May 12
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Events on This Day
1831 - The first indicted bank robber in the U.S., Edward Smith, was sentenced to five years hard labor on the rock pile at Sing Sing Prison.1847 - As you jog around the block today, think of Mormon pioneer William Clayton. It was on this day that he got tired of counting the revolutions of a rag tied to a spoke of a wagon wheel to figure out how many miles he had traveled. So, while he was crossing the plains in his covered wagon, he invented the odometer.
1917 - The first imported horse to win the Kentucky Derby was the English-bred colt, Omar Khayyam. He won $49,070 -- the top prize.
1926 - Norwegian Roald Amundsen, Italian Umberto Nobile and American Lincoln Ellsworth crossed the North Pole in an airship (the rigid airship Norge).
1930 - New York Daily Mirror columnist Walter Winchell made his debut on WABC radio, New York (a CBS affiliate) on this day. Winchell’s Jergen’s Journal delivered a weekly blend of political commentary and celebrity gossip to “Mr. and Mrs. America...” His quick-jabbing, penetrating manner became his trademark. And so did his fedora hat.
1937 - Britain’s King George VI was crowned at Westminster Abbey along with his consort, Queen Elizabeth. The coronation was also heard on the radio -- the first worldwide radio broadcast of any event.
1949 - Soviet authorities announced the end of a land blockade of Berlin. The blockade lasted 328 days but was neutralized by the Allies’ Berlin airlift.
1950 - The American Bowling Congress abolished its white males-only membership restriction after 34 years.
1953 - The Boston Red Sox dropped Dom DiMaggio, Joe’s brother. As a result, Dom announced that he was retiring from baseball.
1955 - Sam Jones of the Chicago Cubs pitched a no-hitter against the Pittsburgh Pirates, winning 4-0. Jones became the first black pitcher to throw a major-league no-hitter.
1955 - Gisele MacKenzie played a singer on the NBC-TV program, Justice. She introduced her soon-to-be hit song, Hard to Get. The song went to number four on the Billboard pop music chart by September.
1955 - Passengers crowded in to ride the last run of the Third Avenue elevated, The El, in New York City. The way-above-ground train trip down memory lane went from Chinatown to the Bronx.
1957 - A.J. Foyt earned his first auto racing victory in Kansas City, Missouri. He went on to become a four-time winner of the Indianapolis 500 -- in 1961, 1964, 1967 and 1977.
1960 - Elvis Presley appeared on Frank Sinatra’s Welcome Home, Elvis on ABC TV. Presley sang one of Sinatra’s hits, Witchcraft, while Sinatra did Elvis’ Love Me Tender. It was Presley’s first TV appearance after his stint in the the U.S. Army.
1963 - Singer Bob Dylan walked out of a dress rehearsal for The Ed Sullivan Show and, citing censorship for the show’s refusal to allow him to sing Talkin’ John Birch Society Paranoid Blues, refused to appear on the show. The tune made fun of the John Burch Society and CBS censors told Dylan he would not be allowed to perform it, saying that it could be considered libelous.
1965 - The Rolling Stones began a two-day recording session at Chess Studios in Chicago, laying down the backing tracks for (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.
1967 - H. Rap Brown replaced Stokely Carmichael as chairman of Student Nonviolating Coordinating Committee. Brown changed the name of the group to Student National Coordinating Committee.
1970 - Ernie Banks of the Chicago Cubs smacked home run number 500. He would get 12 more before his great career as first baseman (and shortstop) with the Cubbies came to a close in 1971.
1970 - The U.S. Senate confirmed the appointment of Harry A. Blackmun to the U.S. Supreme Court. There was no opposition.
1971 - The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger married Bianca Perez Morena de Macias. Mick couldn’t remember her whole name very well, so she became known as Bianca the world over.
1973 - Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy album hit #1 in the U.S. for the first of two weeks. The tracks: The Song Remains the Same, The Rain Song, Over the Hills and Far Away, The Crunge, Dancing Days, D’yer Mak’er, No Quarter and The Ocean.
1975 - A Cambodian gunboat fired on the U.S. cargo ship Mayaguez and forced it into a Cambodian port. All 39 crewmen aboard were freed in a rescue mission May 15.
