buttman302
Banned
363rd day of 2010 - 2 remaining
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
NCAA DAY
In the early 1900s, college football was a brutal game ... so rough that many students suffered serious injuries and sometimes, death. This prompted many schools to discontinue the sport. Others urged that football be reformed or abolished from intercollegiate athletics.
U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt summoned college athletics leaders to two White House conferences to encourage such reforms. In early December 1905, Chancellor Henry M. MacCracken of New York University held a meeting with 13 institutions to initiate changes in football rules. At a subsequent meeting on December 28 in New York City, the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (IAAUS) was founded by 62 members.
The IAAUS was officially constituted the following spring. Then, on this day in 1910, it changed its name to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).
Today, the NCAA is a voluntary association representing more than 1,200 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals devoted to the sound administration of intercollegiate athletics.
The Association strives to maintain intercollegiate athletics as an integral part of the educational program and the athlete as an integral part of the student body. The NCAA also stands for good conduct in intercollegiate athletics and serves as the colleges’ national athletics accrediting agency.
If it weren’t for the National Collegiate Athletic Association, there would be no college bowl games nor any college sports, for that matter.
Events December 29
1845 - The flags of Spain, France, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the Confederate States of America and of the United States have flown over the area known as Texas, the state that became the 28th of the United States of America on this day. And, the state nickname, the Lone Star State, comes from the Texas state flag with its one star. Texas is an altered pronunciation of the Indian word, Tejas, meaning friends, and that’s why the Texas state motto is “Friendship.” The capital of the second largest state is Austin, its state Bird , the mockingbird, the state flower, the bluebonnet, the state tree, the pecan tree.
1848 - President James Polk turned on the first gas light at the White House.
1851 - The first U.S. Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) was organized -- in Boston, MA.
1876 - The Pacific Express, carrying some 159 passengers and crew, was traveling over a bridge near Ashtabula, Ohio. Only the first engine of the train made it to the other side as the bridge began to collapse. The rest of the train broke away and plummeted to the bottom of the ravine below. Approximately 92 men, women and children were killed. Most did not die from the fall itself, but were burned alive while trapped inside the crushed cars -- the result of oil lamps and stoves which ignited the fatal fire.
1890 - The U.S. Seventh Cavalry in efforts to suppress the Native Americans of South Dakota, massacred over 200 men, women and children. The massacre occurred at Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota.
1913 - The Unwelcome Throne was released by Selig’s Polyscope Company. This was a moving picture and the first of thirteen installments of the serial, The Adventures of Kathlyn, starring Kathlyn Williams. It was called the first serial motion picture and was co-produced by The Chicago Tribune. The Adventures of Kathlyn also appeared in the Chicago paper in serial form.
1934 - The first college basketball intersectional doubleheader was played at Madison Square Garden in New York City. New York University beat Notre Dame, 25-18 in, as you can see by the score, anything but an offensive battle. In the second game of the night, Westminster defeated St. Johns, 37-33.
1943 - San Fernando Valley was recorded by Bing Crosby. He chose the tune because he felt it would be a ba-ba-ba-big hit. Guess what? He was right. Within a week after its release, the song became a popular favorite everywhere, including the San Fernando Valley in California.
1945 - The mystery voice of Mr. Hush was heard for the first time on the radio show, Truth or Consequences, hosted by Ralph Edwards. The feature was intended as a spoof of giveaway shows. However, the idea was taken seriously and lasted five weeks before fighter Jack Dempsey was identified as Mr. Hush -- for a prize of $13,500.
1945 - Sheb Wooley recorded the first commercial record made in Nashville, TN -- on the Bullet label: I Can’t Live Without You and Oklahoma Honky Tonk Girl. But it was 13 years later when Wooley finally scored with a big hit (The Purple People Eater was #1 for six weeks in June and July, 1958). Wooley (whose first name is Shelby) played the part of Pete Nolan on TV’s Rawhide, recorded novelty tunes under the name, Ben Colder, and acted in High Noon, Rocky Mountain, Giant and Hoosiers. The Country Music Association honored him with the title of Comedian of the Year in 1968. If you remember the TV show Hee Haw, with Buck Owens and Roy Clark, it was Sheb Wooley who wrote the theme song.
1949 - KC2XAK of Bridgeport, Connecticut became the first ultrahigh frequency (UHF) television station to begin operating on a regular daily schedule. UHF stations broadcast from where the VHF (very high frequency) stations leave off -- channels 14 through 83.
1952 - The first transistorized hearing aid was offered for sale by Sonotone Corporation on this day. I SAID THE FIRST TRANSISTORIZED HEARING AID WAS OFFERED FOR SALE BY SONOTONE CORPORATION ON THIS DAY.
