1980s The Best Decade Ever - On This Day... (2024)

Friday, June 28

Then & Now!

John Elway was born on June 28, 1960, so let's profile one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history, Elway spent his entire 16-year career with the Denver Broncos.

Following his playing career, he then spent 11 years with the Broncos in various front-office positions, eventually being promoted to general manager. Elway, along with former backup quarterback and head coach Gary Kubiak, are the only individuals to be associated with all three of the Broncos' Super Bowl wins.

He was the first selection in the 1983 NFL draft, famously known as the "quarterback class of 1983", where he was taken by the Baltimore Colts before being traded to the Denver Broncos. In January 1987, Elway embarked on one of the most notable performances in sports and in NFL history, helping engineer a 98-yard, game-tying touchdown drive in the AFC Championship Game against the Cleveland Browns, a moment later dubbed "The Drive". Following that game in Cleveland, Elway and the Broncos lost in Super Bowl XXI to the New York Giants.

After two more Super Bowl losses, the Broncos entered a period of decline; however, that ended during the 1997 season, as Elway and Denver won their first Super Bowl title by defeating the Green Bay Packers 31–24 in Super Bowl XXXII. The Broncos repeated as champions the following season in Super Bowl XXXIII by defeating the Atlanta Falcons 34–19. Elway was named MVP of that Super Bowl, which was the last game of his career, and in doing so Elway set a then-record five Super Bowl starts which was broken in February 2015 when Tom Brady of the New England Patriots started Super Bowl XLIX.

After his retirement as a player, Elway served as general manager and executive vice president of football operations of the Broncos, which won four division titles, two AFC Championships, and Super Bowl 50 during his tenure, making Elway a three-time Super Bowl Champion with the Broncos - two as a player and one as an executive. Elway was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2000 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2004.

Elway is widely regarded as one of the best quarterbacks in the history of the sport. At the time of his retirement in early 1999, Elway had the most victories by a starting quarterback and was statistically the second most prolific passer in NFL history. He was also a prolific rusher of the ball, being one of only two players to score a rushing touchdown in four different Super Bowls (the other being Thurman Thomas) and the only quarterback to do so

Significant Events

June 28, 1985: St. Elmo’s Fire premiered in theatres.

The coming-of-age film stars Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy, Andie MacDowell and Mare Winningham.

It centers on a clique of recent graduates of Washington, D.C.'s Georgetown University, and their adjustment to post-university life and the responsibilities of adulthood.

The film is a prominent movie of the Brat Pack genre. It received negative reviews from critics but was a box-office hit, grossing $38 million on a $10 million budget.

Canadian composer/producer David Foster composed the soundtrack, his first. The theme song "St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion)" was written by Foster and English musician John Parr, who also performed the track. The song hit number one on Billboard's Hot 100 chart for two weeks in September 1985, and "Love Theme from St. Elmo's Fire" (the instrumental theme to the movie by David Foster) reached number 15.

June 28, 1982: Robert Plant released his debut solo album Pictures at Eleven.

Two years after the tragic events that led to the end of an era Robert Plant relaunched himself as a solo performer, bringing together a variety of musicians and culminating in the release of Pictures at Eleven, in many ways a change of direction for the Led Zeppelin frontman though still retaining his characteristic sound and creative and technical innovation.

The album included contributions from Phil Collins and Cozy Powell on drums. Plant also brought in Robbie Blunt on guitar, Jezz Woodroffe on keyboards and Paul Martinez on bass, with some excellent sax playing by Raphael Ravenscroft on "Pledge Pin".

Released on Zeppelin's Swan Song label, the album did well and received good reviews, Zeppelin fans warmed to the album, especially with the inclusion of the Zepplinesque epic "Slow Dancer" and stomping "Burning Down One Side".

June 28, 1969: The Stonewall Riots in New York City marked the beginning of the gay rights movement in the United States.

The Stonewall Riots, also called the Stonewall Uprising, began in the early morning hours of the 28th of |June in ’69 when New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay club located in Greenwich Village in New York City.

The raid sparked a riot among bar patrons and neighborhood residents as police roughly hauled employees and patrons out of the bar, leading to six days of protests and violent clashes with law enforcement outside the bar on Christopher Street, in neighboring streets and in nearby Christopher Park. The Stonewall Riots served as a catalyst for the gay rights movement in the United States and around the world.

June 28, 1967: Israel annexes East Jerusalem. From Israel's point of view, the annexation effected the reunification of its capital city. However, the international community declared it illegal and views East Jerusalem as Palestinian territory occupied by Israel.

Jerusalem was seen as a separate, international city under the 1947 United Nations partition plan, but it was divided by the 1948 war that followed Israel's declaration of independence. As a result of the 1949 Armistice Agreements, the city's western half came under Israeli control, while its eastern half, containing the famed Old City, fell under Jordanian control.[5][a] In 1950, Jordan annexed East Jerusalem as part of its larger annexation of the West Bank.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Six-Day War; since then, the entire city has been under Israeli control. In Israel, the reunification of Jerusalem is celebrated is commemorated as Jerusalem Day, an annual holiday. In July 1980, the Knesset passed the Jerusalem Law as part of the country's Basic Law, which declared unified Jerusalem the capital of Israel, formalizing its effective annexation.

June 28, 1939: The world's first scheduled transatlantic flight takes off. The Boeing 314 Clipper flying boat was operated by Pan Am. It took about 24 hours to reach Marseille, France. The scheduled service was soon discontinued again because of the outbreak of World War II.

After years of on-again, off-again negotiations, public prognostication, and the long-promised prospect of a new epoch for global travel, the first flight with paying passengers took off to cross the Atlantic.

Betty Trippe was a passenger on that flight and captured her impressions in her diary. It was an image of luxury aloft that survives to this day when travel by Clipper is recalled:

“At dinner . . . everyone was in high spirits and we enjoyed the gay and interesting conversation. The tables were set with white tablecloths. The dinner was delicious and beautifully served. Some contrasted this trip with the days of sailing ships which took two or three months to cross the ocean . . . yet we were crossing in twenty-four hours . . . Captain (R.O.D.) Sullivan came down from the control room to smoke a cigarette and visit with the passengers. He was a grand person and inspired real confidence by his cool cheerful manner. Everything seemed so routine and matter of fact that we almost lost sight of the fact this was the first airplane flight to carry passengers to Europe.”

June 28, 1914: Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie are assassinated

19-year-old Gavrilo Princip's attack effected a crisis among Europe's major powers (July Crisis).

This ultimately triggered the First World War, which with over 37 million deaths was one of the bloodiest wars of all time. Five years later to the day, the Treaty of Versailles formally ended the war.

Earlier in the day, someone had thrown a grenade at the royal couple but it missed, injuring those in a care behind them. Later, the royals insisted on seeing all those who had been injured by the bomb at the local hospital. However, no one told the drivers that the itinerary had been changed. When the error was discovered, the drivers had to turn around. As the cars backed down the street and onto a side street, the line of cars stalled. At this time, Princip was sitting at a cafe across the street. He instantly seized his opportunity and walked across the street and shot the royal couple. He first shot Sophie in the abdomen and then shot Franz Ferdinand in the neck. Franz leaned over his crying wife. He was still alive when witnesses arrived to render aid. His dying words to Sophie were, "Don't die, darling, live for our children."

Billboard Number Ones

1980 Coming up - Paul McCartney
1981 Bette Davis Eyes - Kim Carnes

1982 Ebony and Ivory - Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder
1983 Flashdance... What a Feeling - Irene Cara

1984 The Reflex - Duran Duran
1985 Heaven - Bryan Adams

1986 On My Own - Patti LaBelle & Michael McDonald

1987 I Wanna Dance With Somebody - Whitney Houston
1988 Foolish Beat- Debbie Gibson

1989 Satisfied - Richard Marx

Top Grossing Movies

1980 The Empire Strikes Back

1981 Superman II

1982 E.T.: The Extraterrestrial

1983 Return of the Jedi

1984 Ghostbusters

1985 Pale Rider

1986 Karate Kid Part II

1987 Dragnet

1988 Coming to America

1989 Batman

Today's Your Birthday!

1966 - John Cusack is an American actor and one of my favourite actors of the 1980s.

He is best known as the star of coming-of-age dramedies such as Sixteen Candles (1984), Better Off Dead (1985), The Sure Thing (1985), Stand by Me (1986), and Say Anything... (1989). In the 1990s, he then started appearing in independent films and had leading men roles in Bullets Over Broadway (1994), Con Air (1997), Grosse Pointe Blank (1997) Anastasia (1997), The Thin Red Line (1998), Being John Malkovich (1999), High Fidelity (2000), America's Sweethearts (2001), Max (2002), and Runaway Jury (2003).

1966 - Mary Stuart Masterson is an American actress and director. After making her acting debut as a child in The Stepford Wives (1975), Masterson took a ten-year hiatus to focus on her education. Her early film roles include Heaven Help Us (1985), At Close Range (1986), Some Kind of Wonderful (1987), and Chances Are (1989).

Her performance in the film Immediate Family (1989) won her the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress, and she earned additional praise for her roles in Fried Green Tomatoes (1991) and Benny & Joon (1993).

1964 Mark Grace is an American former Major League Baseball (MLB) first baseman who spent 13 seasons with the Chicago Cubs and three seasons with the Arizona Diamondbacks of the National League (NL). He was a member of the 2001 World Series champion Diamondbacks that beat the New York Yankees. Grace batted and threw left-handed; he wore jersey numbers 28 and 17 during his rookie season of 1988, and he kept number 17 for the remainder of his career.

1960 John Elway is an American former professional football quarterback who spent his entire 16-year career with the Denver Broncos of the National Football League (NFL).

Elway is widely regarded as one of the best quarterbacks in the history of the sport. At the time of his retirement in early 1999, Elway had the most victories by a starting quarterback and was statistically the second most prolific passer in NFL history. He was also a prolific rusher of the ball, being one of only two players to score a rushing touchdown in four different Super Bowls (the other being Thurman Thomas) and the only quarterback to do so

1948 - Kathy Bates is an American actress who has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards, as well as nominations for a Tony Award and two BAFTA Awards

She earned the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Annie Wilkes in the thriller Misery (1990). Her other Oscar-nominated roles were in Primary Colors (1998), About Schmidt (2002), and Richard Jewell (2019). Her other notable films include Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), Dolores Claiborne (1995), Titanic (1997), The Waterboy (1998), Revolutionary Road (2008), The Blind Side (2009), and Midnight in Paris (2011).

1926 - Mel Brooks is an American actor, comedian, filmmaker, songwriter and playwright. With a career spanning over seven decades, Brooks is known as a writer and director of a variety of successful broad farces and parodies.

He rose to prominence becoming one of the most successful film directors of the 1970s with The Twelve Chairs (1970), Blazing Saddles (1974), Young Frankenstein (1974), Silent Movie (1976), High Anxiety (1977), History of the World, Part I (1981), Spaceballs (1987), Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993), and Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995).

A recipient of numerous accolades, he is one of 19 entertainers to win the EGOT, which includes an Emmy Award, a Grammy Award, an Academy Award and a Tony Award.

Thursday, June 27

Then & Now!

On this day in 1988, Mike Tyson knocked out Michael Spink in 91 seconds, in Atlantic City. It was at the time the richest fight in boxing history, grossing some $70 million ($186 million in 2024). Tyson earned a record purse of around $22 million ($58 million in 2024) and Spinks $13.5 million ($34 million in 2024).

Both fighters were undefeated and each had a claim to being the legitimate heavyweight champion. At the time, Tyson held the belts of all three of the major sanctioning organizations (WBA, WBC, and IBF) while Spinks was The Ring and Lineal champion, regarded as "The People's Champion”.

Prior to the fight and over the course of eighteen months, Tyson had won the WBC title from Trevor Berbick, the WBA title from James “Bonecrusher” Smith, and the IBF title from Tony Tucker and became the first fighter to be regarded as undisputed champion since Leon Spinks in 1978.

However, while Tyson was the sanctioning bodies’ champion, he did not garner universal recognition as a champion. Spinks had entered the tournament as the IBF champion, a title he had held since defeating Larry Holmes in 1985.

Billed as "Once and for All", the fight was highly anticipated and earned comparisons with the 1971 Fight of the Century between Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali, who were also undefeated heavyweight champions when they met to decide the undisputed title.

Celebrities such as Jack Nicholson, Sylvester Stallone, Sean Penn, Madonna, Warren Beatty, Oprah Winfrey, Billy Crystal, George Steinbrenner, Carl Weathers, Jesse Jackson and Chuck Norris would all be in attendance. A ringside ticket would cost a record $1,500 (equivalent to $4,000 in 2024).

But for all the hype, the bout was a disappointment, over in a minute and a half. It was the sixth shortest heavyweight title fight in history. Just ten punches were landed, eight by Tyson and two by Spinks. The round was named Round of the Year for 1988 by Ring Magazine.

Spinks later conceded that "fear was knocking at my door big time." Tyson said "The first punch I threw, he wobbled a bit. I knew right there I had him."

Significant Events

June 27, 1988: Mike Tyson knocked out Michael Spink in 91 seconds, in Atlantic City. It was at the time the richest fight in boxing history, grossing some $70 million ($186 million in 2024). Tyson earned a record purse of around $22 million ($58 million in 2024) and Spinks $13.5 million ($34 million in 2024).

For all the hype, the bout was a disappointment, over in a minute and a half. It was the sixth shortest heavyweight title fight in history. Just ten punches were landed, eight by Tyson, two by Spinks. The round was named round of the year for 1988 by Ring Magazine.

Spinks later conceded that "fear was knocking at my door big time." Tyson said "The first punch I threw, he wobbled a bit. I knew right there I had him."

June 27, 1985: The first hotel strike in the history of New York City ends.

Thousands of workers screamed approval after the agreement was signed, ending the first New York City hotel strike in 47 years.

The contract agreement with the Hotel Association of New York affected 25,000 union members working in 165 hotels and raised wages and benefits by more than 30 percent over the next five years.

'We are pleased because we got 85 percent of what we wanted,' Vito Pitta, president of the Hotel and Motel Trades Council, told a cheering crowd at the time.

'The hotel management tried to break your union,' added Pitta, a native of Sicily, who once worked as a banquet waiter at the Hotel Plaza, 'But you took on the richest, the biggest and the meanest and we are stronger because of this struggle.'

June 27, 1973: Live & Let Die was released in the United States.

The film was the eighth in the James Bond series. It was the first to star Roger Moore in the title role after producers had approached Sean Connery to return after Diamonds Are Forever (1971). He declined and a search for a new Bond actor led to Moore being signed.

Live and Let Die was released during the height of the blaxploitation era, and many blaxploitation archetypes and clichés are depicted in the film, including derogatory racial epithets ("honky"), black gangsters, and pimpmobiles. It departs from the former plots of the James Bond films about megalomaniac super-villains and instead focuses on drug trafficking, a common theme of blaxploitation films of the period.

The film was a box-office success and received generally positive reviews from critics. Its title song, written by Paul and Linda McCartney and performed by their band Wings, was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

June 27, 1972: Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney found Atari, Inc. The pioneering video game and home computer company produced arcade classics like the two-dimensional tennis simulator Pong. Especially in the 1970s and 1980s, its products had a large impact on the electronic entertainment industry.

The two men decided to use the name ‘Atari’ for their company because it was a reference to a check-like position in the game Go, which Bushnell has called his "favorite game of all time".

After hitting it big with Pong which became a classic in the arcades across America in the early 1970s, Bushnell bought out his partner and shifted his focus to the home, introducing Pong to TV sets in 1975.

That set the stage for the introduction of the home gaming console Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS) in 1977. It popularized microprocessor-based hardware and games stored on swappable ROM cartridges. The gaming system was bundled with two joystick controllers, a conjoined pair of paddle controllers and the game cartridge Combat, which was later replaced by Pac-Man. Sears sold the system as the Tele-Games Video Arcade. Atari rebranded the VCS as the Atari 2600 in November 1982 alongside the release of the Atari 5200.

June 27, 1956: The film Moby Dick is premiered. John Huston's adaptation of Herman Melville's didn’t do a lot at the box office success but is now considered an outstanding piece of work, especially for its use of light and colour.

The film stars Gregory Peck, Richard Basehart and Leo Genn and follows the exploits of Captain Ahab in pursuing and killing a gigantic sperm whale with whom he has a personal vendetta.

The film has an 81% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with the consensus that "It may favour spectacle in place of the deeper themes in Herman Melville's novel, but John Huston's Moby Dick still makes for a grand movie adventure."

Billboard Number Ones

1980 Funkytown - Lipps Inc.
1981 Bette Davis Eyes - Kim Carnes

1982 Ebony and Ivory - Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder
1983 Flashdance... What a Feeling - Irene Cara

1984 The Reflex - Duran Duran
1985 Heaven - Bryan Adams

1986 On My Own - Patti LaBelle & Michael McDonald

1987 I Wanna Dance With Somebody - Whitney Houston
1988 Foolish Beat- Debbie Gibson

1989 Satisfied - Richard Marx

Top Grossing Movies

1980 The Empire Strikes Back

1981 Superman II

1982 E.T.: The Extraterrestrial

1983 Return of the Jedi

1984 Ghostbusters

1985 Pale Rider

1986 Karate Kid Part II

1987 Dragnet

1988 Coming to America

1989 Batman

Today's Your Birthday!

1975 Tobey Maguire is an American actor and film producer. He starred as the title character in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy (2002–2007), and later reprised the role in Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021).

Maguire started his career in supporting roles in the films This Boy's Life (1993), The Ice Storm, Deconstructing Harry (both 1997), and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998). His leading roles include Pleasantville (1998), Ride with the Devil (1999), The Cider House Rules (1999), Wonder Boys (2000), Seabiscuit (2003), The Good German (2006), Brothers (2009), The Great Gatsby (2013), and Pawn Sacrifice (2014).

1949 Vera Wang is an American fashion designer who got her start in figure skating before transitioning to fashion. She worked for Vogue and Ralph Lauren before launching her bridal gown boutique in 1990.

Wang gained international recognition for her wedding dress designs. Numerous celebrities have worn her gowns. She expanded her brand to include ready-to-wear fashion, accessories, fragrances, and home goods.)

Wang has made wedding gowns for public figures such as Hayley Williams, Ariana Grande, Vanessa Hudgens, Chelsea Clinton, Karenna Gore, Ivanka Trump, Campbell Brown, Alicia Keys, Mariah Carey, Victoria Beckham, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Avril Lavigne, Hilary Duff, Khloe Kardashian, and Kim Kardashian. Wang started as being best known for her elegant wedding dresses. Michelle Obama has also worn Wang's evening wear.

1930 Ross Perot was an American business magnate, politician, and philanthropist. He was the founder and chief executive officer of Electronic Data Systems and Perot Systems. He ran an independent campaign in the 1992 U.S. presidential election and a third-party campaign in the 1996 U.S. presidential election as the Reform Party nominee, formed by grassroots supporters of Perot's 1992 campaign.

Although he failed to carry a single state in either election, both campaigns were the second and third strongest presidential showings by a third party or independent candidate in U.S. history. (d. 2019)

1927 Bob Keeshan was an American television producer and actor. He created and played the title role in the children's television program Captain Kangaroo, which ran from 1955 to 1984, the longest-running nationally broadcast children's television program of its day. He also played the original Clarabell the Clown on the Howdy Doody television program.

The New York Times commented: "Captain Kangaroo, a round-faced, pleasant, mustachioed man possessed of an unshakable calm ... was one of the most enduring characters television ever produced." (d. 2004)

1880 Helen Keller was an American author, disability rights advocate, political activist and lecturer. She lost her sight and her hearing after a bout of illness when she was 19 months old. Keller learned to communicate using home signs until the age of seven when she met her first teacher and life-long companion Anne Sullivan. Sullivan taught Keller language, including reading and writing.

After an education at both specialist and mainstream schools, Keller attended Radcliffe College of Harvard University and became the first deafblind person in the United States to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. (d. 1968)

Wednesday, June 26

Then & Now!

On June 26, 1977, Elvis Presley performed his last concert. "The King's" final show in Indianapolis at the Market Square Arena was his 55th show of the year. Despite Presley's failing health, and at times sickly appearance, his presence alone was still enough of a draw to sell out shows nationwide. Bootleg copies of Presley's Indianapolis shows have been available on the collector's circuit for years and prove that Presley's voice was in good shape for the entire show, which was nearly identical to most of his 1977 performances.

Although the concert officially started at 8:30 p.m., it wasn’t until 10 p.m. that Elvis took the stage, preceded by warm-up acts featuring brass bands, soul singers and a comedian. The audience patiently awaited the arrival of the King, and for approximately 80 minutes, he delivered a mesmerizing performance.

The setlist for Elvis’s final show in Indianapolis was carefully crafted to showcase the full range of his talents. From the iconic rock ‘n’ roll hits like “Jailhouse Rock” and “Hound Dog” to heartfelt ballads like “Love Me Tender” and “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” the performance was a journey through Elvis’s unparalleled discography. Each song was met with thunderous applause and enthusiastic sing-alongs, as the crowd reveled in the opportunity to witness their idol in action.

Although the following October's CBS-TV special Elvis in Concert has been billed over the years as being Presley's final show, it was actually compiled from shows from June 19th, 1977, in Omaha, Nebraska and on June 21st in Rapid City, South Dakota.

Elvis died unexpectedly on August 16, 1977, at his Graceland estate at the age of 42. It has been reported years of prescription drug abuse and unhealthy eating habits severely compromised his health, leading to his girlfriend Ginger Alden discovering him dead on the bathroom floor.

Significant Events

June 26, 1987: Full Metal Jacket premiered in theatres starring Matthew Modine and Adam Baldwin.

The storyline follows a platoon of U.S. Marines through their boot camp training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina. The first half of the film focuses primarily on privates J.T. Davis and Leonard Lawrence, nicknamed "Joker" and "Pyle," who struggle under their abusive drill instructor, Gunnery Sergeant Hartman. The second half portrays the experiences of Joker and other Marines in the Vietnamese cities of Da Nang and Huế during the Tet Offensive of the Vietnam War. The film's title refers to the full metal jacket bullet used by military servicemen.

It was the last of Stanley Kubrick's films to be released during his lifetime. The movie received critical acclaim, grossed $120 million against a budget of $16 million and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Rotten Tomatoes retrospectively collected reviews to give the film a score of 90% based on reviews from 84 critics and an average rating of 8.3/10. The summary states: "Intense, tightly constructed, and darkly comic at times, Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket may not boast the most original of themes, but it is exceedingly effective at communicating them."

June 26, 1981: Stripes premiered in Theatres.

The film is an action comedy directed by Ivan Reitman and starring Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, Warren Oates, P. J. Soles, Sean Young, and John Candy. Ramis wrote the film with Len Blum and Dan Goldberg, the latter of whom also served as producer alongside Reitman. Numerous actors, including John Larroquette, John Diehl, Conrad Dunn, Judge Reinhold, Joe Flaherty, Dave Thomas, Timothy Busfield, and Bill Paxton, appear in the film in some of the earliest roles of their careers.

Murray stars as John Winger, a taxi driver who, after walking out on his job mid-fare and getting dumped by his girlfriend and losing his car to the repo man, decides to enlist in the United States Army with his friend Russell Ziskey (Ramis). The film received generally positive reviews from critics and audiences and was a commercial success.

June 26, 1979: "Moonraker", the 11th James Bond film starring Roger Moore, premiered in London.

It was Moore’s fourth time playing the famous MI6 agent. Bond investigates the theft of a Space Shuttle, leading him to Hugo Drax, the owner of the shuttle's manufacturing firm. Along with astronaut Dr. Holly Goodhead, Bond follows the trail from California to Venice, Rio de Janeiro, the Amazon rainforest, and finally into outer space to prevent a plot to wipe out the world population and to recreate humanity with a master race.

Moonraker had a high production cost of $34 million, more than twice as much as The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), and it received mixed reviews. However, the film's visuals were praised, being nominated for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, and it eventually became the highest-grossing film of the series at the time with $210 million worldwide, a record that stood until 1995's GoldenEye.

June 26, 1977: Elvis Presley performed his last concert. "The King's" final show in Indianapolis at the Market Square Arena was his 55th show of the year. Despite Presley's failing health, and at times sickly appearance, his presence alone was still enough of a draw to sell out shows nationwide. Bootleg copies of Presley's Indianapolis shows have been available on the collector's circuit for years and prove that Presley's voice was in good shape for the entire show, which was nearly identical to most of his 1977 performances.

June 26, 1927: The Cyclone roller coaster opened on Coney Island in New York.

The roller coaster is on a plot of land in Brooklyn. The Cyclone reaches a maximum speed of 60 miles per hour (97 km/h) and has a total track length of 2,640 feet (800 m), with a maximum height of 85 feet (26 m).

The wooden roller coaster covers 75 feet (23 m) at 834 Surf Avenue and 500 feet (150 m) on West 10th Street. The former concession stands (built into the coaster's structure) were home to the Coney Island History Project, which was moved to a space near the Wonder Wheel. A souvenir stand selling Cyclone-based shirts, hats, and on-ride photos remains. The Cyclone is considered an "irreplaceable" structure since timber-supported coasters can no longer be built under modern New York City building codes.

The Cyclone originally cost $175,000, valued at $3.1 million in 2024.

Billboard Number Ones

1980 Funkytown - Lipps Inc.
1981 Stars on 45 Medley

1982 Ebony and Ivory - Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder
1983 Flashdance... What a Feeling - Irene Cara

1984 The Reflex - Duran Duran
1985 Heaven - Bryan Adams

1986 On My Own - Patti LaBelle & Michael McDonald

1987 Head to Toe - Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam
1988 Together Forever - Rick Astley

1989 Satisfied - Richard Marx

Top Grossing Movies

1980 The Empire Strikes Back

1981 Superman II

1982 E.T.: The Extraterrestrial

1983 Return of the Jedi

1984 Ghostbusters

1985 Pale Rider

1986 Karate Kid Part II

1987 Dragnet

1988 Who Framed Roger Rabbit

1989 Batman

Today's Your Birthday!

1961 Greg LeMond is an American former road racing cyclist. LeMond won the Tour de France three times and the Road Race World Championship twice, becoming the only American male to win the Tour de France.

LeMond retired from competition in December 1994 and was inducted into the United States Bicycling Hall of Fame in 1996. He was the first professional cyclist to sign a million-dollar contract and the first cyclist to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

1951 Robert Davi is an American actor, singer and filmmaker. Over the course of his acting career, Davi has performed in more than 130 films. Among his most known roles are opera-singing Jake Fratelli in The Goonies (1985), Vietnam veteran and FBI Special Agent Johnson in Die Hard (1988), James Bond villain Franz Sanchez in Licence to Kill (1989), police deputy chief Phil Heinemann in Predator 2 (1990) and strip club manager Al Torres in Showgirls (1995).

On television, he portrayed FBI Special Agent Bailey Malone in the NBC television series Profiler (1996–2000).

1955 Gedde Watanabe is an American actor best known for playing Long Duk Dong in the film Sixteen Candles (1984) and Takahara "Kaz" Kazihiro in Gung Ho (1986). Watanabe also voiced the character of Ling in the animated film Mulan (1998) and its sequel Mulan II (2004) and Nurse Yosh Takata in the NBC medical drama ER from 1997 to 2003. Watanabe appeared on Sesame Street from 1988 to 1991 as Hiroshi and he was also an original cast member of the Stephen Sondheim musical Pacific Overtures.

1956 Chris Isaak is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and occasional actor. Noted for his reverb-laden rockabilly revivalist style and wide vocal range, he is popularly known for his breakthrough hit and signature song "Wicked Game"; as well as international hits such as "Blue Hotel", "Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing", and "Somebody's Crying".

As an actor, he played supporting roles and bit parts in films such as Married to the Mob, The Silence of the Lambs, Little Buddha, That Thing You Do! and Lynch's Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me and starred in two television series: the sitcom The Chris Isaak Show and the talk show The Chris Isaak Hour.

1957 Patty Smyth is an American singer and songwriter who first gained national attention with the rock band Scandal and went on to record and perform as a solo artist. Her distinctive voice and new wave image gained broad exposure through video recordings aired on cable music video channels such as MTV.

In the early 1990s, she reached the top 10 with the hit single "Sometimes Love Just Ain't Enough," a duet with Don Henley of Eagles.

1911 Babe Didrikson Zaharias American was an American athlete who excelled in golf, basketball, baseball, and track and field. She won two gold medals and a silver in track and field at the 1932 Summer Olympics before turning to professional golf and winning 10 LPGA major championships.

She was named the 10th Greatest North American Athlete of the 20th Century by ESPN, being the highest-ranked woman on their list. (d. 1956)

Tuesday, June 25

Then & Now!

On June 25, 1984, Prince released his sixth album Purple Rain. This is one of my favourite 80s albums and Prince will be featured at some point more prominently on the website as he was one of the true iconic artists of The Best Decade Ever.

Prior to the album's release, Prince had scored some mainstream hits — including "1999" and "Little Red Corvette" — but hadn't fully blossomed into the prolific, world-conquering musical hero he's now immortalized as. Nor did he have acting experience. Yet, Prince somehow managed to convince his management and label to finance a big-screen hybrid of romance, drama and musical accompanied by an equally ambitious pop soundtrack.

It was an inherently risky career strategy that could have derailed his remarkable rise to greatness in one fell swoop. Instead, Purple Rain enjoyed blockbuster success at both the box office and on the charts, with the film grossing more than $68 million worldwide and the album topping the Billboard 200 for a remarkable 24 weeks.

Prince wrote and composed the album's lead single "When Doves Cry" after all the other tracks were complete on Purple Rain. In addition to providing vocals, he played all instruments on the track. With there being no bass line, the song's production is noted for being unconventionally bare in comparison to 1980s pop hits.

As well as pushing all kinds of boundaries, Purple Rain also broke all kinds of records, including one at the music industry's most prestigious night of the year. At the 1985 GRAMMY Awards, Prince became the first Black artist ever to win Best Rock Performance by a Duo Or Group With Vocal, beating the likes of the Cars, Genesis, Van Halen and Yes in the process. Purple Rain also picked up Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media at the same ceremony and was nominated in the night's most coveted Category, Album of The Year. Prince also won the Academy Award for Best Original Song Score for the film Purple Rain.

Another impressive feat was the one that had only previously been achieved by the Beatles and Elvis Presley. With the same-named movie also hitting the top of the box office chart, Prince became only the third artist in history to score a number-one album, film and song in the same calendar year.

Purple Rain is regularly ranked among the greatest albums of all time. Rolling Stone ranked the album number 8 on its 2020 list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and added to the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry list of sound recordings that are "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".

Significant Events

June 25, 1993: Both Canada and Turkey elect female heads of government for the first time

Kim Campbell became Canada's and Tansu Çiller Turkey's Prime Minister on this day. Worldwide, women in top political positions are still the exception.

Campbell is the first and only female prime minister of Canada. Prior to becoming the final Progressive Conservative (PC) prime minister, she was also the first woman to serve as minister of justice in Canadian history and the first woman to become minister of defence in a NATO member state.

In the 1993 Canadian federal election in October of that year, the Progressive Conservatives were decimated, losing all but two seats from a previous majority, with Campbell losing her own. Her 132-day premiership is the third shortest in Canadian history.

Tansu Çiller was Turkey's first and only female prime minister. As the leader of the True Path Party, she went on to concurrently serve as Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey and as Minister of Foreign Affairs between 1996 and 1997.

June 25, 1984: Prince released his sixth album Purple Rain. I will say this is one of my favourite 80s albums and Prince will be featured at some point more prominently as he was one of the true iconic artists of that decade.

It was an inherently risky career strategy that could have derailed his remarkable rise to greatness in one fell swoop. Instead, Purple Rain enjoyed blockbuster success at both the box office and on the charts, with the film grossing more than $68 million worldwide and the album topping the Billboard 200 for a remarkable 24 weeks.

June 25, 1982: Blade Runner Premiered in Theatres.

The movie is an adaptation of Philip K. Dick's 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? The film is set in a dystopian future Los Angeles of 2019, in which synthetic humans known as replicants are bio-engineered by the powerful Tyrell Corporation to work on space colonies. When a fugitive group of advanced replicants led by Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) escapes back to Earth, burnt-out cop Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) reluctantly agrees to hunt them down.

Blade Runner was released in 1,300 theaters on June 25, 1982. That date was chosen by producer Alan Ladd Jr. because his previous highest-grossing films (Star Wars and Alien) had a similar opening date (May 25) in 1977 and 1979, making the 25th of the month his "lucky day". Blade Runner grossed reasonably good ticket sales in its opening weekend; earning $6.1 million during its first weekend in theaters. The film was released close to other major science-fiction and fantasy releases such as The Thing, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Conan the Barbarian and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, which affected its commercial success.

Blade Runner initially underperformed in North American theaters and polarized critics; some praised its thematic complexity and visuals, while others critiqued its slow pacing and lack of action. It later became a cult film and has since come to be regarded as one of the greatest science fiction films. Hailed for its production design depicting a high-tech but decaying future, the film is often regarded as both a leading example of neo-noir cinema and a foundational work of the cyberpunk genre.

June 25, 1982: Dexys Midnight Runners' “Come on Eileen” was released and did go on to hit number one in America the following year. It was also the top single in the UK, Belgium, Ireland, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

The song reached number one in the United States on the Billboard Hot 100 charts during the week ending April 23, 1983. "Come On Eileen" prevented Michael Jackson from having back-to-back number-one hits in the US: "Billie Jean" was the number one single the previous seven weeks, while "Beat It" was the number one song the ensuing three.

The 1982 music video was directed by Julien Temple and filmed in the inner south London suburb of Kennington in the vicinity of the corner of Brook Drive and Hayles Street, then Austral Street and Holyoak Road. The character of "Eileen" in the music video, as well as on the single cover, is played by Máire Fahey, sister of Siobhan Fahey from Bananarama.

"Come On Eileen" won Best British Single at the 1983 Brit Awards, and in 2015 the song was voted by the British public as the nation's sixth favourite 1980s number-one single in a poll for ITV. It was ranked number eighteen on VH1's "100 Greatest Songs of the '80s" and was Britain's best-selling single of 1982.

June 25, 1980: The Sony Walkman Went on Sale in the United States Price: $200 ($760 in 2024).

To say this was huge is a gigantic understatement. Now, you were able to take your favourite 80s songs with you anywhere, anytime. The freedom was amazing!

Walkman cassette players were very popular during the 1980s, which led to "walkman" becoming an unofficial term for personal stereos of any producer or brand – much like Kleenex or Scotch Tape. 220 million cassette-type Walkmen were sold by the end of production in 2010; including digital Walkman devices such as DAT, MiniDisc, CD (originally Discman then renamed the CD Walkman) and memory-type media players. In all, the platform sold approximately 400 million units.

Culturally the Walkman had a great effect and it was everywhere. According to Time, the Walkman's "unprecedented combination of portability (it ran on two AA batteries) and privacy (it featured a headphone jack but no external speaker) made it the ideal product for thousands of consumers looking for a compact portable stereo that they could take with them anywhere". According to The Verge, "the world changed" on the day the Walkman was released.

The Walkman became an icon in 1980s culture. In 1986, the word "Walkman" entered the Oxford English Dictionary. Millions used the Walkman during exercise, marking the beginning of the aerobics fad. Between 1987 and 1997, the height of the Walkman's popularity, the number of people who said they walked for exercise increased by 30%. Other firms, including Aiwa, Panasonic and Toshiba, produced similar products, and in 1983 cassettes outsold vinyl for the first time.

June 25, 1967: The world's first live global satellite TV program is aired

The BBC program “Our World” featured artists from 19 countries. The Beatles premiered their song “All You Need Is Love” on the show. Some 400 million viewers tuned in.

June 25, 1876: Battle of the Little Bighorn: The U.S. 7th Cavalry under General George Armstrong Custer was wiped out by Sioux and Cheyenne warriors led by Chiefs Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull in what has become famously known as "Custer's Last Stand".

As the Battle of the Little Bighorn unfolded, Custer and the 7th Cavalry fell victim to a series of surprises, not the least of which was the number of warriors that they encountered. Army intelligence had estimated Sitting Bull’s force at 800 fighting men; in fact, some 2,000 Sioux and Cheyenne warriors took part in the battle. Many of them were armed with superior repeating rifles, and all of them were quick to defend their families.

Cut off by the Indians from the rest of his force, all 210 of the soldiers who had followed Custer toward the northern reaches of Sitting Bull’s village were killed in a desperate fight that may have lasted nearly two hours and culminated in the defense of high ground beyond the village that became known as “Custer’s Last Stand.”

Billboard Number Ones

1980 Funkytown - Lipps Inc.
1981 Stars on 45 Medley

1982 Ebony and Ivory - Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder
1983 Flashdance... What a Feeling - Irene Cara

1984 The Reflex - Duran Duran
1985 Heaven - Bryan Adams

1986 On My Own - Patti LaBelle & Michael McDonald

1987 Head to Toe - Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam
1988 Together Forever - Rick Astley

1989 Satisfied - Richard Marx

Top Grossing Movies

1980 The Empire Strikes Back

1981 Superman II

1982 E.T.: The Extraterrestrial

1983 Return of the Jedi

1984 Ghostbusters

1985 Pale Rider

1986 Karate Kid Part II

1987 Dragnet

1988 Who Framed Roger Rabbit

1989 Batman

Today's Your Birthday!

1974 Jeff B. Cohen is an American attorney and retired child actor best remembered for appearing as Chunk in the 1985 Steven Spielberg production The Goonies. He is a founding partner of law firm Cohen & Gardner.

Before The Goonies started filming, Cohen contracted chickenpox. Afraid that they would re-cast the role, he told no one of his illness and showed up to work anyway. According to the commentary track on The Goonies DVD, the chickenpox on Cohen's chest can be seen during the "Truffle Shuffle" sequence.

1963 George Michael is one of my favourite artists of all time and he and Wham will be given their due grace on this website, but, for now, we will highlight his birthday and use it as another time to admire this musical legend.

He is among the best-selling musicians of all time, with his sales estimated at between 100 million and 125 million records worldwide. Michael was known as a creative force in songwriting, vocal performance, and visual presentation. He achieved 10 number-one songs on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and 13 number-one songs on the UK Singles Chart. (d. 2016)

1952 Tim Finn is a New Zealand singer, songwriter, musician, and composer. He is best known as a founding member of Split Enz. Finn founded the band in 1972 with Phil Judd and served as lead singer and principal songwriter. Following Judd's departure in 1977, he was joined by his brother Neil.

