in deep seas.
2008 - Film star Richard Widmark died at his home in Connecticut. He was 94 years old. Widmark appeared in some 65 films over five decades. His 1947 film "Kiss of Death" won him an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor.
2009 - The government of France said it would compensate victims of nuclear tests in Algeria and the South Pacific, bowing to decades of pressure by people sickened by the radiation emitted by the bombs.
2010 - Actor Robert Culp died after hitting his head during a fall near his Hollywood home. Culp found fame thanks to his role as Kelly Robinson in TVs I Spy [1965-1968]. During the 1980s, Culp also appeared in 44 episodes as Bill Maxwell in The Greatest American Hero.
2010 - The Obama administration named 54 Mexican drug cartel lieutenants and enforcers as drug kingpins. The revelations came under a law that allowed the U.S. government to freeze their bank accounts and penalize their business associates.
2011 - French airstrikes hit an air base deep inside Libya and NATO ships patrolled the coast to block arms and mercenaries from flowing in to help Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. Other coalition bombers struck artillery, tanks and parked helicopters.
2011 - The Book of Mormon, a musical collaboration between South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone and Avenue Q composer Robert Lopez, premiered at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre on Broadway. The smash hit has been sold out almost continuously since its opening, meaning 8,752 people shell out some $1.6 million every week to see it.
2012 - Former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney (71) received a heart transplant. This, after five heart attacks over the previous 25 years and countless medical procedures. Cheney had been on the cardiac transplant list for more than 20 months. “Although he and his family do not know the identity of the donor, they will be forever grateful for this lifesaving gift,” a statement from his office said.
2012 - Guatemala’s President Otto Perez Molina proposed that the United States and other ‘consumer countries’ pick up the tab for the cost of drug seizures. He said the U.S. has the responsibility because it has one of the highest rates of drug use.
2013 - Central African Republic President François Bozizé fled the capital, several hours after hundreds of armed rebels invaded Bangui and threatened to overthrow him.
2014 - Russia’s SMP Bank reported that some 9 billion rubles had been withdrawn by depositors since U.S. sanctions were announced the previous week.
2014 - U.S. Navy security forces at the Norfolk Naval Station in Virginia killed civilian Jeffrey Tyrone Savage after he shot and killed Petty Officer 2nd class Mark Mayo aboard the USS Mahan. Mayo had jumped in between the gunman and the petty officer of the watch. “She fell to the ground. He covered her and he basically gave his life for hers,” said Norfolk Naval Base commander Robert Clark.
2015 - H.J. Heinz Co. said it was buying Kraft Foods, creating one of the largest food and beverage companies in the world -- with annual revenue of about $28 billion. The deal was being engineered by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and Brazilian investment firm 3G Capital. The two will invest another $10 billion in the new company.
2015 - An Airbus A320 Germanwings jet, operated by Lufthansa, crashed in the French Alps as it flew from Barcelona to Duesseldorf. 150 people died in the crash. On March 26 investigators said copilot Andreas Lubitz of the doomed Germanwings jet barricaded himself in the cockpit and intentionally sent the plane full speed into a mountain.
2016 - Indiana Governor Mike Pence signed a bill limiting women’s access to abortions in that state. The bill prohibited abortions on the grounds of Down’s syndrome or any other disability. (In June 2016 a U.S. federal judge blocked the law from going into effect, upholding a woman’s right to seek an abortion.)
2016 - The University of California’s governing board adopted a statement condemning anti-Semitic behavior and a companion report urging campus leaders to confront intolerant anti-Zionism activism. The actions come amid growing campus tensions between Israeli supporters and backers of Palestinian rights. Some Jewish groups said they were concerned that anti-Semitic behavior was increasing because of that highly emotional debate.