1953 - Jean Stapleton debuted in her first Broadway play. She starred with Judith Anderson in the production, In the Summer House, which opened in New York. It Closed after only 55 performances.
1957 - Entertainers Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme were married at the home of Beldon Katleman in Las Vegas. Katleman was the owner of the El Rancho Hotel-Casino.
1963 - Much to the chagrin of the disc jockeys at 50,000-watt WABC in New York, the 5,000-watt blowtorch known as WMCA and its famed ‘Good Guys’ became the first New York radio station to play the Beatles’ I Want to Hold Your Hand. It didn’t take long for WABC to get revenge. It started calling itself the ‘official’ Beatles station (W-A-Beatle-C).
1965 - The Christmas truce was being observed in Vietnam, while U.S. President Lyndon Johnson tried to get the North Vietnamese to the bargaining table.
1967 - Orchestra leader Paul Whiteman died on this day at the age of 76. Known as the King of Jazz, Whiteman had 28 #1 hits between 1920 and 1934 including, Three O’Clock in the Morning, My Blue Heaven, All of Me and Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.
1972 - Following 36 years of publication, the last weekly issue of LIFE magazine hit the newsstands. The newsweekly is said to have “redefined photojournalism while showing America its own face.”
1972 - Eastern Airlines Flight 401, a Tristar Jumbo Jet crashed near the Everglades killing 101 people.
1975 - A powerful bomb ripped through the luggage claim area of the Delta terminal at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, killing 11 people and injuring 74. The perpetrators behind the attack were never brought to justice.
1982 - Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant led the Alabama Crimson Tide football team for the final time as Alabama beat Illinois, 21-15, at the Liberty Bowl in Memphis, TN. It was his 25th season at the University of Alabama. Coach Bryant, age 69, retired as the NCAA’s winningest coach. His overall record included winning 322 games as coach at Maryland, Kentucky, Texas A&M and Alabama. His teams won six national championships, played in 29 bowl games; winning 15 of them. Where’d he get the nickname of Bear? He once wrestled a bear in a traveling show. We figure he must have won. After all, that was Bear Bryant’s style.
1985 - Phil Donahue and Soviet radio commentator Vladimir Pozner hosted the ‘Citizen’s Summit’ via satellite TV. It was a way for people from the U.S. and the former Soviet Union to question each other about politics and policies.
1986 - After eighteen years and $47 million expended, the restored Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, FL, reopened for business.
1989 - Playwright Vaclav Havel was elected president of Czechoslovakia by the country’s Federal Assembly, becoming the first non-Communist to attain the post in more than four decades.
1991 - A Boeing 747 freighter of China Airlines crashed into a mountain at Taipei. All five crewmembers on board were killed.
1992 - The United States and Russia announced agreement on a nuclear arms reduction treaty.
1992 - New York Governor Mario Cuomo commuted the prison sentence of Jean Harris, the convicted killer of Scarsdale Diet author Herman Tarnower. Harris was granted clemency because of her ill health at the time.
1994 - The U.S. confirmed the release in North Korea of Army helicopter pilot Bobby Hall, twelve days after he was shot down and captured.
1995 - Dead Man Walking was released in New York City. The Tim Robbins film about a convicted murderer on death row and the nun who befriends him, has grossed $39,387,284 in the U.S (as of Dec 2002). Susan Sarandon won Italy’s David di Donatello Award for best actress in a foreign film. At the 46th Berlin International Film Festival, the film won the Silver Bear for best actor (Sean Penn), the Ecumenical Jury prize, the German Arthouse Cinemas prize, and the Berliner Morgenpost Readers’ Jury prize.
1996 - The Firm and Lasting Peace Accord was signed, ending 36 years of civil conflict in Guatemala. The accord included provisions for education in 23 regional languages.
1997 - Hong Kong began killing 1.4 million chickens to stem the spread of a mysterious Bird flu that had already killed four people.
1998 - Khmer Rouge leaders apologized for the deaths of as many as two million people during their regime in the 1970s, and asked Cambodians to forget/forgive the past.
1999 - The Nasdaq stock index Closed above 4,000 for the first time, ending the day at 4041.46.
2000 - U.S. President-elect George Bush (II) filled four more Cabinet slots. Rod Paige was to be Secretary of Education; Gale Norton was selected to be Secretary of the Interior; Anthony J. Principi was returning as Secretary to the Department of Veterans Affairs; and Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson was to be Secretary of Health and Human Services.
2001 - A fireworks shop exploded in downtown Lima, Peru. The resulting fire spread over four downtown blocks. 290 people were killed.
2003 - The roof of the 800-year-old Mewa Tsadkan Gabriel church in Ethiopia collapsed while it was packed with worshippers. Fifteen people were killed. News of the collapse took days to reach the outside world because the church was in a remote location some 100 kilometres north of Gondar, the main town in the region.