Finn wrote or co-wrote some of the band's best-known songs, including "I See Red" and "Six Months in a Leaky Boat". While still a member of Split Enz, he began a solo career, scoring the two hits "Fraction Too Much Friction" and "Made My Day" in 1983; he left the band in early 1984, briefly returning for their farewell tour later that year.

1956 Anthony Bourdain, American-French celebrity chef, author, and TV personality considered one of the most influential chefs in the world (No Reservations, Parts Unknown), born in New York City (d. 2018)

1947 Farrah Fawcett was an American actress, four-time Primetime Emmy Award nominee and six-time Golden Globe Award nominee. She rose to international fame when she played a starring role in the first season of the television series Charlie's Angels. See yesterday’s mini-feature on that 1980s hit TV series.

Farrah Fawcett’s 1976 red swimsuit poster sold over six million copies in its first year in print.

She was diagnosed with anal cancer in 2006 and died three years later at age 62. The 2009 NBC documentary Farrah's Story chronicled her battle with the disease. She posthumously earned her fourth Emmy nomination for her work as a producer on Farrah's Story.

1947 Jimmie Walker is an American actor and comedian. He portrayed James Evans Jr. ("J.J."), the older son of Florida and James Evans Sr., on the CBS television series Good Times, which ran from 1974 to 1979. Walker was nominated for a Golden Globe Award in 1975 and 1976 for his role. Many may remember his character’s catchphrase "Dyn-o-mite!"

Off- and on-camera, Walker did not get along with the series lead, Esther Rolle, because she and Amos disapproved of Walker's increasingly buffoonish character and his popularity, and Walker felt hurt by their disdain. Dissatisfaction led Amos (before Rolle), to leave the show, making Walker the star of the show. Walker was the only Good Times star to not attend Rolle's funeral.

Monday, June 24

Then & Now!

On this day in 1981, the final episode of Charlie's Angels aired.

The series followed the crime-fighting adventures of three women working at a private detective agency in Los Angeles, California, and originally starred Kate Jackson, Farrah Fawcett (billed as Farrah Fawcett-Majors), and Jaclyn Smith in the leading roles and John Forsythe provided the voice of their boss, the unseen Charlie Townsend, who directed the crime-fighting operations of the "Angels" over a speakerphone.

After the success of Police Woman, the first hour-long drama starring a woman, the idea was hatched to develop a TV series about three beautiful female private investigators as a breakthrough but also as an escapist television series.

Producers Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg first considered actress Kate Jackson during the early pre-production stages of the series. She had proven popular with viewers in another police television drama, The Rookies. Jackson was initially cast as Kelly Garrett but was more attracted to the role of Sabrina Duncan, and her request to switch roles was granted. Farrah Fawcett was next cast as Jill Munroe but, like Jackson, did not audition for a role. She was offered a part by Spelling after he had viewed her performance in the 1976 film Logan's Run. Jaclyn Smith was among the hundreds of actresses who auditioned for the role of Kelly Garrett. Despite liking Smith, Spelling and Goldberg were wary about hiring her because their initial concept concerned a brunette, blonde, and red-headed woman. Smith was the only brunette who auditioned for the role and was cast only after producers liked the on-screen chemistry she shared with Jackson and Fawcett.

An all-female cast for a crime drama was practically unheard of when ABC premiered Charlie’s Angels on September 22, 1976. Would audiences tolerate a lack of testosterone in a television world inhabited by Erik Estrada?

They would, and in substantial numbers. By November, the show was seen by over half of all viewers watching television during its time slot, making stars out of Farrah Fawcett, Kate Jackson, and Jaclyn Smith.

Despite mixed reviews from critics and a reputation for merely being "jiggle television" (specifically emphasizing the sex appeal of the female leads), Charlie's Angels enjoyed great popularity with audiences, as it was a top ten hit in the Nielsen ratings for its first two seasons. By the third season, however, the show had fallen from the top 10. In the fifth season, the show fell out of the Top 30.

Charlie’s Angels stuck to its promise of glossy content, with viewers virtually guaranteed the ladies would fight crime while sporting the latest in high fashion. To that end, producers spared no expense in the show’s wardrobe department, allotting $20,000 per episode ($110,000 in 2024). (Even the shoes, which were rarely onscreen, were high-end.) Costumes were changed a minimum of eight times per hour. Fawcett-Majors broke some kind of record when, during one of her guest appearances, she sported 12 different outfits.

Charlie's Angels continues to have a 1970s American cult and pop culture following through syndication, DVD releases and subsequent television shows. The show also spawned a media franchise with a film series started in 2000, which is a continuation of the series story with later generations of Angels. A reboot television series was broadcast in 2011 but was canceled after seven episodes.

Significant Events

June 24, 1987: Actor and comedian Jackie Gleason passed away at 71 From colon cancer.

Known as "The Great One", Gleason developed a style and characters from growing up in Brooklyn, New York, and was known for his brash visual and verbal comedy, exemplified by his city bus driver character Ralph Kramden in the television series The Honeymooners. He also developed The Jackie Gleason Show, which maintained high ratings from the mid-1950s through 1970. The series originated in New York City, but filming moved to Miami Beach, Florida, in 1964 after Gleason took up permanent residence there.

Among his notable film roles were Minnesota Fats in 1961's The Hustler (co-starring with Paul Newman) and Buford T. Justice in the Smokey and the Bandit trilogy from 1977 to 1983 (co-starring Burt Reynolds).

Gleason enjoyed a prominent secondary music career during the 1950s and 1960s, producing a series of bestselling "mood music" albums. His first album Music for Lovers Only still holds the record for the longest stay on the Billboard Top Ten Charts (153 weeks), and his first ten albums sold over a million copies each. His output includes more than 20 singles, nearly 60 long-playing record albums, and more than 40 CDs.

June 24, 1983: Milwaukee Brewers pitcher, Don Sutton recorded his 3,000th career strikeout.

A total of 19 players accumulated more than 3,000 career strikeouts, with four players representing the Los Angeles Dodgers in Major League Baseball.

The Dodgers will always cherish the late Don Sutton (d. 2021) for his unrivaled service to the franchise for more than 15 years.

Sutton started his Major League career with the Dodgers in 1966. He made an instant impact, racking up 209 strikeouts in his debut season.

The pitcher from Alabama was a fan-favorite throughout his Dodgers career. Sutton accumulated a franchise-record 2,696 strikeouts for the Dodgers.

He called time on his MLB career after reuniting with the Dodgers in 1988 with 3,574 career strikeouts to his name.

Sutton won a total of 324 games, pitched 58 shutouts including five one-hitters and ten two-hitters, and led the National League in walks plus hits per inning pitched (WHIP) four times. He is seventh on baseball's all-time strikeout list.

June 24, 1981: For Your Eyes Only premiered in London.

The twelfth film in the James Bond franchise, it was based on two Ian Fleming short stories "For Your Eyes Only" and "Risico".

In the plot, Bond attempts to locate a missile command system while becoming tangled in a web of deception spun by rival Greek businessmen along with Melina Havelock, a woman seeking to avenge the murder of her parents. Some writing elements were inspired by the novels Live and Let Die, Goldfinger and On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

After the science fiction-focused Moonraker, the producers wanted a return to the style of the early Bond films and the works of 007 creator Fleming. For Your Eyes Only followed a grittier, more realistic approach and a narrative theme of revenge and its consequences rather than the fantasy narrative of Moonraker. Filming locations included Greece, Italy and the United Kingdom, while underwater footage was shot in the Bahamas. Sheena Easton performed the title theme song.

The promotional cinema poster for the film featured a woman holding a crossbow; she was photographed from behind, and her outfit left the bottom half of her buttocks exposed. The effect was achieved by having the model wear a pair of bikini bottoms backward so that the part seen on her backside is the front of the suit. The poster caused some furor—largely in the US—with The Boston Globe and the Los Angeles Times considering the poster so unsuitable they edited out everything above the knee, while The Pittsburgh Press editors painted a pair of shorts over the legs. There was significant speculation as to the identity of the model before photographer Morgan Kane identified her as Joyce Bartle.

The movie received a mixed to positive critical reception. The film's reputation has improved over time, with reviewers praising the more serious tone in comparison to previous entries in the series. It was a financial success, generating $195 million worldwide.

June 24, 1981: The final episode of Charlie's Angels aired.

The series followed the crime-fighting adventures of three women working at a private detective agency in Los Angeles, California, and originally starred Kate Jackson, Farrah Fawcett (billed as Farrah Fawcett-Majors), and Jaclyn Smith in the leading roles and John Forsythe provided the voice of their boss, the unseen Charlie Townsend, who directed the crime-fighting operations of the "Angels" over a speakerphone.

Despite mixed reviews from critics and a reputation for merely being "jiggle television" (specifically emphasizing the sex appeal of the female leads), Charlie's Angels enjoyed great popularity with audiences, as it was a top ten hit in the Nielsen ratings for its first two seasons. By the third season, however, the show had fallen from the top 10. In the fifth season, the show fell out of the Top 30.

June 24, 1916: Mary Pickford becomes the first female film star to get a million-dollar contract.

She was known in the 1910s and 1920s as "Queen of the Movies," and this helped shape the early American film industry. Pickford was a prominent actress, aside from her influence as co-founder of Pickford–Fairbanks Studios, United Artists, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

She began her acting career as a child in Toronto, Canada. She later moved to the United States with her family and transitioned from stage to film. Pickford quickly became a popular actress, earning the nickname "The Biograph Girl" for her work with the Biograph Company.

In 1919, Pickford co-founded United Artists with Charlie Chaplin, D. W. Griffith, and Douglas Fairbanks. This gave her more control over her career and the films she made. She starred in many successful silent films, including "Pollyanna" (1920) and "Little Lord Fauntleroy" (1921).

Pickford won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in "Coquette" (1929), her first talkie. Her career declined, however, with the rise of sound films. She retired from acting in 1933 but continued to produce films and work as a vice-president of United Artists.

Throughout her life, Pickford was involved in various business ventures and philanthropic efforts. She co-founded the Hollywood Studio Club and the Motion Picture Relief Fund to support those in the film industry. Pickford was married three times and adopted two children with her third husband, Charles "Buddy" Rogers.

In 1901 Pablo Picasso opened his first exhibition. The 18-year-old Spanish artist was featured for the first time in Ambroise Vollard's gallery at 6 Rue Laffite in Paris. Neither of the two art critics who visited the show thought much about the works.

Perhaps the most famous and influential artist of the 20th Century, Picasso moved to Paris to work from his native Spain. Picasso's long artistic career included many styles, including his early Blue and Rose Periods before developing Cubism with Georges Braque from 1909.

His most famous painting Guernica (1937) depicts an event from the Spanish Civil war and comes from his later Classical Period. Picasso worked with many mediums, including collage, sculpture (The Chicago Picasso), ceramics and prints.

June 24, 1812: Napoleon Bonaparte's Grand Armée numbering close to a half a million began its invasion of Russia by crossing the Nieman River.

Widely studied, Napoleon's incursion into Russia stands as a focal point in military history and is recognized as among the most devastating military endeavors globally. In a span of fewer than six months, the campaign exacted a staggering toll, claiming the lives of nearly a million soldiers and civilians.

Napoleon's Russian invasion initial force exceeded 450,000 men, accompanied by over 150,000 horses, approximately 25,000 wagons and nearly 1,400 artillery pieces. However, the surviving count dwindled to a mere 120,000 men (excluding early deserters); signifying a staggering loss of approximately 380,000 lives throughout the campaign, half of the men dying from disease. This catastrophic outcome shattered Napoleon's once-untarnished reputation of invincibility.

Billboard Number Ones

1980 Funkytown - Lipps Inc.
1981 Stars on 45 Medley

1982 Ebony and Ivory - Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder
1983 Flashdance... What a Feeling - Irene Cara

1984 The Reflex - Duran Duran
1985 Heaven - Bryan Adams

1986 On My Own - Patti LaBelle & Michael McDonald

1987 Head to Toe - Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam
1988 Together Forever - Rick Astley

1989 Satisfied - Richard Marx

Top Grossing Movies

1980 The Empire Strikes Back

1981 Superman II

1982 E.T.: The Extraterrestrial

1983 Return of the Jedi

1984 Ghostbusters

1985 Pale Rider

1986 Karate Kid Part II

1987 Dragnet

1988 Who Framed Roger Rabbit

1989 Batman

Today's Your Birthday!

1987 Lionel Messi is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a forward for and captains both Major League Soccer Club Inter Miami and the Argentina national team.

Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, Messi has won a record eight Ballon d'Or awards, a record six European Golden Shoes, and was named the world's best player for a record eight times by FIFA.

A prolific goal scorer and creative playmaker, Messi holds the records for most goals (474), hat-tricks (36), and assists in La Liga (192). He has the most international goals by a South American male (108). Messi has scored over 800 senior career goals for club and country, and the most goals for a single club (672).

1961 Curt Smith is a British-American singer, songwriter, musician and record producer, who is best known as the co-lead vocalist, bassist and co-founding member of the pop rock band Tears for Fears along with childhood friend Roland Orzabal. Smith has co-written several of the band's songs and sings lead vocals on the hits "Mad World", "Pale Shelter", "Change", "The Way You Are", "Everybody Wants to Rule the World", and "Advice for the Young at Heart".

After his departure from Tears for Fears in 1991, Smith pursued a solo career and released his debut studio album, Soul on Board, in 1993. In total, he has released five studio albums and one EP and has also dabbled in acting. He rejoined Tears for Fears in 2000.

1947 Peter Weller has appeared in more than 70 films and television series, including RoboCop (1987) and its sequel RoboCop 2 (1990), in which he played the titular character; The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984); and Star Trek Into Darkness (2013). He appeared in such films as Woody Allen's Mighty Aphrodite (1995), the Oliver Stone-produced The New Age (1994), and David Cronenberg's adaptation of William Burroughs's novel Naked Lunch (1991).

1959 Andy McCluskey is an English singer, songwriter, musician and record producer. He is best known as the lead singer and bass guitarist of the electronic band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), which he founded alongside keyboard player Paul Humphreys in 1978: McCluskey has been the group's sole constant member. He has sold over 40 million records with OMD and is regarded as a pioneer of electronic music in the UK. McCluskey is noted for his frenetic onstage "Trainee Teacher Dance".

1942 Mick Fleetwood is a British musician, songwriter and actor. He is the drummer, co-founder, and leader of the rock band Fleetwood Mac. Fleetwood, whose surname was merged with that of the group's bassist John "Mac" McVie (the only two members to appear on every studio album during the band's run) to form the name of the band, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Fleetwood Mac in 1998.

After several album releases and line-up changes, the group moved to the United States in 1974. Fleetwood then invited Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks to join. Buckingham and Nicks contributed to much of Fleetwood Mac's later commercial success, including the celebrated album Rumours, while Fleetwood's own determination to keep the band together was essential to the band's longevity.

On June 23, 1989, Batman premiered in theatres.

Directed by Tim Burton, it is the first installment of Warner Bros.'s initial Batman film series. The film was produced by Jon Peters and Peter Guber and stars Jack Nicholson, Michael Keaton, Kim Basinger, Robert Wuhl, Pat Hingle, Billy Dee Williams, Michael Gough, and Jack Palance.

Sunday, June 23

Then & Now!

June 23, 1989: Batman premiered in theatres.

Batman was both critically and financially successful, earning over $400 million in box office totals. Critics and audiences particularly praised Nicholson and Keaton's performances, Burton's direction, the production design, and Elfman's score. It was the sixth highest-grossing film in history at the time of its release. The film received several Saturn Award nominations and a Golden Globe nomination for Nicholson's performance and won the Academy Award for Best Art Direction.

June 23, 1982: Himmy, of Australia, becomes the heaviest cat ever, tipping the scales at an astounding 20.7 kg or 45 pounds!

Himmy – who had to be transported in a wheelbarrow – was thankfully unchallenged until 1998, when editors and record managers decided to discontinue the category to deter people from over-feeding their pets just to appear in The Guiness Book of World Records.

Himmy died in 1986 at the age of 10.

June 23, 1980: The morning talk show, The David Letterman Show, premiered on NBC.

It was originally 90 minutes long but was shortened to 60 minutes in August 1980. The show was a critical success, winning two Emmy Awards, but was a ratings disappointment and was canceled, the last show airing October 24, 1980.

NBC kept Letterman on its payroll to try him in a different time slot. Late Night with David Letterman debuted February 1, 1982. NBC had made a good call. Letterman would go on to host his late-night talk show for the next 33 years, ending his run on May 20, 2015.

In total, Letterman hosted 6,080 episodes of Late Night and Late Show, surpassing his friend and mentor Johnny Carson as the longest-serving late-night talk show host in American television history.

June 23, 1961: Chicago Cubs legend Ernie Banks ended his 717 consecutive-games-played streak.

Ernie Banks spent his entire 19-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career with the Cubs. He was a 14-time All-Star and won two Most Valuable Player (MVP) awards, known for his signature phrase, "Let's play two!"

Nicknamed "Mr. Cub," Banks made his MLB debut in 1953 and quickly became one of the league's top sluggers. He hit over 40 home runs in five different seasons and became the first National League player to win back-to-back MVP awards in 1958 and 1959.

Banks retired in 1971, and his contributions were widely recognized. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1977, and his number 14 was retired by the Cubs. (d. 2015)

June 23, 1960: Enovid became the first officially approved birth control pill in the world​.

Previously, the Food and Drug Administration had approved hormone pills to treat menstrual disorders, such as irregular periods or PMS. But in May of 1960, the FDA had cleared Enovid, the trade name of an oral contraceptive by G.D. Searle and Company, and by June 23, “the Pill” — as oral contraceptives would soon be commonly known — was on the market.

And it was exactly what women had been waiting for. Because of the country’s squeamishness over birth control — anti-obscenity laws had prohibited even doctors from discussing contraceptives in the early 20th century — women had long been resorting to other, often unreliable and sometimes dangerous, methods to prevent pregnancy. Access to a dependable, safe form of birth control offered women a freedom that was previously unknown.

June 23, 1940: Hitler in Paris. After conquering France, Adolf Hitler visits Paris and viewed the Eiffel Tower and the grave of Napoleon Bonaparte.

He was not able to go up the Eiffel Tower, however, because the French had severed the lift cables just before the German invasion.

“That was the greatest and finest moment of my life,” he said after viewing Napolean’s tomb. Comparisons between the Führer and Napoleon have been made many times: They were both foreigners to the countries they ruled (Napoleon was Italian, Hitler was Austrian); both planned invasions of Russia while preparing invasions of England; both captured the Russian city of Vilna on June 24; both had photographic memories; both were under 5 feet 9 inches tall, among other coincidences.

Hitler would gush about Paris for months afterward. He was so impressed, he ordered architect and friend Albert Speer to revive plans for a massive construction program of new public buildings in Berlin, an attempt to destroy Paris, not with bombs, but with superior architecture. “Wasn’t Paris beautiful?” Hitler asked Speer. “But Berlin must be far more beautiful. [W]hen we are finished in Berlin, Paris will only be a shadow.”

Saturday, June 22

Then & Now!

On this day in 1986, the “Goal of the Century” was made by Argentina's Diego Maradona to beat England in the World Cup Quarter Finals.

There was already a huge rivalry between England and Argentina dating back to the 1966 World Cup and continued through to 1986 as the match occurred just after the Falklands War between the two nations. Though they were never officially at war, the conflict resulted in 285 British and 659 Argentine deaths. As a result, the match taking place four years after the war was emotionally charged.

Although neither team began the tournaments as favourites, England's form had been improving throughout the World Cup and Argentina was buoyed by the skill of their captain, Diego Maradona.

In the second half, Maradona scored the ‘Hand of God’ goal, a tally that actually went off his hand as both he and the English goalie Peter Shilton (who was eight inches taller than Maradona) jumped high for the ball, it went in and the referee allowed it. He later said he did not see the infringement.

Four minutes after the ‘Hand of God’ goal came a second goal as the ball was passed to Maradona inside his own half. Maradona then began his 60-yard, 10-second dash towards the English goal, passing four English outfield players: Peter Beardsley, Peter Reid, Terry Butcher (twice) and Terry Fenwick. Maradona finished the move with a feint that left goalkeeper Peter Shilton on his bottom, before slotting the ball into the empty net to make the score 2–0 for Argentina.

About the goal, Maradona said to reporters, "I made the play to give it to Valdano, but when I got to the area, they surrounded me and I had no space. Therefore, I had to continue the play and finish it myself." He later complimented the fair play of the English team, saying, "I don't think I could have done it against any other team because they all used to knock you down; they are probably the noblest in the world".

In 2002, the goal was voted 'Goal of the Century' as part of the buildup to the 2002 FIFA World Cup tournament on the FIFA website. It beat a goal scored by England's Michael Owen against Argentina in the 1998 FIFA World Cup.

Significant Events

June 22, 1990: Checkpoint Charlie is dismantled. The crossing point on the sector border between East Berlin and West Berlin had become obsolete with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Today, the former checkpoint, including the famous sign stating, “You are leaving the American sector”, is a tourist attraction.

East German leader Walter Ulbricht agitated and maneuvered to get the Soviet Union's permission to construct the Berlin Wall in 1961 to stop emigration and defection westward through the Border system, preventing escape across the city sector border from East Berlin into West Berlin. Checkpoint Charlie became a symbol of the Cold War, representing the separation of East and West. Soviet and American tanks briefly faced each other at the location during the Berlin Crisis of 1961.

After the dissolution of the Eastern Bloc and the reunification of Germany, the American guard house at Checkpoint Charlie became a tourist attraction. It is now located in the Allied Museum in the Dahlem neighborhood of Berlin.

June 22, 1988: Who Framed Roger Rabbit premiered in theatres.

The film combined live-action and animation, the film is set in an alternate history Hollywood in 1947, where humans and cartoon characters (referred to as "toons") co-exist. Its plot follows Eddie Valiant, a private investigator with a grudge against toons, who must help exonerate Roger Rabbit, a toon framed for murder.

The film received critical acclaim for its visuals, humor, writing, performances, and groundbreaking combination of live-action and animation. It grossed over $351 million worldwide, becoming the second highest-grossing film of 1988, right behind Rain Man. It brought a renewed interest in the golden age of American animation, spearheading modern American animation and the Disney Renaissance.

June 22, 1986: The “Goal of the Century” was made by Argentina to beat England in the World Cup Quarter Finals.

The ball was passed to Maradona inside his own half who then began his 60-yard, 10-second dash towards the English goal, passing four English outfield players, then finished the move with a feint that left goalkeeper Peter Shilton on his bottom, before slotting the ball into the empty net to make the score 2–0 to Argentina.

In 2002, the goal was voted 'Goal of the Century' as part of the buildup to the 2002 FIFA World Cup tournament on the FIFA website. It beat a goal scored by England's Michael Owen against Argentina in the 1998 FIFA World Cup.

June 22, 1984 - The Karate Kid Premiered in Theaters.

The film is the first installment in the Karate Kid franchise, and stars Ralph Macchio, Pat Morita, Elisabeth Shue, and William Zabka. The Karate Kid follows the story of Daniel LaRusso (Macchio), an Italian American teenager from New Jersey who moves with his widowed mother to the Reseda neighborhood of Los Angeles. There, LaRusso encounters harassment from his new bullies, one of whom is Johnny Lawrence (Zabka), the ex-boyfriend of LaRusso's love interest, Ali Mills (Shue). LaRusso is taught karate by a handyman and war veteran named Mr. Miyagi (Morita) to help LaRusso defend himself and compete in a karate tournament against his bullies.

After its release, the movie received mostly positive reviews from critics, many of whom praised the action sequences, writing, themes, performances, and music. The film was also a commercial success, grossing over $130 million worldwide, making it one of the highest-grossing films of 1984 and Hollywood's biggest sleeper hit of the year.

June 22, 1981 - Tennis Star John McEnroe yelled the famous line "You Cannot Be Serious" at the referee while disputing a line call at Wimbledon. His blow-up has become the most immortal phrase in tennis, if not all sport.

McEnroe already had a reputation and had been labeled "Superbrat" by the British tabloid media for his verbal volleys during his previous Wimbledon appearances.

His moment came in a first-round match against fellow American Tom Gullikson, who was serving at 15-30 and 1-1 in the first set when a McEnroe shot was called out.

Approaching the umpire, he said: "Chalk came up all over the place, you can't be serious man."

Then, his anger rising, he bawled the words that would stay with him for a lifetime and, for all his wonderful play and myriad achievements, earn him a special niche in the sporting annals.

"You cannot be serious," he screamed. "That ball was on the line.

"Chalk flew up, it was clearly in, how can you possibly call that out?" he went on.

"Everybody knows it's in in the whole stadium and you call it out? You guys are the absolute pits of the world, you know that?"

On the receiving end of the tirade was umpire Edward James, who eventually responded by politely announcing: "I'm going to award a point against you, Mr. McEnroe."

June 22, 1940: The first Dairy Queen restaurant opened in Joliet, Illinois, owned and operated by Sherb Noble.

It served a variety of hot and fried food, as well as original frozen dairy products, including soft-serve ice cream.

The soft-serve formula was first developed in 1938 by John Fremont "J.F." McCullough and his son Alex. They convinced friend and loyal customer Sherb Noble to offer the product in his ice cream store in Kankakee, Illinois. On the first day of sales, Noble sold more than 1,600 servings of the new dessert within two hours. Noble and the McCulloughs went on to open the eponymous first Dairy Queen store in 1940 in Joliet.

Billboard Number Ones

1980 Funkytown - Lipps Inc.
1981 Stars on 45 Medley

1982 Ebony and Ivory - Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder
1983 Flashdance... What a Feeling - Irene Cara

1984 Time After Time - Cyndi Lauper
1985 Heaven - Bryan Adams

1986 On My Own - Patti LaBelle & Michael McDonald

1987 Head to Toe - Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam
1988 Together Forever - Rick Astley

1989 I'll Be Loving You (Forever) - New Kids on the Block

Top Grossing Movies

1980 The Empire Strikes Back

1981 Superman II

1982 E.T.: The Extraterrestrial

1983 Return of the Jedi

1984 Ghostbusters

1985 Cocoon

1986 Karate Kid Part II

1987 Dragnet

1988 Who Framed Roger Rabbit

1989 Batman

Today's Your Birthday!

1962 Clyde Drexler is an American former professional basketball player. Nicknamed "Clyde the Glide", he played 15 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA), spending a majority of his career with the Portland Trail Blazers before finishing with the Houston Rockets.

He was a ten-time NBA All-Star and named to the NBA's 50th and 75th-anniversary teams. Drexler won an NBA championship with Houston in 1995 and earned a gold medal on the 1992 United States Olympic team known as "The Dream Team".

He was inducted twice into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, in 2004 for his individual career and in 2010 as a member of the "Dream Team". Drexler is widely considered one of the greatest basketball players and greatest shooting guards of all time.

1960 Tracy Pollan s an American actress and author. She is known for playing Ellen Reed on the NBC sitcom Family Ties (1985–1987) and Harper Anderson on the crime drama series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2000), for which she received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination.

Pollan married actor and activist Michael J. Fox in 1988 and has since occasionally acted.

1953 Cyndi Lauper is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and activist. Her album She's So Unusual (1983) was the first debut album by a female artist to achieve four top-five hits on the Billboard Hot 100: Girls Just Want to Have Fun", "Time After Time", "She Bop", and "All Through the Night" The record earned Lauper the Best New Artist award at the 27th Annual Grammy Awards in 1985.

Lauper has sold over 50 million records worldwide. She has won awards at the Grammys, Emmys, Tonys, New York's Outer Critics Circle, MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs), Billboard Awards, and American Music Awards (AMAs). An inductee into both the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Lauper is one of the few singers to win three of the four major American entertainment awards.

1949 Meryl Streep is an American actress known for her versatility and accent adaptability; she has been described as "the best actress of her generation".

She has received numerous accolades throughout her career spanning over four decades, including a record 21 Academy Award nominations, winning three, and a record 33 Golden Globe Award nominations, winning eight.

1949 Lindsay Wagner is an American film and television actress, model, author, singer, and acting coach. Wagner is best known for her leading role in the American science fiction television series The Bionic Woman (1976–1978), in which she portrayed the character Jaime Sommers.

She first played the role in the series The Six Million Dollar Man. The character became a pop culture icon of the 1970s. For this role, Wagner won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Dramatic Role in 1977 – the first for an actor or actress in a science fiction series.

1936 - Kris Kristofferson is an American singer-songwriter and actor best known for his influential country music career and performances in films such as Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973) and A Star Is Born (1976). Kristofferson's work has earned him significant recognition, including a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award in 2014.

His early life involved frequent moves due to his father's military service, culminating in his education where he excelled academically. After high school, he attended Pomona College, graduating with a BA in literature, before earning a Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford. Subsequently, Kristofferson served in the U.S. Army, achieving the rank of captain.

After leaving the military, Kristofferson moved to Nashville in 1965 and started his music career, experiencing initial hardships. He penned hits for other artists and achieved personal success as well, joining The Highwaymen supergroup in 1985. His acting career also began to take off in the 1970.

Friday, June 21

Then & Now!

Meredith Baxter-Birney and Michael Gross are both celebrating birthdays today. Both are American actors and both starred in the hit 1980s sitcom ‘Family Ties’. The show aired for seven seasons from 1982 until 1989.

The series reflected the social shift in the United States from the cultural liberalism of the 1960s and 1970s to the conservatism of the 1980s. Because of this, Young Republican Alex P. Keaton (portrayed by Michael J. Fox) develops generational strife with his ex-hippie parents, Steven and Elyse Keaton (portrayed by Gross and Baxter-Birney).

Family Ties had been sold to the network using the pitch "hip parents, square kids." Originally, Elyse and Steven were intended to be the main characters. However, the audience reacted so positively to Alex during the taping of the fourth episode that he became the focus on the show. Fox had received the role after Matthew Broderick turned it down.

If you talk Family Ties, you have to talk about one song: ‘At This Moment’ by Bily Vera and the Beaters. Five years after its original release, a studio recording of "At This Moment" was featured at the beginning of several episodes of the fourth and early fifth seasons as the love song associated with Alex P. Keaton (Michael J. Fox) and his girlfriend Ellen Reed (Tracy Pollan, who ended up becoming his real-life wife)).

Its exposure on Family Ties renewed a huge interest in the song. People called and wrote NBC asking for the name of the song and its singer. The tune then began a revived chart run, eventually hitting number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Adult Contemporary charts in January 1987. It also hit the Billboard R&B Chart and the Billboard Hot Country Chart.

"At This Moment" quickly sold over a million copies in the United States, becoming one of the last Gold-certified singles in the 45 RPM format. The song crossed over to the R&B and Country formats, reaching #42 Country; as country was moving away from pop influence at the time, "At This Moment" would be the last song to appear on the country charts and reach number one on the pop charts for 13 years.

Back to the show, which ended up winning multiple awards, including three consecutive Emmy Awards for Michael J. Fox as Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series.

Family Ties is considered, along with The Cosby Show and Roseanne, to be among the greatest family sitcoms of all time. The Writers Guild of America named it #95 on their list of 101 Best-Written TV Series, surpassing Lonesome Dove, Soap, Louie, The Fugitive, Late Night With David Letterman, and Oz. President Ronald Reagan named it his favourite TV show and Entertainment Weekly ranked it among their 100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.

Significant Events

June 21, 1988: The Los Angeles Lakers won the NBA Championship, beating the Detroit Pistons four games to three.

One of Los Angeles Lakers head coach Pat Riley's most famous moments came when he promised the crowd a repeat championship during the Lakers' 1987 championship parade in downtown Los Angeles. With every team in the league now gunning for them, the Los Angeles Lakers still found a way to win, taking their seventh consecutive Pacific Division title. While the 1988 Lakers did not produce as many wins in the regular season as the 1987 Lakers, they were just as successful in the playoffs, becoming the first team in 19 years to repeat as champions.

This was the first NBA Finals since 1983 not to feature the Boston Celtics.

June 21, 1988: Paula Abdul released her debut album, Forever Your Girl, a record that became one of the successful debuts of all time.

She began her career as a cheerleader for the Los Angeles Lakers at the age of 18 and later became the head choreographer for the Laker Girls, where she was discovered by the Jacksons. After choreographing music videos for Janet Jackson, Abdul became a choreographer at the height of the music video era and soon thereafter she was signed to Virgin Records.

Her debut in 1988 - Forever Your Girl - sold seven million copies in the United States and set a record for the most number-one singles from a debut album on the Billboard Hot 100 chart: "Straight Up", "Forever Your Girl", "Cold Hearted" and "Opposites Attract".

Her second album Spellbound (1991) scored her two more chart-toppers – "Rush Rush" and "The Promise of a New Day". With six number-one singles on the Hot 100, Abdul tied Diana Ross for the third-most chart-toppers among female solo artists at the time.

June 21, 1983: Tennis great Arthur Ashe underwent a double bypass surgery that led to a blood transfusion where he contracted HIV.

Ashe started playing tennis professionally in 1969. He won three singles Grand Slam titles: the U.S. Open in 1968, the Australian Open in 1970 and Wimbledon in 1975. He won two Grand Slam doubles titles: the French Open in 1971 and the Australian Open in 1977.

He was the first African American to win the men's singles titles at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, and the first African American man to be ranked number one in the world.

Ashe, who retired from competition in 1980, was plagued with health issues over the last 14 years of his life. After undergoing a quadruple bypass operation in 1979, he had a second bypass operation in 1983. In 1988 he underwent emergency brain surgery after experiencing paralysis of his right arm. A biopsy taken during a hospital stay revealed that Ashe had AIDS. Doctors soon discovered that Ashe had contracted HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, from a transfusion of blood that he was given during his second heart operation.

Always an activist, when Ashe learned that he had contracted AIDS via a blood transfusion, he turned his efforts to raising awareness about the disease, before finally succumbing to it on February 6, 1993.

June 21, 1982: John Hinckley was found not guilty for the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan.

On March 30, 1981, President Reagan, who was then only two months into his term, was shot in the lung by John Hinckley, Jr. as he left a speaking engagement in Washington D.C. Several people were injured, most gravely press secretary Jim Brady, who was wheelchair-bound for the rest of his life.

The attack represents the last assassination attempt in which a U.S. President was injured. Reagan was rushed to hospital, where he underwent emergency surgery, joking to the doctors that he hoped they were all Republicans.

Hinckley tried to kill Reagan to impress actress Jodie Foster, who he had an obsession with after seeing her in Taxi Driver. Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity but was committed to psychiatric care until his release in September 2016.

June 21, 1948: Columbia Records unveils the 33-1/3 rpm LP phonograph record invented by Peter Carl Goldmark, allowing up to 20 minutes per side (available in 10- and 12-inch diameters), at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, NYC. Over the next decade, its popularity and profitability push the 78 rpm out of production.

Goldmark later developed a phonograph player for automobiles that was an option in Chrysler vehicles during the 1950s. Goldmark also worked on early versions of home video recording systems, but CBS worried that it would create competition against their broadcasts.

June 21, 1879: Frank Winfield Woolworth opened his first successful "Woolworth's Great Five Cent Store" on North Queen Street, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Woolworth went from playing make-believe stores with his brother in childhood to owning 1,000 stores at the time of his death.

He was a pioneer in retail, initiating the practice of buying merchandise from manufacturers and having set prices rather than haggling. Woolworth was also the first to use self-service display cases rather than having customers rely entirely on salesclerks.

Billboard Number Ones

1980 Funkytown - Lipps Inc.
1981 Stars on 45 Medley

1982 Ebony and Ivory - Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder
1983 Flashdance... What a Feeling - Irene Cara

1984 Time After Time - Cyndi Lauper
1985 Everybody Wants to Rule the World - Tears for Fears

1986 On My Own - Patti LaBelle & Michael McDonald

1987 Head to Toe - Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam
1988 Together Forever - Rick Astley

1989 I'll Be Loving You (Forever) - New Kids on the Block

Top Grossing Movies

1980 The Empire Strikes Back

1981 Superman II

1982 E.T.: The Extraterrestrial

1983 Return of the Jedi

1984 Ghostbusters

1985 Cocoon

1986 Karate Kid Part II

1987 The Witches of Eastwick

1988 Who Framed Roger Rabbit

1989 Batman

Today's Your Birthday!

1982 William, Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge is the heir apparent to the British throne and eldest son of King Charles III and Diana, Princess of Wales.

He was educated at Wetherby School, Ludgrove School and Eton College where he earned a Master of Arts degree in geography at the University of St Andrews. That is also where he met his future wife, Catherine Middleton. They have three children: George, Charlotte and Louis.

1957 Guy Berkeley "Berke" Breathed is an American cartoonist, children's book author, director, and screenwriter, known for his comic strips Bloom County, Outland, and Opus. Bloom County earned Breathed the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in 1987.

The strip eventually appeared in over 1,200 newspapers around the world until Breathed retired the daily strip in 1989, stating that he wanted to terminate the strip while it was still popular. At that time, he said, "A good comic strip is no more eternal than a ripe melon. The ugly truth is that in most cases, comics age less gracefully than their creators".

1953 Benazir Bhutto was a Pakistani politician and stateswoman who served as the 11th and 13th prime minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 to 1996. She was the first woman elected to head a democratic government in a Muslim-majority country. Ideologically a liberal and a secularist, she chaired or co-chaired the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) from the early 1980s until her assassination in 2007.

Posthumously, she came to be regarded as an icon for women's rights due to her political success in a male-dominated society.

1947 Meredith Baxter-Birney and Michael Gross are both celebrating birthdays today. Both are American actors and both starred in the hit 1980s sitcom ‘Family Ties’. The show aired for seven seasons from 1982 until 1989.

Family Ties is considered, along with The Cosby Show and Roseanne, to be among the greatest family sitcoms of all time. The Writers Guild of America named it #95 on their list of 101 Best-Written TV Series, surpassing Lonesome Dove, Soap, Louie, The Fugitive, Late Night With David Letterman, and Oz. President Ronald Reagan named it his favourite TV show, and Entertainment Weekly ranked it among their 100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.

1944 Ray Davies was the primary singer and songwriter for the British rock-pop band The Kinks (1964-96). He crafted such songs as "You Really Got Me"; "Waterloo Sunset"; "Lola"; "Celluloid Heroes"; "Come Dancing" and "Better Things".

Davies was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (as a member of The Kinks) in 1990. In 2014, he entered the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He was granted a British Knighthood in 2017 for his service to the arts.

