BIRTHDAYS -
1983 -
Kate Bosworth - an American actress who made her screen debut in Robert Redford's 1998 film The Horse Whisperer. Bosworth starred in the television series Young Americans. She became well known with a leading role in 2002's Blue Crush. The following year, Bosworth played the teenage girlfriend of porn star John Holmes in Wonderland opposite Val Kilmer. In 2004, she portrayed Sandra Dee in Kevin Spacey's Beyond the Sea. Bosworth appeared in several films including Superman Returns (2006), where she played Lois Lane, and 2008's blackjack drama film 21.
1971 -
Taye Diggs - an American theatre, film and television actor. He is perhaps best known for his roles in the Broadway musical Rent, the motion picture How Stella Got Her Groove Back, and the television series Private Practice.
1968 -
Cuba Gooding Jr - an American actor best known for his Academy Award-winning portrayal as Rod Tidwell in Cameron Crowe's Jerry Maguire (1996) and his critically acclaimed performance as Tré Styles in John Singleton's Boyz n the Hood (1991). Other movies include Pearl Harbor, The Tuskegee Airmen, Outbreak, Losing Isaiah, A Few Good Men, Coming to America
1967 -
Tia Carrere - an American actress, model, and Grammy Award winning singer, perhaps most widely known for her role as Cassandra in the feature films Wayne's World and Wayne's World 2 and as Sydney Fox in the TV series Relic Hunter.
1957 -
Joanna Pacula - actress: Timemaster, Deep Red, Tombstone, Eyes of the Beholder, Husbands and Lovers, Marked for Death, Sweet Lies, Death Before Dishonor, Gorky Park
1952 - W
endy Phillips - actress: Executive Suite, A Year in the Life, The Robert Guillaume Show, Homefront, Falcon Crest, The Eddie Capra Mysteries, Bugsy, Midnight Run, Death Be Not Proud
1943 -
Graham Nash, guitarist and vocalist for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, is born.
1936 -
Roger Miller - songwriter: King of the Road, Invitation to the Blues, You Don’t Want My Love; singer: Dang Me, Chug-a-Lug; 11 Grammys in 1964-65; wrote hit musical: Big River
OTHER EVENTS -
2009 - According to official US sales figures
AC/DC were the biggest sellers of 2008 with over 3.4m sales.
2008 - In London, England,
price of gold reaches a record
US$861.10 per troy ounce, passing the previous high of $850 in January 1980.
2008 -
Oil reaches
$100 per barrel for the first time
2008 -
Josh Groban was America's top selling artist of 2007, the 26-year-old whose hits included ‘
You Raise Me Up’, had the best-selling album of the year with the Christmas compilation Noel, which sold close to 3.7m copies.
2008 - Despite his best attempts to keep the operation a secret,
Paul McCartney is revealed by Billboard magazine to have undergone a recent
coronary angioplasty.
2007 -
Kylie Minogue played the first of two nights at Wembley Arena in London during her re-scheduled
Showgirl world tour. The tour was postponed last year after Kylie was diagnosed with breast cancer, for which the singer had since received treatment.
2006 - A methane gas explosion at the
Sago Mine in West Virginia trapped 13 miners underground for more than 40 hours; Randal McCloy Jr. was the only survivor.
2005 - Winner of TV talent show, X-Factor
Steve Brookstein went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with his version of the 1984 Phil Collins song '
Against All Odds'.
2005 -
Green Day were at No.1 on the UK album chart with their seventh album 'A
merican Idiot.' The album went on to be nominated for seven Grammy Awards, winning the Best Rock Album of 2005.
2003 - The space shuttle '
Columbia' breaks up on re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere, killing seven astronauts
2002 –
AOL Music bows its “
First Listen” service, which gives users streaming access to new songs from participating artists before they are played on the radio. R&B artist Brandy is the first artist featured.
1999 -
Isaac Hayes suddenly finds himself with his first UK hit in years when the novelty song "
Chocolate Salty Balls," done under the pseudonym Chef, his character on TV's South Park, hits Number One.