2003 - The U.S. government said it would require some international air carriers to place armed law enforcement officers on cargo and passenger flights to, from and over the United States.
2004 - The first Indonesian military teams reached the devastated west coast of Sumatra island and found thousands of bodies; the death toll from the earthquake/tsunamis reached 77,000 across twelve nations.
2005 - It was reported that Farris Hassan, a Iraqi-American teenager who travelled to Iraq without informing his parents, had been picked up by the 101st Airborne.
2006 - Two American sailors died after falling overboard from a U.S. submarine in Plymouth Sound off the southern coast of England.
2006 - U.S. regulators gave final approval for the $86-billion merger between AT&T and BellSouth to create the biggest merger in telecommunications history. This only after AT&T gave additional commitments regarding billing, Internet availability and jobs.
2007 - An Islamic militant group in Pakistan said it was not involved in the assassination of Benazir Bhutto; the opposition leader’s aides accused the government of a cover-up, disputing the official account of her death. The Pakistan government said mass rioting has killed 38 people and caused tens of millions of dollars in damage.
2008 - The British pound fell to a record low against the euro -- to one pound per euro.
2008 - German reinsurance giant Munich Re reported that natural disasters had killed over 220,000 people in 2008, making it one of the most devastating years on record.
2008 - The U.S. government approved $6 billion in aid to GMAC LLC, the financing arm General Motors.
2009 - Mexico City enacted Latin America’s first law recognizing gay marriage. Goverment officials said they hoped to attract same-sex couples from around the world to wed.
2010 - New movies showing in U.S. theatres: Another Year, with Jim Broadbent, Lesley Manville, Ruth Sheen, Peter Wight and Oliver Maltman; and The Way Back, starring Colin Farrell, Mark Strong, Saoirse Ronan, Jim Sturgess and Ed Harris.
Birthdays December 29
1800 - Charles Goodyear
inventor of vulcanized rubber after he accidentally (after five years of research) dropped some rubber mixed with sulfur on a hot stove; died Jul 1, 1860; note: Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company was founded and named after Goodyear in 1898 by Frank Seiberling
1808 - Andrew Johnson
17th U.S. President [1865-1869]: succeeded to presidency upon the death of Abraham Lincoln; married to Eliza McCardle [three sons, two daughters]; died July 31, 1875
1809 - William Gladstone
British Prime Minister; author; luggage named after him: the Gladstone bag; died May 19, 1898
1876 - Pablo Casals
musician: cellist; died Oct 22, 1973
1909 - Thomas Beck
actor: Charlie Chan film series, Supercarrier, Walking Down Broadway, Heidi 1937], Seventh Heaven, Crack-Up, White Fang, Under Two Flags; died Sep 23, 1995
1910 - Ruth Hall
actress: Monkey Business, How to Marry a Millionaire, Desert Command, Ride Him, Cowboy, Local Boy Makes Good, The Doorway to Hell; married to cinematographer Lee Garmes; died Oct 9, 2003
1917 - Thomas Bradley
mayor of Los Angeles [1973-1993]; died Sep 29, 1998
1920 - Viveca (Elsa Viveca Torstensdotter) Lindfors
actress: Backstreet Justice, Adventures of Don Juan, Stargate, A Question of Guilt, Natural Enemies; died Oct 25, 1995
1922 - William Gaddis
novelist: The Recognitions, JR, Carpenter’s Gothic, A Frolic of His Own; died Dec 18, 1998
1922 - Rose Lee Maphis
entertainer: half of the team: Mr. and Mrs. Country Music with husband Joe; Hee Haw regular
1927 - Jim Simpson
Emmy Award-winning sportscaster: ABC, NBC, ESPN
1932 - Inga Swenson
actress: The Miracle Worker, Advise and Consent, North and South TV miniseries
1934 - Ed Flanders
Emmy Award-winning actor: St. Elsewhere [1982-83]; A Moon for the Misgotten, True Confessions, Bye Bye Love, Eleanor and Franklin, The Pursuit of D.B. Cooper; died Feb 22, 1995
1934 - Tom Jarriel
newscaster: ABC News, 20/20
1936 - Mary Tyler Moore
Emmy Award-winning actress: The Mary Tyler Moore Show [1972-1973, 1973-1974, 1975-1976], Stolen Babies [1992-93]; The **** Van Dyke Show, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Ordinary People; her legs starred on Richard Diamond, Private Eye; started in TV as ‘Happy Hotpoint’ [Hotpoint Appliance elf: 1955]
1936 - Ray Nitschke
Pro Football Hall of Famer: Green Bay Packers LB: All-Pro [1964-66]; MVP in 1962 NFL Championship; died Mar 8, 1998