1976 - Sixteen-year-old, racing-jockey Steve Cauthen rode in his first race. He finished far back in the pack at Churchill Downs in Louisville, KY. However, Cauthen got his first winner just five days later.
1977 - The Eagles earned a gold record for the hit, Hotel California. The award was the second of three gold record singles for the group. The other million sellers were New Kid in Town and Heartache Tonight. Two number one songs by The Eagles -- Best of My Love and One of These Nights -- didn’t quite make the million-seller mark.
1978 - From the And You Thought We Had This Straightened Out By Now file: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that it would alternate men’s and women’s names in the naming of hurricanes. It was seen as an attempt at fair play. Hurricanes had been named for women for years, until NOAA succumbed to pressure from women’s groups who were demanding that Atlantic storms be given unisex names. “It’s not fair that women should get all the attention for causing damage and destruction,” one women’s activist claimed. David, Allen, Hugo, Mitch and Andrew agreed.
1980 - Maxie L. Anderson (45) and his son Kris (23) completed the first balloon crossing of the American continent as they landed their helium-filled balloon on Canada’s Gaspe Peninsula. Their journey began May 8 in Marin Couty, CA.
1985 - Amy Eilberg was ordained in New York. She was the first woman ordained as a Conservative rabbi by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.
1989 - TV’s Entertainment Tonight aired for the 2,000th show.
1989 - The last graffiti covered New York City subway car was retired.
1992 - Actor Robert Reed died at age 59 in Los Angeles after a six-month battle with colon cancer, complicated by the AIDS virus. Reed played a cop on the TV series Mannix and a lawyer on the 1960s The Defenders, but is best remembered for his role as Mike Brady, the TV-sitcom father on The Brady Bunch.
1992 - Four suspects were arrested in the beating of trucker Reginald Denny at the start of the Los Angeles riots.
1994 - British Labor Party leader John Smith died at the age of 55.
1996 - Authorities in Florida called off the search for possible survivors from the crash of ValuJet Flight 592, a day after the jetliner nose-dived into the Everglades with 110 people on board.
1996 - The house in which Margaret Mitchell wrote Gone With the Wind in Atlanta, GA was destroyed by fire while under re-construction for the summer Olympics.
1997 - Australian swimmer Susie Maroney became the first woman to swim the 112-miles from Cuba to Key West, FL. Maroney made the swim in 24 hours and 31 min.
1998 - Singer Ray Charles and sitar master Ravi Shankar received the Polar Music Prize, $133,000, from King Carl Gustav XVI in Sweden. The award was established by Stig Anderson, manager Abba (pop music group).
2000 - These flicks opened in the U.S.: Battlefield Earth, starring John Travolta, Barry Pepper, Forest Whitaker and Kim Coates; and Center Stage, with Amanda Schull, Zoe Saldana, Susan May Pratt and Peter Gallagher.
2001 - Pop crooner Perry Como died at his home in Jupiter, FL. He was 88 years old. The Perry Como Show ran on TV for fifteen years (1948-1963). Como had 14 singles that made it to #1 and sold more than 100 million albums.
2002 - Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter arrived in Cuba. He was the first U.S. president, in or out of office, to visit since the 1959 revolution that put Fidel Castro in power.
2003 - Fifty-nine Texas Democrats moved to a Holiday Inn in Ardmore, Oklahoma to thwart a Republican drive to redraw Texas congressional districts.
2004 - General Electric Co. and Paris-based Vivendi Universal reached a final agreement to merge the French company’s U.S. entertainment assets with GE’s television network NBC, creating a media giant with an estimated value of $43 billion.
2006 - New movies in U.S. theatres: Goal! The Dream Begins, starring Kuno Becker, Stephen Dillane, Anna Friel, Marcel Iures, Sean Pertwee and Alessandro Nivola; Just My Luck, with Lindsay Lohan, Chris Pine, Samaire Armstrong, Bree Turner, Faizon Love, Makenzie Vega and Chris Carmack; and Poseidon, starring Josh Lucas, Kurt Russell, Emmy Rossum, Jacinda Barrett, Mike Vogel, Jimmy Bennett, Mia Maestro, Andre Braugher and Richard Dreyfuss.