1997 – Directed and starring
Barbra Streisand,
The Mirror Has Two Faces commences screening in Australia. It co-starred
Jeff Bridges,
Lauren Bacall and
Pierce Brosnan. Rose and Gregory, both Columbia University professors meet when Rose's sister answers Gregory's "personals" ad. Several times burned, the handsome-but-boring Gregory believes that sex has ruined his life, and has deliberately set out to find and marry a woman with absolutely no sex appeal.
1995 - Most distant galaxy yet discovered found by scientists using
Keck telescope in Hawaii (estimated
15 billion light years away).
1994 - The newly-elected
Republican mayor of New York City,
Rudolph Giuliani, delivering his inaugural address, said, “On the second day of January of 1994, I dedicate my administration to you -- the people of New York.”
1994 -
Meat Loaf started a three-week run at No.1 on the UK album chart with '
Bat Out Of Hell 2-Back Into Hell.'
1989 -
Record Mirror published a chart of last years
Top UK singles artists. No.1 was
Kylie Minogue, No.2, Bros, No.3, Yazz, No.4 Tiffany, No.5, Phil Collins, No.6, Cliff Richard, No.7, Erasure, No.8, Pet Shop Boys, No.9, Belinda Carlisle, and No.10, Wet Wet Wet.
1988 -
Belinda Carlisle's
Heaven on Earth hits UK LP chart.
1983 - The smash musical,
Annie, closed on Broadway at the Uris Theatre after 2,377 performances: the sixth longest-running show on the Great White Way.
1983 - "
Sophisticated Ladies" closes at Lunt-Fontanne New York City after 767 performances
1981 -
Abba were enjoying their sixth week at No.1 on the UK album chart with 'S
uper Trouper.'
1975 -
Bill Gates and
Paul Allen write to MITS, saying they have a BASIC language for the Intel 8080 processor. They propose licensing it for use on the Altair in exchange for royalty payments.
1975 –
The Allman Brothers Band is named “
Outstanding Community Organization” by the Georgia Department of Corrections.
1975 -
Francis Ford Coppola directed
The Godfather : Part II starring
Al Pacino,
Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton and
Robert De Niro which commences scrteening in Australia. The early life and career of Vito Corleone in 1920s New York is portrayed while his son, Michael, expands and tightens his grip on his crime syndicate stretching from Lake Tahoe, Nevada to pre-revolution 1958 Cuba.
1974 - U.S.
President Richard M. Nixon signed a bill requiring states to lower the maximum speed limit to 55 MPH. The law was meant to conserve gasoline supplies during an embargo imposed by Arab oil-producing countries. The embargo was lifted on March 13, 1974, but the speed limit lid stayed on until 1987.
1972 - "
Rothschilds" closes at Lunt-Fontanne Theater New York City after 505 performances
1971 - BBC TV aired the first of a 13-week series, '
Its Cliff Richard' featuring resident guests singer and actress Una Stubbs and Shadows guitarist Hank Marvin.
1971 -
George Harrison's "
All Things Must Pass" his first LP as an ex-Beatle, hits Number One in the U.S. The album contains two hits, "What Is Life?" and "My Sweet Lord."
1971 - Sixty-six people are killed at a
soccer game in Glasgow, Scotland. Metal barriers collapsed causing a stampede crushing more than 200 fans.
1969 – Shooting for t
he Beatles documentary
Let It Be begins as the band meet at London’s Twickenham Studios to rehearse songs for a worldwide satellite broadcast.
1969 -
Murdoch wins Fleet Street foothold - The Australian media magnate,
Rupert Murdoch, beat off a rival bid to win control of the News of the World newspaper group. Mr Murdoch defeated a £34 million offer from Robert Maxwell's Pergamon Press to become the new managing director of his first Fleet Street newspaper.
1968 -
Dr. Christian Barnard performed the first successful heart transplant.