1938 - Jon Voight
actor: Midnight Cowboy, Deliverance, The Odessa File, The Tin Soldier, Mission: Impossible, Enemy of the State, Pearl Harbor
1941 - Ray Thomas
musician: flute, saxophone, harmonica, singer: group: The Moody Blues: Nights in White Satin, LPs: In Search of the Lost Chord, On the Threshold of a Dream, To Our Children’s Children’s Children, A Question of Balance, Every Good Boy Deserves Favor, Seventh Sojourn, Moving Mountains, Other Side of Life, Sur la Mer
1942 - Rick Danko
musician: bass, songwriter, singer: group: The Band: Music From Big Pink, The Basement Tapes; died Dec 10, 1999
1946 - Marianne Faithfull
singer: As Tears Go By, Summer Nights; actress: I’ll Never Forget Whatsisname
1947 - Ted Danson
Emmy Award-winning actor: Cheers [1989-1990 and 1992-1993]; Three Men and a Baby, The Onion Field, Gulliver’s Travels, Becker, Curb Your Enthusiasm
1952 - Gelsey Kirkland
dancer: ballerina, author: The Little Ballerina and Her Dancing Horse, Dancing on My Grave: An Autobiography, Shape of Love
1953 - Yvonne Elliman
actress, singer: Jesus Christ Superstar: I Don’t Know How to Love Him, If I Can’t Have You; joined Eric Clapton in his 1974 comeback tour
1959 - Paula Poundstone
actress, comedienne: The Paula Pundstone Show, Hollywood Squares, To Tell the Truth
1961 - Mark Day
musician: guitar: group: Happy Mondays
1969 - Jennifer Ehle
actress: TV/films: Pride and Prejudice, Alpha Male, The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Adventures in the Secret Service, Sunshine, Melissa, Pride and Prejudice; Broadway: The Coast of Utopia, Design For Living [Revival], The Real Thing [Revival]
1971 - Jay Fiedler
football [quarterback]: Dartmouth Univ; NFL: Philadelphia Eagles, Minnesota Vikings, Jacksonville Jaguars, Miami Dolphins, New York Jets
1972 - Jim Brower
baseball [pitcher]: Cleveland Indians, Cincinnati Reds, Montreal Expos, San Francisco Giants, Atlanta Braves, Baltimore Orioles, San Diego Padres, Florida Marlins
1972 - Jude Law
actor: The Talented Mr. Ripley, Gattaca, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Enemy at the Gates, Artificial Intelligence: AI
1973 - Tomas Perez
baseball: Toronto Blue Jays, Philadelphia Phillies
1975 - Jaret Wright
baseball [pitcher]: Cleveland Indians, Atlanta Braves, San Diego Padres, New York Yankees, Baltimore Orioles
1977 - Jack Wilson
baseball [shortstop]: Seattle Mariners, Pittsburgh Pirates
1978 - La Toya London
singer: Scandalous, Learn to Breathe, State of My Heart, Meet Me Halfway, Anything, I Can’t Hide [What’s in My Heart], All By Myself; American Idol 4th-place finalist [2004]
1983 - Jessica Andrews
singer: Humanity, I Will Be There for You , You Go First [Do You Wanna Kiss], Who Am I, Unbreakable Heart, I Do Now, Karma, Helplessly, Hopelessly
1996 - Dylan Minnette
actor: Saving Grace, Oranges, The Year Without a Santa Claus
Chart Toppers December 29
1946The Christmas Song - Nat King Cole
White Christmas - Bing Crosby
Ole Buttermilk Sky - The Kay Kyser Orchestra (vocal: Mike Douglas & The Campus Kids)
Divorce Me C.O.D. - Merle Travis
1955I Hear You Knocking - Gale Storm
Memories are Made of This - Dean Martin
He - Al Hibbler
Sixteen Tons - Tennessee Ernie Ford
1964I Feel Fine - The Beatles
She’s a Woman - The Beatles
Goin’ Out of My Head - Little Anthony & The Imperials
Once a Day - Connie Smith
1973Time in a Bottle - Jim Croce
Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress) - Helen Reddy
The Joker - Steve Miller Band
If We Make It Through December - Merle Haggard
1982Maneater - Daryl Hall & John Oates
Mickey - Toni Basil
The Girl is Mine - Michael Jackson/Paul McCartney
Wild and Blue - John Anderson
1991Black or White - Michael Jackson
It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday - Boyz II Men
All 4 Love - Color Me Badd
For My Broken Heart - Reba McEntire
2000Independent Woman, Part 1 - Destiny’s Child
Case of the Ex (Whatcha Gonna Do) - Mya
If You’re Gone - Matchbox Twenty
My Next Thirty Years - Tim McGraw
2009Empire State Of Mind - Jay-Z + Alicia Keys
TiK ToK - Ke$ha
Bad Romance - Lady Gaga
Need You Now - Lady Antebellum
Happy Birthday Jessica Andrews
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
NCAA DAY
In the early 1900s, college football was a brutal game ... so rough that many students suffered serious injuries and sometimes, death. This prompted many schools to discontinue the sport. Others urged that football be reformed or abolished from intercollegiate athletics.