2016 - The Swedish Academy, which awards the Nobel Prize for Literature, denounced and condemned as “flagrant breaches of international law” the 1989 Iranian fatwa on British writer Salman Rushdie. The Academy took the stand on the Iranian death warrant after the amount offered for the assassination of Rushdie had been increased. (The bounty increased the original $3 million fixed by Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989 to $3,600,000.)
2017 - New movies in U.S. theatres included: CHiPS, with Michael Peña, Dax Shepard and Jessica McNamee; Life, starring Rebecca Ferguson, Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Reynolds; Power Rangers, starring Elizabeth Banks, Bryan Cranston, Becky G.; Bokeh, with Maika Monroe, Matt O’Leary and Arnar Jónsson; Dig Two Graves, starring Ted Levine, Samantha Isler and Danny Goldring; The Levelling, with Ellie Kendrick, David Troughton and Jack Holden; Phillauri, starring Anushka Sharma, Diljit Dosanjh and Suraj Sharma; Slamma Jamma, with Chris Staples, Michael Irvin and Jose Canseco; Walk of Fame, starring Scott Eastwood, Malcolm McDowell and Chris Kattan; and Wilson, starring Woody Harrelson, Sandy Oian and Shaun Brown.
2017 - Former Penn State President Graham Spanier was convicted of hushing up complaints in 2001 of child sex abuse by assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.
2017 - POTUS Donald Trump put his reputation as a dealmaker on the line in a high-risk vote on an embattled Republican health care plan. Trump faced the biggest blow yet to his young presidency as his bid to repeal Obamacare failed when rebel Republican lawmakers pulled the bill from consideration.
2018 - Hundreds of thousands of people in cities across the U.S. attended "March for Our Lives" rallies, calling on lawmakers to enact legislation to help stop school shootings and reduce gun violence. And in countries around the world, at 8:30 p.m., people switched off their lights for Earth Hour -- in a global call for international unity on the importance of addressing climate change.
2019 - Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Monaco (the first state visit by a Chinese president to the principality). The palace said Monaco is seeking to boost its trade and economic cooperation with China. And Xi flew on to France where he had a private dinner with President Emmanuel Macron in the resort town of Beaulieu-sur-Mer on the French Riviera.
2019 - U.S. Attorney General William Barr sent a letter to Congress saying he had found no evidence in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia report that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia in the 2016 election. While the POTUS and his allies saw vindication in Barr’s letter, Democrats questioned how Barr came to his conclusions. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, “Attorney General Barr’s letter raises as many questions as it answers.” Schumer and Pelosi said Barr had a “public record of bias against the Special Counsel’s inquiry” and claimed that “he is not a neutral observer and is not in a position to make objective determinations about the report.”
2020 - COVID-19 news: 1)Senior Pentagon leaders said that the fast-spreading coronavirus outbreak could continue for months and the military would continue to support efforts to counter it for as long as needed. More than 42,000 people in the U.S. had COVID-19, and at least 620 had died. 2)The healthcare unit of French industrial gases company Air Liquide said it was ramping up production of ventilators needed by hospitals to deal with the coronavirus outbreak. France has recorded 1,100 coronavirus deaths and 22,302 cases. 3)The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said it had awarded $100 million to 1,381 health centers across the nation to bolster their response to the coronavirus pandemic. 4)Terrence McNally, Tony-winning playwright, librettist and screenwriter, died at 81 years of age in Florida from complications of the coronavirus. His work included Kiss of the Spider Woman (1993), Love! Valour! Compassion! (1995) and Master Class (1996). 5)Governor Andrew Cuomo said New York state had over 25,000 diagnosed cases of coronavirus, including over 14,900 in New York City. The NYC Infection rate was doubling about every three days.
2020 - European affairs ministers agreed to allow Albania and North Macedonia to begin European Union membership talks.
2020 - Israel appeared to be on the verge of a constitutional crisis as top members of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party urged their colleague and Knesset speaker Yuli Edelstein to defy a Supreme Court order to hold an election for his successor. (A constitutional crisis was avoided when Edelstein resigned the next day, and an election was held with Benny Gantz becoming the new Knesset speaker.)