1968 - J
ohn Lennon and
Yoko Ono's new experimental album,
Two Virgins, is seized by New Jersey authorities after viewing the front cover, a non-sexual full-frontal nude shot of the couple. Apple eventually gets around the problem by issuing the LP in a plain brown wrapper, like pornography.
1966 – No. 1 Chart Toppers Pop Hit: “
We Can Work It Out,”
The Beatles. The song takes over the top spot from Simon & Garfunkel’s “Sounds of Silence,” stays there for two weeks, falls to No. 2 once again behind “Sounds of Silence,” then reclaims the top spot for one more week.
1965 - The
first Dutch Top 40 is launched. Most popular single, Zorba's Dance by Trio Hellenique, spends 37 consecutive weeks on chart.
1965 –
The Beatles Story, yet another America-only collection of Fab Four releases, goes to No. 7 in the American album charts.
The Beatles are currently No. 1 in the singles charts with “I Feel Fine.”
1965 -
Martin Luther King, Jr. begins a drive to register black voters
1965 -
Elvis Presley went to No.1 on the US album chart with the soundtrack from '
Roustabout' Presley's eighth No.1.
1964 –
The Rolling Stones perform their new single “
I Wanna Be Your Man” on England’s Top of the Pops TV program.
1963 - Duke Records releases
Bobby "Blue" Bland's "
That's the Way Love Is," his second R&B Number One and third Top Forty single.
1962: An upcoming appearance by
the Weavers on NBC-TV's influential Tonight Show, with host Jack Parr, is cancelled after the left-leaning folkies refuse to sign a statement denying any involvement with the US Communist Party.
1960 -
Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts announced his candidacy for the
Democratic presidential nomination.
1960 - 16-year-old
Bobby Fischer wins the
U.S. Chess championship.
1959 –
Luna 1, the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon and to orbit the Sun, is launched by the U.S.S.R.
1954 -
Eddie Calvert started a nine-week run at No.1 on the UK singles with 'O
h, Mein Papa.' This was the first No.1 to be recorded at Abbey Road studios in London and stayed at the top of the charts for 9 weeks.
1954 - "
Oh! My Pa-Pa" by
Eddie Fisher topped the charts and stayed there for 8 weeks.
1952 "
Pal Joey" opens at Broadhurst Theater New York City for 542 performances
1952 -
Pope Pius XII declares
TV as a threat to family life.
1947 -
Mahatma Gandhi begins march for peace in East-Bengali
1941 -
Chips Rafferty,
Betty Bryant and
Harvey Adams star in
40,000 Horsemen which commences screening in Australia
1941 -
The Andrews Sisters recorded
Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy on Decca Records. LaVerne, Maxene and Patty Andrews recorded in Los Angeles and the song was heard in the movie, Buck Privates, starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello.
1937 - Disney's Mickey Mouse film
The Worm Turns - featuring the voices of Walt Disney as Mickey and Billy Bletcher as the dog catcher - is released.
1931 - Disney completes the Mickey Mouse film
The Birthday Party. Minnie Mouse, Horace Horsecollar, and Clarabelle Cow also appear.
1929 - The United States and Canada reached an agreement on joint action to preserve
Niagara Falls.
1926: The first edition of the legendary British music magazine
Melody Maker is published, promising news and information for "all who are interested in the production of popular music."
1920 - The
Royal Canadian Mounted Police force is established.
1918 -
Russia adopts the
Gregorian calendar, centuries after the western world.
1903 -
Pres. Roosevelt closes a Missouri post office for refusing to employ
Minnie Cox, a black female, as postmaster.
1888 -
Drinking straw:
Marvin Chester Stone of Washington D.C. patents his invention.
1842 - The
first wire suspension bridge was opened to traffic -- in
Fairmount, Pennsylvania.
1839 - First photo of the Moon (French photographer
Louis Daguerre).
1811 - The light of the
Bell Rock Lighthouse, considered one of the "7 Wonders of the Industrial World", is lit for the first time.