U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt summoned college athletics leaders to two White House conferences to encourage such reforms. In early December 1905, Chancellor Henry M. MacCracken of New York University held a meeting with 13 institutions to initiate changes in football rules. At a subsequent meeting on December 28 in New York City, the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (IAAUS) was founded by 62 members.
The IAAUS was officially constituted the following spring. Then, on this day in 1910, it changed its name to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).
Today, the NCAA is a voluntary association representing more than 1,200 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals devoted to the sound administration of intercollegiate athletics.
The Association strives to maintain intercollegiate athletics as an integral part of the educational program and the athlete as an integral part of the student body. The NCAA also stands for good conduct in intercollegiate athletics and serves as the colleges’ national athletics accrediting agency.
If it weren’t for the National Collegiate Athletic Association, there would be no college bowl games nor any college sports, for that matter.
Events December 29
1845 - The flags of Spain, France, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the Confederate States of America and of the United States have flown over the area known as Texas, the state that became the 28th of the United States of America on this day. And, the state nickname, the Lone Star State, comes from the Texas state flag with its one star. Texas is an altered pronunciation of the Indian word, Tejas, meaning friends, and that’s why the Texas state motto is “Friendship.” The capital of the second largest state is Austin, its state Bird , the mockingbird, the state flower, the bluebonnet, the state tree, the pecan tree.
1848 - President James Polk turned on the first gas light at the White House.
1851 - The first U.S. Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) was organized -- in Boston, MA.
1876 - The Pacific Express, carrying some 159 passengers and crew, was traveling over a bridge near Ashtabula, Ohio. Only the first engine of the train made it to the other side as the bridge began to collapse. The rest of the train broke away and plummeted to the bottom of the ravine below. Approximately 92 men, women and children were killed. Most did not die from the fall itself, but were burned alive while trapped inside the crushed cars -- the result of oil lamps and stoves which ignited the fatal fire.
1890 - The U.S. Seventh Cavalry in efforts to suppress the Native Americans of South Dakota, massacred over 200 men, women and children. The massacre occurred at Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota.
1913 - The Unwelcome Throne was released by Selig’s Polyscope Company. This was a moving picture and the first of thirteen installments of the serial, The Adventures of Kathlyn, starring Kathlyn Williams. It was called the first serial motion picture and was co-produced by The Chicago Tribune. The Adventures of Kathlyn also appeared in the Chicago paper in serial form.
1934 - The first college basketball intersectional doubleheader was played at Madison Square Garden in New York City. New York University beat Notre Dame, 25-18 in, as you can see by the score, anything but an offensive battle. In the second game of the night, Westminster defeated St. Johns, 37-33.
1943 - San Fernando Valley was recorded by Bing Crosby. He chose the tune because he felt it would be a ba-ba-ba-big hit. Guess what? He was right. Within a week after its release, the song became a popular favorite everywhere, including the San Fernando Valley in California.
1945 - The mystery voice of Mr. Hush was heard for the first time on the radio show, Truth or Consequences, hosted by Ralph Edwards. The feature was intended as a spoof of giveaway shows. However, the idea was taken seriously and lasted five weeks before fighter Jack Dempsey was identified as Mr. Hush -- for a prize of $13,500.
1945 - Sheb Wooley recorded the first commercial record made in Nashville, TN -- on the Bullet label: I Can’t Live Without You and Oklahoma Honky Tonk Girl. But it was 13 years later when Wooley finally scored with a big hit (The Purple People Eater was #1 for six weeks in June and July, 1958). Wooley (whose first name is Shelby) played the part of Pete Nolan on TV’s Rawhide, recorded novelty tunes under the name, Ben Colder, and acted in High Noon, Rocky Mountain, Giant and Hoosiers. The Country Music Association honored him with the title of Comedian of the Year in 1968. If you remember the TV show Hee Haw, with Buck Owens and Roy Clark, it was Sheb Wooley who wrote the theme song.
1949 - KC2XAK of Bridgeport, Connecticut became the first ultrahigh frequency (UHF) television station to begin operating on a regular daily schedule. UHF stations broadcast from where the VHF (very high frequency) stations leave off -- channels 14 through 83.
1952 - The first transistorized hearing aid was offered for sale by Sonotone Corporation on this day. I SAID THE FIRST TRANSISTORIZED HEARING AID WAS OFFERED FOR SALE BY SONOTONE CORPORATION ON THIS DAY.
1953 - Jean Stapleton debuted in her first Broadway play. She starred with Judith Anderson in the production, In the Summer House, which opened in New York. It Closed after only 55 performances.