2006 - U.S. electronics, home-office, software, appliances retailer Best Buy said it would pay $180 million for a majority stake in China’s Jiangsu Five Star Appliance Co.
2007 - A South Korean cargo vessel sank after colliding with a Chinese freighter in heavy fog in waters off northeast China. The crew of 16 on board the 3,800-ton Golden Rose were presumed to have been killed. The crewmembers of the Chinese ship, the 4,800-ton JinSheng, were unharmed and returned safely to port.
2008 - The U.S. Postal Service increased first-class postage a penny to 42 cents. The rate would stay in effect for about a year, before continuing to climb.
2008 - A 7.9 earthquake struck central China, killing over 80,000 people and trapping nearly 900 students under the rubble of their school. Most of the buildings had collapsed in Beichuan county in Sichuan province. The death toll exceeded 12,000 in Sichuan province alone. 18,645 were buried in debris in the city of Mianyang, near the epicenter of the quake. Scientists later linked the quake to damage at the Zipingku Dam, 5.5 km from the epicenter.
2009 - Films opening in the U.S.: Plague Town, with Josslyn DeCrosta, Erica Rhodes, David Lombard, Lindsay Goranson, Elizabeth Bov and James Warke; and The Grudge 3, starring Shawnee Smith, Matthew Knight, Beau Mirchoff and Johanna E. Braddy.
2009 - Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan said his country would post a record AU$57.6-billion ($44.1 billion) deficit in 2009-2010 as it battled the worst global recession since the Great Depression.
2009 - A 7.03-carat blue diamond sold for 10.5 million Swiss francs ($9.5 million). It was the the highest price paid for a gem of its kind, according to Sotheby’s.
2009 - A law took effect in Utah allowed bartenders to serve alcoholic drinks directly over bar counters instead of having to walk around them. Partitions known as ‘Zion curtains’ -- usually made of glass -- that separated bartenders from customers began coming down.
2010 - Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo debuted in the U.S. theatres. The documentary was written and directed by filmmaker and scientist Jessica Oreck. The film explores Japan’s complicated and beautiful relationship with insects.
2010 - German software titan SAP agreed to buy database company Sybase, based in Dublin, California for $5.8 billion. It was an attempt to compete more effectively with rival database giant Oracle Corp.
2010 - Wal-Mart announced plans to increase its food donations to U.S. food banks to total $2 billion. The five-year charitable effort came as roughly 1 in 8 Americans was receiving food stamps from the U.S. government.
2011 - A judge freed a Dallas, Texas man who had spent 27 years in prison for aggravated sexual assault before DNA evidence cleared him. Johnny Pinchback became the 22nd person to be exonerated through DNA testing in Dallas County since 2001. He was found to have been wrongly convicted of raping two teenage girls in a Dallas field in 1984.
2011 - Journalists learned that public relations agency Burston-Marsteller had tried to persuade newspaper writers to say nasty things about Google, while concealing that Facebook was paying for the lobbying.
2012 - China announced that it was cutting reserve requirements for banks, after disappointing economic news. The easing was the third in six months and was designed to pump money into China’s financial system to support lending.
2014 - A NASA study said the West Antarctic ice sheet was starting a slow collapse that will be unstoppable. The glaciers’ retreat was driven by climate change and was causing the sea-level to rise at a much faster rate than scientists had anticipated. Over the next several hundred years the melt will add some 4-12 feet to sea levels.
2015 - U.S. wireless giant Verizon announced its $4.4 billion all-cash deal to buy AOL, the one-time king of the Internet. The acquisition ended AOL’s independence six years after the company was split off from media conglomerate Time Warner.
2016 - The 4-day Sexpo, Sydney, Australia’s adult entertainment and lifestyle show, opened -- for its 20th year.
2016 - China’s ruling Communist Party expelled Zhang Kunsheng, former assistant foreign minister. He was kicked out for graft, including joining private clubs, accepting gifts and bribes and trading power for sex.
2016 - Oracle Corporation founder Larry Ellison pledged $200 million to the University of Southern California to create a center designed to combine traditional medicine with holistic approaches to treat and prevent cancer.
