September 9, 2011

• 55 years since Elvis Presley appeared on the Ed Sullivan show for the first time (September 9, 1956)


• 20 years since Tajikistan gained independence from the Soviet Union (1991)


• Adam Sandler turns 45 (born 1966)


• Statehood day in California

March 10, 2011 - Birthday Edition

• Actress Olivia Wilde turns 28 (born 1984)
• Musician (and American Idol winner) Carrie Underwood turns 29 (born 1983)
• Actor Jon Hamm turns 40 (born 1971)
• Actress Sharon Stone 53 (born 1958)
• Extremist Osama bin Laden turn 54 (born 1957)
• Director/screenwriter/producer (and Oscar winner) Paul Haggis turns 59 (born 1953)
• Martial artist and actor Chuck Norris turns 72 (born 1940)

February 16, 2011

• 6 years since the NHL (National Hockey League) canceled the 2004-2005 regular season and playoffs due to a labor dispute (2005)
  
• 11 years since Hezbollah is founded (1985)
  
• Rapper and actor Ice-T turns 53 (born 1958)
  
• Actor and Reading Rainbow host LaVar Burton turns 54 (born 1957)
  
• North Korean leader Kim Jong-il turns 70 (born 1941)

February 4, 2011

• 109 years since the birth of Charles Lindbergh (he died 1974, born 1902)
• 105 years since the birth of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (he died a maryr in 1945, born 1906)
• 98 years since the birth Rosa Parks (she died in 2005, born 1913)
• 75 years since Radium (automic number 88) is made synthetically, making it the first radioactive element to be made in this way (1936)
• Famous Zombie director George A. Romero turns 71 (born 1940)
• 70 years since the USO (United Services Organization) is created to entertain American troops (1941)
• Former Vice President Dan Quayle turns 64 (born 1947)
• Musician Alice Cooper turns 63 (born 1948)
• Musician Clint Black turns 49 (born 1962)
• Boxed Oscar De La Hoya turns 38 (born 1973)
• Musician Natalie Imbruglia turns 36 (born 1975)
• Gavin DeGraw turns 34 (born 1977)
• 7 years since Facebook launched. It's initial launched and limited to students at Harvard (2004).

January 31, 2011 - Birthday Edition

Justin Timberlake turns 30 (born 1981)
Portia de Rossi turns 38 (born 1973)
Minnie Driver turns 41 (born 1970)
Anthony La Paglia turns 52 (born 1959)
John Lyndon (lead singer for the Sex Pistols) turns 55 (born 1956)
Nolan Ryan turns 64 (born 1947)
Phillip Glass (composer) turn 74 (born 1937)
Ernie Banks turns 80 (born 1931)

Note: In addition to baseball greats Ernie Banks and Nolan Ryan sharing a birthday, Jackie Robinson's birthday was January 31st as well (born 1919). He died in 1972 at the age of 53.

January 30, 2011 - 40 Years Since Carole King's Tapestry

On January 30, 1971 Carole King's album Tapestry was released. This album became and remains the longest charting album by a female solo artists.

It ranked in the US at the number 1 position for 15 weeks, the longest of any female solo artists album.

At the Grammy's the following year the album would go on to win Album of the Year, Carole King would win best female vocalist, record of the year went to her single "It's Too Late", and song of the year went to her track "You've Got a Friend."

King wrote or co-wrote all the songs on the album, but some became famous when other artists sung them, including Aretha Franklin's "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman." Carol King's sung songs that would hit number 1 on the charts include "It's Too Late" and "I Feel The Earth Move."

Ideas to Blog
1. If you were alive when this album came out, what do you remember about it? Did this album have any influence on your life?

2. What quality does a female vocalist have that is different from a male vocalist and how does that impact your own personal music interests?

3. "It's Too Late" was covered and made popular by James Taylor the same year King's record came out. In 2010, Taylor & King have made a circuit of tours together (The Troubadour Reunion). What relevance do you find in the music of artist like Carole King and James Taylor 40 years after such peaks in their musical career?