1957 - Entertainers Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme were married at the home of Beldon Katleman in Las Vegas. Katleman was the owner of the El Rancho Hotel-Casino.
1963 - Much to the chagrin of the disc jockeys at 50,000-watt WABC in New York, the 5,000-watt blowtorch known as WMCA and its famed ‘Good Guys’ became the first New York radio station to play the Beatles’ I Want to Hold Your Hand. It didn’t take long for WABC to get revenge. It started calling itself the ‘official’ Beatles station (W-A-Beatle-C).
1965 - The Christmas truce was being observed in Vietnam, while U.S. President Lyndon Johnson tried to get the North Vietnamese to the bargaining table.
1967 - Orchestra leader Paul Whiteman died on this day at the age of 76. Known as the King of Jazz, Whiteman had 28 #1 hits between 1920 and 1934 including, Three O’Clock in the Morning, My Blue Heaven, All of Me and Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.
1972 - Following 36 years of publication, the last weekly issue of LIFE magazine hit the newsstands. The newsweekly is said to have “redefined photojournalism while showing America its own face.”
1972 - Eastern Airlines Flight 401, a Tristar Jumbo Jet crashed near the Everglades killing 101 people.
1975 - A powerful bomb ripped through the luggage claim area of the Delta terminal at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, killing 11 people and injuring 74. The perpetrators behind the attack were never brought to justice.
1982 - Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant led the Alabama Crimson Tide football team for the final time as Alabama beat Illinois, 21-15, at the Liberty Bowl in Memphis, TN. It was his 25th season at the University of Alabama. Coach Bryant, age 69, retired as the NCAA’s winningest coach. His overall record included winning 322 games as coach at Maryland, Kentucky, Texas A&M and Alabama. His teams won six national championships, played in 29 bowl games; winning 15 of them. Where’d he get the nickname of Bear? He once wrestled a bear in a traveling show. We figure he must have won. After all, that was Bear Bryant’s style.
1985 - Phil Donahue and Soviet radio commentator Vladimir Pozner hosted the ‘Citizen’s Summit’ via satellite TV. It was a way for people from the U.S. and the former Soviet Union to question each other about politics and policies.
1986 - After eighteen years and $47 million expended, the restored Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, FL, reopened for business.
1989 - Playwright Vaclav Havel was elected president of Czechoslovakia by the country’s Federal Assembly, becoming the first non-Communist to attain the post in more than four decades.
1991 - A Boeing 747 freighter of China Airlines crashed into a mountain at Taipei. All five crewmembers on board were killed.
1992 - The United States and Russia announced agreement on a nuclear arms reduction treaty.
1992 - New York Governor Mario Cuomo commuted the prison sentence of Jean Harris, the convicted killer of Scarsdale Diet author Herman Tarnower. Harris was granted clemency because of her ill health at the time.
1994 - The U.S. confirmed the release in North Korea of Army helicopter pilot Bobby Hall, twelve days after he was shot down and captured.
1995 - Dead Man Walking was released in New York City. The Tim Robbins film about a convicted murderer on death row and the nun who befriends him, has grossed $39,387,284 in the U.S (as of Dec 2002). Susan Sarandon won Italy’s David di Donatello Award for best actress in a foreign film. At the 46th Berlin International Film Festival, the film won the Silver Bear for best actor (Sean Penn), the Ecumenical Jury prize, the German Arthouse Cinemas prize, and the Berliner Morgenpost Readers’ Jury prize.
1996 - The Firm and Lasting Peace Accord was signed, ending 36 years of civil conflict in Guatemala. The accord included provisions for education in 23 regional languages.
1997 - Hong Kong began killing 1.4 million chickens to stem the spread of a mysterious Bird flu that had already killed four people.
1998 - Khmer Rouge leaders apologized for the deaths of as many as two million people during their regime in the 1970s, and asked Cambodians to forget/forgive the past.
1999 - The Nasdaq stock index Closed above 4,000 for the first time, ending the day at 4041.46.
2000 - U.S. President-elect George Bush (II) filled four more Cabinet slots. Rod Paige was to be Secretary of Education; Gale Norton was selected to be Secretary of the Interior; Anthony J. Principi was returning as Secretary to the Department of Veterans Affairs; and Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson was to be Secretary of Health and Human Services.
2001 - A fireworks shop exploded in downtown Lima, Peru. The resulting fire spread over four downtown blocks. 290 people were killed.
2003 - The roof of the 800-year-old Mewa Tsadkan Gabriel church in Ethiopia collapsed while it was packed with worshippers. Fifteen people were killed. News of the collapse took days to reach the outside world because the church was in a remote location some 100 kilometres north of Gondar, the main town in the region.