Thursday, June 20

Then & Now!

On this day in 1975, the movie Jaws premiered in theatres and went on to become the highest-grossing film of all time until Star Wars broke that record in 1977. Directed by Stephen Spielberg, the film is based on the 1974 novel written by Peter Benchley, it stars Roy Scheider as police chief Martin Brody, who, with the help of a marine biologist (Richard Dreyfuss) and a professional shark hunter (Robert Shaw), hunts a man-eating great white shark that attacks beachgoers at a summer resort town.

Jaws was the first major motion picture to be shot on the ocean and consequently had a troubled production, going over budget and schedule. As the art department's mechanical sharks often malfunctioned, Spielberg decided to mostly suggest the shark's presence, employing an ominous and minimalist theme created by composer John Williams to indicate its impending appearance. Spielberg and others have compared this suggestive approach to that of director Alfred Hitchco*ck.

On June 20, 1975, Jaws opened across North America on 464 screens, 409 in the United States and the remainder in Canada. The coupling of this broad distribution pattern with the movie's then-even rarer national television marketing campaign yielded a release method virtually unheard of at the time.

Jaws bit into a record $7 million opening weekend and grossed a record $21,116,354 in its first 10 days, recouping its production costs. It grossed $100 million in its first 59 days from 954 playdates. In just 78 days, it overtook The Godfather as the highest-grossing film at the North American box office, sailing past that picture's earnings of $86 million, and became the first film to earn $100 million in US theatrical rentals. It spent 14 consecutive weeks as the number-one film in the United States.

Regarded as a watershed moment in motion picture history, Jaws was the prototypical summer blockbuster and won several awards for its music and editing. It was the highest-grossing film of all time until the release of Star Wars two years later; both films were pivotal in establishing the modern Hollywood business model, which pursues high box-office returns from action and adventure films with simple high-concept premises, released during the summer in thousands of theatres and advertised heavily. Jaws was followed by three sequels (none of which involved Spielberg or Benchley) and many imitative thrillers.

John Williams composed the film's score, which earned him an Academy Award and was later ranked the sixth-greatest score by the American Film Institute. The main "shark" theme, a simple alternating pattern of two notes, became a classic piece of suspense music, synonymous with approaching danger.

In the years since its release, Jaws has frequently been cited by film critics and industry professionals as one of the greatest movies of all time.

Significant Events

June 20, 1980: Roberto Durán beat Sugar Ray Leonard by a unanimous decision for the WBC Welterweight Title.

The welterweight fight was billed as The Brawl in Montreal and was held inside the massive Olympic Stadium. It was the biggest boxing match ever held in the city and featured WBC and The Ring champion Sugar Ray Leonard and former undisputed lightweight champion Roberto Durán.

In a hard-fought, back-and-forth contest that went the full 15 rounds, Durán was the aggressor often throughout the fight, and he was able to earn a close unanimous decision victory. Durán would both land and throw more punches for a 35% success rate, while Leonard, who abandoned his usual slick boxing style and went toe-to-toe with Durán, landed 273 of 753 for a 36% rate.

Five months later, in New Orleans, Leonard regained his title in a rematch with Duran that ended with Duran infamously saying: “No mas.”

June 20, 1975: Jaws premiered in theatres and went on to become the highest-grossing movie of all time until Star Wars broke that record in 1977. It was directed by Stephen Spielberg and was based on the 1974 novel written by Peter Benchley.

June 20, 1966: Sheila Scott Flies Round the World. British pilot Sheila Scott completed the first round-the-world solo flight by a woman, returning to London's Heathrow airport in her Piper Comanche after a 34-day journey.

During one of her airplane races later in life, her London flat was burgled, and she never recovered financially. Before her death, Scott lived in a bedsit in Pimlico in poverty. She was diagnosed with cancer and died at age 66.

June 20, 1942: Kazimierz Piechowski and three others escape from Auschwitz concentration camp. In a feat of “exceptional courage and gallantry”, as stated by the Polish author Kazimierz Smoleń, the four prisoners left via the front gate in a stolen SS staff car, dressed as SS officers. During World War II, the Nazi regime murdered 1.1 million people in Auschwitz. Only 144 are known to have escaped.

Kazimierz’s parents were arrested by the Nazis in reprisal for his escape and murdered in Auschwitz. The policy of tattooing prisoners was also allegedly introduced in response to his escape

June 20, 1893: Lizzie Borden was acquitted of the 1892 axe murders of her father and stepmother in Fall River, Massachusetts

She gained notoriety after being tried and acquitted for the axe murders of her father and stepmother in 1892.

Borden was born into a wealthy family in Fall River, Massachusetts in 1860. Despite her father Andrew's substantial wealth from real estate dealings, the family lived frugally in a modest home without indoor plumbing. Tensions arose between Lizzie, her older sister Emma, their father, and their stepmother Abby, who Andrew had married three years after the death of their mother Sarah.

On August 4, 1892, Andrew and Abby Borden were brutally murdered in their home, both struck multiple times with a hatchet. Lizzie discovered her father's body and alerted the maid. During the police investigation, Lizzie gave inconsistent statements, leading to her arrest after a contentious inquest.

Lizzie's trial began in June of 1893 in New Bedford and attracted widespread media attention. Despite circ*mstantial evidence, prosecutors struggled to definitively link Lizzie to the crimes. After a brief jury deliberation, she was acquitted later that month.

Following the trial, Lizzie and Emma moved into a new house in Fall River called "Maplecroft." However, Lizzie faced social ostracism in the community. In 1905, Emma moved out after a dispute, and the sisters never reconciled.

June 20, 1837: Victoria becomes Queen of the United Kingdom. During the 64 years of her regency, the United Kingdom became one of the world's most potent powers. The British Empire soon encompassed large parts of the planet.

She inherited the throne at the age of 18 and became a national icon. Her reign of 63 years and seven months was longer than that of any other British monarch before her until overtaken by her great-great-granddaughter Elizabeth II in 2015. Her time on the throne is known as the Victorian era.

It was a period of industrial, cultural, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire.

Queen Victoria died in 1901.

Billboard Number Ones

1980 Funkytown - Lipps Inc.
1981 Stars on 24 Medley

1982 Ebony and Ivory - Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder
1983 Flashdance... What a Feeling - Irene Cara

1984 Time After Time - Cyndi Lauper
1985 Everybody Wants to Rule the World - Tears for Fears

1986 On My Own - Patti LaBelle & Michael McDonald

1987 Head to Toe - Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam
1988 Together Forever - Rick Astley

1989 I'll Be Loving You (Forever) - New Kids on the Block

Top Grossing Movies

1980 The Empire Strikes Back

1981 Superman II

1982 E.T.: The Extraterrestrial

1983 Return of the Jedi

1984 Ghostbusters

1985 Cocoon

1986 Karate Kid Part II

1987 The Witches of Eastwick

1988 Who Framed Roger Rabbit

1989 Batman

Today's Your Birthday!

1960 John Taylor is a British musician who is best known as the bass guitarist for new wave band Duran Duran, of which he was a founding member. Taylor played with Duran Duran from its founding in 1978 until 1997, when he left to pursue a solo recording and film career. He recorded a dozen solo releases (albums, EPs, and video projects) through his private record label B5 Records over the next four years, had a lead role in the movie Sugar Town, and made appearances in a half dozen other film projects.

He rejoined Duran Duran for a reunion of the original five members in 2001 and has remained with the group since.

1954 Michael Anthony is an American musician who was the bassist and backing vocalist for the hard rock band Van Halen from 1974 to 2006. He performed on Van Halen's first 11 albums and was their longest-tenured bassist.

Following his 2006 departure, Anthony has collaborated with fellow former Van Halen bandmate Sammy Hagar for the supergroups Chickenfoot and Sammy Hagar and the Circle. Anthony was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Van Halen in 2007.

1952 John Goodman is an American actor who rose to prominence in television before becoming an acclaimed and popular film actor.

On television, Goodman gained recognition playing the family patriarch Dan Conner in the ABC comedy series Roseanne (1988–1997; 2018), and The Conners (2018–present).

1949 - Lionel Richie is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and television personality. He rose to fame in the 1970s as a songwriter and the co-lead singer of the Motown group Commodores, writing and recording the hit singles "Easy", "Sail On", "Three Times a Lady" and "Still" with the group before his departure.

In 1982, he officially launched his solo career with the album Lionel Richie, which sold over four million copies and spawned the singles "You Are", "My Love", and the number one single "Truly".

Richie's second album, Can't Slow Down (1983), reached number one on the US Billboard 200 chart and sold over 20 million copies worldwide, becoming one of the best-selling albums of all time; and spawned the number one singles "All Night Long (All Night)" and "Hello".

1945 - Anne Murray is a Canadian singer of pop, country, and adult contemporary music, who has sold over 55 million album copies worldwide during her over 40-year career. Murray has won four Grammys including the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 1979.

She was the first Canadian female solo singer to reach number one on the U.S. charts and also the first to earn a Gold record for one of her signature songs, "Snowbird" (1970).

1942 Brian Wilson is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer who co-founded the Beach Boys. Often called a genius for his novel approaches to pop composition, extraordinary musical aptitude, and mastery of recording techniques, he is widely acknowledged as one of the most innovative and significant songwriters of the 20th century.

His best-known work is distinguished for its high production values, complex harmonies and orchestrations, layered vocals, and introspective or ingenuous themes. Wilson is also known for his formerly high-ranged singing and for his lifelong struggles with mental illness.

Wednesday, June 19

Then & Now!

One of the most popular comic strips of the 1980s and beyond was and is Garfield. It was on this day in 1978 that the lovable, lazy cat made his debut. The first Garfield comic strip by Jim Davis appeared in 41 newspapers on that day.

It was originally published locally as Jon in 1976, then in nationwide syndication from 1978 as Garfield. The comic strip chronicles the life of the title character Garfield the cat, his human owner Jon Arbuckle, and Odie the dog. As of 2013, it was syndicated in roughly 2,580 newspapers and journals and held the Guinness World Record for being the world's most widely syndicated comic strip.

The strip's title character is Garfield, an obese orange tabby cat. Garfield's personality is defined by his sarcasm, laziness, and gluttony, with the character showing a particular affinity for lasagna. His owner is Jon Arbuckle, a man with an affinity for stereotypically nerdy pastimes. Jon's other pet is Odie, a dim-witted yellow dog. Most strips center around interactions among the three characters' conflicting personalities.

Regular themes include Jon's frustration with Garfield's antics; Garfield's disdain for Odie; and Jon's interactions with his girlfriend and the pets' veterinarian, Dr. Liz Wilson. Many strips feature Jon, Garfield, and Odie visiting Jon's unnamed parents and brother Doc Boy on their family farm. Other side characters include various mice and spiders within the house, both frequent targets of abuse and scorn from Garfield; Garfield's teddy bear Pooky; Garfield's girlfriend Arlene, a pink cat; Nermal, a gray-striped kitten who enjoys tormenting Garfield over his perceived age; and various other pets who live in the neighborhood.

Originally created with the intentions to "come up with a good, marketable character", Garfield has spawned merchandise earning $750 million to $1 billion annually. In addition to the various merchandise and commercial tie-ins, the strip has spawned several animated television specials, two animated television series, two theatrical feature-length live-action/CGI animated films, and three fully CGI animated direct-to-video films.

The Garfield Movie was released in 2024.

Jim Davis continues to make comics, and a new Garfield animated series is in production for Paramount Global subsidiary Nickelodeon.

Significant Events

June 19, 1986: Len Bias was an American college basketball player for the Maryland Terrapins. In the last of his four years playing for Maryland, he was named a consensus first-team All-American.

Two days after being selected by the Boston Celtics with the second overall pick in the 1986 NBA draft, Bias died from cardiac arrhythmia induced by a cocaine overdose.

On June 17, 1986, Bias was selected by the Celtics in Madison Square Garden. Celtics' President and General Manager Red Auerbach had dealt guard Gerald Henderson and cash to the Seattle SuperSonics for the pick in 1984.

After the draft, Bias and his family returned to their suburban Maryland home. On June 18, Bias and his father flew to Boston for an NBA club draft acceptance and product endorsem*nt signing ceremony with the Celtics' coaches and management. Bias had discussions with Reebok's sports marketing division regarding a five-year endorsem*nt package worth $1.6 million.

After returning home, Bias returned to the campus of the University of Maryland. He left campus at approximately 2 a.m. on Thursday, June 19, drove to an off-campus gathering and returned to his dormitory between 2:30 and 3 a.m. For the next three to four hours, Bias, with longtime friend Brian Tribble and several teammates, snorted cocaine in the dormitory suite shared by Bias and his teammates. Bias suffered a seizure and collapsed while talking with teammate Terry Long. At 6:30 a.m., when Tribble called 911, Bias was unconscious and not breathing. All attempts by the emergency medical team to restart his heart and breathing were unsuccessful. After additional attempts to revive him in the Hospital, Bias was pronounced dead of a cardiac arrhythmia related to cocaine use.

His death shone a light on cocaine, its addictive powers and how it could kill.

In 2021, Bias was inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame.

June 19, 1984: Hakeem Olajuwon was the number one overall pick in the NBA Draft by the Houston Rockets.

Nicknamed "the Dream", the Nigerian American Olajuwon played centre in the NBA from 1984 to 2002, the majority of his career with the Rockets before playing his final season with the Toronto Raptors. He led the Rockets to back-to-back NBA championships in 1994 and 1995.

In 1996, Olajuwon was a member of the Olympic gold medal-winning United States national basketball team, and he was selected as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History. In October 2021, Olajuwon was honored as one of the league's greatest players of all time by being named to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team. He ended his career as the league's all-time leader in blocks (3,830) and is one of four NBA players to record a quadruple-double.

Olajuwon was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008 and the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2016. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest centres, as well as one of the greatest basketball players of all time.

June 19, 1978: Garfield, the lazy cat makes his debut. The first Garfield comic strip by Jim Davis appeared in 41 newspapers on that day.

It was originally published locally as Jon in 1976, then in nationwide syndication from 1978 as Garfield. The comic strip chronicles the life of the title character Garfield the cat, his human owner Jon Arbuckle, and Odie the dog. As of 2013, it was syndicated in roughly 2,580 newspapers and journals and held the Guinness World Record for being the world's most widely syndicated comic strip.

The strip's title character is Garfield, an obese orange tabby cat. Garfield's personality is defined by his sarcasm, laziness, and gluttony, with the character showing a particular affinity for lasagna. His owner is Jon Arbuckle, a man with an affinity for stereotypically nerdy pastimes. Jon's other pet is Odie, a dim-witted yellow dog. Most strips center around interactions among the three characters' conflicting personalities.

Regular themes include Jon's frustration with Garfield's antics; Garfield's disdain for Odie; and Jon's interactions with his girlfriend and the pets' veterinarian, Dr. Liz Wilson. Many strips feature Jon, Garfield, and Odie visiting Jon's unnamed parents and brother Doc Boy on their family farm. Other side characters include various mice and spiders within the house, both frequent targets of abuse and scorn from Garfield; Garfield's teddy bear Pooky; Garfield's girlfriend Arlene, a pink cat; Nermal, a gray-striped kitten who enjoys tormenting Garfield over his perceived age; and various other pets who live in the neighborhood.

Originally created with the intentions to "come up with a good, marketable character", Garfield has spawned merchandise earning $750 million to $1 billion annually. In addition to the various merchandise and commercial tie-ins, the strip has spawned several animated television specials, two animated television series, two theatrical feature-length live-action/CGI animated films, and three fully CGI animated direct-to-video films.

The Garfield Movie was released in 2024.

Jim Davis continues to make comics, and a new Garfield animated series is in production for Paramount Global subsidiary Nickelodeon.

June 19, 1956: Jerry Lewis & Dean Martin end partnership after 10 years, and 16 films.

They met in 1945 and debuted at Atlantic City's 500 Club on July 25, 1946; the team lasted ten years to the day. Before they teamed up, Martin was a nightclub singer, while Lewis performed a comedy act lip-synching to records.

They performed in nightclubs, and, starting in 1949, on radio. Later they branched out into television and films. In their early radio days, they performed as Martin and Lewis but later became hugely popular as Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. The highlights of their act included Lewis interrupting and heckling Martin while he was trying to sing, which ultimately led the two of them to chase each other around the stage.

The pair then went on to star in many movies together, becoming the hottest act in America during the early '50s, as well as the highest-paid act in show business according to a 1951 Life magazine. But the pair's relationship became increasingly strained, with Martin being upset under his perennial straight-man roles, as Lewis's comic antics came to dominate their films. They officially ended their partnership in 1956.

According to Lewis, the two did not speak to each other privately for twenty years, to which Lewis later commented, "The stupidity of that, I cannot expound on. The ignorance of that is something I hope I'll always forget."

The two men reconciled in September 1976, after Frank Sinatra orchestrated a surprise appearance by Martin on Lewis's annual Labor Day telethon for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, saying only "I have a friend who loves what you do every year." The pair beamed and embraced, and then had a few minutes of friendly banter.

In 1989, the two reunited for the last time on Martin's 72nd birthday at Bally's Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, where Martin was doing a week of shows. Lewis presented him with a birthday cake, thanked him for all the years he gave joy to the world, and finally joked, "Why we broke up, I'll never know”. This would be the last public reunion of the duo before Martin's death on Christmas Day 1995. Lewis died in 2017.

1829 Robert Peel introduces the Metropolitan Police Act 1829 into Parliament to establish a unified police force for London, the city's first modern police force.

In addition, it is responsible for specialised tasks throughout the United Kingdom, such as UK counter-terrorism measures, and the protection of certain individuals, including the monarch, royal family, governmental officials, and other designated figures. Commonly referred to as the Met, it is also referred to as Scotland Yard or the Yard, after the location of its original headquarters in Great Scotland Yard, Whitehall in the 19th century. Its present headquarters are near there at New Scotland Yard on the Victoria Embankment.

The force ranks as the largest police force within the UK and among the largest globally.

Billboard Number Ones

1980 Funkytown - Lipps Inc.
1981 Betty Davis Eyes - Kim Carnes

1982 Ebony and Ivory - Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder
1983 Flashdance... What a Feeling - Irene Cara

1984 Time After Time - Cyndi Lauper
1985 Everybody Wants to Rule the World - Tears for Fears

1986 On My Own - Patti LaBelle & Michael McDonald

1987 Always - Atlantic Starr
1988 Together Forever - Rick Astley

1989 I'll Be Loving You (Forever) - New Kids on the Block

Top Grossing Movies

1980 The Empire Strikes Back

1981 Superman II

1982 E.T.: The Extraterrestrial

1983 Superman III

1984 Ghostbusters

1985 Cocoon

1986 Karate Kid Part II

1987 The Witches of Eastwick

1988 Red Heat

1989 Batman

Today's Your Birthday!

1967 - Mia Sara Mia Sarapochiello known professionally as Mia Sara, is an American actress. She made her film debut as Princess Lili in the fantasy film Legend (1985) and had her breakthrough role starring as Sloane Peterson in the comedy film Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986). She also portrayed Melissa Walker in the science fiction film Timecop (1994), which won her the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress.

1954 "Taz" or the Tasmanian Devil is a cartoon character created and featured in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. Though the character appeared in only five shorts before Warner Bros. Cartoons shut down in 1964, marketing and television appearances later propelled Taz to new popularity in the 1990s.

Taz is generally portrayed as a ferocious, albeit dim-witted, carnivore with a notoriously short temper and little patience. He got his name in the short Ducking the Devil, where he is described as a "vicious, evil-tempered brute with jaws like a steel trap".

1950 - Ann Wilson is an American singer and songwriter best known as the lead singer of the rock band Heart.

Wilson has been a member of Heart since the early 1970s; her younger sister, Nancy Wilson, is the band’s guitarist. The first hard rock band fronted by women, Heart released numerous albums between 1976 and 2016; the early Heart albums Dreamboat Annie (1976), and Little Queen (1977) generated classic hard rock singles such as "Magic Man", "Crazy on You", and "Barracuda". Heart has sold over 35 million records worldwide, placed 29 singles on the Billboard Hot 100, and has scored top 10 albums on the Billboard 200 in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2010s.

1948 - Phylicia Rashad is an American actress best known for her role as Clair Huxtable on the sitcom The Cosby Show (1984–1992) which earned her two Primetime Emmy Award nominations in 1985 and 1986. She also played Ruth Lucas on Cosby (1996–2000). She is dean of the College of Fine Arts at Howard University and

In 2004, Rashad became the first black actress to win the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play, which she won for her role in the revival of A Raisin in the Sun.

1947 Salman Rushdie is an Indian-born British writer known for his allegorical works on historical subjects often set on the Indian subcontinent. Rushdie published his first novel in 1975 but really came to international notice with his 1981 novel "Midnight's Children", which won the Booker Literary Prize.

His fourth novel "The Satanic Verses" (1988) is his most controversial, for what was seen across the Islamic world as an irreverent depiction of the prophet Muhammad. Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini pronounced a fatwa against Rushdie and a bounty was offered for his execution. As a result, the author was placed under police protection for a number of years.

In 2007 Rushdie was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.

1903 Lou Gehrig was an American baseball first baseman who played 17 seasons in Major League Baseball for the New York Yankees (1923–1939).

A seven-time All-Star and six-time World Series champion, Gehrig won the Triple Crown in 1934 and was twice named the American League's Most Valuable Player. Gehrig was the first MLB player to have his uniform number retired, and he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939. (d. 1941)

Tuesday, June 18

Then & Now!

On June 18, 1985, the NBA draft took place, the first draft of the "lottery" era.

But was the draft rigged?

The New York Knicks were awarded the first overall pick by winning the first-ever NBA draft lottery, which was held in May of that year. The Knicks used it on Georgetown's Patrick Ewing.

That year’s draft is also notable for other picks, players who went on to become hall of famers: Chris Mullin #7 (Warriors) Karl Malone #13 (Jazz) and Joe Dumars #18 (Pistons).

Some have argued that NBA Commissioner David Stern fixed the first overall pick to help his hometown team, the struggling New York Knicks. The belief is the envelope containing the Knicks logo was frozen beforehand, enabling Stern to recognize and select it. The other rumour is when an accountant from Ernst & Whinney (the same firm used by Gulf + Western, then-owners of the Knicks) inserted the seven envelopes into the glass drum, some have claimed that he banged the fourth one against the side of the drum to create a creased corner, thereby making it easier for Stern to determine which envelope to choose: the envelope containing the Knicks logo.

According to this theory, as the drum was being spun, Stern was watching the envelopes closely. He then opened the drum, took a deep breath, reached in and selected the envelope with the bent corner and the Knicks logo.

In a 2012 interview, Stern was asked about lottery-gate. “Was the fix in for the lottery,” Jim Rome asked, to which Stern responded, “I have two answers for that. I’ll give you the easy one: No. And a statement: Shame on you for asking.”

Significant Events

June 18, 1985: The 1985 NBA draft took place on this day in 1985, the first NBA draft of the "lottery" era. It was also around this time where the league decreased the amount of rounds the draft spent, with the previous few years lasting up to 10 rounds total.

The New York Knicks were awarded the first overall pick by winning the first-ever NBA draft lottery, which was held in May of that year. The Knicks used it on Georgetown's Patrick Ewing.

June 18, 1982: Annie premiered in theatres. The musical comedy-drama film was based on the 1977 Broadway musical of the same name, which in turn is based on the Little Orphan Annie comic strip created by Harold Gray. Set during the Great Depression in 1933, the film tells the story of Annie, an orphan from New York City who is taken in by America's richest billionaire, Oliver ‘Daddy’ Warbucks.

The cast includes Albert Finney, Carol Burnett, Bernadette Peters, Ann Reinking, Tim Curry, Geoffrey Holder and Edward Herrmann, with Aileen Quinn playing the title character.

It is the first film adaptation of the musical.

Annie grossed $57 million in the United States and Canada against a budget of $35 million, making it the tenth highest-grossing film of 1982. However, due to its high cost, it failed to make a profit.

June 18, 1980: Indian "human computer" Shakuntala Devi sets a world record by mentally multiplying two random 13-digit numbers in 28 seconds; She correctly answered that 7,686,369,774,870 × 2,465,099,745,779 = 18,947,668,177,995,426,462,773,730!

Her talent earned her a place in the 1982 edition of The Guinness Book of World Records. However, the certificate for the record was given posthumously in 2020, despite Devi achieving her world record in 1980 at Imperial College, London. Devi was a precocious child and she demonstrated her arithmetic abilities at the University of Mysore without any formal education. (d. 2013)

June 18, 1873: Susan B. Anthony was fined $100 ($2,200 in 2020 value) for voting for US President in Rochester, New York; she refused to pay and no further action against her was taken.

In 1878, Anthony and her co-worker Elizabeth Stanton arranged for Congress to be presented with an amendment giving women the right to vote. Introduced by Sen. Aaron A. Sargent (R-CA), it later became known colloquially as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment. It was eventually ratified as the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920.

When she first began campaigning for women's rights, Anthony was harshly ridiculed and accused of trying to destroy the institution of marriage. Public perception of her changed radically during her lifetime, however. Her 80th birthday was celebrated in the White House at the invitation of President William McKinley. She became the first female citizen to be depicted on U.S. coinage when her portrait appeared on the 1979 dollar coin. (d. 1906)

June 18, 1815: Napoleon suffers a shattering defeat at the Battle of Waterloo. The battle was Napoleon's last. The French Emperor was exiled to Saint Helena where he died six years later. “To meet one's Waterloo” is still a figure of speech today indicating total defeat.

After more than a decade of dominating the European continent, the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte had been defeated at Leipzig in 1813. This triumphant arrangement did not last long: Napoleon quickly escaped, starting what was known as the Hundred Days, where he assumed control of France once more. Hearing the news, his adversaries rushed together an army and went to confront him at the town of Waterloo in Belgium.

The coalition armies, controlled by the Duke of Wellington for the British and Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher for the Prussians, crushed Napoleon in the battle. When he returned to Paris, the country had turned against him, and so he abdicated for a second and final time, decisively ending the Napoleonic era.

He was later exiled to the island of St. Helena in the Atlantic, where he died (having possibly been poisoned) in 1821.

June 18, 1682: Philadelphia was founded by English Quaker William Penn.

The city served as the capital of the Pennsylvania Colony during the British colonial era and went on to play a historic and vital role as the central meeting place for the nation's founding fathers. Philadelphia hosted the First Continental Congress in 1774, preserved the Liberty Bell, and hosted the Second Continental Congress during which the founders signed the Declaration of Independence. The U.S. Constitution was later ratified in Philadelphia at the Philadelphia Convention of 1787.

Philadelphia remained the nation's largest city until 1790, served as the nation's first capital from May 10, 1775, until December 12, 1776, and on four subsequent occasions during and following the American Revolution, including from 1790 to 1800 during the construction of the new national capital of Washington, D.C.

Philadelphia is a city of many firsts, including the nation's first library (1731), hospital (1751), medical school (1765), national capital (1774), university (by some accounts) (1779), central bank (1781), stock exchange (1790), zoo (1874) and business school (1881).

Billboard Number Ones

1980 Funkytown - Lipps Inc.
1981 Betty Davis Eyes - Kim Carnes

1982 Ebony and Ivory - Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder
1983 Flashdance... What a Feeling - Irene Cara

1984 Time After Time - Cyndi Lauper
1985 Everybody Wants to Rule the World - Tears for Fears

1986 On My Own - Patti LaBelle & Michael McDonald

1987 Always - Atlantic Starr
1988 Together Forever - Rick Astley

1989 I'll Be Loving You (Forever) - New Kids on the Block

Top Grossing Movies

1980 The Empire Strikes Back

1981 Superman II

1982 E.T.: The Extraterrestrial

1983 Superman III

1984 Ghostbusters

1985 Cocoon

1986 Karate Kid Part II

1987 The Witches of Eastwick

1988 Red Heat

1989 Ghostbusters II

Today's Your Birthday!

1966 Kurt Browning is a Canadian figure skater, choreographer and commentator. He is the first skater to land a ratified quadruple jump in competition. He is a four-time World Champion and Canadian national champion.

Unfortunately, perhaps Browning is best known by us Canadians as not coming through in the Olympics. He took part in the Games in 1988 (in Canada), 1992 and 1994, but finished 8th, 6th and 5th respectively. This was surprising in light of his success at the World Championships.

1961 Alison Moyet is an English singer noted for her powerful bluesy contralto voice. She came to prominence as half of the synth-pop duo Yazoo (known as Yaz in North America) but has since mainly worked as a solo artist.

Her worldwide album sales have reached a certified 23 million, with over two million singles sold. All nine of her studio albums and three compilation albums have charted in the top 30 of the UK Albums Chart, with two of them reaching number one. She has also achieved nine top 30 singles and six top 10 hits on the UK Singles Chart.

She was one of my favourite 80s music artists!

1961 Andrés Galarraga is a Venezuelan former professional baseball first baseman, who played in the majors for the Montreal Expos (1985–1991 and 2002), St. Louis Cardinals (1992), Colorado Rockies (1993–1997), Atlanta Braves (1998–2000), Texas Rangers (2001), San Francisco Giants (2001 and 2003) and Anaheim Angels (2004).

Galarraga was a five-time National League (NL) All-Star, won two NL Gold Glove Awards and two NL Silver Slugger Awards, and won two MLB Comeback Player of the Year Awards, the second time after his successful return to baseball following cancer treatment.

1942 Paul McCartney needs no introduction. He is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon.

One of the most successful composers and performers of all time, McCartney is known for his melodic approach to bass-playing, versatile and wide tenor vocal range, and musical eclecticism, exploring genres ranging from pre-rock and roll pop to classical, ballads and electronica.

His songwriting partnership with Lennon is the most successful in modern music history.

1942 Roger Ebert was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013.

Starting in 1975 and continuing for decades, Ebert and Chicago Tribune critic Gene Siskel helped popularize nationally-televised film reviewing when they co-hosted the PBS show Sneak Previews, followed by several variously named At the Movies programs on TV. The two verbally sparred and traded humorous barbs while discussing films. They created and trademarked the phrase "two thumbs up," used when both gave the same film a positive review. (Ebert died in 2013, Siskel in 1999).

1939 Lou Brock was an American professional baseball left fielder. He began his 19-year Major League Baseball career with the 1961 Chicago Cubs but spent most of it as a left fielder for the St. Louis Cardinals.

An All-Star for six seasons, Brock was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame on his first ballot in 1985 and was inducted into the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame in 2014. (d. 2020)

Monday, June 17

Then & Now!

On this day in 1983, The Police released their fifth and final album, Synchronicity.

The album was inspired by Arthur Koestler’s The Roots of Coincidence. The title of the album and most of the songs inside were taken from the book. Sting was such a fan of Koestler’s that the album Ghost in the Machine also got its name from one of his works.

Synchronicity also saw some changes in the band’s sound. They usually had a strong reggae influence in their sound and that was not very prevalent on the album. The band went into more of a “world music’ influence as they tried so many different sounds including a heavier reliance on synthesizers.

As with Ghost in the Machine, the recording for Synchronicity took place over a period of six weeks, at AIR Studios in Montserrat. The three band members recorded the basic tracks live in separate rooms: Stewart Copeland with his drums in the dining room (connected to the control room via video link), Sting in the control room, and guitarist Andy Summers in the actual studio. According to co-producer and engineer Hugh Padgham, this was done for two reasons: to obtain the best sound for each instrument and "for social reasons."

During the recording of "Every Breath You Take", Sting and Copeland came to blows with each other, and Padgham nearly quit the project. The song was originally attempted with the live method, but due to numerous failed takes the song had to be assembled entirely from overdubs, including all drum parts.

The album reached number one on both the UK Albums Chart and the U.S. Billboard 200 and sold over eight million copies in the U.S. It was widely acclaimed by critics. Praise centred on its cohesive merging of disparate genres and sonic experimentation. Rolling Stone described "each cut on Synchronicity [as] not simply a song but a miniature, discrete soundtrack".

It has since been included in the magazine's lists of the "100 Best Albums of the Eighties" and the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". In 2009, Synchronicity was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 2023, the album was selected for preservation in the United States National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

Significant Events

June 17, 1983: The Police released their fifth and final album, Synchronicity. It reached number one on both the UK Albums Chart and the U.S. Billboard 200 and sold over eight million copies in the U.S. It was widely acclaimed by critics. Praise centred on its cohesive merging of disparate genres and sonic experimentation. Rolling Stone described "each cut on Synchronicity [as] not simply a song but a miniature, discrete soundtrack".

June 17, 1972: The arrest of five White House operatives sets off the Watergate scandal

The men were caught attempting to wiretap the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex. The scandal ultimately led to U.S. President Richard Nixon's resignation.

Witnesses testified during Senate hearings that Nixon had sanctioned plans to cover up his administration's involvement in the burglary and that there was a voice-activated taping system in the Oval Office. Nixon's administration resisted the investigations, leading to a constitutional crisis. The televised Senate Watergate hearings garnered nationwide attention and public interest.

The House Judiciary Committee approved three articles of impeachment against Nixon, who subsequently resigned from office on August 9, 1974, becoming the only U.S. president to do so. His successor, Gerald Ford, pardoned him on September 8, 1974.

June 17, 1971: Carole King's album "Tapestry" went to number one on the U.S. album charts and stayed there for 15 weeks.

It was the second studio album by the American singer-songwriter, released on February 10, 1971. The album's lead singles, "It's Too Late" and "I Feel the Earth Move", spent five weeks at number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Easy Listening charts.

Tapestry has been certified 14× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), making it one of the best-selling albums of all time. In 2020, it ranked 25th on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

It was also very successful across the world. In Canada, it spent nine weeks at number one. In the United Kingdom, the album debuted at number 32 on UK Albums Chart but eventually rose to number four and spent 136 weeks in the Top 100. Tapestry reportedly sold over 7 million copies in its first year, and 14 million copies in the U.S. to date.

The album won four Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year, Song of the Year and Record of the Year. In 1998, the album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

June 17, 1928: Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly across the Atlantic. Wilmer Stultz piloted the Fokker F.VII aircraft, Earhart kept the flight log. They arrived at Burry Port in Wales, the United Kingdom, 20 hours and 40 minutes later.

She is regarded as an early aeronautical inspiration, often compared to Charles Lindbergh as an aviator and Eleanor Roosevelt as an influence. The latter two, Earhart and Roosevelt, had a close friendship and were both significant figures in women's causes during the period.

Earhart famously disappeared in 1937, along with navigator Fred Noonan, during her attempt to be the first female aviator to circumnavigate the globe. A year and six months later, the two were officially declared dead but neither bodies nor plane have ever been found.

June 17, 1885: Hundreds of thousands of spectators welcomed the arrival of the Statue of Liberty to New York.

Its full name is ‘Liberty Enlightening the World’ and was first proposed by the French thinker Édouard René de Laboulaye as a gift from the French people to America and to commemorate the abolition of slavery.

Designed by the French sculptor Frédéric Bartholdi, construction began in 1870 with Gustave Eiffel designing and building the interior metal framework. The statue was completed in France before being disassembled and shipped to America in 1885. It was then reassembled on what was then called Bedloe Island (now Liberty Island) in New York Harbour and dedicated by President Grover Cleveland in 1886.

The statue depicts Liberty striding forward with a torch raised in her right hand, her left holds a tabula ansata with the date of the Declaration of Independence. Emma Lazarus's poem "The New Colossus" composed to raise money for the statue was inscribed inside the pedestal in 1903 with its famous lines " "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,". The monument is now not only a symbol of Liberty but of the city of New York and America itself. It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984.

June 17, 1631: Mumtaz Mahal dies during childbirth. Her husband, Mughal emperor Shah Jahan I, then spends more than 20 years building her tomb, the Taj Mahal.

Built between 1631 and 1648 the Taj Mahal is not only one of the world's most famous mausoleums but also one of the grandest symbols of love and devotion.

Ustad-Ahmad Lahori was appointed the main architect and 20,000 artisans were brought from all across the empire to build it. It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983 and is regarded today as one of the finest achievements of Indo-Islamic architecture.

It is believed that around INR (Indian Rupee) 32 million was spent to complete the construction of this white mausoleum in 1653. Today, the cost of building the Taj would be somewhere around INR 70 billion, nearly $1 billion U.S.

Billboard Number Ones

1980 Funkytown - Lipps Inc.
1981 Betty Davis Eyes - Kim Carnes

1982 Ebony and Ivory - Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder
1983 Flashdance... What a Feeling - Irene Cara

1984 Time After Time - Cyndi Lauper
1985 Everybody Wants to Rule the World - Tears for Fears

1986 On My Own - Patti LaBelle & Michael McDonald

1987 Always - Atlantic Starr
1988 One More Try - George Michael

1989 I'll Be Loving You (Forever) - New Kids on the Block

Top Grossing Movies

1980 The Empire Strikes Back

1981 Superman II

1982 E.T.: The Extraterrestrial

1983 Superman III

1984 Ghostbusters

1985 Cocoon

1986 Karate Kid Part II

1987 The Witches of Eastwick

1988 Red Heat

1989 Ghostbusters II

Today's Your Birthday!

1966 Jason Patric (actual name John Miller III) is an American film, television and stage actor. He is known for his roles in films such as The Lost Boys (1987), Rush (1991), Geronimo: An American Legend (1993), Sleepers (1996), Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997), Your Friends & Neighbors (1998), Narc (2002), The Alamo (2004), My Sister's Keeper (2009), and The Losers (2010).

His father was actor/playwright Jason Miller, and his maternal grandfather was actor Jackie Gleason.

1954 Mark Linn-Baker is an American actor and director who played Benjy Stone in the film My Favorite Year and Larry Appleton in the television sitcom Perfect Strangers from 1986 to 1993.

Perfect Strangers as Larry Appleton, a young man living on his own for the first time in Chicago. Larry's world was disrupted when a distant cousin from the (fictional) Mediterranean island of Mypos, Balki Bartokomous (Bronson Pinchot), showed up on his doorstep.

1951 Joe Piscopo is an American actor, comedian, and conservative radio talk show host. He was a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 1980 to 1984, where he played a variety of recurring characters.

His film roles include Danny Vermin in Johnny Dangerously (1984), Moe Dickstein in Wise Guys (1986), Doug Bigelow in Dead Heat (1988), and Kelly Stone in Sidekicks (1992).

1947 Paul Young was a British singer and songwriter. He achieved success in the bands Sad Café and Mike + the Mechanics ("All I Need Is A Miracle"), sharing lead vocals in the band with Paul Carrack.

