Friday-Sunday, November 18-20, 2005

Jonestown massacre...

Try as I might to come up with a more digestible (so to speak) feature story to start my weekend blog off with, this anniversary item kept smacking me in the face. I mean I try to keep things light but it's got to be a major story and there was no bigger story in the November 18th archives than the horror that occurred in Jonestown, Guyana in 1978...

Consider this: People's Temple leader Jim Jones forced his followers to commit mass suicide by drinking a cyanide-laced fruit-flavored concoction and while a dozen or so escaped, the final death toll was 913, including 276 children. That's 913, including 276 children...

Those snapshots that we have of the horrible carnage will live with us forever in our mental archives, and hopefully not recalled more than once a year or so. That would be more than enough. Why do people follow someone like Jim Jones as they did from Indianapolis in the '50s to northern California in the 60s to the South American jungles in the 70s, to their deaths on this date in 1978 ???

If we knew perhaps we could stop the next cult leader...

More November 18 Memories...

1928) The first successful sound-synchronized animated cartoon premieres in New York City. It's Walt Disney's "Steamboat Willie". Mickey Mouse is born...

1956) Fats Domino sings "Blueberry Hill" on the "Ed Sullivan Show"...

1963) Dale and Grace are #1 with "I'm Leaving It Up To You"...

1964) The Supremes and Righteous Brothers appear on "Shindig!"...

1966) U.S. Roman Catholic bishops do away with the rule against eating meat on Fridays (butchers across America rejoice)...

1966) Future Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax retires at 30 because of severe arthritis in his pitching (left) arm...

1967) 3rd ranked USC upsets #1, cross-town rivals UCLA 21-20 en route to their 1st national title since 1962 (the game featured future Heisman Trophy winners O.J. Simpson & Gary Beban)...

1969) The patriarch of the Kennedy family, Joseph P. Kennedy dies at 81 at the compound in Hyannisport...

1970) Jerry Lee Lewis and wife Myra Brown are divorced (wasn't this his cousin ?)...

1973) Ringo Starr is #1 with "Photograph" (written by Ringo and George Harrison)...

1985) Quarterback Joe Theismann, 35, who led the Redskins to the 1983 Super Bowl title suffers a career-ending compound fracture of his lower right leg when he was sacked by the Giants Lawrence Taylor in a nationally televised Monday Night Football game...

1987) Billy Idol's remake of Tommy James' "Mony, Mony" tops the charts (13 years after Tommy & the Shondells made it a hit)...

1990) Mick Jagger marries model-actress Jerry Hall in Bali (they have 2 children after a 12-year marriage that is dissolved in 1999 after allegations that Mick fathered a child by Brazilian model Luciana Morad)...

1990) Paul McCartney's birth certificate is sold for $18,000 in an auction (he doesn't have a birth certificate now ?)...

1991) Shiite Muslim kidnappers release Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite and educator Thomas Sutherland...

1994) Cab Calloway dies in a Delaware nursing home of a stroke at 86...

1995) The Rolling Stones become the first act to broadcast a concert on the internet...

1999) 12 students are killed when a bonfire under construction at Texas A&M collapses...

1999) In Jasper, Texas, Shawn Allen Berry is convicted of murder for his role in the dragging death of James Byrd Jr., but spared the death penalty...

2001) Phillips (no relation) Petroleum and Conoco announce a merger creating the third-largest U.S. oil and gas company...

2003) The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rules that gay couples can marry (not that there's anything wrong with that)...

2003) Police and prosecutors raid Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch on a $3 million arrest warrant for child molestation (no comment necessary)...

Happy Birthday To...

1928) Steamboat Willie a.k.a. Mickey Mouse...

1939) Brenda Vaccaro...

1942) Linda Evans...

1953) Kevin Nealon...

1968) The Yankees Gary Sheffield...

1968) Owen Wilson...

1975) Red Sox David (Big Papi) Ortiz...

Saturday, November 19, 2005...

Everyone knows this Gettysburg Address...

Okay, here's one for the history buffs. Abraham Lincoln's most famous speech was delivered today in 1863 during the American Civil War. The location of the speech was the Soldier's National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Lincoln was dedicating the cemetery that day and his speech of only 300 words or so would resonate for a lifetime...

