On This Day In History

[nkypete]

February 4 is "Thank a Mailman Day".

[lawildcat]

This day in music...

 

1965, The Righteous Brothers were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with the Phil Spector song 'You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'. Also a US No.1 at the same time. In 1999 the PRS announced that it was the most played song of the 20th Century.

 

1966, Bob Dylan and The Band played at the Convention Center in Louisville, Kentucky. This was the first date on a world tour which would become noted as Dylan's first that used electric instruments, after he had ‘gone electric’ at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.

 

1967, The Monkees self-titled debut album started a seven-week run at No.1 on the UK chart.

 

1968, Working at Abbey Road studios, London, The Beatles recorded 'Across The Universe'. John and Paul decided the song needed some falsetto harmonies so they invited two girl fans into the studio to sing on the song. The two were Lizzie Bravo, a 16-year-old Brazilian living near Abbey Road and 17-year-old Londoner Gayleen Pease.

 

1978, The Bee Gees started a four week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Staying Alive'. From the film soundtrack Saturday Night Fever, it gave the brothers their fifth US No.1.

 

1983, Karen Carpenter died aged 32 of a cardiac arrest at her parent's house in Downey, California; the coroner's report gave the cause of death of imbalances associated with anorexia nervosa. The Carpenters 1970 album Close to You, featured two hit singles: ‘(They Long to Be) Close to You’ and ‘We've Only Just Begun.’ They peaked at No.1 and No.2, on the US chart. In 1975 - In Playboy's annual opinion poll; its readers voted Karen Carpenter the Best Rock Drummer of the year.

 

1984, Culture Club started a three-week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Karma Chameleon' the group's 5th US Top 10 hit.

 

1999, American soul singer Gwen Guthrie died of cancer aged 48. Sang backing vocals for Aretha Franklin, Billy Joel, Stevie Wonder and Madonna and wrote songs for Sister Sledge and Roberta Flack. Had the 1986 R&B No.1 'Ain't Nothin' Goin' on But the Rent'.

 

2009, Robert Plant said he felt Led Zeppelin couldn't reunite for a full tour and album because the band feels incomplete without drummer John Bonham. During an interview on UK station Absolute Radio Plant stated, 'The reason that it stopped was because we were incomplete, and we've been incomplete now for 29 years,' he said. He admitted: 'I think the thing about it is really, is that to visit old ground, it's a very incredibly delicate thing to do, and the disappointment that could be there once you commit to that and the comparisons to something that was basically fired by youth and a different kind of exuberance to now, it's very hard to go back and meet that head on and do it justice'.

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

On this date in 1934, 80 years ago, Henry Louis Aaron was born to parents Herb and Estella in Mobile, Alabama. Shortly before his 18th birthday, Hank signed to play in the minors for the Negro League team, the Indianapolis Clowns. After one year of play and helping win a Negro League World Series with the Clowns, Aaron received an offer and he agreed to have his contract purchased from the Clowns by the Boston Braves in 1952. Hank played two years in the farm system, and in the meantime, the Braves team moved from Boston to Milwaukee. Aaron’s first taste of the major leagues took place on March 14, 1954, playing for injured Braves left fielder Bobby Thomson; beforehand, Hank had primarily played infield.

 

On April 13, 1954, Hank Aaron had his major league debut on opening day at Cincinnati’s Crosley Field. He went hitless in five at-bats against “The Old Lefthander”, Reds pitcher Joe Nuxhall.

 

Over the following 22 seasons, “Hammerin’ Hank” Aaron was named to the roster of the MLB All-Star game a league record 21 times. He won the National League MVP award in 1957, the year he won his only World Series, when the Milwaukee Braves beat the New York Yankees in seven games. Hank won 3 gold gloves, was a four-time National League home run champion, four-time National League RBI champion, two-time National League batting champion, and holds the major league records with 6856 total bases, 2297 runs batted in, 1477 extra-base hits, and 17 consecutive seasons with 150+ hits. He is #2 on the list of career home runs, with 755, and he posted a career batting average of .305

 

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

50 years ago*today*the Beatles set an all time record*by scoring*all five of the top five spots on the Billboard's*Hot 100 hits of the day with:

1. "Can't Buy Me Love"

2. "Twist and Shout"

3. "She Loves You"

4. "I Want to Hold Your Hand"

5. "Please Please Me"

 

On the same day they also scored the top 2 albums with: "Meet The Beatles!" and "Introducing...The Beatles".

 

The only other musician/band to ever come close to the record was 50 Cent, who simultaneously had songs ranked at 1, 4, and 5.

 

 

Also, 40 years ago Hank Aaron hit #714 in Cincinnati, OH to tie Babe Ruth's record.

[The Professor]

50 years ago*today*the Beatles set an all time record*by scoring*all five of the top five spots on the Billboard's*Hot 100 hits of the day with:

1. "Can't Buy Me Love"

2. "Twist and Shout"

3. "She Loves You"

4. "I Want to Hold Your Hand"

5. "Please Please Me"

 

On the same day they also scored the top 2 albums with: "Meet The Beatles!" and "Introducing...The Beatles".

 

The only other musician/band to ever come close to the record was 50 Cent, who simultaneously had songs ranked at 1, 4, and 5.