On July 15, 2000, having no symptoms, Young had a sudden heart attack and died shortly afterward at 53 years old. An autopsy revealed that the cause of death was a heart attack and that "it was not the first".

1943 Barry Manilow is a renowned American singer and songwriter who has had 51 Top 40 singles, including 13 number ones. Some of his hit songs include 'Could It Be Magic' (1973), 'Can't Smile Without You' (1978), and 'Copacabana' (1978).

Manilow’s career took off in 1974 with his first hit single was 'Mandy’. This began a streak of hit singles and albums that led into his reputation today.

1882 Harold Gillies is the father of modern plastic surgery who pioneered skin graft techniques on injured soldiers in WWI. He worked at a new hospital – Queen Mary’s – that was devoted to facial repairs for injured soldiers of the war.

Gillies and his colleagues developed many innovative plastic surgery techniques; more than 11,000 operations were performed on over 5,000 men. (d. 1960)

Sunday, June 16

Then & Now!

If The Ultimate Warrior was in the house, fans knew it. He was famous for sprinting down the ramp and running circles around the ring, furiously shaking the ropes before stepping in. He was “like a man possessed,” the WWE said. Maybe not the best technical wrestler but, boy, could he put on a show and the fans loved it!

Born James Helwig on this day in 1959, The Ultimate Warrior was an American professional wrestler and bodybuilder. He wrestled for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) from 1987 to 1992, as well as a short stint in 1996. He also notably spent a few months in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 1998 when he was known as The Warrior.

After a career in bodybuilding, Warrior turned to professional wrestling. From 1985 to 1986, he would tag with fellow former bodybuilder Steve Borden, later known as Sting, as the Blade Runners. The two split when Warrior left to pursue a singles career in World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW). Under the ring name Dingo Warrior, he was a one-time WCWA Texas Heavyweight Champion.

In 1987, he joined the World Wrestling Federation, and became a two-time WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion within two years. At WrestleMania VI, Warrior won the WWF Championship in a title vs. title match over Hulk Hogan, making him the first wrestler to hold both titles concurrently. Posited as the new face of the company, he would fall out with chairman Vince McMahon over a pay dispute, and unsuccessfully attempted to leave the WWF, with which he was under contract. Warrior would return at WrestleMania VIII, but by November 1992, he had been released; it was later revealed that this was due to steroid use.

In 1993, he legally changed his name to "Warrior" and was credited as a co-writer for a comic book based on his name and likeness. Warrior returned to the WWF at WrestleMania XII, but lasted four months, as he began no-showing events. Two years later, he joined World Championship Wrestling (which had tried to hire him in 1995), being used in a much-maligned storyline with Hogan, which culminated at Halloween Havoc. Warrior retired from professional wrestling and subsequently embarked on a public speaking career but wrestled one final match in Spain in 2008.

Warrior died on April 8, 2014, at the age of 54. On the preceding three nights in New Orleans, he had been inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, appeared at WrestleMania XXX, and made his final public appearance on Monday Night Raw, returning to the promotion after an acrimonious separation in 1996.

Significant Events

June 16, 1987: New York City subway gunman Bernhard Getz was acquitted on all but gun possession charges after shooting four black youths on a New York City Subway train in Manhattan who tried to rob him.

All four teenagers survived, though one, Darrell Cabey, was paralyzed and suffered brain damage as a result of his injuries. Goetz fled to Vermont after the shooting before surrendering to police nine days later. He was charged with attempted murder, assault, reckless endangerment, and several firearms offenses.

A jury found Goetz guilty of one count of carrying an unlicensed firearm and acquitted him of the remaining charges. For the firearm offense, he served eight months of a one-year sentence.

In 1996, Cabey won a $43 million civil judgment against Goetz after a civil jury ruled Goetz liable, equivalent to $84 million today.

The incident sparked a nationwide debate on crime in major U.S. cities, the legal limits of self-defense, and the extent to which citizens could rely on the police to keep them safe.

June 16, 1980: The musical comedy "The Blues Brothers” premiered.

The film was directed by John Landis and stars John Belushi as "Joliet" Jake Blues and Dan Aykroyd as his brother Elwood, characters developed from the recurring musical sketch "The Blues Brothers" on NBC's variety series Saturday Night Live. The script is set in and around Chicago, Illinois, where it was filmed, and the screenplay is by Aykroyd and Landis. It features musical numbers by singers James Brown, Cab Calloway, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles and John Lee Hooker. It features non-musical supporting performances by Carrie Fisher and Henry Gibson.

The story is a tale of redemption for paroled convict Jake and his blood brother Elwood, who set out on "a mission from God" to prevent the foreclosure of the Roman Catholic orphanage in which they were raised. To do so, they must reunite their R&B band and organize a performance to earn the $5,000 needed to pay the orphanage's property tax bill. Along the way, they are targeted by a homicidal "mystery woman", neo-Nazis, and a country and western band—all while being relentlessly pursued by the police.

June 16, 1967: The Monterey Pop Festival opens. The three-day concert is remembered for the first major American appearances by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, the Who and Ravi Shankar, the first large-scale public performance of Janis Joplin and the introduction of Otis Redding to a mass American audience.

The festival embodied the theme of California as a focal point for the counterculture and generally is regarded as one of the beginnings of the "Summer of Love" in 1967 and the public debut of the hippie, flower power and flower children’s movements and era.

June 16, 1963: Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space

The Soviet cosmonaut completed 48 orbits on board the spaceship “Vostok 6” before returning safely to Earth. The former textile worker was declared “Hero of the Soviet Union” and received the United Nations Gold Medal of Peace.

June 16, 1960: Alfred Hitchco*ck's film Psycho is premiered. The horror-thriller starring Anthony Perkins and Vera Miles has become one of the classics of the genre. The shower scene is one of the best-known murder scenes in the history of film.

June 16, 1944: George Stinney, a 14-year-old African American boy, was wrongfully executed for the murder of two white girls, becoming the youngest person ever executed in 20th-century America. He was convicted, sentenced to death and executed by electric chair in June 1944, thus becoming the youngest American with an exact birth date confirmed to be both sentenced to death and executed in the 20th century

On March 23, 1944, the bodies of 11-year-old Betty June Binnicker and eight-year-old Mary Emma Thames were found in a ditch on the African American side of Alcolu after the girls failed to return home the night before. Stinney's father assisted in the search.

George and his older brother John were arrested on suspicion of murdering the girls. According to a handwritten statement, the arresting officer stated: "I arrested a boy by the name of George Stinney. He then made a confession and told me where to find a piece of iron, about 15 inches where he said he put it in a ditch about six feet from the bicycle."

More than 1,000 white Americans crowded the courtroom, but no black Americans were allowed. After deliberating for less than ten minutes, the all-white jury found Stinney guilty of murder and he was sentenced to death by electrocution. There is no transcript of the trial and no appeal was filed by Stinney's counsel.

Stinney was executed on Friday, June 16, 1944, at 7:30 a.m. He was prepared for execution by electric chair, using a Bible as a booster seat because Stinney was too small for the chair

On December 16, 2014, circuit court Judge Carmen Mullen vacated Stinney's conviction. She ruled that he had not received a fair trial, as he was not effectively defended and his Sixth Amendment rights had been violated.

Billboard Number Ones

1980 Funkytown - Lipps Inc.
1981 Betty Davis Eyes - Kim Carnes

1982 Ebony and Ivory - Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder
1983 Flashdance... What a Feeling - Irene Cara

1984 Time After Time - Cyndi Lauper
1985 Everybody Wants to Rule the World - Tears for Fears

1986 On My Own - Patti LaBelle & Michael McDonald

1987 Always - Atlantic Starr
1988 One More Try - George Michael

1989 Wind Beneath My Wings - Bette Midler

Top Grossing Movies

1980 The Empire Strikes Back

1981 Superman II

1982 E.T.: The Extraterrestrial

1983 Superman III

1984 Ghostbusters

1985 Rambo: First Blood Part II

1986 Karate Kid Part II

1987 The Witches of Eastwick

1988 Red Heat

1989 Ghostbusters II

Today's Your Birthday!

1955 Laurie Metcalf s an American actress. Known for her complex and versatile roles across the stage and screen, she has received various accolades throughout her career spanning more than four decades, including four Primetime Emmy Awards and two Tony Awards, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and three Golden Globe Awards.

She gained national attention for her performance as Jackie Harris on the sitcom Roseanne (1988–1997, 2018) and its spinoff The Conners (2018–present), for which she won three Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.

1952 - Gino Vannelli is a Canadian rock singer and songwriter who had several hit songs in the 1970s and 1980s. His best-known singles include "People Gotta Move" (1974), "I Just Wanna Stop" (1978), "Living Inside Myself" (1981) and "Wild Horses" (1987).

Vannelli and his brother, Joe, moved to Los Angeles in 1972. Desperate and broke, they waited for hours in the parking lot outside A&M Studios, hoping to get a record deal. When Herb Alpert, the co-owner of A&M Records, finally emerged, Vannelli ran toward him and gave him a demo tape while being chased by security guards. Alpert signed Vannelli and released his debut album, Crazy Life, in the summer of 1973.

1951 Roberto Durán is a Panamanian former professional boxer who competed from 1968 to 2001. He held world championships in four weight classes: Lightweight, welterweight, light middleweight and middleweight. Duran also reigned as the undisputed lightweight welterweight champion. He is also the second boxer to have competed over a span of five decades, the first being Jack Johnson.

Durán was known as a versatile, technical brawler and pressure fighter, which earned him the nickname "Manos de Piedra" ("Hands of Stone") for his formidable punching power and excellent defense.

1890 Stan Laurel was a comic actor best known as one half of Laurel and Hardy, the classic double act that began in the era of silent films and lasted 25 years.

Laurel began his career in music hall in the UK and as Charlie Chaplin's understudy. Laurel later moved to Hollywood and began working in film in 1917.

He met Oliver Hardy working for Hal Roach Studios where their comic chemistry was spotted and the two formed a long and lasting friendship. (d. 1965)

Saturday, June 15

Then & Now!

On June 15, 1981, Duran Duran released their self-titled debut album.

Influenced by artists such as David Bowie, the Human League, Japan and Chic, the album ‘Duran Duran’ features a mixture of synthesizer-led pop tunes and more atmospheric tracks, with elements of disco, punk and dance. Le Bon's cryptic lyrics cover topics ranging from youthful torment and confusion to the band's goals and ambitions.

Three singles were released, each promoted with music videos, which helped the album reach number three in the UK and remain in the top 100 for 118 weeks. The sexually provocative video for "Girls on Film" was controversial, and generated publicity for the new MTV channel in the United States. The single helped Duran Duran peak at number three in the UK and spend 118 weeks on the chart, going platinum by December 1982 and selling 1.6 million copies worldwide.

Duran Duran initially received mixed reviews. Critics felt the band did not stand out from their contemporaries, although some praised the singles. Retrospective reviews have been more positive, with critics complimenting the band for creating a modern sound that spearheaded the New Romantic movement.

In a 2021 article discussing the band's then-recent Future Past record, Rolling Stone called their debut album a "classic" that introduced "a radical new style of art-glam punk-disco swagger".

Significant Events

June 15, 1986: Amnesty International "Conspiracy of Hope" tour concludes with mega-concert at Giants Stadium in Rutherford, New Jersey; participants include: U2; Sting; Bryan Adams; Peter Gabriel; Lou Reed; Neville Brothers; Joan Baez; Joan Armatrading; Joni Mitchell; The Police; Jackson Browne; Yoko Ono; Miles Davis; Peter, Paul & Mary; and The Hooters.

The purpose of the tour was not to raise funds but rather to increase awareness of human rights and of Amnesty's work on its 25th anniversary.

The last three shows of the tour featured a reunion of the Police. At press conferences in each city, at related media events, and through their music at the concerts themselves, the artists engaged with the public on themes of human rights and human dignity. The six concerts were the first of what subsequently became known collectively as the Human Rights Concerts – a series of music events and tours staged by Amnesty International USA between 1986 and 1998.

June 15, 1984: American boxer Thomas Hearns retains WBC light middleweight title with 2 round KO of Roberto Durán of Panama at Caesar's Palace, Las Vegas; marks first time in his illustrious career Durán knocked out.

Had Durán been alert, he would have avoided the final knockout punch by stepping off to the side or ducking under it. Instead, it caught him flush on the point of the chin and knocked him out cold on impact. Trapped against the ropes when The Hitman’s bullet hit the target, Durán could only go forward, and all 154 pounds of him crashed into the canvas face-first. Referee Carlos Padilla didn’t count because Durán’s team rushed the ring, terrified that their hero had been hurt permanently.

Without sufficient time to recover, Durán was unwisely hauled to his feet by his seconds. The stricken ex-champ was out of it and wouldn’t have known whether he was in Caesars Palace or Buckingham Palace at that point. Thankfully, the great man came around and left the ring under his own steam after congratulating Hearns on his greatest-ever win.

June 15, 1981: Duran Duran released their debut album (self-titled). In a 2021 article discussing the band's then-recent Future Past record, Rolling Stone called their debut album a "classic" that introduced "a radical new style of art-glam punk-disco swagger".

June 15, 1844: Charles Goodyear was an American self-taught chemist and manufacturing engineer who developed vulcanized rubber that he patented on June 15, 1844.

Goodyear's discovery of the vulcanization process followed five years of searching for a more stable rubber and stumbling upon the effectiveness of heating. That led to decades of successful rubber manufacturing in Connecticut, as rubber was adopted to be used in multiple ways such as footwear and tires.

The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company is named after (though not founded by) him.

June 15, 1219: According to legend, Dannebrog, the flag of Denmark and the oldest national flag in the world falls from the sky during the Battle of Lyndanisse (now Tallinn) in Estonia and turns the Danes' luck.

The flag became popular as a national flag in the early 16th century. Its private use was outlawed in 1834 but again permitted by a regulation of 1854.

The flag holds the world record of being the oldest continuously used national flag since 1625.

Billboard Number Ones

1980 Funkytown - Lipps Inc.
1981 Betty Davis Eyes - Kim Carnes

1982 Ebony and Ivory - Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder
1983 Flashdance... What a Feeling - Irene Cara

1984 Time After Time - Cyndi Lauper
1985 Everybody Wants to Rule the World - Tears for Fears

1986 On My Own - Patti LaBelle & Michael McDonald

1987 Always - Atlantic Starr
1988 One More Try - George Michael

1989 Wind Beneath My Wings - Bette Midler

Top Grossing Movies

1980 The Empire Strikes Back

1981 Superman II

1982 E.T.: The Extraterrestrial

1983 Superman III

1984 Ghostbusters

1985 Rambo: First Blood Part II

1986 Back to School

1987 The Witches of Eastwick

1988 Red Heat

1989 Ghostbusters II

Today's Your Birthday!

1958 Wade Boggs is an American former professional baseball third baseman. He spent 18 seasons in Major League Baseball, primarily with the Boston Red Sox. He also played for the New York Yankees (1993–1997), winning the 1996 World Series with them, and finished his career with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays (1998–1999).

Boggs became the 23rd player to reach 3,000 career hits. His hitting in the 1980s and 1990s made him a perennial contender for American League batting titles.

1954 James Belushi is an American actor. His television roles include Saturday Night Live (1983–1985), the title role in According to Jim (2001–2009), and Twin Peaks (2017).

Belushi appeared in films such as Thief (1981), Salvador (1986), About Last Night (1986), Red Heat (1988), K-9 (1989), Jingle All the Way (1996), Hoodwinked! (2005), The Wild (2006), Underdog (2007) and Sollers Point (2017).

He is the younger brother of late comedy actor John Belushi and the father of actor Robert Belushi.

1949 Dusty Baker is an American former professional baseball outfielder and manager. He played for 19 seasons with the Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants, and Oakland Athletics. Baker made three World Series appearances with the Dodgers and was a member of the 1981 championship team.

As a manager, he won the 2022 World Series with the Astros. At age 73, he is the oldest manager to win a championship in the four major North American sports.

1946 (Neville) "Noddy" Holder is an English musician, songwriter and actor. He was the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the English rock band Slade, one of the UK's most successful acts of the 1970s.

Known for his unique and powerful voice, Holder co-wrote most of Slade's material with bass guitarist Jim Lea including "Mama Weer All Crazee Now", "Cum On Feel the Noize" and "Merry Xmas Everybody".

1941 Harry Nilsson (sometimes credited as Nilsson) was an American singer-songwriter who reached the peak of his success in the early 1970s, best known for the hit ‘Without You’.

His work is characterized by pioneering vocal overdub experiments, a return to the Great American Songbook, and fusions of Caribbean sounds. Nilsson was one of the few major pop-rock recording artists to achieve significant commercial success without performing major public concerts or touring regularly. (d. 1994)

1937 Waylon Jennings was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. He is considered one of the pioneers of the outlaw movement in country music.

Between 1965 and 1991, ninety-six Jennings singles appeared on Billboard's Hot Country Singles chart and sixteen topped it. Between 1966 and 1995 fifty-four of his albums charted on Billboard's Top Country Albums, with 11 reaching Number 1. (d. 2002)

On June 14, 1989, Zsa Zsa Gabor was arrested for slapping a Beverly Hills motorcycle patrolman.

The event would go on to gain nationwide attention as it was dubbed "the slap heard round the world." The series of events that followed also generated massive publicity around Zsa Zsa Gabor.

Friday, June 14

Then & Now!

On June 14, 1989, Zsa Zsa Gabor was arrested for slapping a Beverly Hills motorcycle patrolman.

Gabor, the Hungarian-born actress and socialite, had been driving through the streets of Beverly Hills when a cop asked her to pull over at a traffic stop. The officer noticed that the registration tag of the actress' $215,000 Rolls-Royce convertible had expired.

The Beverly Hills cop, Paul Kramer, then ordered the Moulin Rouge actress to step out of the vehicle for further assessment. Gabor complied and he proceeded to run other checks. This led Kramer to discover that her license had expired, and she had an open container of alcohol, all of which attracted fines. At some point, Gabor became impatient, got into her car and drove off.

Paul Kramer wasted no time as he gave a chase. After catching up with the socialite, he reportedly asked her to step out a second time, and when she did, she slapped him across the face. The event would go on to gain nationwide attention as it was dubbed "the slap heard round the world." The series of events that followed also generated massive publicity around Zsa Zsa Gabor.

According to the police report, at the first stop, the Lovely to Look At actress became antsy while Paul Kramer ran a check on her license. She then shouted some expletives, announced that she was leaving and zoomed off. In Zsa Zsa Gabor's account, which she shared with People, she had asked Kramer what was taking so long while he ran a check on her car, but he told her to "f**k off," and she took it literally. She explained:

"On my word of honor, I thought he meant I should go. That's what they say in London and that's where I was raised."

People also revealed that the alcohol container found in Zsa Zsa Gabor's car belonged to her eighth husband, Prince Frederick Anhalt of West Germany. He revealed, "Sometimes I use it to sweeten my Diet Pepsi." Gabor's marital life played out in public and even drew criticism from David Letterman.

She ended up being charged with misdemeanor battery on a police officer, disobeying orders, driving with an expired license, having an open alcohol container and possessing an expired car registration.

In court, she explained that the officer was rude, crude, and abusive towards her. She relayed that he dragged her out of the car, handcuffed her, and made her sit on the curb. Gabor's court case was quite a media sensation that attracted hundreds of reporters.

Ultimately, the judge issued a verdict. Zsa Zsa Gabor was sentenced to three days in jail, ordered to pay fines totaling $12,937 and to do 120-hour community service. She was also instructed to undergo a psychiatric examination. In classic Gabor style, the actress described the verdict and justice system, stating:

"I'm disappointed. I can't believe it. I can't believe that in a country as great as ours, that a 6-foot-4 policeman can beat up a lady of 5-foot-4 and use dirty language as if she was a street walker."

Gabor passed away in 2016 at the age of 99.

Significant Events

June 14, 1989: Zsa Zsa Gabor was arrested for slapping a Beverly Hills motorcycle patrolman.

Gabor, the Hungarian-born actress and socialite, had been driving through the streets of Beverly Hills, when a cop asked her to pull over at a traffic stop. The officer noticed that the registration tag of the actress' $215,000 Rolls-Royce convertible had expired.

Ultimately, the judge issued a verdict. Zsa Zsa Gabor was sentenced to three days in jail, ordered to pay fines totaling $12,937 and to do 120-hour community service.

Gabor blamed her reaction on her Hungarian blood. “I admit I have a Hungarian temper,” she said at the time. “Why not? I am from Hungary. We are descendants of Genghis Khan and Attila the Hun.”

June 14, 1987: The Los Angeles Lakers won the NBA Championship, defeating the Boston Celtics four games to two.

The Lakers earned their 10th NBA championship, and Magic Johnson was named NBA Finals MVP for a then-record third time.

This was the last time the Celtics would appear in the NBA Finals until 2008. Boston only advanced as far as the Conference Finals twice in that stretch: losing the following year to the Detroit Pistons in six games and in 2002 to the New Jersey Nets, also in six games.

One of the most memorable moments of the playoffs occurred in the final moments of Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals when, with Boston down 107–106, Isiah Thomas had his inbounds pass stolen by Larry Bird, who passed to Dennis Johnson for the game-winning layup.

The only dent in the Lakers' run to the Finals came in Game 4 of the Western Conference Semifinals against the Warriors, when Sleepy Floyd scored a playoff record 39 points in the second half, with a record 29 coming in the fourth quarter, to seal a 129–121 win. Both records still stand.

June 14, 1985: Secret Admirer premiered in theatres. The film starred C. Thomas Howell, Lori Loughlin, Kelly Preston and Fred Ward and was produced at the height of the teen sex comedy cinema craze in the mid-1980s.

The plot centres around Michael Ryan (Howell) being obsessed with class beauty Deborah Ann Fimple (Preston) and decides to write her a love letter that gets into way too many wrong hands and the fun ensues.

In the end, he realizes he is actually in love with his friend Toni Williams (Loughlin). The final scene is worth the watch!

June 14, 1982: The Falklands War ends. For many Argentinians, and indeed some Britons, the thought that the UK would be able to recapture the Falklands Islands from Argentina during the 1982 war was far-fetched. After all, the small South Atlantic outpost lay thousands of miles from the British homeland.

But victory was not to be for the Argentine junta. After 74 days of bitter war, the British Army recaptured Port Stanley, and on June 14, 1982, the Argentinians surrendered. There were almost 12,000 POWs in the Falklands.

Margaret Thatcher's government was bolstered by the victory and was handily re-elected in 1983. The Argentine military junta, on the other hand, collapsed as the shock of the loss set in.

June 14, 1949: Albert II becomes the first monkey in space. The rhesus monkey was one of several animals used for testing purposes before sending humans into space. Albert II survived his ascent to 134 kilometers (83 miles) altitude but died after a parachute failure caused his capsule to strike the ground at high speed. Albert's respiratory and cardiological data were recorded up to the moment of impact.

Before Albert II the only previous known living beings in space were fruit flies, launched by the United States in a V-2 rocket suborbital flight on February 20, 1947. The flies were recovered alive.

June 14, 1919: Alco*ck and Brown take off for the first non-stop transatlantic flight. The British aviators began their journey in St. John's, Newfoundland and reached Galway in Ireland less than 16 hours later.

The Secretary of State for Air, Winston Churchill, presented them with the Daily Mail prize of £10,000 (more than £1 million in 2019) for the first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by aeroplane in "less than 72 consecutive hours".

A small amount of mail was carried on the flight, making it the first transatlantic airmail flight. The two aviators were knighted by King George V at Windsor Castle a week later.

Alco*ck was killed in 1919 when he crashed near Rouen while flying the new Vickers Viking amphibian to the Paris Airshow. Brown died in 1948.

Billboard Number Ones

1980 Funkytown - Lipps Inc.
1981 Betty Davis Eyes - Kim Carnes

1982 Ebony and Ivory - Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder
1983 Flashdance... What a Feeling - Irene Cara

1984 Time After Time - Cyndi Lauper
1985 Everybody Wants to Rule the World - Tears for Fears

1986 On My Own - Patti LaBelle & Michael McDonald

1987 Always - Atlantic Starr
1988 One More Try - George Michael

1989 Wind Beneath My Wings - Bette Midler

Top Grossing Movies

1980 The Empire Strikes Back

1981 Raiders of the Lost Ark

1982 E.T.: The Extraterrestrial

1983 Superman III

1984 Ghostbusters

1985 Rambo: First Blood Part II

1986 Back to School

1987 Predator

1988 Red Heat

1989 Ghostbusters II

Today's Your Birthday!

1969 Steffi Graf is a German former professional tennis player. She is widely regarded as one of the best ever woman's tennis players, her playing style was marked by her strong forehand and quick footwork. Graf won 22 major singles titles, the second-most in women's singles won since the start of the Open Era in 1968 and the third-most of all-time.

In 1988, she became the first and only tennis player to achieve the Golden Slam by winning all four major singles titles and the Olympic gold medal in the same calendar year. Graf is the only tennis player, male or female, to have won each major singles tournament at least four times.

Her run of 186 weeks as the world number one has not been beaten.

1961 Boy George is a British singer-songwriter and fashion designer, who rose to fame in the 1980s as the lead singer of the band Culture Club. Known for his voice and androgynous appearance, he became a cultural icon for his unique style and music.

Culture Club's breakthrough came with the hit single "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me" in 1982. This song catapulted the band to international fame, with George's distinctive vocals and the band's blend of soul, reggae and new wave resonating with a broad audience. Culture Club would go on to have several more hits, including "Karma Chameleon," which topped charts around the world.

Beyond his music, Boy George became notable for his androgynous style, often wearing makeup and flamboyant clothing. This helped to challenge gender norms and made him a prominent figure within the New Romantic movement. His unique style and presence ensured that he remained a cultural icon even after Culture Club's success started to wane.

In addition to his work with Culture Club, Boy George has had a successful solo career, exploring genres such as electronic dance music and house music. He has also worked as a DJ, a producer, and in recent years, a coach on the UK version of The Voice.

1958 Eric Heiden is an American speed skater and physician who won an unprecedented five gold medals in speed skating at the 1980 Winter Olympics, setting four Olympic records and one world record in the process. His feat of winning gold in every distance, from the 500 meters to the 10,000 meters, remains unmatched in the history of Olympic speed skating.

After retiring from speed skating, Heiden transitioned to professional cycling, quickly rising to prominence within the sport. He participated in the 1986 Tour de France and won several national titles in road cycling.

In addition to his athletic accomplishments, Heiden pursued a career in medicine, specializing in orthopedic surgery. He has worked with various sports teams, applying his insights as a former athlete to the care and treatment of injuries.

1946 - Donald Trump gained fame as a real estate developer and a reality television host. He was previously chairman of The Trump Organization and the host of The Apprentice. Long expressing an interest in national politics, he announced his run for President of the United States in 2015. Despite a campaign that courted numerous controversies, he was selected as the Republican presidential candidate in July 2016. After an exceptionally bitter and divisive election campaign, he then went on to beat Hillary Clinton in a huge upset.

In doing so he became one of five presidents to lose the popular vote but to win a majority of the electoral college. He is also the oldest person to be elected president, at 70 years. In his first term Trump issued executive orders to ban travel from certain areas of the world, controversially dismissed FBI director James Comey and withdrew the United States from both the Paris Agreement on climate change and the Trans-Pacific Partnership. He also unsuccessfully attempted to repeal Obamacare.

1931 Marla Gibbs is an American actress, singer, comedian, writer and television producer whose career spans seven decades. Gibbs is known for her role as George Jefferson's maid, Florence Johnston, on the CBS sitcom The Jeffersons (1975–1985), for which she received five nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.

1928 Che Guevara was an Argentine-born revolutionary who became a prominent figure in the Cuban revolution and later a guerilla leader in South America.

Disillusioned with Cuba's progress, Guevara left the country in 1965, spending time in the Congo before returning to Bolivia to lead a guerilla force. He was then captured and shot to death by a local force aided by the C.I.A. In 1997 his remains were returned to Cuba on the 30th anniversary of his death.

He lives on as a symbol of left-wing revolution, capsulated in his 1960 photo by Alberto Korda that have been called the most reproduced photographic image ever.

Thursday, June 13

Then & Now!

On this day in 1944, Hungarian inventor Ernő Rubik was born. He is, of course, best known for creating the Rubik's Cube in 1974, a toy that would reach stratospheric heights in popularity and sales.

Rubik worked as a professor for Hungary’s Academy of Applied Arts, Interior Design and Architecture. He was trying to solve the structural problem of his cube not falling apart when he realized that he had actually created a puzzle when he first scrambled his new cube and then tried to restore it. It took one month to finally figure out the solution, despite a whole university looking for it. At first, they weren't even sure a human could solve it.

After getting a patent, Rubik went to work marketing the toy in Europe, eventually signing a deal with Ideal Toys to release the Magic Cube worldwide. After the first batches of Rubik's Cubes were released in May 1980, initial sales were modest, but Ideal began a television advertising campaign in the middle of the year, which it supplemented with newspaper advertisem*nts.

By 1981, the Rubik's Cube had become a craze, and it is estimated that in the period from 1980 to 1983 around 200 million Rubik's Cubes were sold worldwide!

In October 1982, The New York Times reported that sales had fallen and that "the craze has died," and by 1983 it was clear that sales had plummeted. However, in some countries such as China and the USSR, the craze started later and demand was still high because of a shortage of cubes.

The Rubik's Cube has 43 quintillion (43.252.003.274.489.856.000) possible scrambles. If we'd line up that many cubes, it would reach out 260 light years or it could cover the Earth with 300 layers of cubes. Each piece in this huge pile would show a unique pattern and only one of them would be solved.

Rubik's Cubes continued to be marketed and sold throughout the 1980s and 1990s, but it was not until the early 2000s that interest in the Cube began increasing again. In the U.S., sales doubled between 2001 and 2003, and The Boston Globe remarked that it was "becoming cool to own a Cube again". The 2003 World Rubik's Games Championship was the first speedcubing tournament since 1982.

As of January 2024, around 500 million cubes had been sold worldwide, making it the world's bestselling puzzle game and bestselling toy. The Rubik's Cube was inducted into the U.S. National Toy Hall of Fame in 2014.

Significant Events

June 13, 1989: The Detroit Pistons won the NBA Championship over the Los Angeles Lakers in four straight games.

It was a rematch of the previous year's championship round between the Eastern Conference playoff champion Pistons and the defending NBA champion and Western Conference playoff champion Lakers. This, along with the 1983 NBA Finals, were the only two NBA championships of the 1980s not to be won by either the Lakers or the Boston Celtics; every NBA Finals of that decade featured either the Lakers or Celtics and sometimes both (1984, 1985, 1987).

Coincidentally, the Lakers were also swept in the 1983 NBA Finals, that time by the Philadelphia 76ers.

The Pistons won the series in a four-game sweep of the injury-riddled Lakers, marking the first time a team (Lakers) had swept the first three rounds of the playoffs, only to be swept in the finals.

For their rough physical play, and sometimes arrogant demeanor, Pistons' center Bill Laimbeer nicknamed the team 'The Bad Boys'. The name became an unofficial 'slogan' for the Pistons throughout the next season as well.

Following the series, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar announced his retirement at 42, after 20 years with the NBA.

June 13, 1986: Back to School, starring Rodney Dangerfield, premiered in theatres.

The plot centres on a wealthy but uneducated father (Dangerfield) who goes to college to show solidarity with his discouraged son Jason and learns that he cannot buy an education or happiness.

Back to School was the 6th highest-grossing film of 1986, as well as the second highest-grossing comedy film of the year, behind Crocodile Dundee (records state that in addition to the rental and theatrical gross it received, it went on to gross $108,634,920 globally).

June 13, 1985 "Prizzi's Honor," starring Jack Nicholson, Kathleen Turner and Anjelica Huston, is released. Nicholson and Turner play two highly skilled mob assassins who, after falling in love, are hired to kill each other.

The film received critical acclaim, with praise for the performances of its cast (most notably Huston). It grossed $26 million against its $16 million budget.

‘Prizzi’s Honor’ received eight nominations at the 58th Academy Awards (including for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Adapted Screenplay) with Huston winning for Best Supporting Actress.

June 13, 1983: The space probe Pioneer 10 passed Neptune, becoming the first man-made object to leave the central solar system.

Pioneer 10 was NASA's first mission to the outer planets. The mission was a spectacular success and the spacecraft notched a series of firsts unmatched by any other robotic spacecraft to date.

It was originally designed for a 21-month mission to fly by Jupiter but far surpassed that, lasting more than 30 years.

Pioneer 10 sent its last signal to Earth in January 2003 from a distance of 7.6 billion miles (12.23 billion kilometers). On July 18, 2023, Voyager 2 overtook Pioneer 10, making Pioneer 10 the third farthest spacecraft from the Sun after Voyager 1 and Voyager 2.

June 13, 1970: The Beatles' "Let It Be" album goes to number one on the Billboard charts and stays there for four weeks.

It was the twelfth and final studio album from the Beatles, almost a month after the group's public break-up, and in tandem with the documentary of the same name.

Concerned about recent friction within the band, Paul McCartney had conceived the project as an attempt to reinvigorate the group by returning to simpler rock 'n' roll configurations.

Let It Be topped record charts in several countries, including both the UK and the US, but was a critical failure at the time, and came to be regarded as one of the most controversial rock albums in history.

It is known for its singles ‘Let It Be’ (the title track), and ‘The Long and Winding Road’.

June 13, 1920: No Babies Please! The U.S. Post Office says children cannot be sent by parcel post (after various instances where it did, indeed, occur!).

When the U.S. Postal Service began parcel deliveries in 1913, it wasn't long before some ingenious parents cottoned on to the idea of mailing their children. A 10-month-old baby boy, the child of Mr. and Mrs. Jesse Beauge from Batavia, Ohio, was posted for the cost of 15 cents in stamps, though his parents did insure him for $50. In the most famous case, 5-year-old May Pierstorff was mailed via train from her home in Idaho, the stamps stuck to her coat.

The practice is not as callous as it first appears, postmen were trusted local officials whom rural people usually knew personally. May Pierstorff was herself sent with a cousin who was a postal clerk. Nevertheless, the U.S. Postal Service tried to shut the practice down and had to issue a directive that no humans were to be carried in the mail.

Billboard Number Ones

1980 Funkytown - Lipps Inc.
1981 Betty Davis Eyes - Kim Carnes

1982 Ebony and Ivory - Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder
1983 Flashdance... What a Feeling - Irene Cara

1984 Time After Timey - Cyndi Lauper
1985 Everybody Wants to Rule the World - Tears for Fears

1986 Live to Tell - Madonna

1987 Always - Atlantic Starr
1988 One More Try - George Michael

1989 Wind Beneath My Wings - Bette Midler

Top Grossing Movies

1980 The Empire Strikes Back

1981 Raiders of the Lost Ark

1982 E.T.: The Extraterrestrial

1983 Superman III

1984 Ghostbusters

1985 Rambo: First Blood Part II

1986 Back to School

1987 Predator

1988 Red Heat

1989 Ghostbusters II

Today's Your Birthday!

1986 – Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen rose to fame in the role of Michelle Tanner on the television series "Full House".

Building on their TV roles, the Olsen twins released a number of straight-to-video movies, becoming big names in the pre-teen market through the late 1990s - early 2000s.

The twins moved into fashion and in 2006 founded their brand ‘The Row’, which went on to win the Womenswear Award at the CFDA Fashion Awards in 2012.

1981 Chris Evans is an American actor best known for portraying Steve Rogers / Captain America in various Marvel Cinematic Universe films, from Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) to Avengers: Endgame.

His work in the franchise established him as one of the world's highest-paid actors. Aside from comic book roles, Evans has starred in the drama Gifted (2017), the mystery film Knives Out (2019), the television miniseries Defending Jacob (2020), and the action film The Gray Man (2022).

1962 - Ally Sheedy is an American actress who made her feature film debut in Bad Boys (1983) and came to prominence as a member of the Brat Pack with roles in Oxford Blues (1984), The Breakfast Club (1985), St. Elmo's Fire (1985) and Blue City (1986).

She also starred in the films Twice in a Lifetime (1985), Short Circuit (1986), Betsy's Wedding (1990), Only the Lonely (1991), and Life During Wartime (2009), as well as the series Single Drunk Female (2022–2023).

1951 - Richard Thomas is an American actor best known for his leading role as budding author John-Boy Walton in the CBS drama series The Waltons. Thomas won an Emmy for the role.

He later starred in the 1990 television miniseries adaptation of Stephen King's epic horror novel It and played Special Agent Frank Gaad on FX's spy thriller series The Americans. More recently, he appeared in Netflix's Ozark and is touring with To Kill a Mockingbird as Atticus Finch.

1944 - Ernő Rubik is best known for creating the Rubik's Cube in 1974. There have been roughly 400 million Rubik's Cubes sold since 1980 and one-fifth of the globe has played with it, making this puzzle the best-selling toy in history, and helping its inventor, Ernő Rubik to become the richest man in communist Hungary back then.

1897 Paavo Nurmi was a Finnish middle- & long-distance runner who won nine gold medals in the 1920, 24 and 28 Summer Olympic Games. He set 22 official world records and won a total of nine gold and three silver medals in his 12 events in the Olympic Games. (d. 1973)

Wednesday, June 12

Then & Now!

On June 12, 1981, Raiders of the Lost Ark premiered in theatres. The action-adventure film was directed by Steven Spielberg from a screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan, based on a story by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman.

Set in 1936, the film stars Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones, a globetrotting archaeologist vying with Nazi German forces to recover the long-lost Ark of the Covenant which is said to make an army invincible. Teaming up with his tough former romantic interest Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), Jones races to stop rival archaeologist René Belloq (Paul Freeman) from guiding the Nazis to the Ark and its power.

Lucas conceived Raiders of the Lost Ark in the early 1970s. Seeking to modernize the serial films of the early 20th century, he developed the idea further with Kaufman, who suggested the Ark as the film's goal. Lucas eventually focused on developing his 1977 film Star Wars.

Development on Raiders of the Lost Ark resumed that year when he shared the idea with Spielberg, who joined the project several months later. While the pair had ideas for set pieces and stunts for the film, they hired Kasdan to fill in the narrative gaps between them.