The president invoked the principles of human equality espoused by the Declaration of Independence and redefined the Civil War as a struggle not merely for the Union but as "a new birth of freedom" for the United States and its people, in the hope that "government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth"...

One newspaper account of "Lincoln's few appropriate remarks" mentioned "Lincoln's high-pitched Kentucky accent". For those of you who weren't really sure, like me, the exact definition in years of "four score and seven years ago", Webster (the dictionary not Daniel) defines a "score" as "a group of 20 things". Four score and 7 years ago is 87 years from the time of Lincoln's address, the year we gained our independence in 1776...

More November 20 Memories...

1863) Lincoln's Gettysburg Address (feature story)...

1954) Two automatic toll collectors are placed on the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey (ch-ching)...

1954) Sammy Davis Jr. loses an eye (he didn't wear that eye-patch on his left eye for nothing) in a serious auto accident in San Bernardino, CA...

1959) Ford announces it will end the production of their Edsel (the son or the car ?)...

1966) #1 ranked Notre Dame and second-ranked Michigan State play to a 10-10 tie when Irish coach Ara Parseghian plays it safe, playing for a tie instead of a win...

1966) Brazilian soccer great Pele scores his 1,000th goal (the soccer equivalent of Babe Ruth's 714 home runs)...

1968) The Supremes perform before Britain's Queen Elizabeth...

1969) Apollo XII astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean make man's second landing on the moon...

1978) Giant quarterback Joe Pisarcik needs only to put his knee to the ground to secure a 17-12 victory for Big Blue over hated-rivals Philadelphia. With 20 seconds left in the game Pisarcik tries a handoff instead and fumbles. Current (for now anyway) Jet coach Herman Edwards picks up the fumble and in the words of the late Howard Cosell, "he...could...go...all...the...way". Edwards races 26 yards for the winning touchdown. Eagles beat the Giants...Eagles beat the Giants...Eagles beat the Giants...

1979) Houston's Nolan Ryan signs a 4-year contract worth $4.5 million becoming the highest paid player in baseball (a utility player makes that amount today)...

1985) President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Gorbachev meet for the 1st time at a summit in Geneva...

1990) The pop duo Milli Vanilli are stripped of their Grammy Awards for lip-synching...

1997) Septuplets are born to Bobbi McCaughey in Carlisle, Iowa (it's only the second known case where all 7 are born alive)...

1998) The impeachment inquiry of President Clinton begins...

Happy Birthday To...

1919) Mr. Ed's "Wilbbbburrr" Alan Young...

1933) Larry King...

1936) Dick Cavett...

1938) Ted Turner...

1939) Garrick Utley...

1942) Calvin Klein...

1956) Ann Curry...

1961) Meg Ryan...

1962) Jodie Foster...

Sunday, November 20, 2005...

The Band plays on...

One of the more bizarre finishes in college football history happened on this date in 1982, when California defeated Stanford in the closing seconds of the game, 25-20 and this is how it happened...

With Stanford up 20-19 and 4 seconds remaining in the game, California returned a kickoff for the winning touchdown. Kevin Moen started and ended the spectacular 55-yard return on 5 laterals. Moen picked up the ball at the California 45, lateraled to Richard Rodgers (the player not the composer) who ran about 10 yards before flipping the ball to Dwight Garner. Garner goes 20 yards and then tosses the ball back to Rodgers who turns and laterals to Marriet Ford (interesting hotel/car name there) who tosses the ball to Moen, who weaves his way through the stunned members of the Stanford band for the winning touchdown (just the way they planned it, right ?)...

The Stanford band, convinced that their team had won, positioned themselves in the end zone for the victory march but the 5-lateral, miracle touchdown stunned saxophonists and drummers alike...Game over...California beats Stanford 25-20...

More interesting info on this most bizarre finish follows in my commentary...

More November 20 Memories...

1928) The Boston Bruins lose to Montreal 1-0 as the Boston Garden opens...

1947) Britain's future queen, Princess Elizabeth marries Philip Montbatten, Duke of Edinburgh in Westminster Abbey...

1960) Frank Gifford gets knocked into Monday when the Eagles Chuck Bednarik hits the Giant running back from the blindside in a game that clinches the Eastern Conference title for Philadelphia (the legal hit forces Gifford to miss the '61 season and effectively ends his career. Kathie Lee Gifford is the reward)...