January 12, 2011 - Birthday Edition

• English singer Pixie Lott turns 20 (born 1991)
• English actress Gemma Arterton turns 25 (born 1986)
• Comporary Christian music artist Jeremy Camp turns 33 (born 1978)
• Melanie Chisholm (aka "Sporty Spice" of the Spice Girls) turns 37 (born 1974)
• Heather Mills, model and former wife of Paul McCartney, turns 43 (born 1968)
• American heavy metal rock legend Rod Zombie turns 46 (born 1965)
• Jeff Bezos, founder and chairman of Amazon.com turns 47 (born 1964)
• American Actor Oliver Platt turns 51 (born 1960)
• Shock Jock Howard Stern turns 57 (born 1954)
• Conservative radio host actovist Rush Limbaugh turns 60 (born 1951)
• Former Heavy Weight Champion Joe Frazier (Smokin' Joe) turns 67 (born 1944)

January 10, 2011

• 235 years since Thomas Paine publishes Common Sense (get the Common Sense eBook free here) (1776)
• 141 years since John D. Rockefeller incorporates Standard Oil (1870)
• 91 years since the Treaty of Versilles takes effect, ending WWI (1920)
• 21 years since Time Warner is formed by merging Time Inc. and Warner Communications (1990)
• Singer Rod Stewart turns 66 (born 1945)
• Heavy weight boxer George Foreman turns 62 (born 1949)
• Musician Shawn Colvin (Grammy Award Winner 1998 for record & song of the year for "Sunny Came Home") turns 55 (born 1956)
  
  

January 5, 2011 - Birthday Edition

• January Jones, famous for her role in the TV series Mad Men, turns 33 (I've always wondered if she was born in January, looks like she was) (born 1978)
• Marilyn Manson, the controversial musician turns 42 (born 1969) (Manson's birth name was Brian Hugh Warner)
• George Tenet, CIA director CIA director under Bill Clinton & George W Bush (1997-2004) turns 58 (born 1953)
• Actress Diane Keaton turns 65 (born 1946)
• American talk show host and journalist Charlie Rose turns 69 (born 1942)
• American actor Robert Duvall turns 80 (born 1931)
• Walter Mondale, Vice President under Jimmy Carter turns 83 (born 1928)

December 28, 2010

Just a few days remaining in the year? What will you blog about. Here are some ideas.

• 65 years ago the United States congress officially recognized The Pledge of Allegiance (1945)
• 10 years ago retailer Montogomery Ward officially announced it's going out of business (2010)
• 154 years since the birth of 28th President Woodrow Wilson
• American comic book legend Stan Lee turns 88 (born 1922)
• Actress Dame Maggie Smith turns 76 (born 1934)
• Musician John Legend turns 32 (born 1978)
• American Idol runner-up David Archulete turns 20 (born 1990)
• In the tradition of celebrating the 12 days of Christmas, today is the fourth day of Christmas

December 13, 2010 - Celebirty Birthdays

• Musical Starlet Taylor Swift turns 21 (born 1989)
• Tom DeLonge (guitarist of Blink-182, Angels and Airwaves) turns 35 (born 1975)
• University of Nebraska College Football coach Bo Pelini turns 43 (born 1967)
• Musician, Actor, Oscar winner Jamie Fox turns 43 (born 1967)
• One of the Coen Brother's favorite actor Steve Buscemi turns 53 (born 1957)
• Actor Christopher Plummer turns 81 (born 1929)
• Actor/Comedian Dick Van Dyke turn 85 (born 1925)

December 7, 2010

• The anniversary of Cicero's assassination (43 BC)
  
• 80 years since the first television commercial, an ad for I.J. Fox Furries who sponsored the CBS TV broadcast of the The Fox Trappers (1930)
  
• 69 years since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor during WWII (1941)
  
• 100 years since the birth of "The King of Swing:" Popular swing, big band, and lounge act Louis Prima (born 1910, died 1978)
  
• International Civil Aviation Day (as created by the UN General assembly in 1994 celebrating the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Convention on International Civil Aviation).