Pre-release polling showed little audience interest in the film leading up to its June 12, 1981, release date, especially compared to Superman II. Despite this, Raiders of the Lost Ark became the highest-grossing film of the year, earning approximately $354 million worldwide and played in some theatres for over a year. Six months after its release, industry executives joked Raiders would be the year's big Christmas film. The film officially left theatres on March 18, 1982, although some were still playing it by July.

Raiders of the Lost Ark has had a lasting impact on popular culture. It is considered a touchstone of modern cinema, creating a film framework still emulated by other films. Spielberg has said he considers it the most perfect film of the series because he never wanted to modify it or change anything about it.

Significant Events

June 12, 1987: United States President Ronald Reagan delivered his famous Berlin Wall Speech in West Berlin. The speech is commonly known by a key line from the middle part: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" Reagan called for the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, to open the Berlin Wall, which had encircled West Berlin since 1961.

In the post-Cold War era, it was often seen as one of the most memorable performances of an American president in Berlin after John F. Kennedy's "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech of 1963.

The wall did come down in 1989.

June 12, 1984: The Boston Celtics Beat the Los Angeles Lakers 111–102 in Game 7 of the NBA Finals. Celtics forward Larry Bird averaged 27 points and 14 rebounds a game during the series, earning the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player award.

This series was a rematch of the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics after their rivalry was revived in 1979 with the Magic Johnson–Larry Bird pair entering the league. After alternating wins with the Lakers, the Celtics won Game 7 and the series with a score of 111–102.

Reflecting back on the series, Magic Johnson said ". . . (the Lakers) learned a valuable lesson. Only the strong survive. . . talent just don't get it. That's the first time the (80's) Lakers ever encountered that, someone stronger minded." The teams met again in the 1985 finals, which the Lakers won 4-2.

June 12, 1981: Raiders of the Lost Ark Premiered in theatres. It became the highest-grossing film of the year, earning approximately $354 million worldwide and played in some theatres for over a year.

June 12, 1964: Nelson Mandela is sentenced to life in prison. The South African anti-apartheid activist spent 27 years in prison. In 1993, he received the Nobel Peace Prize and one year later, he became the first President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999.

He was the country's first black head of state and the first elected in a fully representative democratic election. His government focused on dismantling the legacy of apartheid by fostering racial reconciliation. Ideologically an African nationalist and socialist, he served as the president of the African National Congress (ANC) party from 1991 to 1997.

He is held in deep respect within South Africa, where he is often referred to by his Thembu clan name, Madiba, and described as the "Father of the Nation". (d. 2013)

June 12, 1963: "Cleopatra," directed by Joseph Mankiewicz and starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, premieres in NYC, then most expensive film ever made at $30 million plus $44 million for marketing, a value of $445 million in 2024. That $44 million nearly bankrupted the studio.

Following an extensive casting search, Elizabeth Taylor signed on to portray the title role for a record-setting salary of $1 million, worth $10 million in 2024.

During filming, a personal scandal made worldwide headlines when it was reported that co-stars Taylor and Richard Burton had an adulterous affair.

It became the highest-grossing film of 1963, earning box-office receipts of $58 million in the United States and Canada, and one of the highest-grossing films of the decade at a worldwide level. However, the film initially lost money because of its exorbitant production and marketing costs

June 12, 1923: Harry Houdini frees himself from a straight jacket while suspended upside down, 40 feet (12 m) above ground in New York.

Harry Houdini was a Hungarian-American escape artist, illusionist, and stunt performer known for his sensational escape acts. His 1904 challenge with the Daily Mirror's special handcuffs and several Hollywood films are among his well-known acts.

Houdini's notable escape acts included the Daily Mirror handcuff challenge, the Milk Can Escape, the Chinese water torture cell, and the suspended straitjacket escape.

Late in life, he suffered a fatal blow to his abdomen by Jocelyn Gordon Whitehead. Houdini was hospitalized and died of peritonitis in October of 1926.

Billboard Number Ones

1980 Funkytown - Lipps Inc.
1981 Betty Davis Eyes - Kim Carnes

1982 Ebony and Ivory - Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder
1983 Flashdance... What a Feeling - Irene Cara

1984 Time After Timey - Cyndi Lauper
1985 Everybody Wants to Rule the World - Tears for Fears

1986 Live to Tell - Madonna

1987 You Keep Me Hangin' On - Kim Wilde
1988 One More Try - George Michael

1989 Wind Beneath My Wings - Bette Midler

Top Grossing Movies

1980 The Empire Strikes Back

1981 Cheech and Chong’s Nice Dreams

1982 Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

1983 Return of the Jedi

1984 Ghostbusters

1985 Rambo: First Blood Part II

1986 Top Gun

1987 Predator

1988 Crocodile Dundee II

1989 Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

Today's Your Birthday!

1957 - Timothy Busfield is an American actor and director. He has played Elliot Weston on the television series thirtysomething; Mark, the brother-in-law of Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) in Field of Dreams; and Danny Concannon on the television series The West Wing.

In 1991 he received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for thirtysomething.

​1951 Brad Delp was an American-Canadian musician who was the original lead singer and frontman of the rock band Boston. He joined the band in 1970 and appeared on every album except Walk On (1994) and also participated in every tour prior to his death in 2007.

Boston’s debut album, ‘Boston’, was released in August 1976. With over 17 million copies sold, the album ranks as one of the best-selling debut albums in U.S. history. The single off the album ‘More Than a Feeling’ was included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame list of the "500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll" and is ranked number 212 on Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

1950 Sonia Manzano is an American actress, screenwriter and author. She is best known for playing Maria on Sesame Street from 1971 to 2015. She received a Lifetime Achievement Daytime Emmy Award in 2016.

On June 29, 2015, Manzano retired from the show after 44 years. She later reprised the role of Maria in the 2019 television special Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration.

1941 Marv Albert is an American former sportscaster. Honored for his work by the Basketball Hall of Fame, he was commonly referred to as "the voice of basketball". From 1967 to 2004, he was also known as "the voice of the New York Knicks". Albert was best known nationally for his work as the lead announcer for both the NBA on NBC and NBA games on TNT. In 2015, he was inducted into the broadcasting Hall of Fame.

1929 Anne Frank, German/Dutch author and Holocaust victim. At aged 13, German born Dutch Jewish national Anne Frank and her family went into hiding in Amsterdam in 1942 to escape persecution under Nazi occupation.

Betrayed two years later they were sent to concentration camps where Anne later died from Typhus.

Anne's diary from June 1942 to August 1944 is regarded as the most famous personal account of the Holocaust and has been turned into a play and film.

1924 George H. W. Bush, 41st President of the United States. Prior to assuming the presidency in 1989, George H. W. Bush served as the Vice President of the United States under Ronald Reagan and the Director of the CIA.

Bush's presidency was dominated by international affairs. Shortly after coming into office, the Cold War ended; a wave of revolutions spread across Europe and the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. In his first year he authorized the invasion of Panama and, in 1990, Iraq under Saddam Hussein invaded and annexed Kuwait.

Domestically, Bush famously promised "read my lips: no new taxes." He reneged on this promise after facing opposition from Congress. A recession in the early 1990s and a large budget deficit contributed to his loss in the 1992 election to Bill Clinton.

His son George W. Bush became president in 2001, the only father-son presidents after John Adams and John Quincy Adams. (d. 2018)

Tuesday, June 11

Then & Now!

On June 11, 1982, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial was released in theatres. Directed by Stephen Spielberg, it tells the story of Elliott, a boy who befriends an extraterrestrial, dubbed E.T., who is left behind on Earth. Along with his friends and family, Elliott must find a way to help E.T. find his way home.

The film was a smash hit at the box office, surpassing Star Wars to become the highest-grossing film of all time, a record it held for eleven years until Spielberg's own Jurassic Park surpassed it in 1993.

In 1983, E.T. surpassed Star Wars to become the highest-grossing film of all-time; by the end of its theatrical run, it had grossed $359 million in the United States and Canada and $619 million worldwide. Box Office Mojo estimates that the film sold over 120 million tickets in its initial U.S. theatrical run. Spielberg earned $500,000 a day from his share of the profits, while The Hershey Company's profits rose 65% due to the film's prominent placement of Reese's Pieces.

The film was also a merchandising success, with dolls selling 15 million units by September 1982 and becoming the best-selling toy that Christmas season. E.T. went on to generate over $1 billion in merchandise sales by 1998.

Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars and wrote, "It works as science fiction, it's sometimes as scary as a monster movie, and at the end, when the lights go up, there's not a dry eye in the house." He later added it to his list of "Great Movies", structuring the essay as a letter to his grandchildren about watching it with them. Of the scene with the flying bicycles, he writes: "I remember when I saw the movie at Cannes: Even the audience there, people who had seen thousands of movies, let out a whoop at that moment."

In American Film Institute polls, the film has been voted the 24th greatest film of all time, the 44th most heart-pounding, and the sixth most inspiring.

Significant Events

June 11,1989: At 17 years old, Michael Chang became the youngest male to win the French Open and the youngest man in history to win a singles major.

Chang won a total of 34 top-level professional singles titles, (including seven Masters titles) was a three-time major runner-up and reached a career-best ranking of world number two in 1996. Since he was shorter than virtually all of his opponents, he played a dogged defensive style utilizing his quickness and speed.

In 2008, Chang was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

June 11,1986: Ferris Bueller's Day Off opened in movie theatres. It was one of the top movies of the 1980s and has stood the test of time. The teen comedy film was written, co-produced and directed by John Hughes. It stars Matthew Broderick, Mia Sara and Alan Ruck.

The movie tells the story of a high school slacker, Ferris, who skips school with his best friend Cameron and his girlfriend Sloane for a day in Chicago, regularly breaking the fourth wall to explain his techniques and inner thoughts.

The film became the tenth highest grossing film of 1986 in the United States, grossing $70 million over a $5 million budget. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and audiences alike, who praised Broderick's performance, and the film’s humour and tone.

It received positive reviews from critics. Roger Ebert gave it three out of four stars, calling it "one of the most innocent movies in a long time," and "a sweet, warm-hearted comedy." Richard Roeper called the film: "one of my favorite movies of all time. It has one of the highest' repeatability' factors of any film I've ever seen... I can watch it again and again”.

June 11, 1982: E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial was released in theatres. Directed by Stephen Spielberg, the film was a smash hit at the box office, surpassing Star Wars to become the highest-grossing film of all time, a record it held for eleven years until Spielberg's own Jurassic Park surpassed it in 1993.

June 11, 2010: Africa hosts the FIFA World Cup for the first time. The 19th association football world cup was opened in Johannesburg, South Africa.

In the final, Spain, the European champions, defeated third time losing finalists the Netherlands 1–0 after extra time to win their first world title. Spain became the eighth nation to win the tournament and the first European nation to win a World Cup hosted outside its home continent: all previous World Cups held outside Europe had been won by South American nations. They are also the first national team since 1978 to win a World Cup after losing a game in the group stage.

June 11, 1955: More than 80 people die in the Le Mans car race disaster. Pierre Levegh's Mercedes crashed into a crowd of spectators and burst into flames. Large pieces of debris flew into the crowd, killing 83 spectators, Levegh and injuring around 120 more.

There was much debate over blame for the disaster. The official inquiry held none of the drivers specifically responsible and criticized the layout of the 30-year-old track, which had not been designed for cars as fast as those involved in the crash.

It was the most catastrophic crash in motorsport history.

June 11, 1938: China launches the 1938 Yellow River flood. In what Steven Dutch, a Professor at the University of Wisconsin, called “the world's largest act of environmental warfare in history”, the Chinese government created the flood to halt invading Japanese forces.

The immediate drowning deaths were estimated to range from 30 to 89,000. Estimates of total deaths resulting from floods, famine and plague varied wildly. Two professional sources put it to between 400,000 and 500,000. A much higher estimate of 890,000 total deaths given by the Nationalist government's relief statistics in 1948 has been upheld to portray the Nationalist government as inhumane.

Billboard Number Ones

1980 Funkytown - Lipps Inc.
1981 Betty Davis Eyes - Kim Carnes

1982 Ebony and Ivory - Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder
1983 Flashdance... What a Feeling - Irene Cara

1984 Time After Timey - Cyndi Lauper
1985 Everybody Wants to Rule the World - Tears for Fears

1986 Live to Tell - Madonna

1987 You Keep Me Hangin' On - Kim Wilde
1988 One More Try - George Michael

1989 Wind Beneath My Wings - Bette Midler

Top Grossing Movies

1980 The Empire Strikes Back

1981 Cheech and Chong’s Nice Dreams

1982 Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

1983 Return of the Jedi

1984 Ghostbusters

1985 Rambo: First Blood Part II

1986 Top Gun

1987 Predator

1988 Crocodile Dundee II

1989 Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

Today's Your Birthday!

1963 Sandra Schmirler was a Canadian curler who captured three Canadian Curling Championships (Scott Tournament of Hearts) and three World Curling Championships. Schmirler also skipped (captained) her Canadian team to a gold medal at the 1998 Winter Olympics, the first year women's curling was a medal sport.

In 2019, Schmirler was named the second greatest Canadian female curler in history (after Jennifer Jones) in a TSN poll of broadcasters, reporters and top curlers.[6] Schmirler's Olympic team, which also included Jan Betker, Joan McCusker and Marcia Gudereit, was named the greatest female Canadian curling team of all time as part of the same poll.

She died in 2000 at 36 of cancer, leaving a legacy that extended outside of curling. Schmirler was honoured posthumously with an induction into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame.

1956 - Joe Montana was American Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback. After winning a college national championship at Notre Dame, he started his NFL career in 1979 with San Francisco, where he played for the next 14 seasons and won four Super Bowls and three Super Bowl Most Valuable Player awards, the only player to have been named Super Bowl MVP three times.

1939 Jackie Stewart is a British former Formula One racing driver from Scotland. Nicknamed the "Flying Scot", he competed in Formula One between 1965 and 1973, winning three World Drivers' Championships and twice finishing as runner-up over those nine seasons. He was the only British driver to win three championships until Lewis Hamilton in 2015.

He is the last surviving Formula One World Champion from the 1960s and the oldest living F1 winner.

1933 Gene Wilder was famous for his collaborations with writer and director Mel Brooks. Wilder acted in films such as "Blazing Saddles" and "Young Frankenstein". He is perhaps best remembered for his portrayal of Willy Wonka in "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory". (d. 2016)

1913 Vince Lombardi was the head coach of the Green Bay Packers during the 1960s, where he led the team to three straight and five total National Football League championships in seven years. He is considered by many to be one of the best coaches in NFL history.

The Super Bowl Trophy was renamed the Vince Lombardi Trophy in 1970, and he was featured on a U.S. postage stamp in 1997.

1910 Jacques Cousteau was a renowned French naval officer, oceanographer and filmmaker. He is known foremost as a name indelibly tied to the ocean, but also as a co-developer of the Aqua-Lung, pioneer in marine conservation, and member of the Académie française.

His research ship, the Calypso, was a symbol of exploration and adventure. Aboard the Calypso, Cousteau and his team conducted numerous expeditions, making significant discoveries related to marine life and underwater environments. These expeditions were often filmed and turned into documentaries, which played a key role in raising public awareness about the beauty and fragility of the ocean and its inhabitants. (d. 1997)

On this day in 1985, Coca-Cola announced it was bringing back its 99-year-old formula. This came on the heels of the company having introduced ‘New co*ke’ on April 23, 1985.

The story of New co*ke remains influential as a cautionary tale against tampering with an established, successful brand.

Monday, June 10

Then & Now!

On this day in 1985, Coca-Cola announced it was bringing back its 99-year-old formula. This came on the heels of the company having introduced ‘New co*ke’ on April 23, 1985. It had arguably taken the biggest risk in consumer goods history, announcing that it was changing the formula for the world's most popular soft drink, and spawning consumer angst the likes of which no business has ever seen.

Years back before this marketing fiasco, Coca-Cola held 60 percent of the market share for cola at the end of the Second World War. But by 1983, that market share had declined to under 24 percent, largely because of competition from Pepsi-Cola. Pepsi had begun to outsell co*ke in supermarkets; co*ke maintained its lead only through soda vending machines and fast-food restaurants, especially McDonald's.

The pressure was on to stop the bleeding – what would co*ke executives do? Well, they commissioned a secret initiative to create a new flavour of co*ke. What they developed was a sweeter cola that overwhelmingly beat both regular co*ke and Pepsi in taste tests, surveys and focus groups.

New co*ke was introduced on April 23, 1985. And although New co*ke was accepted by many Coca-Cola drinkers, many more resented the change, as had happened in the focus groups.

Things got much worse.

The company received over 40,000 calls and letters expressing anger or disappointment, including one letter, delivered to co*ke’s CEO, was addressed to "Chief Dodo, the Coca-Cola Company". Another letter asked for his autograph, as the signature of "one of the dumbest executives in American business history" would likely become valuable in the future. The company hotline, 1-800-GET-co*kE, received over 1,500 calls a day compared to around 400 before the change. A psychiatrist co*ke had hired to listen in on calls told executives that some people sounded as if they were discussing the death of a family member.

Finally, the Coca-Cola board decided that enough was enough, and plans were set in motion to bring back the old co*ke.

On the afternoon of July 11, 1985, Coca-Cola executives held a press conference and announced the return of the original Coca-Cola formula, now dubbed, ‘co*ke Classic’, 79 days after New co*ke's introduction. Peter Jennings of ABC News interrupted General Hospital with a special bulletin to share the news with viewers. The company hotline received 31,600 calls in the two days after the announcement.

The fabled secret formula for Coca-Cola was changed, adopting a formula preferred in taste tests of nearly 200,000 consumers. What these tests didn't show, of course, was the bond consumers felt with their Coca‑Cola — something they didn't want anyone, including The Coca-Cola Company, tampering with.

By the end of 1985, Coca-Cola Classic was substantially outselling both New co*ke and Pepsi. Six months after the rollout, co*ke's sales had increased at more than twice the rate of Pepsi's.

In the aftermath, co*ke spent a considerable amount of time trying to figure out where it had made a mistake, ultimately concluding that it had underestimated the public reaction of the portion of the customer base that would be alienated by the switch.

The story of New co*ke remains influential as a cautionary tale against tampering with an established, successful brand.

Significant Events

June 10, 1985: Bowing to pressure from irate customers, the Coca-Cola Co. said it would resume selling old-formula co*ke while continuing to sell New co*ke.

June 10, 1982: The American TV sitcom "Taxi" was cancelled by ABC after four seasons and 15 Emmy Award wins. It did gain a new lease on life when it moved to NBC in the fall of ‘82; airing for one more season and winning three more Emmys.

It focused on the everyday lives of a handful of New York City taxi drivers and their abusive dispatcher. For most of the run of the show, the ensemble cast consisted of taxi drivers Alex Reiger (Judd Hirsch), Bobby Wheeler (Jeff Conaway), Elaine Nardo (Marilu Henner), Tony Banta (Tony Danza), and "Reverend" Jim Ignatowski (Christopher Lloyd), along with dispatcher Louie De Palma (Danny DeVito) and mechanic Latka Gravas (Andy Kaufman).

The show was a critical and commercial success. It was nominated for 34 Primetime Emmy Awards and won 18, including wins in three consecutive years for Outstanding Comedy Series. It has remained in syndicated reruns ever since the series ended. In 2007, Time magazine ranked it among its 100 All-Time TV shows.

June 10, 1972: Sammy Davis Jr.'s cover of "The Candy Man" from the film "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory" goes to number one on the charts, his biggest single. It spent three weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart and two weeks at the top of the easy-listening chart. Billboard ranked it as the number-five song of 1972.

Despite the record's commercial success, Davis himself disliked it, telling his manager, “It’s horrible. It’s a Timmy-two-shoes, it’s white bread, cute-ums, there’s no romance. Blechhh!” After hastily recording it in two takes at a studio session, he also reportedly said “This record is going straight into the toilet. Not just around the rim but into the bowl, and it may just pull my whole career down with it."

It is recognized as one of Davis's signature songs, and "The Candy Man" came to be his moniker later in his career. The song was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male at the 15th Annual Grammy Awards.

June 10, 1845: U.S. President Andrew Jackson's potty-mouthed African Grey parrot "Poll" is removed from his funeral for swearing.

The funeral in 1845 drew thousands to his Tennessee home, known as The Hermitage, where he was buried. Jackson was suffering from a number of ailments, including malarial coughs and old wounds from duels that left bullets lodged in his lungs and arm.

But it was Poll, his beloved parrot, that allegedly drew unwanted attention at the funeral by swearing like a sailor. According to one post, "President Andrew Jackson taught his pet parrot to curse. The bird was later kicked out of the former president's funeral for swearing during the service," according to one Jackson biographer.

June 10, 1752: Benjamin Franklin took a kite out during a storm to see if a key attached to the string would draw an electrical charge. Or so the story goes. In fact, historians aren’t quite sure about the date of Franklin’s famous experiment, and some have questioned whether it took place at all.

Even if Franklin’s kite and key experiment did happen, it didn’t play out the way many people think it did. Contrary to popular myths, Franklin didn’t conduct the experiment to prove the existence of electricity. In addition, it’s very unlikely that lightning struck a key while Franklin was flying a kite—because if it had, Franklin probably would have died.

The experiment's purpose was to investigate the nature of lightning and electricity, which were not yet understood. Combined with further experiments on the ground, the kite experiment demonstrated that lightning and electricity were the result of the same phenomenon.

June 10, 1692: The first victim of the Salem witch trials, Bridget Bishop, is hanged for witchcraft in the colony of Massachusetts.

This was perhaps the most notorious case of mass hysteria in colonial America. The trials saw around 200 people accused of witchcraft, with 19 found guilty and executed. Another man was crushed to death for refusing to plead, while five others died in jail.

The incident began in February 1692, when a group of young girls claimed to have been possessed by the devil and accused other women of being witches. Hysteria spread through colonial Massachusetts and a special court was convened to hear the trials of those accused.

By September, public opinion had turned against the trials and they eventually closed early in 1693. The cases became notorious and were interpreted by later generations as a warning sign against the dangers of religious fanaticism, isolation and lapses in due process. In 1711, the convictions of twenty-two people were reversed by the courts and their families were financially compensated.

Billboard Number Ones

1980 Funkytown - Lipps Inc.
1981 Betty Davis Eyes - Kim Carnes

1982 Ebony and Ivory - Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder
1983 Flashdance... What a Feeling - Irene Cara

1984 Time After Timey - Cyndi Lauper
1985 Everybody Wants to Rule the World - Tears for Fears

1986 Live to Tell - Madonna

1987 You Keep Me Hangin' On - Kim Wilde
1988 One More Try - George Michael

1989 Wind Beneath My Wings - Bette Midler

Top Grossing Movies

1980 The Empire Strikes Back

1981 Cheech and Chong’s Nice Dreams

1982 Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

1983 Return of the Jedi

1984 Ghostbusters

1985 Rambo: First Blood Part II

1986 Top Gun

1987 Predator

1988 Crocodile Dundee II

1989 Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

Today's Your Birthday!

1965 Elisabeth Hurley is an actress and model most associated with cosmetics company Estée Lauder since the company gave Hurley her first modelling job at the age of 29. It has featured her as a representative and model for its products, especially perfumes such as Sensuous, Intuition and Pleasures. She also owns an eponymous beachwear line.

As an actress, her best-known film roles to date have been as Vanessa Kensington in Mike Myers' hit spy comedy, "Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery" and as the Devil in "Bedazzled".

1959 Timothy Van Patten is an American director, actor, screenwriter, and producer. He has received numerous accolades including two Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award, and two Directors Guild of America Awards as well as nominations for two BAFTA Awards.

Patten started his career as an actor portraying Mario "Salami" Pettrino on The White Shadow from 1978 to 1981. He also played the villainous teenager Peter Stegman in Class of 1984 (1982), Max Keller in The Master (1984) and Sergeant Andy Wojeski in True Blue (1989–1990).

1951 Dan Fouts was an American former football quarterback who played for the San Diego Chargers of the National Football League (NFL) throughout his 15-season career (1973–1987). After a relatively undistinguished first five seasons in the league, Fouts came to prominence as the on-field leader during the Chargers' Air Coryell period. He led the league in passing every year from 1979 to 1982, throwing for over 4,000 yards in the first three of these—no previous quarterback had posted consecutive 4,000-yard seasons.

Fouts was voted a Pro Bowler six times, first-team All-Pro twice, and Offensive Player of the Year in 1982. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1993, his first year of eligibility.

1922 Judy Garland was described by Fred Astaire as "the greatest entertainer who ever lived". Her biggest role was playing Dorothy in the 1939 movie "The Wizard of Oz". She continued acting as an adult, excelling in musical, comedic and dramatic roles, while also becoming a concert attraction.

Over her career, she won an Academy Award, two Grammy Awards and Lifetime Achievement honours from the Oscar, Grammy and Tony organizations. Two of three children, daughters Liza Minnelli and Lorna Luft, followed her footsteps into the footlights.

Recurrent substance abuse and relationship traumas led to financial distress and her premature death from long-term habitual barbiturate use.

1921 Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh was the longest-serving consort in British history. Philip was the husband of Queen Elizabeth II from 1947 and the monarch's consort since her accession to the throne in 1952.

Born in Greece to the Greek and Danish royal families, Philip joined the Royal Navy in 1939 and served in the Second World War, the same year he began correspondence with then Princess Elizabeth. Prior to his engagement, he dropped his Greek and Danish titles and became a naturalized British subject.

In 2017, he announced his retirement from royal responsibilities at the age of 96, having completed 22,219 solo engagements since 1952. (d. 2021)

1895 Hattie McDaniel was the first African American actress to win an Oscar for her role as Mammy in "Gone With The Wind". She was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1975. In 2006, the U.S. Postal Service released a 39-cent stamp featuring McDaniel in the dress she wore in 1940 when she accepted her Academy Award. (d. 1952)

On this day in 1985, The Los Angeles Lakers won the NBA Championship four games to two.

The final featured the defending NBA champion and Eastern Conference playoff champion Boston Celtics against the Western Conference playoff champion Los Angeles Lakers.

Sunday, June 9

Then & Now!

On this day in 1985, The Los Angeles Lakers won the NBA Championship four games to two.

The final featured the defending NBA champion and Eastern Conference playoff champion Boston Celtics against the Western Conference playoff champion Los Angeles Lakers.

The Celtics were looking to repeat as NBA champions for the first time since the 1968–69 season. The Celtics had home-court advantage for the second year in a row as they finished the regular season with a 63–19 record while the Lakers compiled a 62-20 record. The Lakers looked to bounce back from the previous year's painful loss to the Celtics in the championship series and were still seeking to beat Boston for the first time ever in NBA Finals history.

Also, for the first time since 1955, the Finals implemented a 2–3–2 format with Games 1 and 2 in Boston while the next three games were in Los Angeles. The final two games of the series would be played in Boston if needed. This change of format came after David Stern had a conversation with Celtics legend Red Auerbach in 1984, who disliked the frequent travel between games.

With the help of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson, the Los Angeles Lakers achieved their first NBA Finals victory over the Boston Celtics in nine meetings, four to two games. The Lakers recovered after losing in a rout in game 1, dubbed as the "Memorial Day Massacre". The series was the last time the NBA World Championship Series branding would be in use as the NBA Finals branding would replace it in 1986. The video documentary Return to Glory recaps the 1985 NBA playoffs action.

The 38-year-old Abdul-Jabbar was named MVP of the series, his second Finals MVP award and first since 1971 (back when he was known as Lew Alcindor), averaging 25 points, nine rebounds, five assists and two blocks in six games. Worthy averaged 24 points for the Lakers, while Magic Johnson scored 18 points per game to go along with 14 assists and seven rebounds. Los Angeles shot 51% as a team for the series.

It was the first time and only time until 2022 in NBA Finals history that the other team clinched the championship against the Celtics in Boston. It was also only the Celtics' second Finals series defeat, having previously lost to the St. Louis Hawks in 1958.

Significant Events

June 9, 1985: The Los Angeles Lakers Won the NBA Championship four games to two. The final featured the defending NBA champion and Eastern Conference playoff champion Boston Celtics against the Western Conference playoff champion Los Angeles Lakers.

June 9, 1980: Comedian Richard Pryor suffers severe burns from freebasing cocaine. Pryor was a hugely influential African American comedian. He also had a successful career as a film actor, writer and presenter.

He rose to prominence as a stand-up comedian in the 1970s, His 1974 album "That nigg*r is Crazy" won the Grammy for Best Comedic Recording in 1975.

Pryor's comedic material drew heavily on current social and racial issues and was often controversial. He was also well known for his use of profanity in his act.

In film Pryor often appeared with fellow comedian Gene Wilder, in films including "Silver Streak" (1976) and "Stir Crazy" (1980). (d. 2005)

Throughout his life Pryor dealt with addiction.

June 9, 1943: U.S. President FDR signed the Current Tax Payment Act into law - tax is withheld from worker's wages to go straight to the government. Tax withholding had been introduced in the Tariff Act of 1913 but repealed by the Income Tax Act of 1916. The Current Tax Payment Act compelled employers to withhold federal income taxes from workers' paychecks and pay them directly to the government on the workers' behalf. At the time of the act, Social Security payments and a World War II Victory Tax were already being withheld.

The introduction of the tax had significant impact on tax revenues for the U.S. government. Income taxes collected in 1939 equalled, on average around 1% of personal income. Following the introduction of the act, the figure rose to above 11%, with the new law expected to raise $7.6 billion.

Today, the U.S. has seven federal income tax brackets, with rates of 10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32%, 35% and 37%. The federal government collected revenues of $5 trillion in 2022.

June 9, 1934: Donald Duck makes his film debut in The Wise Little Hen. The cartoon features Donald Duck dancing to "The Sailor's Hornpipe". Donald and his friend Peter Pig try to avoid work by faking stomach aches until Mrs. Hen teaches them the value of labour.

The short-tempered duck typically wearing a sailor suit is one of Walt Disney's most famous cartoon characters. Donald's first book appearance was in The Adventures of Mickey Mouse, which was published in 1931.

Donald was included in TV Guide's list of the 50 greatest cartoon characters of all time in 2002 and has earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He has appeared in more films than any other Disney character.

June 9, 1928: Charles Kingsford Smith completes the world's first trans-Pacific flight. The Australian aviator and his four-man crew left Oakland, California on the morning of May 31, 1928. Nine days later, after several stops, they landed safely in Brisbane.

He and his co-pilot Charles Ulm became celebrities, together with crew members James Warner and Harry Lyon. In the same year, he and Ulm completed the first non-stop flight across Australia from Melbourne to Perth and the first non-stop flight from Australia to New Zealand.

In 1935, Kingsford Smith and his co-pilot Tommy Pethybridge disappeared over the Andaman Sea while attempting to break the Australia–England speed record. He was fêted as a national hero during the Great Depression and received numerous honours during his lifetime. After his death Sydney's primary airport was named in his memory and he was featured on the Australian twenty-dollar note for several decades.

June 9, 68: Roman Emperor Nero commits suicide, imploring his secretary Epaphroditos to slit his throat to evade a Senate-imposed death by flogging. He is infamously known as the emperor who "fiddled while Rome burned" and as an early persecutor of Christians. His rule is often associated with tyranny and extravagance, and he was known for executing people he perceived as enemies, including his own mother.

His death ended the Julio-Claudian Dynasty, sparking a brief period of civil wars known as the Year of the Four Emperors.

Billboard Number Ones

1980 Funkytown - Lipps Inc.
1981 Betty Davis Eyes - Kim Carnes

1982 Ebony and Ivory - Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder
1983 Flashdance... What a Feeling - Irene Cara

1984 Time After Timey - Cyndi Lauper
1985 Everybody Wants to Rule the World - Tears for Fears

1986 Live to Tell - Madonna

1987 You Keep Me Hangin' On - Kim Wilde
1988 One More Try - George Michael

1989 Rock On - Michael Damian

Top Grossing Movies

1980 The Empire Strikes Back

1981 Cheech and Chong’s Nice Dreams

1982 Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

1983 Return of the Jedi

1984 Ghostbusters

1985 Rambo: First Blood Part II

1986 Top Gun

1987 Predator

1988 Crocodile Dundee II

1989 Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

Today's Your Birthday!

1963 - Johnny Depp is an American actor and musician. He is the recipient of multiple accolades, including a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for three Academy Awards and two BAFTA awards. His films, in which he has often played eccentric characters, have grossed over $8 billion worldwide, making him one of Hollywood's most bankable stars.

1961 - Michael J. Fox, actor. The Canadian-born Fox’s famous roles have included Marty McFly from the "Back to the Future" trilogy (1985–1990); Alex P. Keaton from "Family Ties" (1982–1989), for which he won three Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award; and Mike Flaherty in "Spin City" (1996–2001), for which he won an Emmy, three Golden Globes and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1991, he has since become an advocate for research toward finding a cure.

1954 - Pete Byrne is an English singer best known for being a member of the pop/new wave duo Naked Eyes. And their hit ‘Always Something There to Remind Me’. Along with Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith of Tears for Fears fame, Byrne and his future music partner in Naked Eyes, Rob Fisher, were members of a short-lived British group called Neon.

1944 A then-record litter of puppies was born – 23! They were born to Lena, a foxhound in Ambler, Pennsylvania. Her owners took turns with three-hour shifts to satisfy the new puppies' insatiable appetites.

1915 Lester William Polsfuss, known as Les Paul, was an American jazz, country and blues guitarist, songwriter, luthier and inventor. He was one of the pioneers of the solid-body electric guitar, and his prototype called the Log served as inspiration for the Gibson Les Paul. Paul taught himself how to play guitar. Paul is the only inductee in both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the National Inventors Hall of Fame. (d. 2009)

1891 Cole Porter, American composer. Porter is best known as a composer and songwriter for Broadway and in films, with his musical 'Kiss Me, Kate' winning the very first Tony Award for Best Musical.

He was notable for writing music and lyrics together, whereas most musicals had separate composers and songwriters. (d. 1964)

The cast was immensely star-studded: Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Harold Ramis played the characters Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz and Egon Spengler, three eccentric parapsychologists who start a ghost-catching business in New York City.

It also stars Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis and features Annie Potts, Ernie Hudson, and William Atherton in supporting roles. The film was written by Aykroyd and Ramis and directed by Ivan Reitman.

Saturday, June 8

Then & Now!

On this day in 1984, Ghostbusters premiered in theatres. The cast was immensely star-studded: Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Harold Ramis played the characters Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz and Egon Spengler, three eccentric parapsychologists who start a ghost-catching business in New York City. It also stars Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis and features Annie Potts, Ernie Hudson, and William Atherton in supporting roles. The film was written by Aykroyd and Ramis and directed by Ivan Reitman.

Based on his own fascination with spirituality, Aykroyd conceived Ghostbusters as a project starring himself and John Belushi, in which they would venture through time and space battling supernatural threats. Following Belushi's death in 1982, and with Aykroyd's concept deemed financially impractical, Ramis was hired to help rewrite the script to set it in New York City and make it more realistic. It was the first comedy film to employ expensive special effects, and Columbia Pictures, concerned about its relatively high $25–30 million budget, had little faith in its box office potential.

Ghostbusters was released on June 8, 1984, to critical acclaim and became a cultural phenomenon. It was praised for its blend of comedy, action and horror, and Murray's performance was often singled out for praise. It earned $280 million during its initial theatrical run, making it the second-highest-grossing film of 1984 in the United States and Canada, and the then-highest-grossing comedy ever.

It was the number-one film in theatres for seven consecutive weeks and one of only four films to gross more than $100 million that year. Further theatrical releases have increased the total gross to around $295 million, making it one of the most successful comedy films of the 1980s. In 2015, the Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry. Its theme song, "Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker Jr., was also a number-one hit.

With its effect on popular culture, and a dedicated fan following, the success of Ghostbusters launched a multi-billion-dollar multimedia franchise. This included the popular animated television series The Real Ghostbusters (1986), its sequel Extreme Ghostbusters (1997), video games, board games, comic books, clothing, music, and haunted attractions.

Ghostbusters was followed in 1989 by Ghostbusters II, which fared less well financially and critically, and attempts to develop a second sequel paused in 2014 following Ramis's death. After a 2016 reboot received mixed reviews and underperformed financially, a second sequel to the 1984 film, Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021), was released, followed by Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire in 2024.

Significant Events

June 8, 1984: Ghostbusters was released on June 8, 1984, to critical acclaim and became a cultural phenomenon. It was praised for its blend of comedy, action and horror, and Bill Murray's performance was often singled out for praise. It earned $280 million during its initial theatrical run, making it the second-highest-grossing film of 1984 in the United States and Canada, and the then-highest-grossing comedy ever.

June 8, 1976: Bobby Orr signs a five-year contract with the Chicago Blackhawks. He played in the NHL for 10 seasons with the Boston Bruins before signing with the ‘Hawks. Orr is widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest hockey players of all time. As a defenceman, he used his skating speed and scoring and play-making abilities to revolutionize the position.

He remains the only defenceman to have won the league scoring title with two Art Ross Trophies and holds the record for most points and assists in a single season by a defenceman. Orr also won a record eight consecutive Norris Trophies as the NHL's best defenceman and three consecutive Hart Trophies as the league's most valuable player.

Orr was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1979 at age 31, the youngest to be inducted at that time. In 2017, he was named by the National Hockey League as one of the "100 Greatest NHL Players" in history.

June 8, 1972: Nick Út takes his famous “napalm girl” photo. The Pulitzer Prize-winning image officially entitled “The Terror of War” depicts nine-year-old Phan Thị Kim Phúc and other Vietnamese children fleeing a napalm attack. It has become one of the best-known symbols of the indescribable sufferings in armed conflicts.

Before delivering his film with the photograph, Út set his camera aside to rush Phan Thị Kim Phúc to a hospital, where doctors saved her life. He said: "I cried when I saw her running... If I don’t help her, if something happened and she died, I think I’d kill myself after that".

Nick Út’s iconic photograph has won every major photographic award. On the 40th anniversary of that Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph in September 2012, Út became only the third person inducted into the Leica Hall of Fame for his contributions to photojournalism. In 2021, he became the first journalist to receive the National Medal of Arts, the highest award given to artists and arts patrons by the United States federal governments.

June 8, 1968: James Earl Ray, the alleged assassin of Martin Luther King Jr., was captured. Prior to his infamy, Ray left school at fifteen and was briefly in the United States Army, serving in Germany at the end of World War Two. During his life, he was a serial criminal.

In 1968, he began preparing for his most infamous crime: the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. First, Ray moved to Atlanta, where King lived, and then travelled to Alabama to purchase a rifle, ostensibly for a hunting trip with his brother, under the alias 'Harvey Lowmeyer.' Ray then drove back to Atlanta, where he read in the newspaper that King was to return to Memphis, Tennessee.