1962) The Four Seasons release "Big Girls Don't Cry"...

1962) Mickey Mantle wins his 3rd American League MVP Award...

1969) The use of DDT is banned...

1975) Spain's General Francisco Franco dies after nearly 4 decades of absolute rule...

1977) Walter Payton runs for 275 yards in a 10-7 win over Minnesota, breaking the single-game rushing record held by O.J. Simpson (273) in 1976 (Payton's mark will be broken in 2000)...

1982) The California-Stanford game (feature story)...

1982) Drew Barrymore at 7 becomes the youngest host of Saturday Night Live...

1983) An estimated 100 million viewers watch the controversial ABC-TV movie "The Day After" which depicts a nuclear holocaust...

1984) McDonald's makes its 50 billionth hamburger (Tums and Rolaids sell their 50th billion antacid to mark the occasion)...

1994) David Crosby gets a liver transplant (who gets the old liver ?)...

1995) Princess Diana admits being unfaithful to Prince Charles on a BBC television show (the Prince retaliates by ringing up Camilla)...

1998) Afghanistan offers safe haven to Osama bin Laden...

1998) 46 states agree to a $206 billion settlement of health claims against the tabacco industry (the other 4 states abstain ???)...

Happy Birthday To...

1919) Evelyn Keyes...

1926) Kaye Ballard...

1927) Estelle Parsons...

1932) Richard Dawson (yes he's alive as his very funny website tells us)...

1939) Dick Smothers...

1946) Judy Woodruff...

1947) Eagles' Joe Walsh...

1956) Bo Derek...

Commentary...

In addition to that wild finish in the California-Stanford game on November 20, 1982:

• Notre Dame was knocked out of bowl consideration when they lost to Air Force...
• Washington was denied a 3rd consecutive trip to the Rose Bowl when they lost to rival Washington State...

You may have heard of the quarterback for Stanford in that 1982 game. His name was John Elway. Even senior John Elway couldn't help his team win that game against California...

Thursday, November 17, 2005

The greatest game ending never seen...

Okay so you're watching this hard hitting, classic shootout of a game between the Jets and those dastardly Oakland Raiders. It's a see-saw affair with the Raiders ahead at the half 14-12. In the second half both teams trade punches and scores several times and then Jim Turner connects on a 26-yard field goal putting the Jets ahead 32-29 with 1:05 ticks left on the clock. The Jets kick off to the Raiders who bring the ball up to their own 23 yard line. Oh, what's that, a commercial, okay I'll wait. It's worth waiting a couple of minutes for what promises to be a classic ending. Commercials over, okay here we go. Wait a minute who's that little girl in an apron ? Heidi ? Heidi who ? Must be some mistake. No mistake, the legend of "The Heidi Game" is born...

NBC-TV executives had instructed Broadcast Operations Supervisor, Dick Cline, to cut to "Heidi" at 7pm whether the game was over or not. Seeing what a great game this had become, the powers that be, changed their minds but couldn't get through to Cline to break the news to him and why was that ? How about thousands of complaining viewers who blew out NBC's phone line ?...

And the game, what happened in the game, you might ask. Here's what you didn't see. The Oakland Raiders scored 2 touchdowns in 9 seconds and held on to win, 43-32 in what fans have voted as one of the 10 most memorable games in football history. The final score of the game ran as a crawl across the bottom of the screen at 7:20 during, what else ? "Heidi"...

Some interesting "Heidi Game" factoids follow in my commentary...

More November 17 Memories...

1934) Future President Lyndon B. Johnson marries Claudia Alta Taylor, better known to you and I as "Lady Bird"...

1956) Jimmy Brown finishes his college career at Syracuse by running for 6 touchdowns and kicking 7 extra points in a 61-7 shellacking of Colgate...

1965) The Supremes top the charts with "I Hear A Symphony"...

1968) "The Heidi Game" (feature story)...

1973) At an Associated Press meeting in Orlando, President Nixon gives his famous "I'm not a crook" speech (full quote: "people have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook.")...

1975) KC & the Sunshine Band are #1 with "That's the way (I Like It)"...

1980) John Lennon's two-record set "Double Fantasy" LP is released...