2020 - South Korea police revealed the identity of a man accused of running a range of sexually exploitative pornographic channels on a Telegram chat app. 24-year-old Cho Jumin had charged up to 30,000 subscribers between $200 and $1,200, most of which was collected in bitcoin, for access to his Nth rooms. Cho operated the chat rooms and lured women, some underage, through fake job ads to persuade them to send him sexual photos of themselves. Cho would later use the photos to blackmail the women, asking them to shoot porn videos, including ones depicting violent and gruesome acts.
2021 - Actress Jessica Walter (80) died at her home in Manhattan. Her six-decade acting career included roles ranging from an obsessed radio fan in Clint Eastwood’s directorial debut, Play Misty for Me, to the cutting, martini-swilling matriarch of the dysfunctional Bluth family on Arrested Development, Walter received various awards during her career including a Primetime Emmy Award for Amy Prentiss (1975). She also received two Golden Globe Award nominations and three Screen Actors Guild Award nominations. For her starring role opposite Eastwood in Play Misty for Me, Walter received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama.
2021 - A federal indictment said that Christopher D. Casamento (42), the University of Pittsburgh’s former director of emergency management, stole some 14,000 face masks meant for school employees and students and sold them online (netting nearly $19,000) in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.
2021 - Thousands in Spain lined up to get shots of AstraZeneca vaccine. Like neighboring countries that had halted use of the vaccine while examining possible adverse effects, Spain’s health officials were trying to get confidence in the shot restored.
2022 - NATO leaders agreed to bolster defenses, particularly in Eastern Europe, and planned to deploy four new combat units in Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary. President Biden also said Russia should be removed from the G20 - after its attacks/invasion in/of Ukraine.
2022 - President Biden said the U.S. planned to accept as many as 100,000 Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s invasion, and he pledged $1 billion in new humanitarian aid.
2022 - Ukraine destroyed a large Russian landing support ship, the Orsk, at the Russian-occupied port of Berdiansk on the Sea of Azov. The ship was said to be capable of carrying 45 armored personnel carriers and 400 people.
2023 - John Wick: Chapter 4 opened in the U.S. “A soaring, searing, scorching chapter in the saga.” (Courtney Howard, Fresh Fiction) Starring Keanu Reeves, with Donnie Yen, Bill Skarsgård, Laurence Fishburne, Hiroyuki Sanada, Shamier Anderson, Lance Reddick, Rina Sawayama, Scott Adkins, Ian McShane, Marko Zaror, Natalia Tena and Aimée Kwan.
2023 - A chocolate factory explosion in West Reading borough, in eastern Pennsylvania, killed seven people and injuried several others. The cause of the blast (that leveled the building) was determined (several months later) to be a leak in a fitting on an out-of-use natural gas service line. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) said, “The company could have prevented this horrific tragedy by following required safety procedures.”
2023 - A severe weather and tornado outbreak began (and lasted four days) across portions of the lower Mississippi River Valley. A supercell storm produced a powerful EF-4 tornado in the Mississippi Delta, which stayed on the ground for more than an hour and covered some 170 miles, killing 23 people. In Rolling Fork, Mississippi wind speeds were reported just shy of 200 mph, and nothing was left standing in its three-quarters-of-a-mile-wide wake.
and more...