2003 - The U.S. government said it would require some international air carriers to place armed law enforcement officers on cargo and passenger flights to, from and over the United States.
2004 - The first Indonesian military teams reached the devastated west coast of Sumatra island and found thousands of bodies; the death toll from the earthquake/tsunamis reached 77,000 across twelve nations.
2005 - It was reported that Farris Hassan, a Iraqi-American teenager who travelled to Iraq without informing his parents, had been picked up by the 101st Airborne.
2006 - Two American sailors died after falling overboard from a U.S. submarine in Plymouth Sound off the southern coast of England.
2006 - U.S. regulators gave final approval for the $86-billion merger between AT&T and BellSouth to create the biggest merger in telecommunications history. This only after AT&T gave additional commitments regarding billing, Internet availability and jobs.
2007 - An Islamic militant group in Pakistan said it was not involved in the assassination of Benazir Bhutto; the opposition leader’s aides accused the government of a cover-up, disputing the official account of her death. The Pakistan government said mass rioting has killed 38 people and caused tens of millions of dollars in damage.
2008 - The British pound fell to a record low against the euro -- to one pound per euro.
2008 - German reinsurance giant Munich Re reported that natural disasters had killed over 220,000 people in 2008, making it one of the most devastating years on record.
2008 - The U.S. government approved $6 billion in aid to GMAC LLC, the financing arm General Motors.
2009 - Mexico City enacted Latin America’s first law recognizing gay marriage. Goverment officials said they hoped to attract same-sex couples from around the world to wed.
2010 - New movies showing in U.S. theatres: Another Year, with Jim Broadbent, Lesley Manville, Ruth Sheen, Peter Wight and Oliver Maltman; and The Way Back, starring Colin Farrell, Mark Strong, Saoirse Ronan, Jim Sturgess and Ed Harris.
Birthdays December 29
1800 - Charles Goodyear
inventor of vulcanized rubber after he accidentally (after five years of research) dropped some rubber mixed with sulfur on a hot stove; died Jul 1, 1860; note: Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company was founded and named after Goodyear in 1898 by Frank Seiberling
1808 - Andrew Johnson
17th U.S. President [1865-1869]: succeeded to presidency upon the death of Abraham Lincoln; married to Eliza McCardle [three sons, two daughters]; died July 31, 1875
1809 - William Gladstone
British Prime Minister; author; luggage named after him: the Gladstone bag; died May 19, 1898
1876 - Pablo Casals
musician: cellist; died Oct 22, 1973
1909 - Thomas Beck
actor: Charlie Chan film series, Supercarrier, Walking Down Broadway, Heidi 1937], Seventh Heaven, Crack-Up, White Fang, Under Two Flags; died Sep 23, 1995
1910 - Ruth Hall
actress: Monkey Business, How to Marry a Millionaire, Desert Command, Ride Him, Cowboy, Local Boy Makes Good, The Doorway to Hell; married to cinematographer Lee Garmes; died Oct 9, 2003
1917 - Thomas Bradley
mayor of Los Angeles [1973-1993]; died Sep 29, 1998
1920 - Viveca (Elsa Viveca Torstensdotter) Lindfors
actress: Backstreet Justice, Adventures of Don Juan, Stargate, A Question of Guilt, Natural Enemies; died Oct 25, 1995
1922 - William Gaddis
novelist: The Recognitions, JR, Carpenter’s Gothic, A Frolic of His Own; died Dec 18, 1998
1922 - Rose Lee Maphis
entertainer: half of the team: Mr. and Mrs. Country Music with husband Joe; Hee Haw regular
1927 - Jim Simpson
Emmy Award-winning sportscaster: ABC, NBC, ESPN
1932 - Inga Swenson
actress: The Miracle Worker, Advise and Consent, North and South TV miniseries
1934 - Ed Flanders
Emmy Award-winning actor: St. Elsewhere [1982-83]; A Moon for the Misgotten, True Confessions, Bye Bye Love, Eleanor and Franklin, The Pursuit of D.B. Cooper; died Feb 22, 1995
1934 - Tom Jarriel
newscaster: ABC News, 20/20
1936 - Mary Tyler Moore
Emmy Award-winning actress: The Mary Tyler Moore Show [1972-1973, 1973-1974, 1975-1976], Stolen Babies [1992-93]; The **** Van Dyke Show, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Ordinary People; her legs starred on Richard Diamond, Private Eye; started in TV as ‘Happy Hotpoint’ [Hotpoint Appliance elf: 1955]