On April the 2nd, 1968, Ray set out from Atlanta to Memphis. Two days later, on the 4th of April, Martin Luther King Jr. was killed by a single shot from the rifle purchased in Alabama.

After firing from the Lorraine Motel, now the National Civil Rights Museum, Ray fled to Atlanta. Ray was later captured in London and ultimately deported to Tennessee where he confessed and was sentenced to 99 years in prison.

Ray later sought to recant his confession, firing the lawyer who advised him to confess; he sought a trial, which this advice had denied him. Interest in his version of events led to a televised mock trial conducted by the lawyer William Pepper, a friend of King in his later years.

Altogether the case remains far from closed, with many of King's friends and family unsatisfied with the official narrative.

June 8, 1949: George Orwell publishes Nineteen Eighty-Four. His nightmarish description of a totalitarian society set in the year 1984 is one of the most significant works of English literature and one of the best-known novels of all time. The phrase ‘Big Brother is watching you’ stems from this work.

The story takes place in an imagined future. The current year is uncertain but believed to be 1984. Much of the world is in perpetual war. Great Britain, now known as Airstrip One, has become a province of the totalitarian superstate Oceania, which is led by Big Brother, a dictatorial leader supported by an intense cult of personality manufactured by the Party's Thought Police. The Party engages in omnipresent government surveillance and, through the Ministry of Truth, history is revised and constant propaganda is used to persecute individuality and independent thinking.

The effect of Nineteen Eighty-Four on the English language is extensive; the concepts of Big Brother, Room 101, the Thought Police, thoughtcrime, unperson, memory hole (oblivion), doublethink (simultaneously holding and believing contradictory beliefs) and Newspeak (ideological language) have become common phrases for when speaking about totalitarian authority. Doublespeak and groupthink are both deliberate elaborations of doublethink, and the adjective "Orwellian" means similar to Orwell's writings, especially Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Overall, the book serves as a reminder to protect our freedoms and maintain our diligence.

Billboard Number Ones

1980 Funkytown - Lipps Inc.
1981 Betty Davis Eyes - Kim Carnes

1982 Ebony and Ivory - Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder
1983 Flashdance... What a Feeling - Irene Cara

1984 Let's Hear It for the Boy - Deniece Williams
1985 Everybody Wants to Rule the World - Tears for Fears

1986 Live to Tell - Madonna

1987 You Keep Me Hangin' On - Kim Wilde
1988 One More Try - George Michael

1989 Rock On - Michael Damian

Top Grossing Movies

1980 The Empire Strikes Back

1981 Cheech and Chong’s Nice Dreams

1982 Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

1983 Return of the Jedi

1984 Ghostbusters

1985 Rambo: First Blood Part II

1986 Top Gun

1987 Predator

1988 Crocodile Dundee II

1989 Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

Today's Your Birthday!

1962 - Nick Rhodes is an English keyboardist and producer, best known as a founding member and the keyboardist of the band Duran Duran. The band achieved rapid success, and Rhodes was a driving force throughout.

An unschooled musician, he experimented with the sounds his analog synthesizers were capable of but shied away from the "novelty" sounds of some other early synth bands. The distinctive warble of "Save a Prayer", the keyboard stabs of "A View to a Kill", and the string sounds of "Come Undone" and "Ordinary World" are some of his most recognizable creations.

1960 - Mick Hucknall is an English singer and songwriter. Hucknall achieved international fame in the 1980s as the lead singer and songwriter of the soul-influenced pop band Simply Red, with whom he enjoyed a 25-year career and sold over 50 million albums.

Hucknall was described by Australian music magazine Rhythms as "one of the truly great blue-eyed soul singers", while Q credited him with "the most prodigious voice this side of Motown".

1944 – William ‘Boz’ Scaggs is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He was a bandmate of Steve Miller in The Ardells in the early 1960s and the Steve Miller Band from 1967 to 1968.

Scaggs began his solo career in 1969, though he lacked a major hit until his 1976 album, Silk Degrees, peaked at number 2 on the Billboard 200, and produced the hit singles "Lido Shuffle" and "Lowdown". Scaggs produced two more platinum-certified albums in Down Two Then Left and Middle Man, the latter of which produced two top-40 singles "Breakdown Dead Ahead" and "Jojo".

1940 - Nancy Sinatra is an American singer. She is the elder daughter of Frank Sinatra and Nancy Sinatra (née Barbato) and is known for her 1965 signature hit "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'".

Nancy Sinatra began her career as a singer in November 1957 with an appearance on her father's ABC television variety series The Frank Sinatra Show, but initially achieved success only in Europe and Japan. In early 1966 she had a transatlantic number-one hit with "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'". A TV promo clip from the era features Sinatra in high boots, accompanied by colorfully dressed go-go dancers, in what is now considered an iconic Swinging Sixties look.

1933 Joan Rivers was an American comedian and actress who became famous for her sometimes controversial comedic persona. She came to prominence in 1965 as a guest on "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson, who became her mentor. In 1986, she became the first woman to host a late-night network television talk show "The Late Show with Joan Rivers", in competition with Johnny Carson who never forgave her.

Her late-night talk show was short-lived but Rivers went on to host "The Joan Rivers Show" (1989-1993) on daytime TV, winning a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Talk Show Host in 1990. (d. 2014)

1867 Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who developed a series of highly original styles of architecture. He spent more than 70 years creating designs that revolutionized the art of architecture.

Wright's most iconic design is the house known as Fallingwater, constructed in the 1930s. Built over a natural waterfall in the Pennsylvania woods, it exemplifies his concept of organic architecture: the harmonious union of art and nature. Another significant contribution of Wright's is the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City, with its spiraling, continuous space disrupting traditional museum layout. Wright is recognized as "the greatest American architect of all time". (d. 1959)

On this day in 1958, musical artist Prince was born.

Some refer to him as a musical genius. He could do it all: sing, play guitar, keyboards, drums, and bass, write songs, produce, dance and perform like no other.

Prince sold at least 100 million records worldwide during his lifetime, ranking him among the best-selling music artists of all time.

Tragically, he was found dead at his Paisley Park estate in Minneapolis on April 21, 2016. An autopsy later revealed that he had died from an accidental overdose of fentanyl, a powerful opioid.

Friday, June 7

Then & Now!

On this day in 1958, musical artist Prince was born.

Some refer to him as a musical genius. He could do it all: sing, play guitar, keyboards, drums, and bass, write songs, produce, dance and perform like no other.

Like Stevie Wonder, he was a rare composer who could perform at a professional level on virtually all the instruments he required, and a considerable number of his recordings feature him in all the performing roles.

Born Prince Rogers Nelson in Minneapolis, Minnesota, he began playing the piano at age seven and had mastered the guitar and drums by the time he joined his first band at age 14.

He signed a record deal with Warner Bros. Records at the age of 19, soon releasing the albums For You (1978) and Prince (1979). He went on to achieve critical success with the influential albums Dirty Mind (1980), Controversy (1981) and 1999 (1982).

His breakout came in 1983 with “Little Red Corvette”, gaining airplay on MTV at a time when virtually no Black artists appeared on the influential new medium. 1984’s Purple Rain made him one of the major stars of the 1980s and remains his biggest-selling album with 25 million sold. The album, which was the Academy Award-winning soundtrack to a film of the same name, also earned a Grammy Award. Three of its singles were hits: “Let’s Go Crazy,” “When Doves Cry,” and the anthemic title cut “Purple Rain”. The album spent six consecutive months at the top of the Billboard 200 chart.

The soundtrack also won Prince the Academy Award for Best Original Song Score while the movie ‘Purple Rain’ grossed $70 million worldwide on a $7 million budget. Critics have called Purple Rain one of the greatest musical films of all time. After disbanding his backing band the Revolution, Prince released the album Sign o' the Times in 1987, widely hailed by critics as the greatest work of his career.

His prodigious musical career continued for the next three decades. Estimates of the complete number of songs written by Prince range anywhere from 500 to well over 1,000. Some of these songs were made popular after being covered by other musicians, including "Nothing Compares 2 U" by Sinéad O'Connor and "Manic Monday" by the Bangles.

Prince sold at least 100 million records worldwide during his lifetime, ranking him among the best-selling music artists of all time.

Tragically, he was found dead at his Paisley Park estate in Minneapolis on April 21, 2016. An autopsy later revealed that he had died from an accidental overdose of fentanyl, a powerful opioid.

Significant Events

June 7, 1989: Wayne Gretzky won His 9th straight NHL MVP award. Gretzky had won the trophy eight times as an Edmonton Oiler. In 1989, he became the first Los Angeles King ever to receive the honor. It was a perfect ending to his first season as a King, and he joined Kirk Gibson of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Magic Johnson of the LA Lakers, who also brought MVP trophies to the city.

Gretzky received 267 of a possible 315 points, getting 40 first-place votes, 22 second-place votes and one third-place vote from sportswriters in all NHL cities. Lemieux received 18 first-place votes, 27 second-place votes and 16 third-place votes.

He was the only player to be named on all 63 Hart Trophy ballots.

The all-time Hart Trophy leaders are: Gretzky with nine, then Gordie Howe with six and Eddie Shore with four.

He played 20 seasons in the National Hockey League for four teams from 1979 to 1999, retiring at the age of 38. Nicknamed "the Great One", he has been called the greatest ice hockey player ever by many sportswriters, players, The Hockey News, and the NHL itself. Gretzky is the leading career goal scorer, assist producer and point scorer in NHL history and has more career assists than any other player has total points

June 7, 1985: The Goonies premiered in theatres. It stars Sean Astin, Josh Brolin, Jeff Cohen, Corey Feldman, Kerri Green, Martha Plimpton, Ke Huy Quan and John Matuszack as Sloth.

The film grossed $125 million worldwide on a budget of $19 million and has since become a cult film. In 2017, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant"

Special anniversary events for the film, hosted by the city of Astoria (where the film was shot), have drawn about 10,000 to 15,000 visitors. The home used for the Walsh family in the movie has become a tourist attraction, receiving between 1,200 and 1,500 visitors a day during the summer of the 30th anniversary. As a result, in August 2015, the residents and owners of the home, their neighbours and the city of Astoria took steps to limit public access to the home.

June 7, 1968: The world's first Legoland resort opens. The Legoland in Billund, Denmark was the first of six theme parks based around the Lego interlocking plastic bricks. Billund is the home of The Lego Group.

Over 1.9 million guests visited the park in 2011, and 50 million guests have visited the park since it opened. This makes Legoland the largest tourist attraction in Denmark outside Copenhagen. The Legoland parks that have since been built are modelled upon Legoland Billund, most noticeably the Mini Land area, which is made up of millions of plastic Lego bricks.

Several other Legolands have been around the world, including New York, Japan, Korea, Malaysia and Germany.

June 7, 1965: Sony Corp introduced its home video tape recorder, priced at $995, a whopping $10,000 in 2024! These early video tape recorders were open-reel devices that recorded on individual reels of 2-inch-wide tape. They were used in television studios, serving as a replacement for motion picture film stock and making recording for television applications cheaper and quicker.

Beginning in 1963, videotape machines made instant replay during televised sporting events possible. Improved formats where the tape was contained inside a videocassette were introduced around 1969; the machines that played them were called videocassette recorders (VCRs).

Home VCRs first became available in the early 1970s, with Sony and Philips releasing competing products. The first system to be notably successful with consumers was Sony's Betamax (or Beta) in 1975. It was soon followed by the competing VHS (Video Home System) format from JVC in 1977.

June 7, 1929: Vatican City becomes an independent state. The Lateran Treaty, which was signed on February 11 of the same year, was ratified by Italy's fascist government on this day. It guarantees the political and territorial sovereignty of Vatican City. With an area of 49 hectares (121 acres) and as of 2023 a population of about 764, it is the smallest state in the world both by area and by population.

The unique economy of Vatican City is supported financially by donations from the faithful, by the sale of postage stamps and souvenirs, fees for admission to museums, and sales of publications. Vatican City has no taxes, and items are duty-free.

Billboard Number Ones

1980 Funkytown - Lipps Inc.
1981 Betty Davis Eyes - Kim Carnes

1982 Ebony and Ivory - Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder
1983 Flashdance... What a Feeling - Irene Cara

1984 Let's Hear It for the Boy - Deniece Williams
1985 Everything She Wants - Wham

1986 Live to Tell - Madonna

1987 You Keep Me Hangin' On - Kim Wilde
1988 One More Try - George Michael

1989 Rock On - Michael Damian

Top Grossing Movies

1980 The Empire Strikes Back

1981 Cheech and Chong’s Nice Dreams

1982 Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

1983 Return of the Jedi

1984 Ghostbusters

1985 Rambo: First Blood Part II

1986 Top Gun

1987 Beverly Hills Cop II

1988 Crocodile Dundee II

1989 Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

Today's Your Birthday!

1958 Prince was a major figure in popular music for over three decades. The singer-songwriter was known for his eclectic work, flamboyant stage presence, wide vocal range and multi-instrumentalist. Prince sold over 100 million records worldwide and has won seven Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe and an Academy Award. (d. 2016)

​1952 Liam Neeson is an American Irish actor who gained fame when he starred as Oskar Schindler in Steven Spielberg's 1993 film Schindler's List. This performance garnered him an Academy Award for Best Actor nomination.

He then went on to lead roles in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999), the Taken film series (2008-14) and the historical drama Silence (2016).

1940 Tom Jones has been one of the most popular vocalists and hit makers of the last five decades, Jones rose from a pub singer to a Las Vegas headliner, winning the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1966.

Some notable songs from the early stage of his career include "It's Not Unusual", "Green, Green Grass of Home", "Delilah" and "She's A Lady”. A resurgence in popularity in the late 1980s was sparked by a cover version of Prince's "Kiss" in collaboration with the British band Art of Noise. This led to a series of recordings pairing him with contemporary performers throughout the 1990s.

In the 2010s, yet another resurgence came through his involvement as a coach in the television singing competition "The Voice UK", beginning in 2012. He also released a trio of well-regarded gritty albums.

1917 Dean Martin broke into the limelight alongside Jerry Lewis in 'Martin & Lewis’ in 1946. He has been a leading name among 20th-century American entertainers, nicknamed 'The King of Cool.'

Martin was an established singer, who was for a while one of the most popular acts in Las Vegas. Martin, together with Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr., was part of the 'Rat Pack', a star-studded set of Vegas performers.

He was also host of 'The Dean Martin Show,' a variety show in which he further demonstrated his musical and comedic talents. (d. 1995)

1848 Paul Gauguin, the French Post-Impressionist artist came to art later in life after a career as a stockbroker. Gauguin was 40 when he became a full-time artist in 1885.

In 1888, Gauguin spent nine weeks painting with Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh in Arles. It was after the two quarrelled that van Gogh famously chopped off his ear.

Gauguin made his first trip to Tahiti and French Polynesia in 1891 where he developed his mature style drawing on "primitive" and Western art forms and often depicting Tahitian women as his models. Gauguin returned to Paris in 1893, before returning to Tahiti in 1895.

Thursday, June 6

Then & Now!

On June 6, 1984, the video game Tetris was published. Russian computer engineer Alexey Pajitnov created the puzzle game. With over 425 million copies sold, it is one of the most successful video games in history.

Pajitnov was working for the Dorodnitsyn Computing Centre of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, a research and development center in Moscow created by the government when he got the idea for the game. He apparently didn’t create Tetris to make money, he did it for fun - just to see if he could do it!

He was inspired by a puzzle game called "pentominoes" where different wooden shapes made of five equal squares are assembled in a box. Pajitnov imagined the shapes falling from above into a glass, with players controlling the shapes and guiding them into place. He adapted the shapes to four squares each and programmed the game in his spare time, dubbing it "Tetris." The name combined the Latin word "tetra", the numerical prefix "four," for the four squares of each puzzle piece — and "tennis," Pajitnov's favorite game.

The original NES version of Tetris was released by a company called Tengen, owned by Atari. There’s just one problem: Atari didn’t have the rights to produce a home version of the game. Rather, its license was for arcade versions of Tetris. It turns out Atari had asked Pajitnov for permission to release a home console version of the game instead of the Russian government.

While Atari was trying to sort out the details, the U.S.S.R. granted licensing rights for Tetris to Nintendo. Tengen and Atari sued Nintendo claiming it had the rights to distribute its version of Tetris. Tengen lost the case in June 1989, with a U.S. district court judge issuing an injunction stopping further sales of their Tetris. The title had been on shelves for a month when the order came down, during which time about 100,000 copies were sold.

Despite Tetris‘s wild popularity, including being bundled with the Game Boy in the late ’80s, Pajitnov never saw a dime from sales of Tetris until 1996. Pajitnov gave his rights to the software to the Russian government for 10 years, making it one of the first pieces of software exported by the Soviet Union. In 1996, he founded the Tetris Company, which now owns the rights to Tetris worldwide, licensing the game out to third parties.

Tetris established itself as one of the greatest video games ever made. As of 2014, Tetris had sold over 425 million copies on mobile devices alone, making it one of the best-selling video game franchises. The Game Boy version is one of the best-selling games of all time, with more than 35 million copies sold. Tetris is available on over 65 platforms, setting a Guinness world record for the most ported video game.

Significant Events

June 6, 1984: The video game Tetris was published. Russian computer engineer, Alexey Pajitnov, created the puzzle game. With over 425 million copies sold, it is one of the most successful video games in history.

June 6, 1983: The thirteenth James Bond movie "Octopuss*” premiered in London. It was the sixth Bond film to star Roger Moore.

Following For Your Eyes Only, Roger Moore had expressed a desire to retire from the role of James Bond. His original contract had been for three films: Live and Let Die in 1973, The Man with the Golden Gun in 1974 and The Spy Who Loved Me in 1977. Moore's following two films - Moonraker in 1979 and For Your Eyes Only in 1981 - were negotiated on a film-by-film basis.

Given his reluctance to return for Octopuss*, the producers engaged in a semi-public quest for the next Bond, with Timothy Dalton and Lewis Collins being suggested as a replacement and screen tests carried out with Michael Billington, Oliver Tobias, and American actor James Brolin. However, when rival Bond production Never Say Never Again was announced with former Bond Sean Connery playing Bond, the producers persuaded Moore to continue in the role as it was thought the established actor would fare better against Connery.

It was released four months before the Never Say Never Again and earned $188 million against its $28 million budget. While the box office numbers were very good, the film received mixed reviews. Praise was directed towards the action sequences and locations, with the plot and humour being targeted for criticism; Maude Adams's portrayal of the title character also drew polarised responses.

June 6, 1965: The Rolling Stones released "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction". A product of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards' songwriting partnership, it features a guitar riff by Richards that opens and drives the song, a riff widely considered one of the greatest hooks of all time. The song's lyrics refer to sexual frustration and commercialism.

The track was first released as a single in the United States in June of 1965 and was also featured on the American version of the Rolling Stones' fourth studio album, Out of Our Heads, released that July. "Satisfaction" was a hit, giving the Stones their first number one in the U.S. In the UK, the song initially was played only on pirate radio stations, because its lyrics were considered too sexually suggestive. It later became the Rolling Stones' fourth number one in the United Kingdom.

It is one of the world's most popular songs and was number 31 on Rolling Stone magazine's "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list in 2021. It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998 and added to the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress in 2006.

June 6, 1946: The National Basketball Association (NBA) is founded as the Basketball Association of America (BAA). It changed its name to the National Basketball Association on August 3, 1949, after merging with the competing National Basketball League. In 1976, the NBA and the American Basketball Association merged, adding four franchises to the NBA.

The NBA's regular season runs from October to April, with each team playing 82 games. The league's playoff tournament extends into June, culminating with the NBA Finals championship series. As of 2020, NBA players are the world's best paid athletes by average annual salary per player.

June 6, 1944: On D-Day, 160,000 Allied soldiers land in Normandy, France. The World War II invasion of Normandy established a new major front against the Germans in the west and helped Soviet forces facing the bulk of German troops in the east.

Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D-Day, the operation began the liberation of France, and the rest of Western Europe, and laid the foundations of the Allied victory on the Western Front.

Planning for the operation began in 1943. In the months leading up to the invasion, the Allies conducted a substantial military deception, codenamed Operation Bodyguard, to mislead the Germans as to the date and location of the main Allied landings.

The Normandy landings were the largest seaborne invasion in history, with nearly 5,000 landing and assault craft, 289 escort vessels and 277 minesweepers participating. Nearly 160,000 troops crossed the English Channel on D-Day, with 875,000 men disembarking by the end of June. Allied casualties on the first day were at least 10,000, with 4,414 confirmed dead and the Germans had 4,000–9,000 casualties (killed, wounded, missing or captured). The Germans never achieved Hitler's stated aim of "throwing the Allies back into the sea" on D-Day or anytime thereafter.

Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945.

June 6, 1930: Frozen food is sold in retail stores for the first time. 18 stores in Springfield, Massachusetts took part in a trial to test consumer acceptance. Clarence Birdseye, the founder of the Birds Eye Frozen Food Company, is considered to be the father of the modern frozen food industry.

The initial product line featured 26 items, including 18 cuts of frozen meat, spinach and peas, a variety of fruits and berries, blue point oysters and fish fillets. Consumers liked the new products, and today this is considered the birth of retail frozen foods.

In 1929, Birdseye had sold his previous company that developed the freezer technology to Goldman Sachs and the Postum Company, which eventually became General Foods Corporation. The price: $22 million which is approximately $335 million in 2021 dollars.

Billboard Number Ones

1980 Funkytown - Lipps Inc.
1981 Betty Davis Eyes - Kim Carnes

1982 Ebony and Ivory - Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder
1983 Flashdance... What a Feeling - Irene Cara

1984 Let's Hear It for the Boy - Deniece Williams
1985 Everything She Wants - Wham

1986 Greatest Love of All - Whitney Houston

1987 You Keep Me Hangin' On - Kim Wilde
1988 One More Try - George Michael

1989 Rock On - Michael Damian

Top Grossing Movies

1980 The Empire Strikes Back

1981 Cheech and Chong’s Nice Dreams

1982 Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

1983 Return of the Jedi

1984 Ghostbusters

1985 Rambo: First Blood Part II

1986 Top Gun

1987 Beverly Hills Cop II

1988 Crocodile Dundee II

1989 Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

Today's Your Birthday!

1965 Cam Neely is a Canadian professional ice hockey executive and former player. He played right wing for the Vancouver Canucks and Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1983 to 1996. Neely was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2005. He is the president of the Bruins.

1960 Steve Vai is an American guitarist, songwriter, and producer. A three-time Grammy Award winner and fifteen-time nominee, Vai started his music career in 1978 at the age of eighteen as a transcriptionist for Frank Zappa and played in Zappa's band from 1980 to 1983. He was voted the "10th Greatest Guitarist" by Guitar World magazine’s readers and has sold over 15 million records.

1959 Jimmy Jam (along with Terry Lewis) is part of an American R&B/pop songwriting and record production team. Their productions have received commercial success since the 1980s with various artists, most extensively Janet Jackson. They have written 31 top-ten hits in the UK and 41 in the US. In 2022, the duo was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the Musical Excellence category.

1956 Bjorn Borg is a Swedish former world No. 1 tennis player. Between 1974 and 1981, he became the first man in the Open Era to win 11 Grand Slam singles titles with six at the French Open and five consecutively at Wimbledon.

Borg is widely considered one of the all-time greats of the sport. He was ranked by Tennis magazine as the sixth-greatest male player of the Open Era. His rivalry with John McEnroe is considered one of the best in the sport's history, and their meeting in the 1980 Wimbledon final is considered one of the greatest matches ever played.

1947 Robert Englund is an American actor and director, best known for playing the supernatural serial killer Freddy Krueger in the Nightmare on Elm Street film series. Following his performance in the original A Nightmare on Elm Street in 1984, he became closely associated with the horror film genre and is widely regarded as one of its iconic actors.

1944 Tommie Smith is an American former track and field athlete and former wide receiver in the American Football League. At the 1968 Summer Olympics, Smith, aged 24, won the 200-meter sprint finals and gold medal in 19.83 seconds – the first time the 20-second barrier was broken officially. His Black Power salute with John Carlos atop the medal podium to protest racism and injustice against African Americans in the United States caused controversy, as it was seen as politicizing the Olympic Games. It remains a symbolic moment in the history of the Black Power movement.

Wednesday, June 5

Then & Now!

On this day in 1968, Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. The attacker, a 24-year-old Palestinian named Sirhan Sirhan, was disgruntled by Kennedy's support for Israel. The brother of former U.S. President, John F. Kennedy, died the following day.

While not a story from the 80s, it is an important piece of history many should be aware of.

Kennedy was a United States senator and a leading candidate in the 1968 Democratic Party presidential primaries. He won the California and South Dakota primaries on June 4, 1968, and addressed his campaign supporters in the Ambassador Hotel's Embassy Ballroom just after midnight. At the time, the government did not provide Secret Service protection for presidential candidates. Kennedy's only security personnel were a former FBI agent and two unofficial bodyguards.

After leaving the podium, and exiting through a kitchen hallway, he was mortally wounded by multiple shots fired by Sirhan at point-blank range. As Kennedy lay wounded, hotel worker Juan Romero cradled his head and placed a rosary in his hand. Kennedy asked Romero, "Is everybody OK?"; Romero responded, "Yes, everybody's OK." Kennedy then turned away and said, "Everything's going to be OK."

Kennedy had been shot multiple times. The fatal shot was fired at a range of 1 inch (3 cm), entering behind his right ear. The other two shots entered at the rear of his right armpit; one exited from his chest and the other lodged in the back of his neck. Despite extensive neurosurgery to remove the bullet and bone fragments from his brain, he was pronounced dead on June 6, nearly 25 hours after the shooting.

The funeral mass was held on the morning of June 8. Kennedy's younger brother, Senator Ted Kennedy, delivered the eulogy, saying:

My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life; to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it ... As he said many times, in many parts of this nation, to those he touched and who sought to touch him: "Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not."

Significant Events

June 5, 1981: A curious report appeared in the Center for Disease Control’s weekly public health digest: Five young, gay men across Los Angeles had been diagnosed with an unusual lung infection known as Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) – and two of them had died.

It was the first time that acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) – the devastating advanced stage of HIV infection that would go on to claim the lives of more than 32 million people globally – was reported in the U.S.

Today there are highly effective treatments that allow many people with HIV to have decades of good health. But that rosy prognosis is far from uniform—better in North America, for example, than in sub-Saharan Africa, and better in some demographic groups than others, depending on factors like race, ethnicity, gender, income and access to healthcare.

June 5, 1968: Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated. The attacker, a 24-year-old Palestinian, was disgruntled by Kennedy's support for Israel. The brother of former U.S. President, John F. Kennedy, died on the following day.

June 5, 1967: The Six-Day War begins in the Middle East. Israeli forces launched a surprise attack against Egypt, prompting other Arab allies to enter the conflict. Egypt had previously blocked the Straits of Tiran to Israeli traffic and amassed its troops at the border between the two countries.

Egyptian forces were caught by surprise, and nearly all of Egypt's military aerial assets were destroyed, giving Israel air supremacy. Simultaneously, the Israeli military launched a ground offensive into Egypt's Sinai Peninsula as well as the Egyptian-occupied Gaza Strip.

Egypt and Jordan agreed to a ceasefire on June 8, and Syria on June 9, and it was signed with Israel on June 11. The Six-Day War resulted in more than 20,000 fatal Arab casualties, while Israel suffered fewer than 1,000 fatalities.

After the war ended, Israel had seized Syria's Golan Heights, the Jordanian-annexed West Bank (including East Jerusalem), and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula as well as the Egyptian-occupied Gaza Strip. Around 300,000 Palestinians and 100,000 Syrians fled or were expelled from the West Bank and the Golan Heights, respectively, in the aftermath.

June 5, 1956: Elvis Presley first performs “Hound Dog” live on TV. Presley's suggestive hip movements during this performance earned him his nickname, “Elvis the Pelvis.” “Hound Dog” became his best-selling song with about 10 million copies sold.

Reaction to Elvis’ performance in the mainstream media was almost uniformly negative. “Mr. Presley has no discernible singing ability….For the ear, he is an unutterable bore,” wrote critic Jack Gould in the next day’s New York Times. “His one specialty is an accented movement of the body that heretofore has been primarily identified with the repertoire of the blonde bombshells of the burlesque runway. The gyration never had anything to do with the world of popular music and still doesn’t.”

In the New York Daily News, Ben Gross described Presley’s performance as “tinged with the kind of animalism that should be confined to dives and bordellos,” while the New York Journal-American‘s Jack O’Brien said that Elvis “makes up for vocal shortcomings with the weirdest and plainly suggestive animation short of an aborigine’s mating dance.” Meanwhile, the Catholic weekly America got right to the point in its headline: “Beware of Elvis Presley.”

June 5, 1883: The Orient Express Trains that many people are aware of today made its first journey on October 4th, 1883. With 40 passengers onboard, the train left Paris’ Gare de l’Est to venture to Constantinople. This 13-day journey included stops at European cities like Giurgiu, Munich, Vienna, Danube, and Varna. Additionally, to get to Constantinople, the company transported passengers by ferry!

The Orient Express enjoyed a reputation as a world-class luxury train that could take people to different parts of the world. Throughout its tenure, this luxury train line was enjoyed by numerous celebrities, government officials, and wealthy aristocrats. The train was designed with style in mind, including decor and intricate glassware by French artisans.

Despite many people never stepping foot inside the Orient Express, they know of its name and reputation thanks to countless references made in television shows, movies, books, video games, and music throughout generations. From 102 Dalmatians to Bram Stroker’s Dracula and Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, the allure of the Orient Express inspired works of art and media that inspire travelers and evoke curiosities among the public to this day.

Billboard Number Ones

1980 Funkytown - Lipps Inc.
1981 Betty Davis Eyes - Kim Carnes

1982 Ebony and Ivory - Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder
1983 Flashdance... What a Feeling - Irene Cara

1984 Let's Hear It for the Boy - Deniece Williams
1985 Everything She Wants - Wham

1986 Greatest Love of All - Whitney Houston

1987 With or Without You - U2
1988 One More Try - George Michael

1989 Rock On - Michael Damian

Top Grossing Movies

1980 The Empire Strikes Back

1981 Cheech and Chong’s Nice Dreams

1982 Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

1983 Return of the Jedi

1984 Ghostbusters

1985 Rambo: First Blood Part II

1986 Top Gun

1987 Beverly Hills Cop II

1988 Crocodile Dundee II

1989 Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

Today's Your Birthday!

1971 Mark Wahlberg, formerly known by his stage name Marky Mark, is an American actor. His work as a leading man spans the comedy, drama, and action genres. He has received multiple accolades, including a BAFTA Award, and nominations for two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, nine Primetime Emmy Awards and three Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Wahlberg established the Mark Wahlberg Youth Foundation in May 2001 to raise and distribute funds to youth service and enrichment programs. In 2023, Wahlberg and his family moved from Hollywood to Las Vegas.

1965 Bob Probert was a Canadian professional ice hockey forward. Probert played for the National Hockey League's Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks. While a successful player by some measures, including being voted to the 1987–88 Campbell Conference all-star team, Probert was best known for his activities as a fighter and enforcer, as well as being one half of the "Bruise Brothers" with then-Red Wing teammate Joey Kocur, during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Probert was also known for his off-ice antics and legal problems.

Bob Probert died of a heart attack on July 5, 2010.

1956 Richard Butler is an English singer and songwriter. Butler came to prominence in the early 1980s as lead vocalist of the rock band the Psychedelic Furs and went on to found the alternative rock band Love Spit Love in the early 1990s, during a hiatus of the Psychedelic Furs.

The band had several hits in their early career. In 1986, filmmaker John Hughes used their song "Pretty in Pink" for his film of the same name. They went on hiatus after they finished touring in 1992 but resumed in 2000 and continue to perform live. The band released Made of Rain, their first studio album in nearly three decades in 2020.

1956 Kenneth Gorelick, known professionally as Kenny G, is an American smooth jazz saxophonist, composer, and producer. His 1986 album Duotones brought him commercial success. Kenny G is one of the best-selling artists of all time, with global sales totaling more than 75 million records.

1939 Joe Clark served as the 16th prime minister of Canada from 1979 to 1980. He won a minority government in the 1979 election, defeating the Liberal government of Pierre Trudeau and ending sixteen years of continuous Liberal rule. Taking office the day before his 40th birthday, Clark is the youngest person to become Prime Minister.

Clark's tenure was brief as his minority government was brought down in 1979 and he subsequently lost the 1980 election to Trudeau and the Liberals, who won a majority in the Commons and returned to power.

Wednesday, June 5

Then & Now!

On this day in 1968, Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. The attacker, a 24-year-old Palestinian named Sirhan Sirhan, was disgruntled by Kennedy's support for Israel. The brother of former U.S. President, John F. Kennedy, died the following day.

While not a story from the 80s, it is an important piece of history many should be aware of.

Kennedy was a United States senator and a leading candidate in the 1968 Democratic Party presidential primaries. He won the California and South Dakota primaries on June 4, 1968, and addressed his campaign supporters in the Ambassador Hotel's Embassy Ballroom just after midnight. At the time, the government did not provide Secret Service protection for presidential candidates. Kennedy's only security personnel were a former FBI agent and two unofficial bodyguards.

After leaving the podium, and exiting through a kitchen hallway, he was mortally wounded by multiple shots fired by Sirhan at point-blank range. As Kennedy lay wounded, hotel worker Juan Romero cradled his head and placed a rosary in his hand. Kennedy asked Romero, "Is everybody OK?"; Romero responded, "Yes, everybody's OK." Kennedy then turned away and said, "Everything's going to be OK."

Kennedy had been shot multiple times. The fatal shot was fired at a range of 1 inch (3 cm), entering behind his right ear. The other two shots entered at the rear of his right armpit; one exited from his chest and the other lodged in the back of his neck. Despite extensive neurosurgery to remove the bullet and bone fragments from his brain, he was pronounced dead on June 6, nearly 25 hours after the shooting.

The funeral mass was held on the morning of June 8. Kennedy's younger brother, Senator Ted Kennedy, delivered the eulogy, saying:

My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life; to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it ... As he said many times, in many parts of this nation, to those he touched and who sought to touch him: "Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not."

Significant Events

June 5, 1981: A curious report appeared in the Center for Disease Control’s weekly public health digest: Five young, gay men across Los Angeles had been diagnosed with an unusual lung infection known as Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) – and two of them had died.

It was the first time that acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) – the devastating advanced stage of HIV infection that would go on to claim the lives of more than 32 million people globally – was reported in the U.S.

Today there are highly effective treatments that allow many people with HIV to have decades of good health. But that rosy prognosis is far from uniform—better in North America, for example, than in sub-Saharan Africa, and better in some demographic groups than others, depending on factors like race, ethnicity, gender, income and access to healthcare.

June 5, 1968: Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated. The attacker, a 24-year-old Palestinian, was disgruntled by Kennedy's support for Israel. The brother of former U.S. President, John F. Kennedy, died on the following day.

June 5, 1967: The Six-Day War begins in the Middle East. Israeli forces launched a surprise attack against Egypt, prompting other Arab allies to enter the conflict. Egypt had previously blocked the Straits of Tiran to Israeli traffic and amassed its troops at the border between the two countries.

Egyptian forces were caught by surprise, and nearly all of Egypt's military aerial assets were destroyed, giving Israel air supremacy. Simultaneously, the Israeli military launched a ground offensive into Egypt's Sinai Peninsula as well as the Egyptian-occupied Gaza Strip.

Egypt and Jordan agreed to a ceasefire on June 8, and Syria on June 9, and it was signed with Israel on June 11. The Six-Day War resulted in more than 20,000 fatal Arab casualties, while Israel suffered fewer than 1,000 fatalities.

After the war ended, Israel had seized Syria's Golan Heights, the Jordanian-annexed West Bank (including East Jerusalem), and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula as well as the Egyptian-occupied Gaza Strip. Around 300,000 Palestinians and 100,000 Syrians fled or were expelled from the West Bank and the Golan Heights, respectively, in the aftermath.

June 5, 1956: Elvis Presley first performs “Hound Dog” live on TV. Presley's suggestive hip movements during this performance earned him his nickname, “Elvis the Pelvis.” “Hound Dog” became his best-selling song with about 10 million copies sold.

Reaction to Elvis’ performance in the mainstream media was almost uniformly negative. “Mr. Presley has no discernible singing ability….For the ear, he is an unutterable bore,” wrote critic Jack Gould in the next day’s New York Times. “His one specialty is an accented movement of the body that heretofore has been primarily identified with the repertoire of the blonde bombshells of the burlesque runway. The gyration never had anything to do with the world of popular music and still doesn’t.”

In the New York Daily News, Ben Gross described Presley’s performance as “tinged with the kind of animalism that should be confined to dives and bordellos,” while the New York Journal-American‘s Jack O’Brien said that Elvis “makes up for vocal shortcomings with the weirdest and plainly suggestive animation short of an aborigine’s mating dance.” Meanwhile, the Catholic weekly America got right to the point in its headline: “Beware of Elvis Presley.”

June 5, 1883: The Orient Express Trains that many people are aware of today made its first journey on October 4th, 1883. With 40 passengers onboard, the train left Paris’ Gare de l’Est to venture to Constantinople. This 13-day journey included stops at European cities like Giurgiu, Munich, Vienna, Danube, and Varna. Additionally, to get to Constantinople, the company transported passengers by ferry!

The Orient Express enjoyed a reputation as a world-class luxury train that could take people to different parts of the world. Throughout its tenure, this luxury train line was enjoyed by numerous celebrities, government officials, and wealthy aristocrats. The train was designed with style in mind, including decor and intricate glassware by French artisans.

Despite many people never stepping foot inside the Orient Express, they know of its name and reputation thanks to countless references made in television shows, movies, books, video games, and music throughout generations. From 102 Dalmatians to Bram Stroker’s Dracula and Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, the allure of the Orient Express inspired works of art and media that inspire travelers and evoke curiosities among the public to this day.