2017 - Motion pictures debuting in the U.S. included: King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, starring Charlie Hunnam, Jude Law and Annabelle Wallis; Lowriders,with Melissa Benoist, Eva Longoria and Theo Rossi; Snatched, starring Amy Schumer, Goldie Hawn and Joan Cusack; and The Wall, with Aaron Taylor-Johnson, John Cena and Spencer Thomas.
2017 - POTUS Donald Trump tweeted a blustery warning at his ousted FBI director James Comey about possible “tapes” of their disputed private conversations. Comey later said, “Lordy, I hope there are tapes.” And a pair of House Democrats called on the White House to hand over any possible “tapes” of conversations Trump and Comey -- and all communications relating to his firing. (No recordings of the dusputed talks have been released.)
2017 - A global ransomware cyber-attack infected computers at businesses, healthcare facilities and other organizations in dozens of countries, disrupting operations at many facilities. Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab said it had recorded at least 45,000 attacks in 99 countries, including the U.K., Russia, Ukraine, India, China, Italy, and Egypt. The ransomware demanded users pay $300 worth of cryptocurrency Bitcoin to retrieve their files, though it warned that the “payment will be raised” after a certain amount of time. Translations of the ransom message in 28 languages were included. The malware spread through email.
2018 - 82 female film industry professionals protested on the steps of the Palais des Festivals to represent, what they describe as pervasive gender inequality in the film industry, at the 71st international film festival, Cannes, France. Cate Blanchett, Kristen Stewart and Salma Hayek were among those taking part in the red-carpet demonstration.
2019 - A shocking exposé by The New York Times reported that nearly 128,000 people in Syria have never emerged from prison over the last eight years and are presumed to be either dead or still in custody under the Assad regime.
2020 - COVID-19 news:
1)California’s state university system cancelled classes for the fall 2020 semester. Keeping classes online was necessary because of “evolving data surrounding the progression” of the virus, said Chancellor Tim White.
2)New York Governor Andrew Cuomo called face masks a sign of respect for the nurses and doctors who sacrificed their lives to protect people.
3)Moderna said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had granted ‘fast track’ designation to its coronavirus vaccine. Moderna expected to start a late-stage study of the vaccine in early summer.
4)Israeli police arrested over 300 people as authorities attempted to control crowds that had assembled at a religious site in violation of coronavirus restrictions. The violence erupted as police tried to keep Palestinians and ultra-nationalist Jewish protesters apart. It followed nights of confrontations in the Israeli-occupied sector amid rising nationalist and religious tensions. Israel has occupied East Jerusalem since the 1967 Middle East war and considers the entire city its capital. Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the future capital of a hoped-for independent state.
5)Vladimir Putin’s spokesman was hospitalized with coronavirus. He was the fifth senior government official in Russia to get the virus, and the second from Putin’s inner circle.2021 - House Republicans ousted Representative Liz Cheney from her post as the chamber’s No. 3 GOP leader. The attempt at punishment came after she repeatedly rebuked former POTUS Trump for his false claims of election fraud -- and his role in inciting the January 6 U.S. Capitol attack.
2021 - The U.S. reversed a ban on investments in Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp. that was imposed under former POTUS Trump. China’s commerce ministry welcomed the removal.
2021 - Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said the state sponsoring a drawing that would give five people $1 million each in return for having been vaccinated.
2022 - The first images were published of the supermassive blackhole Sagittarius A* that lies at the heart of the Milky Way. The shots were captured by the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration.
2022 - A very early (in the season) California wildfire was called “a dangerous new normal” by a local fire chief. This, after 24 houses were destroyed and 900 homes evacuated in Laguna Niguel, Orange County.
2023 - Movies opening in the U.S. included: Book Club: The Next Chapter, starring Jane Fonda, Diane Keaton, Mary Steenburgen, Andy Garcia, Candice Bergen, Don Johnson and Craig T. Nelson; Fool’s Paradise, with Charlie Day, Ray Liotta, Jason Sudeikis and Jason Bateman; Hypnotic, starring Ben Affleck, Alice Braga and JD Pardo; Knights of the Zodiac, with Sean Bean, Famke Janssen ... Guraad and Madison Iseman; and the animated Rally Road Racers, with characters voiced by Chloe Bennet. J.K. Simmons, Sharon Horgan, John Cleese, Catherine Tate, Jimmy O. Yang and Lisa Lu.
and more...