Birthdays on This Day March 24
1797 - Antonio Rosmini-Serbati
philosopher: founded Institute of Charity aka the Rosminians; died July 1, 18551834 - William Morris
poet, artist, socialist reformer; died Oct 3, 18961834 - John Wesley Powell
geologist, explorer: Director of U.S. Geological Survey [1881-1894]; died Sep 23, 19021855 - Andrew William Mellon
industrialist; founder: Mellon Bank; U.S. Secretary of the Treasury [1921-1932]; U.S. ambassador to Great Britain, [1932-1933]; died Aug 26, 19371874 - Harry Houdini
magician: the great Houdini, escape artist; died Oct 31, 19261887 - Fatty Roscoe Conkling Arbuckle
actor:The Lizzies of Mack Sennett Mabel and Fatty Keystone Comedies with Charlie Chaplin; died June 29, 19331899 - Capt. Dorothy Stratton
organized SPARS [Semper Paratus - Always Ready women’s branch of U.S. Coast Guard]; national executive director of Girl Scouts of America; died Sep 17, 20061900 - June (Algeria Junius) Clark
musician: trumpet: The Washingtonians; died Feb 23, 19631902 - Thomas E. Dewey
Governor of New York [1943-1955]; ran for and lost U.S. presidential elections [1944, 1948]; died Mar 16, 19711906 - Robert Adler
actor: Journey to the Center of the Earth, Valerie, Untamed, Broken Lance, Prince Valiant, Hell and High Water, Inferno; died Dec 19, 19871910 - Richard (Nicholas Peter) Conte
actor: I’ll Cry Tomorrow, The Godfather, Hotel, A Walk in the Sun, They Came to Cordura; died Apr 15, 19751911 - Joseph Barbera
movie director, producer, writer: Hanna-Barbera Productions: Tom and Jerry, The Smufs, The Jetsons, The Flintstones, Josie and the Pussycats; died Dec 18, 20061917 - Alex Steinweiss
graphic designer: invented the illustrated record-album cover; died July 17, 20111919 - Lawrence Ferlinghetti
author: Coney Island of the Mind; died Feb 22, 20211920 - Gene Nelson (Eugene Leander Berg)
actor, dancer: Lullaby of Broadway, Oklahoma, Tea for Two, The West Point Story, The Atomic Man; died Sep 16, 19961922 - Dave Appell
arranger for big bands: Benny Carter, Earl ‘Fatha’ Hines; TV music director: The Ernie Kovacks Show; record producer: The Twist, Let’s Twist Again, Bristol Stomp, South Street, In the Midnight Hour [w/Hank Medress]; singer, songwriter, musician: group: Dave Appell and the Applejacks; died Nov 18, 20141924 - Norman Fell (Feld)
actor: Three’s Company, The Graduate, Pork Chop Hill; died Dec 14, 19981928 - Vanessa Brown (Smylla Brind)
actress: The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Three Husbands, The Fighter, Witch Who Came from the Sea; died May 21, 19991928 - Byron Janis (Yanks)
pianist: NBC Symphony Orchestra; well-known piano performance on Hugo Winterhalter’s Rhapsody in Blue recording1930 - (Terence Steven) Steve McQueen
actor: The Great Escape, The Magnificent Seven, Papillon, Towering Inferno, The Sand Pebbles, Love with the Proper Stranger, Hell is for Heroes, Bullitt, The Hunter, Le Mans; died Nov 7, 19801931 - Connie Hines
actress: Mr. Ed, Thunder in Carolina, Sea Hunt; died Dec 18, 20091933 - William Smith
biker, cowboy, actor: Eye of the Tiger, L.A. Vice, Maniac Cop, East L.A. Warriors, Emperor of the Bronx, Angels Die Hard, Platoon Leader; died Jul 5, 20211937 - Bob (John Robert) Tillman
baseball: catcher: Boston Red Sox, NY Yankees, Atlanta Braves; died June 23, 20001939 - Bob Mackie
fashion and costume designer: 6 Emmy Awards, 3 Academy Award nominations; client list includes: Cher, Carol Burnett, Diahann Carroll, Bernadette Peters, Madonna, Carol Channing and RuPaul, The Carol Burnett Show [entire 11-year TV run]1941 - Michael Masser