Billboard Number Ones

1980 Funkytown - Lipps Inc.
1981 Betty Davis Eyes - Kim Carnes

1982 Ebony and Ivory - Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder
1983 Flashdance... What a Feeling - Irene Cara

1984 Let's Hear It for the Boy - Deniece Williams
1985 Everything She Wants - Wham

1986 Greatest Love of All - Whitney Houston

1987 With or Without You - U2
1988 One More Try - George Michael

1989 Rock On - Michael Damian

Top Grossing Movies

1980 The Empire Strikes Back

1981 Cheech and Chong’s Nice Dreams

1982 Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

1983 Return of the Jedi

1984 Ghostbusters

1985 Rambo: First Blood Part II

1986 Top Gun

1987 Beverly Hills Cop II

1988 Crocodile Dundee II

1989 Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

Today's Your Birthday!

1971 Mark Wahlberg, formerly known by his stage name Marky Mark, is an American actor. His work as a leading man spans the comedy, drama, and action genres. He has received multiple accolades, including a BAFTA Award, and nominations for two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, nine Primetime Emmy Awards and three Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Wahlberg established the Mark Wahlberg Youth Foundation in May 2001 to raise and distribute funds to youth service and enrichment programs. In 2023, Wahlberg and his family moved from Hollywood to Las Vegas.

1965 Bob Probert was a Canadian professional ice hockey forward. Probert played for the National Hockey League's Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks. While a successful player by some measures, including being voted to the 1987–88 Campbell Conference all-star team, Probert was best known for his activities as a fighter and enforcer, as well as being one half of the "Bruise Brothers" with then-Red Wing teammate Joey Kocur, during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Probert was also known for his off-ice antics and legal problems.

Bob Probert died of a heart attack on July 5, 2010.

1956 Richard Butler is an English singer and songwriter. Butler came to prominence in the early 1980s as lead vocalist of the rock band the Psychedelic Furs and went on to found the alternative rock band Love Spit Love in the early 1990s, during a hiatus of the Psychedelic Furs.

The band had several hits in their early career. In 1986, filmmaker John Hughes used their song "Pretty in Pink" for his film of the same name. They went on hiatus after they finished touring in 1992 but resumed in 2000 and continue to perform live. The band released Made of Rain, their first studio album in nearly three decades in 2020.

1956 Kenneth Gorelick, known professionally as Kenny G, is an American smooth jazz saxophonist, composer, and producer. His 1986 album Duotones brought him commercial success. Kenny G is one of the best-selling artists of all time, with global sales totaling more than 75 million records.

1939 Joe Clark served as the 16th prime minister of Canada from 1979 to 1980.

He won a minority government in the 1979 election, defeating the Liberal government of Pierre Trudeau and ending sixteen years of continuous Liberal rule. Taking office the day before his 40th birthday, Clark is the youngest person to become Prime Minister.

Clark's tenure was brief as his minority government was brought down in 1979 and he subsequently lost the 1980 election to Trudeau and the Liberals, who won a majority in the Commons and returned to power.

Tuesday, June 4

Then & Now!

On this day in 1984, Bruce Springsteen released his iconic Born in the U.S.A. album. It’s a rock and roll album with a more pop-influenced sound than Springsteen's previous records. Its production is typical of mainstream 1980s rock music, with a prominent use of synthesizers. The lyrics contrast with the album's livelier sound and continue the themes of previous records, particularly Nebraska. Topics include working-class struggles, disillusionment, patriotism, and personal relationships, while several tracks feature humour.

The cover photograph of Springsteen against the American flag was taken by Annie Leibovitz and has appeared on lists of the best album covers ever.

Accompanied by a vast promotional campaign that featured seven singles, five music videos, and three dance remixes, Born in the U.S.A. was a massive commercial success, becoming the best-selling album of 1985 and topping the charts in nine countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom. All seven of its singles, including "Dancing in the Dark", "Born in the U.S.A.", "I'm on Fire" and "Glory Days" reached the U.S. top ten.

The album has sold over 30 million copies worldwide, making it Springsteen's best-selling album and one of the best-selling albums of all time. At the time, music critics praised the album's storytelling and musical performances, while others criticized the use of similar lyrical themes as Springsteen's previous albums. Springsteen and the E Street Band supported the album on the Born in the U.S.A. Tour.

At the 27th Annual Grammy Awards in 1985, Born in the U.S.A. was nominated for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, while "Dancing in the Dark" was nominated for Record of the Year and won the award for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male. "Born in the U.S.A." was nominated for Record of the Year at the following year's ceremony.

Although he had been a well-known star before its release, Larry Rodgers wrote in The Arizona Republic that "it was not until he hit the gym to get buffed up and showed off his rear end in the cover photo for Born in the U.S.A. that he became an American pop icon," touching off a wave of what the author Chris Smith termed "Bossmania".

Born in the U.S.A. made Springsteen a superstar and brought him his largest amount of success to date as a recording and performing artist. He later expressed reservations about the album itself and the fame it brought him. Nevertheless, retrospective assessments consider Born in the U.S.A. one of the best records by Springsteen all-time and of the 1980s. It has appeared on lists of the greatest albums of all time, including by Rolling Stone and NME, and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2012.

Significant Events

June 4, 1984: Bruce Springsteen released his Born in the U.S.A. album. It’s a rock and roll album with a more pop-influenced sound than Springsteen's previous records. The album has sold over 30 million copies worldwide, making it Springsteen's best-selling album and one of the best-selling albums of all time.

June 4, 1982: Poltergeist premiered in theatres. Steven Spielberg produced the movie but was contractually unable to direct another film while he made E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Instead, Tobe Hooper took the reins based on his work on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Funhouse.

Accounts differ as to the level of Spielberg's involvement, but it is clear that he was frequently on set during filming and exerted significant creative control. For that reason, some have said that Spielberg should be considered the film's co-director or even main director, though both Spielberg and Hooper have disputed this.

Poltergeist was a major critical and commercial success, becoming the eighth-highest-grossing film of 1982. In the years since its release, the film has been recognized as a horror classic. It was nominated for three Academy Awards, named by the Chicago Film Critics Association as the 20th-scariest film ever made, and a scene made Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments. Poltergeist also appeared at No. 84 on the American Film Institute's 100 Years...100 Thrills.

June 4, 1982: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was released. It is the second film in the Star Trek film series following Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) and is a sequel to the television episode "Space Seed" (1967).

The plot features Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and the crew of the starship USS Enterprise facing off against the genetically engineered tyrant Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalbán). When Khan escapes from a 15-year exile to exact revenge on Kirk, the crew of the Enterprise must stop him from acquiring a powerful terraforming device named Genesis.

The film is the beginning of a three-film story arc that continues with the film Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) and concludes with the film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986).

It was a box office success, earning US$97 million worldwide and setting a world record for its first-day box office gross. The critical reaction to the film was positive; reviewers highlighted Khan's character, Meyer's direction, improved performances, the film's pacing, and the character interactions as strong elements. The Wrath of Khan is considered by many to be the best film in the Star Trek series and is often credited with renewing substantial interest in the franchise.

June 4, 1940: The British completed the "Miracle of Dunkirk" by evacuating more than 338,000 Allied troops from France via a flotilla of over 800 vessels including Royal Navy destroyers, merchant marine boats, fishing boats, pleasure craft and even lifeboats. The evacuation happened during the Second World War from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, in the north of France, between May 26 and June 4, 1940. The operation began after large numbers of Belgian, British and French troops were cut off and surrounded by German troops during the six-week Battle of France.

On the first day of the evacuation, only 7,669 Allied soldiers were evacuated, but by the end of the eighth day, 338,226 had been rescued. Many troops were able to embark from the harbour's protective mole onto 39 British Royal Navy destroyers, four Royal Canadian Navy destroyers, at least three French Navy destroyers, and a variety of civilian merchant ships. Others had to wade out from the beaches, waiting for hours in shoulder-deep water. Some were ferried to the larger ships by what became known as the Little Ships of Dunkirk, a flotilla of hundreds of merchant marine boats, fishing boats, pleasure craft, yachts, and lifeboats called into service from Britain.

June 4, 1896: Henry Ford takes his first Ford through the streets of Detroit. From those humble beginnings, he introduced the Model T Ford in October of 1908, the world's first mass-produced car. In producing an automobile for the middle class instead of just for the wealthy, Henry Ford helped change American society forever.

Prior to this Ford had spent many years perfecting different engines and models, including leaving an original company bearing his name that later became the Cadillac Automotive Company.

The Model T went on to sell over 15 million units. Ford was able to achieve this by developing his car assembly line through mass production, the first significant industrialist to do so.

Henry Ford is also remembered for establishing a minimum wage of $5 a day in 1914, raising the daily rate from $2.34 for most workers. It was a sensational move at the time aimed at acquiring and retaining the best workforce.

June 4, 1783: Two brothers demonstrated their invention, the hot air balloon, before a crowd of dignitaries in Annonay, France. Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier, prosperous paper manufacturers (a high-tech industry at the time), experimented with lighter-than-air devices after observing that heated air directed into a paper or fabric bag made the bag rise. After several successful tests, the brothers decided to publicly demonstrate their invention.

The Montgolfiers built a balloon made of silk and lined with paper that was 33 feet (10 meters) in diameter and launched it — with nobody aboard — from the marketplace in Annonay. The balloon rose to between 5,200 and 6,600 feet (1,600 to 2,000 m) and stayed aloft for 10 minutes, traveling more than a mile (about 2 kilometers).

Billboard Number Ones

1980 Funkytown - Lipps Inc.
1981 Betty Davis Eyes - Kim Carnes

1982 Ebony and Ivory - Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder
1983 Flashdance... What a Feeling - Irene Cara

1984 Let's Hear It for the Boy - Deniece Williams
1985 Everything She Wants - Wham

1986 Greatest Love of All - Whitney Houston

1987 With or Without You - U2
1988 One More Try - George Michael

1989 Rock On - Michael Damian

Top Grossing Movies

1980 The Empire Strikes Back

1981 Cheech and Chong’s Nice Dreams

1982 Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

1983 Return of the Jedi

1984 Ghostbusters

1985 Rambo: First Blood Part II

1986 Top Gun

1987 Beverly Hills Cop II

1988 Crocodile Dundee II

1989 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Today's Your Birthday!

1975 Angelina Jolie is an American actress, filmmaker, and humanitarian. The recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award and three Golden Globe Awards, she has been named Hollywood's highest-paid actress multiple times.

Jolie is known for her humanitarian efforts. The causes she promotes include conservation, education, and women's rights. She has been noted for her advocacy on behalf of refugees as a Special Envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. She has undertaken various field missions to refugee camps and war zones worldwide. In addition to receiving a Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award among other honors, Jolie was made an honorary Dame Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George.

1975 Russell Brand is an English comedian, actor, presenter, activist, and campaigner. He established himself as a standup comedian and radio host before becoming a film actor.

Over the course of his career, Brand has been the subject of frequent media coverage for issues such as his promiscuity, drug use, political views, provocative behaviour at various award ceremonies, his dismissal from MTV and his resignation from the BBC amid a prank call controversy.

1961 (Eldra) "El" Debarge is an American singer, songwriter and musician. He was the focal point and primary lead singer of the family group DeBarge. Popular songs led by El DeBarge include "Time Will Reveal", "Who's Holding Donna Now", "Stay with Me", "All This Love", and "Rhythm of the Night".

As a solo artist, he is best known for his unique high tenor register, strong falsetto and hits like "Who's Johnny" and "Love Always".

1944 Michelle Phillips is an American singer, songwriter and actress. She rose to fame as a vocalist in the musical quartet the Mamas & the Papas in the mid-1960s. Her voice was described by Time magazine as the "purest soprano in pop music". She later established a successful career as an actress in film and television beginning in the 1970s. In 1987, she joined the series Knots Landing, portraying Anne Matheson, the mother of Paige Matheson (portrayed by Nicollette Sheridan), until the series’ 1993 conclusion.

While married to John Phillips, she gave birth to their daughter, singer Chynna Phillips. Michelle Phillips is the last surviving original member of the Mamas & the Papas.

1937 Robert James "Gino" Marella, better known by his ring name of Gorilla Monsoon, was an American professional wrestler, play-by-play commentator and booker.

Monsoon is famous for his run as a villainous super-heavyweight main eventer, and later as the voice of the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), as commentator and backstage manager during the 1980s and 1990s. He also portrayed the on-screen role of WWF President from 1995 to 1997.

In professional wrestling, the staging area just behind the entrance curtain at an event, a position that Marella established and where he could often be found during WWF shows late in his career, is named the "Gorilla Position" in his honour. (d. 1999)

1936 Bruce Dern is an American actor. He has received several accolades, including the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor and the Silver Bear for Best Actor. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Coming Home (1978) and the Academy Award for Best Actor for Nebraska (2013). He is also a BAFTA Award, two-time Genie Award and three-time Golden Globe Award nominee. Bruce is the father of actress Laura Dern.

Monday, June 3

Then & Now!

On this day in 1985, "Larry King Live" debuted on CNN, airing each weeknight through December 2010. King hosted a broad range of guests, from figures such as UFO conspiracy theorists and alleged psychics to prominent politicians and entertainment industry figures, often giving their first or only interview on breaking news stories on his show. After broadcasting his CNN show from 9 to 10 p.m., King then traveled to another studio to do his radio show when both shows still aired.

Unlike many interviewers, King had a direct, non-confrontational approach. His reputation for asking easy, open-ended questions made him attractive to important figures who wanted to state their position while avoiding being challenged on contentious topics. King said that when interviewing authors, he did not read their books in advance so that he would not know more than his audience.

Two of his best-remembered interviews involved political figures. In 1992, billionaire Ross Perot announced his presidential bid on the show. In 1993, a debate between Al Gore and Perot became CNN's most-watched segment until 2015.

During his career, King conducted more than 60,000 interviews. CNN's Larry King Live became "the longest-running television show hosted by the same person, on the same network and in the same time slot” and was recognized for it by the Guinness Book of World Records. He retired in 2010 after taping 6,000 episodes of the show.

On January 2, 2021, it was reported that King had been admitted to the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles due to severe COVID-19 infection. Three weeks later on January 23 at the age of 87, King died of sepsis infection due to prior health issues, though he had survived the virus.

Significant Events

June 3, 1989: Signaled the beginning of the Tiananmen Square Massacre as Chinese troops opened fire on pro-democracy supporters in Beijing. The protests were student-led demonstrations lasting from April 15 to June 4, 1989. After weeks of unsuccessful attempts between the demonstrators and the Chinese government to find a peaceful resolution, the Chinese government declared martial law on the night of June 3 and deployed troops to occupy the square.

The number of deaths and the extent of bloodshed in the square itself have been in dispute since the events. The government actively suppressed the discussion of casualty figures immediately after the events, and estimates rely heavily on eyewitness testimony, hospital records, and organized efforts by victims' relatives. As a result, large discrepancies exist among various casualty estimates. Initial estimates ranged from the official figure of a few hundred to several thousand.

June 3, 1988: The film “Big” directed by Penny Marshall and starring Tom Hanks premieres in the U.S. Hanks played Josh Baskin, a pre-adolescent boy whose wish to be "big" transforms him physically into an adult.

“Big” was met with wide critical acclaim, particularly for Hanks' performance. It was a huge commercial success as well, grossing $151 million worldwide against a production budget of $18 million and was the first feature film directed by a woman to gross over $100 million. “Big” proved to be pivotal to Hanks' career, establishing him as a major box-office draw as well as a critical favorite. The film received Academy Award nominations for Best Actor (Hanks) and Best Original Screenplay.

The film is number 23 on Bravo's 100 Funniest Movies. In 2000, it was ranked 42nd on the American Film Institute's "100 Years…100 Laughs" list. In June 2008, AFI named it the tenth-best film in the fantasy genre. In 2008, it was selected by Empire as one of "The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time."

June 3, 1985: "Larry King Live" debuts on CNN, airing each weeknight through December 2010. King hosted a broad range of guests, from figures such as UFO conspiracy theorists and alleged psychics, to prominent politicians and entertainment industry figures, often giving their first or only interview on breaking news stories on his show.

June 3, 1977: Island Records releases "Exodus", the ninth studio album by Bob Marley & the Wailers; featuring the hits, 'Jamming', 'Waiting in Vain', 'Three Little Birds' and 'One Love', it is named the best album of the century by Time Magazine in 1999.

During the 1960s Marley married and became interested in the Rastafari movement and remained committed to it for the rest of his life and it came to influence much of his music. In 1976 an assassination attempt was made during rehearsals for a concert aimed at quelling political tensions in Jamaica.

After this Marley left for the UK releasing albums 'Exodus' and 'Kaya'. His 1979 album 'Survival' showed his support for African causes and included the song 'War'.

In 1977 a malignant tumor was discovered in Marley's toe but he went on to tour and release albums including his last 'Uprising' in 1980. Despite treatment for his cancer, he died in May 1981.

June 3, 1970: Ray Davies of The Kinks travels round trip NY-London to change 1 word in "Lola," (Coca-Cola to Cherry Cola) because of BBC commercial reference ban. Primary singer and songwriter for the British rock-pop band The Kinks (1964-96), Ray Davies played rhythm guitar, while his younger brother Dave played lead. He crafted such songs as "You Really Got Me"; "Waterloo Sunset"; "Lola"; "Celluloid Heroes"; "Come Dancing" and "Better Things". His lyrics often unfold in story form and are filled with varying degrees of nostalgia, distress, and social satire.

He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (as a member of The Kinks) in 1990. In 2014, he entered the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He was granted a British Knighthood in 2017 for his service to the arts.

June 3, 1967: Aretha Franklin's cover of the Otis Redding song "Respect" reaches #1. Starting out as a gospel singer this "Queen of Soul's" six-decade-long career has made Franklin one of the most influential and important voices in pop history.

Some of her best-known works include "Respect", "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)", "Think", and “A Rose Is Still A Rose".

As the first female artist to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, Franklin currently holds 18 Grammy Awards and was ranked 1st on the Rolling Stone's list of “The Greatest Singers of All Time” (2012). (d. 2018)

Billboard Number Ones

1980 Funkytown - Lipps Inc.
1981 Betty Davis Eyes - Kim Carnes

1982 Ebony and Ivory - Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder
1983 Flashdance... What a Feeling - Irene Cara

1984 Let's Hear It for the Boy - Deniece Williams
1985 Everything She Wants - Wham

1986 Greatest Love of All - Whitney Houston

1987 With or Without You - U2
1988 One More Try - George Michael

1989 Rock On - Michael Damian

Top Grossing Movies

1980 The Empire Strikes Back

1981 Cheech and Chong’s Nice Dreams

1982 Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

1983 Return of the Jedi

1984 Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

1985 Rambo: First Blood Part II

1986 Top Gun

1987 Beverly Hills Cop II

1988 Crocodile Dundee II

1989 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Today's Your Birthday!

1

954 Dan Hill is a Canadian pop singer and songwriter. He had two major international hits with his songs "Sometimes When We Touch" and "Can't We Try", a duet with Vonda Shepard, as well as a number of other charting singles in Canada and the United States. He also established himself as a songwriter who produced hit songs for artists such as George Benson and Celine Dion.

1950 Deniece Williams is an American singer described as "one of the great soul voices" by the BBC. She is best known for the songs "Free", "Silly", "It's Gonna Take a Miracle" and two Billboard Hot 100 No.1 singles "Let's Hear It for the Boy" and "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late" (with Johnny Mathis). Williams has won four Grammys with twelve nominations altogether. She (with Johnny Mathis) is also known for recording “Without Us”, the theme song of Family Ties.

1945 Hale Irwin, American golfer (U.S. Open 1974, 79, 90; U.S. Senior Open 1998, 2000). He was one of the world's leading golfers from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, and is one of the few players in history to win three U.S. Opens, becoming the oldest-ever U.S. Open champion in 1990 at the age of 45. As a senior golfer, Irwin ranks second all-time in PGA Tour Champions victories. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest players in Champions Tour history. He has also developed a career as a golf course architect.

1943 Billy Cunningham is an American former professional basketball player and coach, who was nicknamed the Kangaroo Kid for his leaping and record-setting rebounding abilities. He spent a total of 17 seasons with the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers (nine as a player, eight as a coach), and two seasons as a player with the Carolina Cougars of the ABA. He was an NBA champion both as a player (1967) and as a coach (1983).

1929 Chuck Barris was an American game show creator and producer, known for hosting The Gong Show and creating The Dating Game and The Newlywed Game. He was also a songwriter who wrote "Palisades Park", recorded by Freddy Cannon and also recorded by Ramones. Barris wrote an autobiography titled Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, which was made into the film of the same title starring Sam Rockwell and directed by George Clooney. (d. 2017)

1925 Tony Curtis was an American actor with a career that spanned six decades, achieving the height of his popularity in the 1950s and early 1960s. He acted in more than 100 films, in roles covering a wide range of genres.

He achieved his first major recognition as a dramatic actor in Sweet Smell of Success (1957) with co-star Burt Lancaster. The following year he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for The Defiant Ones (1958) alongside Sidney Poitier (who was also nominated in the same category). This was followed by the comedies Some Like It Hot and Operation Petticoat in 1959. In 1960, Curtis played a supporting role in the epic historical drama Spartacus. (d. 2010)

Sunday, June 2

Then & Now!

On June 2, 1987, Ken Griffey Jr. was the number one overall pick in the Major League Baseball Draft by the Seattle Mariners. He ended up playing 22 years in the majors, spending most of his career with the Seattle Mariners and Cincinnati Reds, along with a short stint with the Chicago White Sox.

A member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, the first overall pick in the 1987 draft, and a 13-time All-Star, Griffey is one of the most prolific home run hitters in baseball history; his 630 home runs rank as the seventh-most in MLB history. Griffey was also an exceptional defender and won 10 Gold Glove Awards in center field. He is tied for the record for most consecutive games with a home run (eight, with Don Mattingly and Dale Long).

Griffey and his father, Ken Sr., became the first father-son tandem to play for the same team in the same game when they both suited up for the Mariners on Aug. 31, 1990. Since then, only one other father-son duo (Tim Raines and Tim Raines Jr. in 2001) has played in the same Major League contest.

On September 14, just two weeks later, Ken Griffey Sr. hit a two-run home run off the Angels' Kirk McCaskill in the first inning of a game in Anaheim. In the next at-bat, Griffey Jr. followed with a homer of his own, making the Griffeys the first (and still the only) father and son to homer in the same game.

Griffey Jr. signed lucrative deals with companies of international prominence like Nike and Nintendo; his popularity reflected well upon MLB and is credited by some with helping restore its image after the 1994 labor dispute. Griffey is one of only 31 players in baseball history to have appeared in major league games in four different calendar decades.

In 2016, Griffey was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, receiving 99.32% of the vote, breaking pitcher Tom Seaver's record of 98.84%, a record that had stood for 24 years.

Griffey is the son of former MLB player Ken Griffey Sr. and the father of former football player Trey Griffey.

Significant Events

June 2, 1989: "Dead Poets Society" starring Robin Williams premieres. The film is set in 1959 at the fictional elite boarding school, Welton Academy and tells the story of an English teacher who inspires his students through his teaching of poetry.

The film was a critical and commercial success. It grossed $235 million worldwide, became the fifth highest-grossing film of 1989, and received generally positive reviews from critics. It received numerous accolades, including Academy Award nominations for Best Picture and Best Director, as well as a Best Actor nomination for Williams. The film won the BAFTA Award for Best Film, the César Award for Best Foreign Film and the David di Donatello Award for Best Foreign Film. Schulman received the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for his work.

June 2, 1987: Ken Griffey Jr. was the number one overall pick in the Major League Baseball Draft by the Seattle Mariners. He ended up playing 22 years in the majors, spending most of his career with the Seattle Mariners and Cincinnati Reds, along with a short stint with the Chicago White Sox.

A member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, the first overall pick in the 1987 draft, and a 13-time All-Star, Griffey is one of the most prolific home run hitters in baseball history; his 630 home runs rank as the seventh-most in MLB history.

June 2, 1953: Saw the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Abbey, London, England. The longest-lived and longest-reigning monarch in British history, Elizabeth is the constitutional head of 16 sovereign states and head of the Commonwealth of Nations. In her capacity as British monarch she also ceremonially heads the Church of England as its Supreme Governor.

The eldest daughter of George VI, she became the heiress presumptive when her father acceded to the throne following the abdication of his brother, Edward VIII. During World War II, she began to undertake public duties and worked in the Auxiliary Territorial Service. After the death of her father, she acceded to the throne in 1952.

Her reign has seen immense constitutional changes in Britain. This includes devolution to the regional governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, Canadian patriation, African decolonization and the continuing evolution of the Commonwealth, of which she is the head. Personal tribulations have included the collapse of her children's marriages, a fire at Windsor Castle in 1992, the death of Princess Diana in 1997 and the deaths of her mother and sister in 2002.

In 2017 she became the first British monarch to reach her Sapphire Jubilee. (d. 2022)

June 2, 1935: Future Baseball Hall of Fame slugger Babe Ruth announces his retirement as a player at 40 years of age. Nicknamed "The Bambino" and "The Sultan of Swat", Ruth is widely considered the greatest baseball player of all time and one of the most significant American sporting icons. One of the first five people chosen to be in the Baseball Hall of Fame, Ruth set numerous records in his lifetime.

Originally a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, Ruth achieved his greatest fame as a slugging outfielder for the New York Yankees. In 1927, as part of the Murderer's Row lineup, he scored 60 home runs.

Ruth's larger-than-life persona made him a legendary figure of the 1920s, and his off-field behavior was often controversial. Ruth became ill with cancer in 1946 and died two years later.

June 2, 1862: Robert E. Lee takes command of the Confederate armies of North Virginia during the American Civil War. Lee is largely regarded as the great military hero of the Confederate cause during the US Civil War. By 1862, he was Commander of the Army of North Virginia driving back Union forces after the Seven Days Battles and later winning the Second Battle of Bull Run and battles at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. Lee made a strategic error invading the North in 1863 and there were heavy Confederate losses at the Battle of Gettysburg.

During the Siege of Petersburg, Lee was appointed general-in-chief of Confederate forces but diminished manpower and resources led to Confederate surrender in April 1865 at Appomattox in Virginia.

After the war, Lee supported the Plan of Reconstruction and civil rights but not emancipation for blacks. (d. 1870)

June 2, 1835: P. T. Barnum & his circus begin a first tour of the U.S. Known as 'The Greatest Showman,' Barnum is best remembered for founding the traveling Barnum & Bailey Circus which ran from 1871 until 2017, and for promoting various hoaxes on his audiences. He is credited with the saying "There's a sucker born every minute," though it cannot be proven he coined this.

Barnum ran the Barnum's American Museum after purchasing it in 1841. Here he produced several elaborate hoaxes, including the Fiji mermaid hoax, and employed the famous dwarf General Tom Thumb. When he started the Barnum & Bailey Circus with James Bailey he became known as the "Shakespeare of Advertising" for his innovative ways of getting patrons to see his exhibits, though he was often accused of false advertising. (d. 1891)

Billboard Number Ones

1980 Funkytown - Lipps Inc.
1981 Betty Davis Eyes - Kim Carnes

1982 Ebony and Ivory - Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder
1983 Flashdance... What a Feeling - Irene Cara

1984 Let's Hear It for the Boy - Deniece Williams
1985 Everything She Wants - Wham

1986 Greatest Love of All - Whitney Houston

1987 With or Without You - U2
1988 One More Try - George Michael

1989 Forever Your Girl - Paula Abdul

Top Grossing Movies

1980 The Empire Strikes Back

1981 Cheech and Chong’s Nice Dreams

1982 Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

1983 Return of the Jedi

1984 Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

1985 Rambo: First Blood Part II

1986 Top Gun

1987 Beverly Hills Cop II

1988 Crocodile Dundee II

1989 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Today's Your Birthday!

1960 Tony Hadley is an English pop singer. He rose to fame in the 1980s as the lead singer of the new wave band Spandau Ballet and launched a solo career following the group's split in 1990. Hadley returned to the band in 2009 but left again in 2017. Hadley is known for his "expressive voice" and "vocal range".

1958 Lawrence Wendell Pfohl, better known by the ring name Lex Luger, is an American retired professional wrestler, bodybuilder and football player. He is best known for his work with Jim Crockett Promotions, World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE).

1955 Dana Carvey, American comedian and actor. He is best known for his seven seasons on Saturday Night Live, from 1986 to 1993, which earned him five consecutive Primetime Emmy Award nominations. Carvey is also known for his film roles in comedies such as Tough Guys (1986), Opportunity Knocks (1990), Trapped in Paradise (1994) and The Master of Disguise (2002), as well as reprising his role of Garth Algar in the SNL spin-off film Wayne's World (1992) and its sequel Wayne's World 2 (1993). (SNL - "George Bush"; Wayne's World - "Garth").

1951 Larry Robinson is a Canadian former ice hockey coach, executive and player. His coaching career includes head coaching positions with the New Jersey Devils (which he held on two occasions), as well as the Los Angeles Kings. For his play in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Montreal Canadiens and Los Angeles Kings, Robinson was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1995. He was also inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame in 2014. In 2017, Robinson was named one of the "100 Greatest NHL Players".

Named interim head coach of the New Jersey Devils on March 23, 2000, Robinson guided his team to win the 2000 Stanley Cup. With the victory, Robinson became the first interim head coach in NHL history to guide a team to the Stanley Cup.

1941 While Charlie Watts was best known as the drummer of British rock group The Rolling Stones, his first musical love was jazz. He contributed not only a solid beat but offered a subtle balance to the flamboyance of singer Mick Jagger and guitarists Keith Richard and Brian Jones. He also used his training in graphic design to the visual presentation of the band's albums, advertising and stage sets.

Health issues prevented him from participating in The Rolling Stones world tour 2021, and he selected Steve Jordan as his replacement. He played on two tracks that were included in the group's 2023 album "Hackney Diamonds". (d. 2021)

1904 Johnny Weissmuller won five Olympic gold medals across two Olympic games, 1924 and 1928 and set a number of world records in freestyle. Went on to become a Hollywood actor, portraying Tarzan, in 12 feature films for which is he justly famous for Tarzan's legendary yell. (d. 1984)

Saturday, June 1

Then & Now!

On this day in 1980, cable news channel CNN made its debut. It was founded by American media proprietors Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, CNN is owned by the Manhattan-based media conglomerate Warner Bros. Discovery. It was the first television channel to provide 24-hour news coverage and the first all-news television channel in the United States.

The 24-hour international television news channel came to prominence for its use of live satellite broadcast, first in its coverage of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986, and then in its coverage of the rescue of Jessica McClure, a Texan toddler who fell down a well in 1987. However, it was CNN's live coverage from within Iraq during the 1990-1991 Gulf War that made it a household name and played a major role in the public's relation to war, because it brought the events and footage of the war to domestic television screens without delay. This was quite unlike Vietnam, the first 'Television War', where film had to be physically flown home to the United States before it could be broadcast.

While the free press has, in its role as the "Fourth Estate", always had an influence on policy-making decisions and event outcomes, those who believe in the ‘CNN effect’ argue that the extent, depth and speed of the new global media have created a new series of impacts much different from those that preceded them. Of particular importance is the global coverage of events, such as the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe, the first Gulf War, and the Battle of Mogadishu; these demonstrate the ability of TV news to bring images and issues from far-flung places to the forefront of American political consciousness. Additionally, the CNN effect has been cited as the driving force behind the U.S. intervention in the Kurdish crisis and the use of force by the U.S. Army during the Bosnia War of 1992–1995.

The CNN effect may have played a role in increasing aid following the 2004 Asian tsunami, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the Sichuan earthquake in China in 2008. Following the Asian tsunami, for instance, the media "blitz" that followed this natural disaster may have helped prompt an unprecedented outpouring of donations. "By February 2005, the international community had donated $500 per person affected by the tsunami, compared to just 50 cents for each person affected by Uganda’s 18-year war."

As of December 2023, CNN had 68,974,000 television households as subscribers in the US According to Nielsen, down from 80 million in March 2021.

Significant Events

June 1, 1987: Cleveland Indians pitcher Phil Niekro beats Detroit Tigers, 9-6 for his 314th MLB victory; and with brother Joe Niekro’s 216 wins, that set the record for most combined wins by brothers in baseball history with 530. Nicknamed "Knucksie", Neikro played 24 seasons in Major League Baseball for the Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves, Cleveland Indians, New York Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays. Niekro is generally regarded as the greatest knuckleball pitcher of all time.

He and his younger brother Joe amassed 539 wins between them; as of 2013, the Niekros had the most combined wins by brothers in baseball history. As of 2023, Niekro also holds the major league record with 121 career victories after the age of 40.

Niekro was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1997.

June 1, 1980: CNN made its debut. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietors Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, CNN is owned by the Manhattan-based media conglomerate Warner Bros. Discovery. It was the first television channel to provide 24-hour news coverage and the first all-news television channel in the United States.

As of December 2023, CNN had 68,974,000 television households as subscribers in the US According to Nielsen, it was down from 80 million in March 2021.

June 1, 1967: EMI releases The Beatles' album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" nationwide in the UK; it goes to number one for 22 weeks in the UK. The record is regarded by musicologists as an early concept album that advanced the roles of sound composition, extended form, psychedelic imagery, record sleeves, and the producer in popular music. The album had an immediate cross-generational impact and was associated with numerous touchstones of the era's youth culture, such as fashion, drugs, mysticism, and a sense of optimism and empowerment.

It has topped several critics' and listeners' polls for the best album of all time, including those published by Rolling Stone magazine and in the book All-Time Top 1000 Albums, and the UK's "Music of the Millennium" poll. More than 32 million copies had been sold worldwide as of 2011. It remains one of the best-selling albums of all time and was, in 2018, the UK's best-selling studio album. A remixed and expanded edition of the album was released in 2017.

June 1, 1962: SS officer Adolf Eichmann is executed in Israel after being found guilty of war crimes. Eichmann was a German-Austrian official of the Nazi Party, an officer of the Schutzstaffel (SS), and one of the major organizers of the Holocaust. He participated in the January 1942 Wannsee Conference, at which the implementation of the genocidal Final Solution to the Jewish Question was planned. Following this, he was tasked with facilitating and managing the logistics involved in the mass deportation of millions of Jews to Nazi ghettos and Nazi extermination camps across German-occupied Europe.

He was captured and detained by the Allies in 1945 but escaped and eventually settled in Argentina. In May 1960, he was tracked down and apprehended by Israel's Mossad intelligence agency and put on trial before the Supreme Court of Israel.

The highly publicized Eichmann trial resulted in his conviction in Jerusalem, following which he was executed by hanging in 1962.

June 1, 1935: Compulsory driving tests and licence plates were introduced in the United Kingdom. UK driving licences were introduced in 1903 but no test was required. The intention was purely to identify vehicles and their drivers. The Road Traffic Act of 1930 introduced age restrictions and a test for disabled drivers; this was the first formal driving test in the UK.

These licences were only valid for one year from the date of issue. Legislation for compulsory testing was introduced for all new drivers with the Road Traffic Act 1934. The test was initially voluntary to avoid a rush of candidates until 1 June 1935, when all people who had started to drive on or after 1 April 1934 needed to have passed the test.

Around 1.6 million people take the practical car test each year, with a pass rate of around 43%. The theory test has a pass rate of around 50%.

June 1, 1918: First World War Canadian flying ace Billy Bishop downs six aircraft over a three-day span, including German ace Paul Bilik, reclaiming his top-scoring title from James McCudden. He was officially credited with 72 victories, making him the top Canadian and British Empire ace of the war, and also received a Victoria Cross. During the Second World War, Bishop was instrumental in setting up and promoting the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan.

Billboard Number Ones

1980 Funkytown - Lipps Inc.
1981 Betty Davis Eyes - Kim Carnes

1982 Ebony and Ivory - Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder
1983 Flashdance... What a Feeling - Irene Cara

1984 Let's Hear It for the Boy - Deniece Williams
1985 Everything She Wants - Wham

1986 Greatest Love of All - Whitney Houston

1987 With or Without You - U2
1988 One More Try - George Michael

1989 Forever Your Girl - Paula Abdul

Top Grossing Movies

1980 The Empire Strikes Back

1981 Cheech and Chong’s Nice Dreams

1982 Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

1983 Return of the Jedi

1984 Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

1985 Rambo: First Blood Part II

1986 Top Gun

1987 Beverly Hills Cop II

1988 Crocodile Dundee II

1989 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Today's Your Birthday!

1961 Paul Coffey is a Canadian former professional ice hockey defenceman who played for nine teams over 21 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL). Coffey ranks second all-time among NHL defencemen in goals, assists, and points, behind only Ray Bourque. He holds the record for the most goals by a defenceman in one season, 48 in 1985–86, and is the only defenceman to have scored 40 goals more than once, also doing it in 1983–84. He is also one of only two defencemen to score 100 points in a season more than one time, as he did it five times; Bobby Orr did it six times. Coffey holds or shares 33 NHL records in the regular season and playoffs.

1959 Alan Wilder is an English musician, composer, arranger, record producer and member of the electronic band Depeche Mode from 1982 to 1995. In 2020, Wilder was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Depeche Mode. He is a classically trained musician.

1956 Lisa Hartman Black is an American actress and singer. She gained prominence after her role in the prime-time drama Knots Landing from 1982 to 1986, playing rock singer Ciji Dunne. Hartman also recorded four solo albums between 1976 and 1987, with her most notable song being "If Love Must Go". She achieved significant success with a duet with her husband, Clint Black, called "When I Said I Do", which reached number one on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts in 1999.

1947 Ronnie Wood is an English rock musician, best known as an official member of the Rolling Stones since 1975, as well as a member of Faces and the Jeff Beck Group. As a member of the Rolling Stones, Wood was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989 and was inducted a second time, as a member of Faces, in 2012.

1937 Morgan Freeman, an American actor Known for his distinctively smooth, deep voice, he has received Academy Award nominations for his performances in "Street Smart", "Driving Miss Daisy", "The Shawshank Redemption" and "Invictus", and won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 2005 for Million Dollar Baby.

1926 Marilyn Monroe, American model, actress and singer. Monroe was an American actress, model, and singer who became a major sex symbol of her age. Often playing an archetypal "dumb blonde" she starred in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s and early 1960s. She became further famous for singing "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" to John F. Kennedy and for modelling in the first issue of Playboy magazine. (d. 1962)

Friday, May 31

Then & Now!

In what is widely considered one of the best Stanley Cup finals of all time, the Edmonton Oilers beat the Philadelphia Flyers in game seven, on May 31, 1987, to win the Cup in seven games.

The NHL 1987 Stanley Cup Final should have been a runaway win for Edmonton. The mighty Oilers came into the Final with a league-leading 106-point regular season. To reach the final round, the Oilers knocked off the Los Angeles Kings 4-1, then swept the Winnipeg Jets 4-0, and then polished off the Detroit Red Wings 4-1. Edmonton, an offensive juggernaut led by living legend Wayne Gretzky, was rested, healthy and in a groove, having lost only two games in the playoffs.