Birthdays on This Day May 12
1812 - Edward Lear
illustrator, poet, champion of the limerick: Edward Lear’s Book of Nonsense; died Jan 29, 1888
1820 - Florence Nightingale
health activist, nurse: promoted the nursing profession, contributed to modern nursing procedures, founded Nightingale Training School for Nurses; author: Notes on Nursing; died Aug 13, 19101828 - Dante Rossetti
poet: The Blessed Damozel, Sister Helen, The House of Life; artist: The Annunciation; brother of poet Christina Rossetti; died Apr 9, 18821900 - Captain Mildred McAfee (Horton)
1st Director of U.S. Navy WAVES [Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service); Wellesley College President; Distinguished Service Medalist [1945]; died Sep 2, 19941903 - Wilfrid Hyde-White
actor: Fanny Hill, The Toy, Tarzan, the Ape Man, Oh, God! Book II, The Cat and the Canary, Battlestar Galactica, The Great Houdini; died May 6, 19911907 - Katharine Hepburn
Academy Award-winning actress: Morning Glory [1932-33], Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner [1967], The Lion in Winter [1968], On Golden Pond [1981]; Adam’s Rib, Pat and Mike, The African Queen, The Rainmaker, Rooster Cogburn, Suddenly Last Summer, Mary of Scotland, Love Affair; died June 29, 20031910 - Gordon Jenkins
orchestra conductor, composer, songwriter: Manhattan Tower, Goodbye, When a Woman Loves a Man, Blue Prelude, You Have Taken My Heart, When a Woman Loves a Man; died May 1, 19841914 - Howard K. (Kingsbury) Smith
journalist, TV anchorman: ABC News; died Feb 15, 20021921 - (Otis W.) Joe Maphis
country singer with wife, Rose Lee: entertainer: Hometown Jamboree, Town Hall Party, Hee Haw; songwriter: Dim Lights Thick Smoke and Loud, Loud Music; died Jun 27, 19861922 - Bob Goldham
hockey: NHL: Toronto Maple Leafs, Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings; died Sep 6, 19911925 - Yogi (Lawrence Peter) Berra
Baseball Hall of Famer: catcher: NY Yankees [World Series: 1947, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963/all-star: 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962], NY Mets; manager: NY Yankees, NY Mets; died Sep 22, 20151928 - Burt Bacharach
Oscar-winning composer [w/ Hal David]: Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head [1969]; Tony award for score for Promises, Promises; What the World Needs Now, Walk on By, Close to You, I Say a Little Prayer, Do You Know the Way to San Jose; Oscar-winning team w/wife, Carol Bayer Sager: Arthur’s Theme [1981]; That’s What Friends are For; died Feb 8, 20231929 - Samuel Nujoma
President of Namibia [1990-2005]1935 - Felipe (Felipe Rojas) Alou
baseball: SF Giants [World Series: 1962/all-star: 1962, 1966, 1968], Milwaukee Braves, Atlanta Braves, Oakland Athletics, NY Yankees, Montreal Expos, Milwaukee Brewers1935 - John Bucyk
Hockey Hall of Famer: NHL: Detroit Red Wings, Boston Bruins [Lady Byng Trophy winner: 1971]1936 - Tom Snyder
broadcast journalist: WNBC, KNBC; host: The Late Show with Tom Snyder, Tomorrow, Contact, The Tom Snyder Radio Show; died Jul 29, 20071936 - Frank Stella
abstract artist, sculptor, painter: Empress of India, Guadalupe Island1937 - George Carlin
comedian: The George Carlin Show, Award Theater, first host of Saturday Night Live, The Kraft Summer Music Hall, Wonderful W-I-N-O, Seven Dirty Words, actor: Prince of Tides, That Girl, Car Wash, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure; died June 22, 20081937 - Susan Hampshire
Emmy Award-winning actress: The Forsythe Saga [1969-70], The First Churchills [Masterpiece Theatre, 1970-71], Vanity Fair [Masterpiece Theatre, 1972-73]; The Story of David, Cry Terror, David Copperfield1938 - Millie Perkins
actress: Wall Street, Ensign Pulver1939 - Ronald L. Ziegler