1984) Wham!'s "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" (which I worked on) tops the charts...

1985) Howard Stern starts at K-Rock (WXRK)...

1990) David Crosby breaks his left leg, ankle and shoulder in a motorcycle accident in L.A...

1997) Mario Lemieux (who's still playing) is voted into the NHL Hall of Fame...

2001) "Toys "R" Us" opens a mammoth store in Times Square...

2003) John Allen Muhammad is convicted of two-counts of capital murder in the Washington, D.C. area sniper shootings...

2003) Arnold Schwarzenegger becomes the "governator" by being sworn in as the 38th governor of Cahl-if-forrrr-nee-uh...

Happy Birthday To...

1938) Gordon Lightfoot...

1942) Bob Gaudio (Four Seasons)...

1942) Martin Scorsese...

1943) Lauren Hutton...

1944) Danny DeVito...

1944) SNL producer Lorne Michaels...

1944) The Mets "franchise" Tom Seaver...

1960) RuPaul...

Commentary...

While NBC-TV executives frantically tried reaching Dick Cline, the thousands of protesting callers started calling the police, the telephone company and the New York Times (hmmm). At 8:30 NBC made a public apology and the next morning, just take a wild guess what the headline of the New York Times screamed ? "The Heidi Game" was treated like the major event it became...

In a poorly executed cover-up NBC bought ads in several major newspapers proclaiming rave reviews for "Heidi" along with this quote from Jets quarterback Joe Namath: "I didn't get a chance to see it, but I heard it was great." Good thing NBC never ran a political campaign is what I'm thinking...

The end result of the botched ending of the Jets-Raiders thriller was the vow by the networks never to interrupt the ending of a local game, however to this day the networks break away to the 4pm game whether or not the 1pm game is over. The only exception is for the local team, which is protected. Now we need the networks to let the 1pm game finish with a split screen of that game and the 4pm game until the first game is over...

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Last but not least...

New England gave birth to a brand new bouncing baby on this date in 1959 when a group of local Boston businessmen led by former public relations executive William H. "Billy" Sullivan, Jr. was awarded the 8th and final franchise in the new American Football League. Now let's see, what shall we call him ? Well we're the home of the battles of Lexington and Concord, Paul Revere, minutemen and lots of other patriots, hey we may be on to something. Did someone say patriots ? Hmmm...

The first Patriot logo featured "Pat Patriot" dressed for battle in a 3-point stance, football in right hand, ready to be snapped to a waiting quarterback (not pictured, he may have been reloading his musket and preparing himself for another battle). I must confess that being a diehard Patriot fan who got used to the "Flying Elvis" logo that would be the successor to our beloved "Pat Patriot" in the 70s, I still consider Pat to be an old and cherished friend that I still miss...

Silver has been added to the original team colors of red, white and blue (you were expecting maybe purple or even worse, teal ?) in recent years and as long as black never rears its ugly head, rest easy fellow Patriot fans...

Following a rough start in 1960, the Patriots had a winning record in their second year but victories were scarce in the 60s and 70s and while the home team teased us by tying for the Eastern Division title in 1963 they would lose in the playoffs. In 1978 the Pats would win their 1st Eastern Division crown. They would appear in their 1st Super Bowl (XX) in 1986 but get crushed by the Chicago Bears, reappear in 1997 (SB XXXI) only to lose again, this time to the Green Bay Packers but the Super Bowls played in 2002, 2004 and 2005 brought victory to the red, white, blue (and okay, silver) and those 3 Super Bowl titles in the last 4 years mark the Patriots as the most successful NFL franchise in the land. Thank you Billy Sullivan...

More on the Patriots follows in my commentary...

More November 16 Memories...

1952) Lucy holds the football for Charlie Brown for the 1st time in "Peanuts"...

1957) Jim Brown sets an NFL season rushing record of 1,163 yards after only 8 games...

1957) Dick Lynch scampers around right end for a touchdown, ending Oklahoma's streak of 47 straight wins as Notre Dame beats the #1 ranked Oakies 7-0 at Norman, Oklahoma...

1959) Billy Sullivan buys the Patriots (feature story)...

1959) Rodgers & Hammerstein's "The Sound of Music" opens on Broadway...

1960) "Stay" by Maurice Williams & the Zodiacs tops the charts (the song is the shortest #1 single in the rock era at one minute and 37 seconds)...