1936 - Ray Nitschke
Pro Football Hall of Famer: Green Bay Packers LB: All-Pro [1964-66]; MVP in 1962 NFL Championship; died Mar 8, 1998
1938 - Jon Voight
actor: Midnight Cowboy, Deliverance, The Odessa File, The Tin Soldier, Mission: Impossible, Enemy of the State, Pearl Harbor
1941 - Ray Thomas
musician: flute, saxophone, harmonica, singer: group: The Moody Blues: Nights in White Satin, LPs: In Search of the Lost Chord, On the Threshold of a Dream, To Our Children’s Children’s Children, A Question of Balance, Every Good Boy Deserves Favor, Seventh Sojourn, Moving Mountains, Other Side of Life, Sur la Mer
1942 - Rick Danko
musician: bass, songwriter, singer: group: The Band: Music From Big Pink, The Basement Tapes; died Dec 10, 1999
1946 - Marianne Faithfull
singer: As Tears Go By, Summer Nights; actress: I’ll Never Forget Whatsisname
1947 - Ted Danson
Emmy Award-winning actor: Cheers [1989-1990 and 1992-1993]; Three Men and a Baby, The Onion Field, Gulliver’s Travels, Becker, Curb Your Enthusiasm
1952 - Gelsey Kirkland
dancer: ballerina, author: The Little Ballerina and Her Dancing Horse, Dancing on My Grave: An Autobiography, Shape of Love
1953 - Yvonne Elliman
actress, singer: Jesus Christ Superstar: I Don’t Know How to Love Him, If I Can’t Have You; joined Eric Clapton in his 1974 comeback tour
1959 - Paula Poundstone
actress, comedienne: The Paula Pundstone Show, Hollywood Squares, To Tell the Truth
1961 - Mark Day
musician: guitar: group: Happy Mondays
1969 - Jennifer Ehle
actress: TV/films: Pride and Prejudice, Alpha Male, The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Adventures in the Secret Service, Sunshine, Melissa, Pride and Prejudice; Broadway: The Coast of Utopia, Design For Living [Revival], The Real Thing [Revival]
1971 - Jay Fiedler
football [quarterback]: Dartmouth Univ; NFL: Philadelphia Eagles, Minnesota Vikings, Jacksonville Jaguars, Miami Dolphins, New York Jets
1972 - Jim Brower
baseball [pitcher]: Cleveland Indians, Cincinnati Reds, Montreal Expos, San Francisco Giants, Atlanta Braves, Baltimore Orioles, San Diego Padres, Florida Marlins
1972 - Jude Law
actor: The Talented Mr. Ripley, Gattaca, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Enemy at the Gates, Artificial Intelligence: AI
1973 - Tomas Perez
baseball: Toronto Blue Jays, Philadelphia Phillies
1975 - Jaret Wright
baseball [pitcher]: Cleveland Indians, Atlanta Braves, San Diego Padres, New York Yankees, Baltimore Orioles
1977 - Jack Wilson
baseball [shortstop]: Seattle Mariners, Pittsburgh Pirates
1978 - La Toya London
singer: Scandalous, Learn to Breathe, State of My Heart, Meet Me Halfway, Anything, I Can’t Hide [What’s in My Heart], All By Myself; American Idol 4th-place finalist [2004]
1983 - Jessica Andrews
singer: Humanity, I Will Be There for You , You Go First [Do You Wanna Kiss], Who Am I, Unbreakable Heart, I Do Now, Karma, Helplessly, Hopelessly
1996 - Dylan Minnette
actor: Saving Grace, Oranges, The Year Without a Santa Claus
Chart Toppers December 29
1946The Christmas Song - Nat King Cole
White Christmas - Bing Crosby
Ole Buttermilk Sky - The Kay Kyser Orchestra (vocal: Mike Douglas & The Campus Kids)
Divorce Me C.O.D. - Merle Travis
1955I Hear You Knocking - Gale Storm
Memories are Made of This - Dean Martin
He - Al Hibbler
Sixteen Tons - Tennessee Ernie Ford
1964I Feel Fine - The Beatles
She’s a Woman - The Beatles
Goin’ Out of My Head - Little Anthony & The Imperials
Once a Day - Connie Smith
1973Time in a Bottle - Jim Croce
Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress) - Helen Reddy
The Joker - Steve Miller Band
If We Make It Through December - Merle Haggard
1982Maneater - Daryl Hall & John Oates
Mickey - Toni Basil
The Girl is Mine - Michael Jackson/Paul McCartney
Wild and Blue - John Anderson
1991Black or White - Michael Jackson
It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday - Boyz II Men
All 4 Love - Color Me Badd
For My Broken Heart - Reba McEntire
2000Independent Woman, Part 1 - Destiny’s Child
Case of the Ex (Whatcha Gonna Do) - Mya
If You’re Gone - Matchbox Twenty
My Next Thirty Years - Tim McGraw
2009Empire State Of Mind - Jay-Z + Alicia Keys
TiK ToK - Ke$ha
Bad Romance - Lady Gaga
Need You Now - Lady Antebellum
Happy Birthday Jessica Andrews