journalist, Press Secretary for U.S. President Richard M. Nixon; died Feb 10, 20031942 - Ian Dury
singer: Rough Kids, Billy Bentley, Upminster Kid; songwriter: What a Waste, Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick, Sink My Boats, This is What We Find, Reasons to be Cheerful, Delusions of Grandeur, Dance of the Crackpots, The Body Song, Spasticus Autisticus, Profoundly in Love with Pandora; group: Ian Dury & The Blockheads: Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, Sweet Gene Vincent, Billericay Dickie, Paistow Patricia; actor: No. 1, Pirates, King of the Ghetto, Talk of the Devil, Rocinante, Hearts of Fire; died Mar 27, 20001942 - Ted (Theodore Rodger) Kubiak
baseball: KC Athletics, Oakland Athletics [World Series: 1972, 1973], Milwaukee Brewers, SL Cardinals, Texas Rangers, SD Padres1942 - Billy Swan
singer: I Can Help; musician: drums, keyboards, guitar: group: Kris Kristofferson band; record producer: Polk Salad Annie [Tony Joe White]1943 - Linda Dano
actress: One Life to Live, See Jane Date, When the Vows Break, Perry Mason: The Case of the Killer Kiss, Rage of Angels: The Story Continues, The Night That Panicked America1943 - David Walker
musician: guitar: group: Gary Lewis & The Playboys: This Diamond Ring, Everybody Loves a Clown, She's Just My Style1944 - James Purify
singer: group: James & Bobby Purify: I’m Your Puppet, Let Love Come Between Us, Shake a Tail Feather1945 - Ian McLagan
musician: keyboards: solo LPs: Troublemaker, Bump in the Night; group: The Faces: Stay with Me, Debris, Cindy Incidentally, Pool Hall Richard, You Can Make Me Dance, Sing or Anything; died Dec 3, 20141948 - Lindsay Crouse
actress: The Juror, The Arrival, Desperate Hours, Places in the Heart, The Verdict, Slap Shot, House of Games, Eleanor & Franklin, All the President’s Men, Traps1948 - Richard Riehle
actor: Office Space, Quantum Leap, Roseanne, Murder, She Wrote, L.A. Law, Ally McBeal, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Chicago Hope, Diagnosis: Murder, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Grounded for Life, The West Wing, ER, Married to the Kellys, Boston Legal, Big Stan, The Young and the Restless, Star Trek1948 - Steve Winwood
singer: groups: Blind Faith; Traffic; Spencer Davis Group: Gimme Some Lovin’; solo: While You See a Chance; Don’t You Know What the Night Can Do, Higher Love, The Finer Things, Roll with It1950 - Bruce Boxleitner
actor: Scarecrow and Mrs. King, The Babe1950 - Gabriel Byrne
actor: The Usual Suspects, Miller’s Crossing, Stigmata, End of Days, In Treatment, Secret State, All Things to All Men, In the Name of the Father1950 - Pat (Patrick Leonard) Darcy
baseball: pitcher: Cincinnati Reds [World Series: 1975]1950 - Jocko Marcellino
musician: drums: group: Sha Na Na: Rama Lama Ding Dong, Runaround Sue, Hound Dog, Earth Angel, Rock ’N’ Roll Is Here to Stay, Yakety Yak, Get a Job, Remember Then, Just Like Romeo and Juliet1950 - Billy Squier
singer: Everybody Wants You; wrote and sang on soundtrack: Fast Times at Ridgemont High1955 - Kix Brooks
musician: guitar; songwriter, singer: duo: Brooks and Dunn: My Maria, Honky Tonk Truth, You’re Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone, Boot Scootin’ Boogie, He’s Got You, Hard Workin’ Man, That Ain’t No Way to Go1958 - Kim Greist
actress: Homeward Bound series, Throw Momma from the Train, Brazil, Chicago Hope1958 - Eric Singer
musician: drums: group: KISS: Strutter, Deuce, Got to Choose, Hotter Than Hell, C’Mon and Love, Rock and Roll All Nite, Detroit Rock City, Shout It Out Loud1959 - Ving Rhames
actor: Bringing Out the Dead, Pulp Fiction, Baby Boy, Don King: Only in America, Mission: Impossible film series, 2012 Zombie Apocalypse, Football Wives, Dawn of the Dead, RFK, Sins of the Father, Con Air1961 - Billy Duffy