1960) Clark Gable dies of a heart attack at 59...

1966) Dr. Sam Sheppard is acquitted in his second trial on charges he had murdered his pregnant wife, Marilyn, in 1954 (this story was the basis for the TV series, "The Fugitive")...

1970) "I Think I Love You" tops the charts for David Cassidy & The Patridge Family (the song tops the charts exactly 2 months and 4 days after the TV show debuts)...

1974) John Lennon has his 1st and only solo #1, "Whatever Gets You Through The Night" (with piano and backup vocals provided by Elton John)...

1974) Motown releases "Boogie On Reggae Woman" by Stevie Wonder...

1978) The movie version of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" opens (The Bee Gees, Peter Frampton and Billy Preston make their acting debuts)...

1979) Paul McCartney releases "Wonderful Christmas"...

1980) "Lady" by Kenny Rogers is #1 (written and produced by Lionel Richie)...

1981) Luke marries Laura on "General Hospital" in front of 16 million viewers...

1982) An agreement is announced on the 57th day of a strike by NFL players...

1987) Lenny Kravitz and actress Lisa Bonet say their "I Do's" on Lisa's 20th birthday (the couple will separate in 1990 and divorce in 1993)...

2000) Bill Clinton becomes the first sitting president to visit Communist Vietnam...

2001) Congress passes an aviation security bill mandating that airport screeners be federal employees...

Happy Birthday To...

1928) Clu Gulager...

1958) Marge (Margggg, with a hard "g" or is it a soft "g" ?) Helgenberger...

1964) Dwight Gooden (hopefully he gets a leave to celebrate)...

1964) Diana Krall...

1967) Lisa Bonet...

1977) Oksana Baiul...

Commentary...

Billy Sullivan, the original owner of the Patriots was a cheerful Irishman (oh, really ?) who always had a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye. He was the perfect owner and spokeman for this fledgling team. Billy wasted little time after receiving the franchise in 1959, drafting a running back, Ron Burton from Northwestern University, with his first draft pick with the not so immortal running back Gerhardt Schwedes being the team's first territorial choice...

I had a pressbox view of most of the nomadic Patriots' games in the 60s (from '66 on). After getting kicked out of Fenway Park by Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey the team was homeless, playing games wherever they could find a field. I saw them play at B.C.'s Alumni Field and even Harvard Stadium. All that changed in 1971 when the Patriots finally had a home of their own at Schaefer Stadium in Foxboro. It was exciting to be part of the press day, walk on the synthetic turf and witness the 1st exhibition game and season opener that year (both won by the Pats). 1971 was also the year that the "Boston" Patriots became the "New England" Patriots...

The Patriots have come a long way from this day in 1959 when Billy Sullivan and others brought a new baby into the world and those of us that are part of Patriot's Nation are grateful for the gift. Now let's get healthy and turn this season around and make it 4 Super Bowl wins in 5 years...

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

(chime effect) "N (g) - B (e) - C (c)"...

No, this is not the formula for nuclear fission. If you use your imagination a little, well a lot, you would hear the NBC chimes used to identify the network. The small letters next to "NBC" are the keys on the musical scale used for the chimes. I do wish keyboards had a musical note symbol but hey, you can't have everything. Then again, how often would you be describing musical notes in a blog ? We go back to the "Roaring Twenties" for today's feature story, the era of the "Great One", Gatsby not Gretsky...

The National Broadcasting Company debuted on this date in 1926 with a radio network of 24 stations. The first network radio broadcast was a 4-hour special emanating from the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria. Nationally known bands (known only to those nationally known bands) wailed away, some at remote locations for an estimated audience numbering nearly half of the 5 million radio sets in use in 1926. It was quite the bash...

Earlier in the year, AT&T (yes, that AT&T) sold WEAF (soon to become WNBC) to RCA. RCA then had the rights to rent AT&T's phone lines for network transmission and the race was on...By the way RCA got WEAF and a Washington sister-station (WCAP) for a cool $1,000,000...

Some more interesting stuff about the NBC network will follow in my commentary...

More November 15 Memories...

1939) FDR lays the cornerstone of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C...

1939) The Social Security Administration approves the 1st unemployment check and America rejoices...