songwriter, composer, producer: Touch Me in the Morning, Greatest Love of All, Didn’t We Almost Have It All, Saving All My Love for You, Hold Me, Tonight, I Celebrate My Love, If Ever You’re in My Arms Again, Last Time I Saw Him, Theme from Mahogany (Do You Know Where You’re Going To), Home Again; died Jul 9, 20151942 - Jesús (Maria Rojas) Alou
baseball: SF Giants, Houston Astros, Oakland Athletics (World Series: 1973, 1974), NY Mets; died March 10, 20231944 - R. Lee Ermey
actor: Full Metal Jacket, Mississippi Burning, Prefontaine, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre [2003, 2006], Toy Story film series, SpongeBob SquarePants; more1945 - Mike Kellie
musician: drums: group: Spooky Tooth: Sunshine Help Me, Tobacco Road, Society’s Child, Waitin’ for the Wind, Feelin’ Bad, Evil Woman, Lost in My Dream1946 - Colin Petersen
musician: drums: group: The Bee Gees [the first non-Gibb brother to become a member]: Stayin’ Alive, How Deep is Your Love, Jive Talkin’, Night Fever, Tragedy, You Should Be Dancing, Love So Right1948 - Lee Oskar (Oskar Hansen)
musician: harmonica: group: War1951 - Pat Bradley
golf champion: U.S. Open [1981], Nabisco Dinah Shore [1986], DuMaurier Classic [1980, 1985, 1986], LPGA [1986]1951 - Tommy Hilfiger
fashion, perfume and cosmetics mogul
1951 - Dougie Thomson
musician: bass: group: Supertramp: Dreamer, Bloody Well Right1951 - Earl Williams
basketball: Boston Celtics1952 - Nicholas Campbell
actor: Da Vinci’s Inquest, Naked Lunch, Prozac Nation, City of the Owl, The Quality of Life, 14 Days in Paradise, Cinderella Man, Trudeau II: Maverick in the Making, Human Cargo1953 - Louie Anderson
comedian, actor: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Coming to America, The Louie Show, Mr. Wrong; game show host: Family Feud, Back by Midnight; died Jan 21, 2022 more1954 - Robert Carradine
actor: Revenge of the Nerds series, Body Bags, Double-Crossed, The Long Riders, Coming Home, Massacre at Central High, The Cowboys; son of actor, John Carradine; brother of actors David and Keith Carradine1954 - Donna Pescow
actress: Policewoman Centerfold, Saturday Night Fever, Glory Years, Angie1958 - Mike Woodson
basketball: NBA: player: New York Knicks [1980–1981], New Jersey Nets [1981], Kansas City/Sacramento Kings [1981–1986], Los Angeles Clippers [1986–1988], Houston Rockets [1988–1990], Cleveland Cavaliers [1990]; coach: Milwaukee Bucks [assistant: 1996–1999], Cleveland Cavaliers [assistant: [1999–2001], Philadelphia 76ers [assistant: 2001–2003]; Detroit Pistons [assistant: 2003–2004: 2004 NBA champs; Atlanta Hawks [2004–2010]; New York Knicks [assistant: 2011–2012]; New York Knicks [2012–2014]; Los Angeles Clippers [2014]1960 - Kelly LeBrock
model, actress: The Woman in Red, Weird Science, Prep School, The Mirror, Gamers, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Wrongfully Accused1960 - Nena (Gabriele Susanne Kerner)
singer: 99 Luftballons [99 Red Balloons], Leuchtturm, ? [Fragezeichen], Irgendwie, Irgendwie, Irgendwo, Irgendwann [Anyhow, Anywhere, Anytime]1962 - Mark Calaway
‘The Undertaker’ pro wrestler/actor: WWF Superstars of Wrestling, WWF Monday Night RAW, Royal Rumble, King of the Ring, Royal Rumble, Survivor Series, Wrestlemania X-81962 - Star Jones
TV host: The View, Live from the Red Carpet: The 2005 Golden Globe Awards1965 - Peter Jacobson
actor: House, As Good as It Gets, Law & Order, Good Night, and Good Luck, Scrubs, CSI: Miami, The Lost Room, The Starter Wife, Transformers, The Midnight Meat Train1970 - Wilson Álvarez