 

 

Also, 40 years ago Hank Aaron hit #714 in Cincinnati, OH to tie Babe Ruth's record.

 

I suppose how music is ranked is much different today than it was when the Beatles had the top 5 songs in 1964, but I don't think that accomplishment will ever be repeated. I can remember watching Dick Clark's American Bandstand on Saturday afternoon back then and Clark would count down the top ten songs on a chart, starting at #10 and working down to #1. No electronics in those days, he just slid a cover off each song to reveal it.

"And for the 8th consecutive week the number one song is ...'I Want To Hold Your Hand'."

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

24 years ago today, May 16, 1990, Jim Henson died of organ failure resulting from the fast onset of bacterial pneumonia caused by the Streptococcus pneumoniae bacterium.

 

Henson began puppeteering in his late teens, and created his first show, Sam and Friends, at the age of 18. The locally aired show ran to WRC-TV audiences in Washington DC for 5 minutes each day for 6-1/2 years. The show focused on a human-like puppet named Sam, but also included the character Kermit, who was not initially a frog, but did give off the general appearance of a lizard. Somewhere during the running of this show, Henson began referring to his characters with the term "muppet", a portmanteau coined by Henson that combined the words "marionette" and "puppet".

 

Henson continued working in commercials, live acts, and in his own short films, and managed to make appearances on television shows including The Ed Sullivan Show before being asked by Children's Television Workshop in 1969 to participate in a new show that they were piloting for public television called Sesame Street. Henson began his 21 year career on Sesame Street (which only ended with his death in 1990) with two primary characters, Big Bird and Oscar The Grouch, but included several others, including Bert & Ernie, throughout the first season. In the 44 seasons to have followed thus far, there have been over 1,000 different muppets to have been featured on the show.

 

After his success with Sesame Street and successes with various TV movies, Henson was able to create his own show, The Muppet Show, which filmed in London for Britain's Associated Television Network and ran for 120 episodes from 1976-1981. Henson and his company was also able to put out 7 feature films in his lifetime.

 

His death in 1990 came as a surprise to everyone. The first of his two memorial services was held five days later at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. Normally capable of seating 5,000 people, the cathedral was arranged to accommodate a large stage and a television production crew filled to capacity of somewhere around 3,500 mourners. Four years previous, while pondering his own mortality, Jim had written a letters to each of his family members to be read following his death in which he spoke of his wishes for his funeral. In his letters, he requested that his funeral be "a nice, friendly little service" with "a rousing Dixieland band". He also requested that none of the mourners in attendance wore black. Among other things, Hensen's letters included quips like, "It feels strange writing this while I am still alive, but it wouldn't be easy after I go." and "This all may seem silly to you guys, but what the hell, I'm gone and who can argue with me?" A month and a half later, a second memorial service was held for Jim in London, where The Muppet Show had been filmed, and where The Jim Henson Creature shop had been located for the time that Jim lived in London. The second service took place at St. Paul's Cathedral there in London, and also filled the building to its capacity. Both services included live performances by Henson's friends and associates. The New York service included numerous songs by the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, and both included a tribute and performance by

, a recording of Jim Henson singing

, a

while handling their muppet characters, and a very memorable rendition of Kermit's famous song 'It's Not Easy Bein' Green' as performed by Big Bird -

.

 

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

1896 - Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, Minnesota. One of the definitive authors of the "Roaring Twenties" and the United States' "Jazz Age", Fitzgerald wrote his magnum opus The Great Gatsby in 1925, basing many aspects of the novel from significant figures, places and events of the time period, such as bootleggers George Remus & Matt Gerlach, the 1922 Hall-Mills murder, and locations including the famed Oheka Castle in New York, and the Seelbach Hotel in Kentucky.

 

1936 - James Maury Henson was born in Greenville, Mississippi. Henson would become a puppeteer, and would help create the landmark children's television show Sesame Street, along with his own particular group of well-know puppets known as The Muppets, as well as television shows and several movies to go along with them.

 

1957 - The Brooklyn Dodgers played their last game at Ebbets Field, beating the Pittsburgh Pirates 2-0. The team, which had played in Brooklyn since 1883, had been under majority ownership of New York business man Walter O'Malley since 1950. O'Malley had sought for nearly 7 years to obtain the land required to build a new updated ballpark in Brooklyn in order to move the Dodgers out of the outdated Ebbets Field ballpark, which the Dodgers were rarely able to sell out even while winning 3 National League pennants in that time period. After having no luck in New York, O'Malley decided to make the move to Los Angeles and to begin play at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Their first game in Los Angeles was played against their long-time rivals, the Giants, who had also moved from New York to California, and had settled on relocating in San Francisco after finding out the Dodgers would be moving to the west coast as well.

 

1964 - The final report generated by the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, headed by the 14th Chief Justice of the United States, Earl Warren was officially delivered to President Lyndon B. Johnson. Created in the 9 months following President Kennedy's assassination, the 889 page report stated, officially, that assassin Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone to kill the president, that Jack Ruby had acted alone in killing Oswald two days later, and that the Secret Service had made poor preparations for the president's visit to Dallas, contributing largely to Oswald's ability to assassinate the president.