1940) The Midtown Tunnel linking Manhattan and Queens opens to traffic...

1956) Elvis Presley's 1st movie, "Love Me Tender" premieres at the New York Paramount Theater (the film will earn back its $1 million cost in just 3 days and over the next 13 years Elvis will appear in 33 movies)...

1965) The Rolling Stones make their TV debut on "Hullabaloo" doing "Get Off My Cloud"...

1966) After a scare, the flight of Gemini XII splashes down safely in the Atlantic Ocean with James A. Lovell and Buzz Aldrin aboard...

1967) The Red Sox' Carl Yastrzemski wins the AL MVP (in the greatest individual season for a player I ever witnessed)...

1969) A quarter of a million protesters stage a peaceful demonstration against the Vietnam War in Washington, D.C...

1969) Pass the Rolaids, Wendy's opens...

1969) "I Want You Back" becomes the 1st Jackson Five record to debut on the charts (the first of 31 over the next 20 years)...

1988) The legislative body of the PLO proclaims the establishment of an idependent Palestinian state...

1990) David Bowie debuts on Broadway in the title role of "The Elephant Man"...

1990) Frank Farian, producer of Milli Vanilli publicly admits that Fabrice Morvan and Rob Pilatus never sang a note on their records and that they did a lip-synch when they performed...

1992) Richard Petty's 35-year reign as stock-car's king ends in a fiery crash when his famous #43 gets caught in a wreck in a race (unhurt he will finish the race retiring with 7 Nascar championships and 7 Daytona 500 victories, both records)...

1993) A judge in Mineola sentences Joey Buttafuoco to 6 months in jail for the statutory rape of the "Long Island Lolita", Amy Fisher who shot Joey's wife Mary Jo (does this all sound like a Soap to you ?)...

2001) Roger Clemens of the Yankees wins a record 6th Cy Young Award, emblematic of the best pitcher in the American League (you might want to include all of baseball if you'd like)...

Happy Birthday To...

1919) Judge Joseph Wapner...

1929) Edward Asner...

1932) Petula Clark...

1934) Joanna Barnes...

1940) Sam Waterston...

1945) Frida (Lyngstad) of ABBA...

Commentary...

Anytime there's a major anniversary in radio I'm gonna go with it as the medium was the career of my choosing and for those of you likely inclined, here are some interesting tidbits on the 79th anniversary of the NBC Radio network:

• the famous 3-note NBC chimes were lifted from WSB in Atlanta when an NBC executive heard WSB use it during the broadcast of a Georgia Tech game...
• NBC started using the 3 notes in 1931 and it was the 1st ever audio trademark to be accepted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office...
• a 4th chime (key of C) was used during wartime (especially in the wake of Pearl Harbor and other disasters)...
• the NBC Radio Network ceased to exist in 1989 and would become a brand-name used by Westwood One...

Monday, November 14, 2005

The winningest coach of all-time...

One of pro football's most cherished records was erased from the NFL record books on this date in 1993 when the Miami Dolphins defeated the Philadelphia Eagles 19-14 on the road in Philadelphia...

The Dolphins win gave coach Don Shula his 325th win, moving him past the Bears' George Halas and it took him 9 years less than Papa Bear Halas to accomplish the feat. For the record, Shula's 325 wins in 31 years gives him an average of more than 10 wins for each season he coached in the NFL...

Shula would only coach 2 teams during his tenure, the Baltimore Colts and Miami Dolphins. He would retire after the 1995 season with a regular season mark of 328-156-6. That combined with his post-season mark of 19-17 would give the legendary coach a career mark of 347 wins, 173 losses and 6 ties...

Shula's career coaching record for wins should stand the test of time and may never be broken. More of Shula's accomplishments in my commentary...

More November 14 Memories...

1832) The first streetcar goes into service in New York City. It was horse-drawn with room for 30 (the ride cost a whopping 12 cents and ran on Manhattan's 4th Avenue between Prince and 14th Streets)...

1851) Herman Melville's novel "Moby Dick" is published...

1889) New York World reporter Nellie Bly a.k.a. Elizabeth Cochrane begins an attempt to surpass the fictitious journey of Jules Verne's Phineas Fogg by traveling around the world in less than 80 days. Bly succeeds by finishing the journey in 72 days, 6 hours and 11 minutes in January...