baseball [pitcher]: Texas Rangers, Chicago White Sox, San Francisco Giants, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Los Angeles Dodgers1970 - Lara Flynn Boyle
actress: The Practice, Twin Peaks, Threesome, Wayne’s World, Dead Poets Society, Red Rock West, Poltergeist 3, Huff1970 - Mike Vanderjagt
football [kicker]: Univ of West Virginia; Indianapolis Colts
1971 - Megyn Price
actress: Grounded for Life, Rules of Engagement, Common Law, LateLine, Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector, American Dad!, 3 Day Test1973 - Jim Parsons
actor: The Big Bang Theory, On the Road with Judas, Gardener of Eden, The Big Year, Judging Amy, Eureka, Pound Puppies, Young Sheldon1974 - Alyson Hannigan
actress: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, American Pie, Beyond the City Limits, Boys and Girls, Hayley Wagner, Star, Dead Man on Campus, For My Daughter’s Honor, How I Met Your Mother; TV host: Penn & Teller: Fool Us1976 - Peyton Manning
football [quarterback]: Univ of Tennessee; NFL: Indianapolis Colts: MVP of Super Bowl XLI; brother of football player Eli Manning1977 - Olivia Burnette
actress: Quantum Leap, Flourish, A Mother’s Testimony, Up, Up and Away!, Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror, Eye for an Eye, The Thorn Birds: The Missing Years1977 - Jessica Chastain
actress: The Help, Texas Killing Fields, Zero Dark Thirty, Mama, Blackbeard, The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby1979 - Lake Bell
actress: Miss Match, The Practice, Boston Legal, Surface, How to Make It in America, Childrens Hospital, Over Her Dead Body, What Happens in Vegas, Pride and Glory, It’s Complicated, Burning Palms, Little Murder, No Strings Attached, A Good Old Fashioned Orgy1980 - Luke Edwards
actor: Debating Robert Lee, Jeepers Creepers II, American Pie 2, Little Big League, Newsies, Guilty By Suspicion1981 - Philip Winchester
actor: The Player, The Patriot, The Hi-Line, LD 50 Lethal Dose, Thunderbirds, CSI: Miami, King Lear, Strike Back, Flyboys, In My Sleep, The Heart of the Earth, Shaking Dream Land1982 - James Napier
actor: Power Rangers: Dino Thunder, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, The Whole Shootin’ Match, Shortland Street, The Tribe; more1984 - Chris Bosh
basketball [power forward]: NBA: Toronto Raptors [2003–2010]: all-time leading scorer; Miami Heat [2010–2017]: 2012, 2013 NBA champs1986 - Valentin Chmerkovskiy
dancer, choreographer: Dancing with the Stars1988 - Nick Lashaway
actor: The X-Files, The 40 Year Old Virgin, The Last Song, My Soul to Take, American Fork, The Office, Life As We Know It; killed in car crash May 8, 20161990 - Keisha Castle -Hughes
actress: FBI: Most Wanted, Whale Rider, Hey, Hey, It’s Esther Blueburger, Piece of My Heart, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, The Nativity Story1990 - Dominique Provost-Chalkley
actress: Wynonna Earp, The Curse of Buckout Road, Like A House on Fire, NeverKnock, Separated at Birth, Avengers: Age of Ultron1998 - Paris Warner
actress: Once I was a Beehive, Miracle Maker, The Christmas Dragon, Mira Mira, Trim Season, Prom Night [2022], Zombies vs Snowboarders
and still more...
Hit Music on This Day March 24
1950Music, Music, Music (facts) - Teresa Brewer
There’s No Tomorrow (facts) - Tony Martin
1959
1968
1977
1986
1995
2004
2013
2022
and even more...
Those were the days, my friend. We thought they’d never end...
TWtD Calendar