musician: guitar: group: The Cult: Spiritwalker, Resurrection Joe, She Sells Security1962 - Emilio Estevez
actor: Breakfast Club, Repo Man, Young Guns, Stakeout, The Mighty Ducks, Men at Work, Freejack; Martin Sheen’s son, Charlie’s brother, Paula Abdul’s ex1962 - April Grace
actress: Star Trek: The Next Generation, The Beast, Magnolia, Lost, I Am Legend, Bolden!, American Son, Choose Connor, The Stronger, Soleado, Finding Forrester, Playing By Heart1966 - Stephen Baldwin
actor: Fled, The Usual Suspects, Under the Hula Moon, Threesome, The Great American Sex Scandal, Born on the Fourth of July, Home Boy, The Young Riders, The Prodigious Hickey, The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas; brother of actors Alec, William and Daniel Baldwin1968 - Tony Hawk
pro skateboarder; actor: Reunion X, Haggard: The Movie, xXx, CKY 3, Destroying America, The Contest, Gleaming the Cube, Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol, Thrashin’1968 - Catherine Tate
actress: companion of 10th Doctor Who [2006-2010], The Office, Nativity 3: Dude, Where’s My Donkey?, SuperBob, Unity, DuckTales [voice]1969 - Kim Fields
actress: The Facts of Life, Living Single, Baby, I’m Back1970 - Jim Furyk
golf champ: 2003 U.S. Open, 2013 PGA Championship runnerup1970 - Samantha Mathis
actress: Pump Up the Volume, Broken Arrow, Nightmares and Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King, Touched, Believe in Me, The Punisher, The Mists of Avalon1970 - Mike Weir
golf pro: Masters champ [2003]; more1972 - Christian Campbell
actor: Trick, Pinion, Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical, The Piano Man’s Daughter, Plead, Thank You, Good Night, Cruel Justice1973 - MacKenzie Astin
actor: The Facts of Life, I Dream of Jeannie: 15 Years Later, Laughter on the 23rd Floor, Widow’s Kiss, The Final Season, In From the Night, Love’s Enduring Promise, How to Deal, The Month of August, The Zeroes1978 - Malin Akerman
actress: The Heartbreak Kid, 27 Dresses, Watchmen, The Proposal, Couples Retreat, Childrens Hospital, Rock of Ages1978 - Jason Biggs
actor: Orange is the New Black, American Pie, American Pie 2, American Pie: The Wedding, Jersey Girl, Prozac Nation, Saving Silverman, Loser, Camp Stories1979 - Andre Carter
football [defensive end]: Univ of California; NFL: San Francisco 49ers, Washington Redskins1979 - Steve Smith
football [wide receiver]: NFL: Carolina Panthers [2001–2013]: 2004 Super Bowl XXXVIII; Baltimore Ravens [2014–2016])1981 - Rami Malek
actor: 2016 Emmy Award [Mr. Robot]; 2019 Academy Award [Bohemian Rhapsody]; The War at Home, Night at the Museum film series, 24, The Pacific, Larry Crowne, Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2, Short Term 12, Need for Speed, The Master1983 - Domhnall Gleeson
actor: stage: The Lieutenant of Inishmore, American Buffalo, Great Expectations; films/TV: The Last Furlong, Your Bad Self, Six Shooter, Boy Eats Girl, Studs, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows [Parts 1, 2], Never Let Me Go, True Grit, Anna Karenina, Dredd, About Time, Ex Machina1986 - Caitlin McHugh
actress: The Vampire Diaries, Castle, Switched at Birth, NCIS, Ingenue-ish1986 - Emily VanCamp
actress: Revenge, Brothers & Sisters, Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, The Ring 2, The House on Turk Street, Dice, Glory Days
and still more...
Hit Music on This Day May 12
1949Cruising Down the River (facts) - The Russ Morgan Orchestra (vocal: The Skyliners)
Forever and Ever (facts) - Perry Como
1958
1967
1976
1985
1994
2003
2012
2021
and even more...
Those were the days, my friend. We thought they’d never end...
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