The story was different for its Stanley Cup Final opponent. The Philadelphia Flyers limped into the final round. With a very respectable 100-point season, the Flyers had a much tougher road to the final round than the Oilers. Philadelphia beat the New York Rangers 4-2 in the Division Semifinals, slipped past the New York Islanders 4-3 in the Division Finals, and took care of the Montreal Canadiens 4-2 in the Conference Finals. In the process, however, the Flyers had lost their top scorer, Tim Kerr, and team captain Dave Poulin played with cracked ribs.

On paper, the 1987 Stanley Cup Final figured to be a cakewalk for Edmonton. It turned out to be anything but.

This was a rematch of the 1985 Stanley Cup Finals, where the Oilers beat the Flyers in five games. Unlike the 1985 Finals, this series went to seven games. Edmonton took the first two games at home, then split in Philadelphia. However, the Flyers won the next two games, one in Edmonton and one back in Philadelphia by one goal, to force a deciding seventh game. Edmonton won game seven to earn its third Stanley Cup in four seasons.

During the Stanley Cup presentation, Oilers captain Wayne Gretzky would give the Cup to Steve Smith, who one year earlier scored on his own net a goal that led to their downfall against the Calgary Flames, their in-province rivals, in the Smythe Division Final. Ron Hextall would receive the Conn Smythe Trophy for his efforts, becoming only the fourth player from a losing side to be awarded the trophy. Between the sixth and seventh games, the Oilers' forward Wayne Gretzky described Hextall as "probably the best goaltender I've ever played against in the NHL."

Significant Events

May 31, 1987: In what is widely considered one of the best Stanley Cup finals of all time, the Edmonton Oilers beat the Philadelphia Flyers in game seven to win the Cup. The Oilers won the series 4–3, for their third Stanley Cup victory.

This was the sixth of nine consecutive Finals where a team from Western Canada was in the big series, the fifth of eight consecutive Finals contested by a team from Alberta (the Oilers appeared in six, the Calgary Flames in two, the Vancouver Canucks in one), and the fourth of five consecutive Finals to end with the Cup presentation on Alberta ice (the Oilers won four times, the Montreal Canadiens once).

May 31, 1983: The Philadelphia 76ers swept the Los Angeles Lakers to win the NBA championship. After their previous four final meetings, the Sixers beat the Lakers for the first time in NBA Finals history. Philly centre Moses Malone was named the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player.

This, along with the 1989 NBA Finals, were the only two NBA championships of the 1980s not to be won by either the Lakers or the Boston Celtics; every NBA Finals of that decade featured either the Lakers or Celtics and sometimes both (1984, 1985, 1987). Coincidentally, the Lakers were also swept in the 1989 NBA Finals, that time by the Detroit Pistons.

May 31, 1885: Dr. John Harvey Kellogg of Battle Creek, Michigan files an application for a patent for "flaked cereal, and the process of making same", controversially excluding his younger brother Will Keith Kellogg. Ironically, his brother Will Keith is best known today for the invention of the breakfast cereal Corn Flakes.

Family disputes aside, the Kellogg brothers invented Corn Flakes in 1898 while experimenting with different grains at a spa. They originally expected a sheet of dough, but when they flattened it, it broke into flakes that they thought were better.

May 31, 1879: Madison Square Garden opens in New York, named after 4th President James Madison. Colloquially known as the Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, from 31st to 33rd Street above Pennsylvania Station. It is the fourth venue to bear the name "Madison Square Garden"; the first two, opened in 1879 and 1890, respectively.

The Garden hosts professional ice hockey, professional basketball, boxing, mixed martial arts, concerts, ice shows, circuses, professional wrestling, and other forms of sports and entertainment. It is close to other midtown Manhattan landmarks, including the Empire State Building, Koreatown, and Macy's at Herald Square. It is home to the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League (NHL), the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and was home to the New York Liberty of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) from 1997 to 2017.

May 31, 1859: The Great Clock housing Big Ben starts keeping time. The clock at the top of Elizabeth Tower at the north end of the British Houses of Parliament is one of the world's best-known timekeepers. Originally known simply as the Clock Tower, it was renamed Elizabeth Tower in 2012 to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II. The clock uses its original mechanism and was the largest and most accurate four-faced striking and chiming clock in the world once it was completed.

The clock has become a cultural symbol of the United Kingdom, particularly in the visual media. When a television or filmmaker wishes to indicate a generic location in the country, a popular way to do so is to show an image of the tower, often with a red double-decker bus or black cab in the foreground.

In 2008, a survey of 2,000 people found that the tower was the most popular landmark in the United Kingdom. It has also been named as the most iconic film location in London.

May 31, 1279, BC: Ramesses II, also known as Ramesses the Great becomes Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt. He was the third ruler of the Nineteenth Dynasty. Along with Thutmose III of the Eighteenth Dynasty, he is often regarded as the greatest, most celebrated, and most powerful pharaoh of the New Kingdom, which itself was the most powerful period of ancient Egypt.

He is also widely considered one of ancient Egypt's most successful warrior pharaohs, conducting no fewer than 15 military campaigns, all resulting in victories, excluding the Battle of Kadesh, generally considered a stalemate.

Billboard Number Ones

1980 Funkytown - Lipps Inc.
1981 Betty Davis Eyes - Kim Carnes

1982 Ebony and Ivory - Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder
1983 Flashdance... What a Feeling - Irene Cara

1984 Let's Hear It for the Boy - Deniece Williams
1985 Everything She Wants - Wham

1986 Greatest Love of All - Whitney Houston

1987 With or Without You - U2
1988 One More Try - George Michael

1989 Forever Your Girl - Paula Abdul

Top Grossing Movies

1980 The Empire Strikes Back

1981 Cheech and Chong’s Nice Dreams

1982 Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

1983 Return of the Jedi

1984 Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

1985 Rambo: First Blood Part II

1986 Cobra

1987 Beverly Hills Cop II

1988 Crocodile Dundee II

1989 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Today's Your Birthday!

1965 - Brooke Shields, a child model starting at the age of 11 months, Shields gained widespread notoriety at age 12 for her leading role in Louis Malle's film Pretty Baby (1978), in which she appeared in nude scenes shot when she was 11 years old. She continued to model into her late teenage years and starred in several dramas in the 1980s, including The Blue Lagoon (1980), and Franco Zeffirelli's Endless Love (1981).

1964 - Darryl McDaniels, also commonly known by his stage name DMC (or D.M.C.), is an American rapper. He is a founding member of the hip-hop group Run-DMC and is considered one of the pioneers of hip-hop culture.

1962 - Corey Hart is a Canadian singer, musician and songwriter known for his hit singles "Sunglasses at Night", "Never Surrender" and "It Ain't Enough". He has sold over 16 million records worldwide and recorded nine U.S. Billboard Top 40 hits. In Canada, 30 of Hart's recordings have been Top 40 hits, including 11 in the Top 10, over the course of over 35 years in the music industry.

1948 John Bonham was an English musician who was the drummer of the rock band Led Zeppelin. Noted for his speed, power, fast single-footed kick drumming, distinctive sound, and feel for groove, he is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential drummers in history. Bonham played with Led Zeppelin until his sudden death at age 32, in September 1980 following a day of heavy drinking. The surviving members disbanded the group out of respect for Bonham.

1943 - Joe Namath, nicknamed "Broadway Joe", is an American former football quarterback who played in the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NFL) for 13 seasons. He spent the majority of his career with the New York Jets. Namath cemented his legacy in 1969 when he guaranteed his heavy underdog Jets would win Super Bowl III before defeating the NFL's Baltimore Colts in one of the greatest sports upsets of all time.

1930 - Clint Eastwood is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western TV series Rawhide, Eastwood rose to international fame with his role as the "Man with No Name" in Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy of spaghetti Westerns during the mid-1960s and as antihero cop Harry Callahan in the five Dirty Harry films throughout the 1970s and 1980s. These roles, among others, have made Eastwood an enduring cultural icon of masculinity. Elected in 1986, Eastwood served for two years as the mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.

An Academy Award nominee for Best Actor, Eastwood won Best Director and Best Picture for his Western film Unforgiven (1992) and his sports drama Million Dollar Baby (2004). In addition to directing many of his own star vehicles, Eastwood has also directed films in which he did not appear, such as the mystery drama Mystic River (2003) and the war film Letters from Iwo Jima (2006), for which he received Academy Award nominations.

On April 11, 2022, the Judds' "The Final Tour" was announced with special guest Martina McBride, making 10 stops beginning on September 30. However, Naomi died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound on April 30, 2022, five months before the tour was scheduled to begin.

Honouring Wynonna and Ashley Judd's wishes for the medallion ceremony to continue in spite of their grief, the Judds were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame the day following Naomi's death.

May 2024

Thursday, May 30

Then & Now!

Wynona Judd was born on this day in 1964. Her real name is Christina Ciminella and her music partner mother was also born with a different name - Diana Judd. She re-named herself Naomi and began playing music with her daughter in the late 1970s. Naomi was also studying to be a nurse at the time in Tennessee.

Naomi was a promoter of the act and was reportedly propositioned, sexually harassed, and dismissed when she tried to do so. She submitted a cassette tape produced for $30 to Nashville music producers and to anyone who would listen. In 1983, Naomi met the daughter of record producer Brent Maher, who was able to secure the Judds an audition with executives of RCA Records. These executives signed the duo immediately upon hearing their audition.

The Judds' first release was an extended play six-song EP titled Wynonna & Naomi. There were two singles: "Had a Dream (For the Heart)" and "Mama He's Crazy". This song became the first of eight consecutive number-one singles for the duo on the country music charts, while also earning the duo its first Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal the following year.

The Judds' first full-length studio album, Why Not Me, was issued in 1984. Three singles were released from it: the title track, which earned a second Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, followed by "Girls Night Out" and "Love Is Alive". The album went on to sell a million copies in the United States

After three more albums, tension between mother and daughter became too great and they held a farewell tour in 1991 before Wynonna launched her solo career. That was successful, as well. She charted over 25 singles on her own, including four that went to numberone on the Hot Country Songs charts. These included her first three releases, "She Is His Only Need", "I Saw the Light", and "No One Else on Earth" all in 1992, along with "To Be Loved by You" in 1996.

Wynonna and Naomi reunited a number of times over the years. Their final performance together would be at the 2022 CMT Music Awards. They performed "Love Can Build a Bridge" from the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville. This marked the Judds' first nationally televised award show performance in more than twenty years.

On April 11, 2022, the Judds' "The Final Tour" was announced with special guest Martina McBride, making 10 stops beginning on September 30. However, Naomi died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound on April 30, 2022, five months before the tour was scheduled to begin.

Honouring Wynonna and Ashley Judd's wishes for the medallion ceremony to continue in spite of their grief, the Judds were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame the day following Naomi's death.

Significant Events

May 30, 1985: In the Stanley Cup Final played at Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, the Edmonton Oilers beat the Philadelphia Flyers 8-3 in game five for a 4-1 series victory and their second Stanley Cup. Wayne Gretzky and Jari Kurri each post a goal and three assists.

This was the fourth of nine consecutive Finals contested by a team from Western Canada, the third of eight contested by a team from Alberta (the Oilers appeared in six, the Calgary Flames in 1986 and 1989, and the Vancouver Canucks in 1982), and the second of five consecutive Finals to end with the Cup presentation on Alberta ice (the Oilers won four of those times, the Montreal Canadiens once).

May 30, 1935: Babe Ruth's Final Bat. Philadelphia pitcher Jim Bivin retires Babe Ruth on an infield grounder in "the Babe's" final MLB at-bat; Ruth plays just one inning in Boston Braves, 11-6 loss to the Phillies at the Baker Bow.

Ruth was the first baseball star to be the subject of overwhelming public adulation. Baseball had been known for star players such as Ty Cobb and "Shoeless Joe" Jackson, but both men had uneasy relations with fans. In Cobb's case, the incidents were sometimes marked by violence. Ruth's biographers agreed that he benefited from the timing of his ascension to "Home Run King". The country had been hit hard by both the war and the 1918 flu pandemic and longed for something to help put these traumas behind it. Ruth also resonated in a country that felt, in the aftermath of the war, that it took second place to no one.

May 30, 1911: The first Indianapolis 500 is held. Ray Harroun, an engineer with the Marmon Motor Car Company, came out of retirement to drive and won the inaugural event before re-retiring for good in the winner's circle. It proved to be a successful event, immediately establishing itself as both the premier motorsports competition in the U.S. and one of the most prestigious in the world.

May 30, 1821: James Boyd patents Rubber Fire Hose. Boyd & Sons was founded in 1819 at Boston, Massachusetts by James Boyd, an Irish Immigrant. The company manufactured fire hoses. Two years later his first patent – for the rubber-lined fire hose – revolutionized firefighting by making it possible to pump water through a hose, rather than draw it by suction. At the time, the Mayor of Boston reported a 100 feet of Boyd’s fire hose would do the same work as 60 men – and do it more efficiently, faster and safer.

In the 1920s, Boyd’s company changed its name to National Foam and began developing firefighting foams and delivery systems. In the years since, nearly every major fire department in the U.S., the United States Armed Forces and tens of thousands of corporate firefighting teams have trusted National Foam to help them save countless lives and billions of dollars in property. Much in the world has changed in the 200 years since James Boyd’s vision for more effective fire control began to take shape.

May 30, 1431: Joan of Arc Burned at the Stake. She was put on trial by Bishop Pierre Cauchon on accusations of heresy, which included blaspheming by wearing men's clothes, acting upon visions that were demonic, and refusing to submit her words and deeds to the judgment of the church. She was declared guilty and burned at the stake on 30 May 1431, aged about nineteen.

In 1456, an inquisitorial court reinvestigated Joan's trial and overturned the verdict, declaring that it was tainted by deceit and procedural errors. Joan has been revered as a martyr and viewed as an obedient daughter of the Roman Catholic Church, an early feminist, and a symbol of freedom and independence. After the French Revolution, she became a national symbol of France. In 1920, Joan of Arc was canonized by the Roman Catholic Church and, two years later, was declared one of the patron saints of France. She is portrayed in numerous cultural works, including literature, music, paintings, sculptures and theatre.

Billboard Number Ones

1980 Call Me - Blondie
1981 Betty Davis Eyes - Kim Carnes

1982 Ebony and Ivory - Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder
1983 Flashdance... What a Feeling - Irene Cara

1984 Let's Hear It for the Boy - Deniece Williams
1985 Everything She Wants - Wham

1986 Greatest Love of All - Whitney Houston

1987 With or Without You - U2
1988 One More Try - George Michael

1989 Forever Your Girl - Paula Abdul

Top Grossing Movies

1980 The Empire Strikes Back

1981 The Four Seasons

1982 Rocky III

1983 Return of the Jedi

1984 Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

1985 Rambo: First Blood Part II

1986 Cobra

1987 Beverly Hills Cop II

1988 Crocodile Dundee II

1989 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Today's Your Birthday!

1964 Wynonna Judd, American country singer (The Judds). She is one of the most widely recognized and awarded female country musicians in history. In all, she has had 19 number-one singles, including those with The Judds. She first rose to fame in the 1980s alongside her mother, Naomi, in their mother-daughter country music duo, The Judds. They released seven albums in addition to 26 singles, of which 14 were number-one hits. In 2023, Wynonna was named the best country music artist, picking up the "Country Champion" award at the "People's Choice Country Awards".

1960 Stephen Duffy, English new wave singer, songwriter and musician (The Lilac Time - "Paradise Circus"; solo – “Kiss Me”, "Icing on the Cake”. He was a founding member, vocalist, bassist, and then drummer of Duran Duran. He went on to record as a solo performer under several different names and is the singer and songwriter for The Lilac Time with his older brother Nick. He has also co-written with Robbie Williams and Steven Page of the Barenaked Ladies.

1958 Marie Fredriksson was a Swedish singer, songwriter, pianist and lead vocalist of the pop-rock duo Roxette, which she formed in 1986 with Per Gessle. The duo achieved international success in the late 1980s and early 1990s with their albums Look Sharp! (1988) and Joyride (1991), and had multiple hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including four number ones. In 2002, after fainting at home, Fredriksson was diagnosed with a brain tumour. During her rehabilitation, she continued to record music as a solo artist. Fredriksson died in 2019 as a result of health issues stemming from her brain tumour.

1955 Jake "The Snake" Roberts, American pro wrestler (WWE Hall of Fame). Roberts derived his nickname for seeming snake-like and untrustworthy. He says he got his nickname by copying Oakland Raiders quarterback Ken "The Snake" Stabler. To accentuate this, he often slid ("slithered") into and out of the ring on his belly under the bottom rope. Once he reached the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in March 1986, he would bring a Burmese python (most were named "Damien") to ringside in a canvas bag.

1955 Nicky "Topper" Headon, English drummer (Clash. 1977-82 - "London Calling", "Rock the Casbah"). He joined The Clash in 1977 and became famed for his drumming skills. He received his nickname owing to his resemblance to Mickey the Monkey from the Topper comic.

1943 Gale Sayers, American College and Pro Football Hall of Fame halfback, 4X Pro Bowl, 2X NFL rushing leader (Chicago Bears). In a relatively brief but highly productive NFL career, Sayers spent seven seasons with the Chicago Bears from 1965 to 1971, though multiple injuries effectively limited him to five seasons of play. He was known for his elusiveness and agility and was regarded by his peers as one of the most difficult players to tackle. His friendship with Bears teammate Brian Piccolo, who died of cancer in 1970, inspired Sayers to write his autobiography, I Am Third, which in turn was the basis for the 1971 made-for-TV movie Brian's Song. (d. 2020)

Thursday, May 30

Then & Now!

Wynona Judd was born on this day in 1964. Her real name is Christina Ciminella and her music partner mother was also born with a different name - Diana Judd. She re-named herself Naomi and began playing music with her daughter in the late 1970s. Naomi was also studying to be a nurse at the time in Tennessee.

Naomi was a promoter of the act and was reportedly propositioned, sexually harassed, and dismissed when she tried to do so. She submitted a cassette tape produced for $30 to Nashville music producers and to anyone who would listen. In 1983, Naomi met the daughter of record producer Brent Maher, who was able to secure the Judds an audition with executives of RCA Records. These executives signed the duo immediately upon hearing their audition.

The Judds' first release was an extended play six-song EP titled Wynonna & Naomi. There were two singles: "Had a Dream (For the Heart)" and "Mama He's Crazy". This song became the first of eight consecutive number-one singles for the duo on the country music charts, while also earning the duo its first Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal the following year.

The Judds' first full-length studio album, Why Not Me, was issued in 1984. Three singles were released from it: the title track, which earned a second Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, followed by "Girls Night Out" and "Love Is Alive". The album went on to sell a million copies in the United States

After three more albums, tension between mother and daughter became too great and they held a farewell tour in 1991 before Wynonna launched her solo career. That was successful, as well. She charted over 25 singles on her own, including four that went to numberone on the Hot Country Songs charts. These included her first three releases, "She Is His Only Need", "I Saw the Light", and "No One Else on Earth" all in 1992, along with "To Be Loved by You" in 1996.

Wynonna and Naomi reunited a number of times over the years. Their final performance together would be at the 2022 CMT Music Awards. They performed "Love Can Build a Bridge" from the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville. This marked the Judds' first nationally televised award show performance in more than twenty years.

On April 11, 2022, the Judds' "The Final Tour" was announced with special guest Martina McBride, making 10 stops beginning on September 30. However, Naomi died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound on April 30, 2022, five months before the tour was scheduled to begin.

Honouring Wynonna and Ashley Judd's wishes for the medallion ceremony to continue in spite of their grief, the Judds were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame the day following Naomi's death.

Significant Events

May 30, 1985: In the Stanley Cup Final played at Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, the Edmonton Oilers beat the Philadelphia Flyers 8-3 in game five for a 4-1 series victory and their second Stanley Cup. Wayne Gretzky and Jari Kurri each post a goal and three assists.

This was the fourth of nine consecutive Finals contested by a team from Western Canada, the third of eight contested by a team from Alberta (the Oilers appeared in six, the Calgary Flames in 1986 and 1989, and the Vancouver Canucks in 1982), and the second of five consecutive Finals to end with the Cup presentation on Alberta ice (the Oilers won four of those times, the Montreal Canadiens once).

May 30, 1935: Babe Ruth's Final Bat. Philadelphia pitcher Jim Bivin retires Babe Ruth on an infield grounder in "the Babe's" final MLB at-bat; Ruth plays just one inning in Boston Braves, 11-6 loss to the Phillies at the Baker Bow.

Ruth was the first baseball star to be the subject of overwhelming public adulation. Baseball had been known for star players such as Ty Cobb and "Shoeless Joe" Jackson, but both men had uneasy relations with fans. In Cobb's case, the incidents were sometimes marked by violence. Ruth's biographers agreed that he benefited from the timing of his ascension to "Home Run King". The country had been hit hard by both the war and the 1918 flu pandemic and longed for something to help put these traumas behind it. Ruth also resonated in a country that felt, in the aftermath of the war, that it took second place to no one.

May 30, 1911: The first Indianapolis 500 is held. Ray Harroun, an engineer with the Marmon Motor Car Company, came out of retirement to drive and won the inaugural event before re-retiring for good in the winner's circle. It proved to be a successful event, immediately establishing itself as both the premier motorsports competition in the U.S. and one of the most prestigious in the world.

May 30, 1821: James Boyd patents Rubber Fire Hose. Boyd & Sons was founded in 1819 at Boston, Massachusetts by James Boyd, an Irish Immigrant. The company manufactured fire hoses. Two years later his first patent – for the rubber-lined fire hose – revolutionized firefighting by making it possible to pump water through a hose, rather than draw it by suction. At the time, the Mayor of Boston reported a 100 feet of Boyd’s fire hose would do the same work as 60 men – and do it more efficiently, faster and safer.

In the 1920s, Boyd’s company changed its name to National Foam and began developing firefighting foams and delivery systems. In the years since, nearly every major fire department in the U.S., the United States Armed Forces and tens of thousands of corporate firefighting teams have trusted National Foam to help them save countless lives and billions of dollars in property. Much in the world has changed in the 200 years since James Boyd’s vision for more effective fire control began to take shape.

May 30, 1431: Joan of Arc Burned at the Stake. She was put on trial by Bishop Pierre Cauchon on accusations of heresy, which included blaspheming by wearing men's clothes, acting upon visions that were demonic, and refusing to submit her words and deeds to the judgment of the church. She was declared guilty and burned at the stake on 30 May 1431, aged about nineteen.

In 1456, an inquisitorial court reinvestigated Joan's trial and overturned the verdict, declaring that it was tainted by deceit and procedural errors. Joan has been revered as a martyr and viewed as an obedient daughter of the Roman Catholic Church, an early feminist, and a symbol of freedom and independence. After the French Revolution, she became a national symbol of France. In 1920, Joan of Arc was canonized by the Roman Catholic Church and, two years later, was declared one of the patron saints of France. She is portrayed in numerous cultural works, including literature, music, paintings, sculptures and theatre.

Billboard Number Ones

1980 Call Me - Blondie
1981 Betty Davis Eyes - Kim Carnes

1982 Ebony and Ivory - Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder
1983 Flashdance... What a Feeling - Irene Cara

1984 Let's Hear It for the Boy - Deniece Williams
1985 Everything She Wants - Wham

1986 Greatest Love of All - Whitney Houston

1987 With or Without You - U2
1988 One More Try - George Michael

1989 Forever Your Girl - Paula Abdul

Top Grossing Movies

1980 The Empire Strikes Back

1981 The Four Seasons

1982 Rocky III

1983 Return of the Jedi

1984 Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

1985 Rambo: First Blood Part II

1986 Cobra

1987 Beverly Hills Cop II

1988 Crocodile Dundee II

1989 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Today's Your Birthday!

1964 Wynonna Judd, American country singer (The Judds). She is one of the most widely recognized and awarded female country musicians in history. In all, she has had 19 number-one singles, including those with The Judds. She first rose to fame in the 1980s alongside her mother, Naomi, in their mother-daughter country music duo, The Judds. They released seven albums in addition to 26 singles, of which 14 were number-one hits. In 2023, Wynonna was named the best country music artist, picking up the "Country Champion" award at the "People's Choice Country Awards".

1960 Stephen Duffy, English new wave singer, songwriter and musician (The Lilac Time - "Paradise Circus"; solo – “Kiss Me”, "Icing on the Cake”. He was a founding member, vocalist, bassist, and then drummer of Duran Duran. He went on to record as a solo performer under several different names and is the singer and songwriter for The Lilac Time with his older brother Nick. He has also co-written with Robbie Williams and Steven Page of the Barenaked Ladies.

1958 Marie Fredriksson was a Swedish singer, songwriter, pianist and lead vocalist of the pop-rock duo Roxette, which she formed in 1986 with Per Gessle. The duo achieved international success in the late 1980s and early 1990s with their albums Look Sharp! (1988) and Joyride (1991), and had multiple hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including four number ones. In 2002, after fainting at home, Fredriksson was diagnosed with a brain tumour. During her rehabilitation, she continued to record music as a solo artist. Fredriksson died in 2019 as a result of health issues stemming from her brain tumour.

1955 Jake "The Snake" Roberts, American pro wrestler (WWE Hall of Fame). Roberts derived his nickname for seeming snake-like and untrustworthy. He says he got his nickname by copying Oakland Raiders quarterback Ken "The Snake" Stabler. To accentuate this, he often slid ("slithered") into and out of the ring on his belly under the bottom rope. Once he reached the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in March 1986, he would bring a Burmese python (most were named "Damien") to ringside in a canvas bag.

1955 Nicky "Topper" Headon, English drummer (Clash. 1977-82 - "London Calling", "Rock the Casbah"). He joined The Clash in 1977 and became famed for his drumming skills. He received his nickname owing to his resemblance to Mickey the Monkey from the Topper comic.

1943 Gale Sayers, American College and Pro Football Hall of Fame halfback, 4X Pro Bowl, 2X NFL rushing leader (Chicago Bears). In a relatively brief but highly productive NFL career, Sayers spent seven seasons with the Chicago Bears from 1965 to 1971, though multiple injuries effectively limited him to five seasons of play. He was known for his elusiveness and agility and was regarded by his peers as one of the most difficult players to tackle. His friendship with Bears teammate Brian Piccolo, who died of cancer in 1970, inspired Sayers to write his autobiography, I Am Third, which in turn was the basis for the 1971 made-for-TV movie Brian's Song. (d. 2020)

The friendship that developed between Magic Johnson and Larry Bird continued for the rest of their careers. According to a report by NPR, Bird was one of the first players Johnson called when he was diagnosed with HIV.

When the LA Lakers retired Johnson's jersey in 1992, one of the special guests was Bird. When the Boston Celtics retired Bird's jersey a year later, Johnson returned the favor and even wore a Celtics shirt underneath his Lakers warmups.

May 2024

Wednesday, May 29

Then & Now!

On this day in 1980, Larry Bird beat out Magic Johnson for NBA Rookie of the Year.

The pair had both a lifelong rivalry and a friendship. Starting in the late 1970s, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson had legendary battles on the basketball court, first electrifying the NCAA’s March Madness tournament and then igniting a beleaguered NBA.

After Johnson's Michigan State Spartans defeated Bird's Indiana State Sycamores in the 1979 NCAA championship game, Johnson would be drafted first in the 1979 NBA draft by the Los Angeles Lakers. Bird had been selected as an underclassman by the Boston Celtics at the #6 spot in the 1978 draft but opted to play his senior season at Indiana State before signing the richest rookie contract to that time in a team sport. Bird captured "Rookie of the Year" in 1980, while Johnson's Lakers won the NBA Championship and Johnson was named NBA Finals MVP. The Celtics took the championship in 1981, the Lakers took it back in 1982. The Celtics would win again in 1984, while the Lakers would win the title in both 1985 and 1987. The careers of both men were cut short, Johnson by his diagnosis with HIV and Bird by a debilitating back injury.

At the 2019 NBA Lifetime Achievement Award, Bird and Magic stood side-by-side, even holding each other’s awards, as they were honored for their dual contributions to the game.

Inevitably during their careers, racial overtones surfaced. Bird’s overwhelmingly white fan base from Boston saw him as the ‘great white hope’ in a game that was increasingly dominated by African-Americans. Blacks derided him as the ‘great white hype’, an overestimated athlete built up by a biased media.

In the summer of 1985, seeing the combined marketing potential of Bird and Magic, Converse featured them in a sneaker commercial that was shot outside the home of Bird’s mother in Indiana.

Skeptical at first about appearing together, they ended up bonding over lunch in the kitchen of Bird’s mother, planting the seed of a life-long friendship.

That relationship grew even closer after Magic tested positive for the HIV virus in November, 1991. Bird’s empathy and support in an era when HIV was a stigma on men, especially as seen by other NBA players, made Magic realize who his close friends were.

Fittingly, the culmination of Bird and Magic’s playing careers came in 1992 when they formed part of the Olympic basketball ‘Dream Team’ that brought home the gold from Barcelona.

Bird and Magic came from different worlds and played a different game, but their dynamic dualism formed the core of a legacy that we will never see again.

Significant Events

May 29, 1984: Tina Turner released her fifth album Private Dancer at the age of 44. It reached number three on the U.S. Billboard charts and went to number one on the R&B charts. The album went to number one in both Canada and Austria and sold more than 10 million copies worldwide.

A&R man John Carter of Capitol Records is credited with relaunching the career of Tina Turner in the 1980s. In 1983, despite opposition from within Capitol, he signed her and managed her first album for the label, Private Dancer.

The album received a positive reception from critics. The Los Angeles Times wrote that Turner's voice "melts vinyl". Debby Miller, in a July 1984 Rolling Stone review, felt that the album was a powerful comeback, with Turner's voice "rasping but strong", and a range of songs that were all good in a "modern rock setting" that was "neither detached nor very fussy".

As critics argued over whether Madonna or Cyndi Lauper would emerge as 1984’s dominant female artist, Tina’s comeback took everyone by surprise. Private Dancer was an instant success on both sides of the Atlantic as well as internationally.

May 29, 1980: Larry Bird beats out Magic Johnson for NBA rookie of year. The pair had both a lifelong rivalry and friendship.

After Johnson's Michigan State Spartans defeated Bird's Indiana State Sycamores in the 1979 NCAA championship game, Johnson would be drafted first in the 1979 NBA draft by the Los Angeles Lakers. Bird had been selected as an underclassman by the Boston Celtics at the #6 spot in the 1978 draft but opted to play his senior season at Indiana State before signing the richest rookie contract to that time in a team sport. Bird captured "Rookie of the Year" in 1980, while Johnson's Lakers won the NBA Championship and Johnson was named NBA Finals MVP. The Celtics took the championship in 1981, the Lakers took it back in 1982. The Celtics would win again in 1984, while the Lakers would win the title in both 1985 and 1987. The careers of both men were cut short, Johnson by his diagnosis with HIV and Bird by a debilitating back injury.

May 29, 1953: Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay conquer Mount Everest. The first successful ascent of the world's highest mountain came after Tom Bourdillon and Charles Evans had come within 100 meters of the summit just three days previously.

Returning to Kathmandu a few days later, the expedition learned that Hillary had already been appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of British Empire. The Government of Nepal gave a reception for the members of the expedition at which the senior queen of the country presented Tenzing with a purse of ten thousand rupees, which was then about £500. Hillary and Hunt were given kukris in jewelled sheaths, while the other members received jewelled caskets.

May 29, 1942: Bing Crosby records Irving Berlin's song "White Christmas", with the John Scott Trotter Orchestra and the Ken Darby Singers, in just 18 minutes. The record topped the Billboard chart for 11 weeks in 1942 and returned to the number one position again in December 1943 and 1944. His version would return to the top 40 a dozen times in subsequent years.

Since its release, "White Christmas" has been covered by many artists. The version sung by Bing Crosby is the world's best-selling single (in terms of sales of physical media), with estimated sales in excess of 50 million physical copies worldwide. When the figures for other versions of the song are added to Crosby's, sales of the song exceed 100 million.

May 29, 1919: Charles Strite files a patent for the automatic pop-up toaster. The Minnesota mechanic created an easy-to-use toaster designed for restaurants. In 1921, he received his patent.

A redesigned version of the Strite toaster was being sold in 1926 by Waters-Genter of Minneapolis under the brand name Toastmaster. It was the first automatic pop-up, household toaster that could brown bread on both sides simultaneously, set the heating element on a timer, and eject the toast when finished.

A few years later, the invention of a machine that would pre-slice loaves of bread helped to further expand the demand for toasters. The first commercial bread slicing machine was invented by Otto Frederick Rohwedder. It was installed in Chillicothe, Missouri at the Chillicothe Baking Company, and, on July 7, 1928, the first loaf of commercially sliced bread was sold. The sliced loaves, produced under the name Kleen Maid, were immensely popular.

May 29, 1886: American pharmacist John Pemberton begins to advertise his patent medicine - Coca-Cola, in Atlanta, Georgia. On May 8, 1886, he developed an early version of a beverage that would later become Coca-Cola but sold its rights to the drink shortly before he died in 1888.

He suffered from a sabre wound sustained in April 1865, during the Battle of Columbus. His efforts to control his chronic pain led to morphine addiction. In an attempt to curb his addiction, he began to experiment with various painkillers and toxins. The development of an earlier beverage blending alcohol and cocaine led to the recipe that later was adapted to make Coca-Cola.

Billboard Number Ones

1980 Call Me - Blondie
1981 Betty Davis Eyes - Kim Carnes

1982 Ebony and Ivory - Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder
1983 Flashdance... What a Feeling - Irene Cara

1984 Let's Hear It for the Boy - Deniece Williams
1985 Everything She Wants - Wham

1986 Greatest Love of All - Whitney Houston

1987 With or Without You - U2
1988 One More Try - George Michael

1989 Forever Your Girl - Paula Abdul

Top Grossing Movies

1980 The Empire Strikes Back

1981 The Four Seasons

1982 Rocky III

1983 Return of the Jedi

1984 Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

1985 Rambo: First Blood Part II

1986 Cobra

1987 Beverly Hills Cop II

1988 Crocodile Dundee II

1989 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Today's Your Birthday!

1953 Danny Elfman is an American film composer, singer, songwriter, and musician. He came to prominence as the lead singer and primary songwriter for the new wave band Oingo Boingo in the early 1980s. Since scoring his first studio film in 1985, Elfman has garnered international recognition for composing over 100 feature film scores as well as compositions for television, stage productions, and the concert hall.

Elfman has frequently worked with directors Tim Burton, Sam Raimi and Gus Van Sant, contributing music to nearly 20 Burton projects, including Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Batman, Edward Scissorhands, and Wednesday, as well as scoring Raimi's Darkman, A Simple Plan, Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2 and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

1947 Anthony Geary is an American actor. He is known for playing the role of Luke Spencer on the ABC daytime drama General Hospital. He originated the role of Luke in 1978 and received a record eight Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series prior to his retirement.

1939 Al Unser was an American automobile racing driver, the younger brother of fellow racing drivers Jerry and Bobby Unser, and father of Al Unser Jr. He was the second of four men (A. J. Foyt, himself, Rick Mears and Hélio Castroneves) to have won the Indianapolis 500 four times (1970, 1971, 1978, 1987), the fourth of six to have won the race in consecutive years, and the winner of the National Championship in 1970, 1983, and 1985. (d. 2021)

1917 John F. Kennedy, American lieutenant, 35th President of the United States. He was the youngest person elected president.[2] Kennedy served at the height of the Cold War, and the majority of his foreign policy concerned relations with the Soviet Union and Cuba. A Democrat, Kennedy represented Massachusetts in both houses of the United States Congress prior to his presidency. He was assassinated in 1963.

1914 Tenzing Norgay, Tibetan climber who was the first to reach the summit of Mount Everest in 1953 with Edmund Hillary (exact date of birth unknown, but he celebrated on the 29th). Afterwards, Norgay was met with great adulation in Nepal and India. (d. 1986)

1903 Bob Hope was a British-born American comedian, actor, entertainer and producer with a career that spanned nearly 80 years and achievements in vaudeville, network radio, television, and USO Tours. He appeared in more than 70 short and feature films, starring in 54. These included a series of seven Road to ... musical comedy films with long-time friend Bing Crosby as his partner.

Hope hosted the Academy Awards show 19 times, more than any other host. He also appeared in many stage productions and television roles and wrote 14 books. The song "Thanks for the Memory" was his signature tune. He was praised for his comedic timing, specializing in one-liners and rapid-fire delivery of jokes that were often self-deprecating.

Wednesday, May 29

Then & Now!

On this day in 1980, Larry Bird beat out Magic Johnson for NBA Rookie of the Year.

The pair had both a lifelong rivalry and a friendship. Starting in the late 1970s, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson had legendary battles on the basketball court, first electrifying the NCAA’s March Madness tournament and then igniting a beleaguered NBA.

After Johnson's Michigan State Spartans defeated Bird's Indiana State Sycamores in the 1979 NCAA championship game, Johnson would be drafted first in the 1979 NBA draft by the Los Angeles Lakers. Bird had been selected as an underclassman by the Boston Celtics at the #6 spot in the 1978 draft but opted to play his senior season at Indiana State before signing the richest rookie contract to that time in a team sport. Bird captured "Rookie of the Year" in 1980, while Johnson's Lakers won the NBA Championship and Johnson was named NBA Finals MVP. The Celtics took the championship in 1981, the Lakers took it back in 1982. The Celtics would win again in 1984, while the Lakers would win the title in both 1985 and 1987. The careers of both men were cut short, Johnson by his diagnosis with HIV and Bird by a debilitating back injury.

At the 2019 NBA Lifetime Achievement Award, Bird and Magic stood side-by-side, even holding each other’s awards, as they were honored for their dual contributions to the game.

Inevitably during their careers, racial overtones surfaced. Bird’s overwhelmingly white fan base from Boston saw him as the ‘great white hope’ in a game that was increasingly dominated by African-Americans. Blacks derided him as the ‘great white hype’, an overestimated athlete built up by a biased media.

In the summer of 1985, seeing the combined marketing potential of Bird and Magic, Converse featured them in a sneaker commercial that was shot outside the home of Bird’s mother in Indiana.

Skeptical at first about appearing together, they ended up bonding over lunch in the kitchen of Bird’s mother, planting the seed of a life-long friendship.