1943) Leonard Bernstein makes his debut with the New York Philharmonic filling in for the ailing Bruno Walter prior to a nationally broadcast concert (Lenny was 25 years old and was an assistant conductor at the time)...

1961) Ray Charles tops the charts with "Georgia On My Mind"...

1961) Elvis Presley's "Blue Hawaii" premieres...

1968) Yale University announces it will go co-ed...

1970) Santana's "Black Magic Woman" is released...

1972) The Dow Jones closes above 1,000 (1,003.16) for the 1st time...

1972) Johnny Nash tops the charts with "I Can See Clearly Now"...

1973) Britain's Princess Anne marries commoner, Capt. Mark Phillips in Westminster Abbey (they will divorce in 1992 as the Princess re-marries)...

1981) It's "Australia-mania" as 4 of the top 10 singles are by artists from down under, led by Olivia Newton-John's #3 hit "Physical". The other Aussies are the Little River Band, Air Supply and Rick Springfield...

1982) Joe Cocker & Jennifer Warnes are #1 with "Up Where We Belong" (the single from "An Officer and a Gentleman" will win an Academy Award)...

1986) The Doubleday Publishing Company agrees to sell the Mets to Nelson Doubleday & Fred Wilpon for $80.75 million (the company had purchased the World Champions for a then-record $21.1 million in 1980)...

1986) A record $100 million penalty is imposed against Ivan F. Boesky for insider trading...

1987) Sonny and Cher reunite on the David Letterman Show and sing "I Got You Babe"...

1990) From the "more than we need to know" file: The Who's Pete Townshend confesses his bisexuality to "Newsweek"...

1993) Don Shula becomes the winningest NFL coach (feature story)...

1996) Michael Jackson "marries" Deborah Rowe (how did that work out ?). The couple will have 2 children before divorcing in 1999...

1997) Disney's "Lion King" sets a Broadway record of $2.7 million in one-day sales...

1998) From the "another marriage made in heaven" file: Carmen Electra and Dennis Rodman (who wore the bridal gown ?) marry in Las Vegas (where else ?)...

Happy Birthday To...

1940) Freddie Garrity (Freddie & the Dreamers)...

1947) Buckwheat Zydeco...

1948) Britain's Prince Charles...

1951) Stephen Bishop...

1954) Yanni...

1954) Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice...

1966) Curt ("bloody sock") Schilling...

Commentary...

Just some of Don Shula's career highlights as a coach:

Don Shula's 1st win as a coach: September 22, 1963. A 20-14 win over the 49ers...
Shula was the coach when Miami finished with a perfect 17-0 record in 1972...
Shula won Super Bowls VII and VIII and is the only coach in NFL history to have teams in 6 Super Bowls...
When he replaced Weeb Ewbank as coach of the Baltimore Colts in 1963, he was the youngest (at 33) head coach in the NFL's modern era...

Don Shula retired following the 1995 season and is enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame...

Friday-Sunday, November 11-13, 2005

Veteran's Day through the years...

November 11th was originally known as 'Armistice Day' when World War I came to an end in 1918. Let's look back at this date and see what transpired through the years:

1885) George Patton, perhaps our greatest general was born on this date...

1918) World War I ended when the Allies and Germany signed an armistice...

1921) The Tomb of the Unknowns was dedicated at Arlington Cemetary by U.S. President Harding...

1938) Kate Smith sang Irving Berlin's "God Bless America" for the 1st time on network radio...

1940) The Jeep makes its debut...

1942) During World War II Germany completes its occupation of France...

1972) The U.S. Army turns over its base at Long Bihn to the South Vietnamese army. This event symbolized the end of direct involvement in the Vietnam War by the U.S. military...

1984) President Reagan accepts the Vietnam Veterans Memorial as a gift to the nation from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund...

1993) A bronze statue is dedicated in Washington, DC to honor more than 11,000 American women who served in the Vietnam War...

1996) The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund unveils "The Wall That Heals", a half-scale replica of the memorial that will tour communities throughout the U.S...

More November 11 Memories...

1944) The Rangers set an NHL record of 25 games without a win...

1946) The New York Knicks play their 1st home game at Madison Square Garden (they lose 78-68 to the Chicago Stags)...

1958) Hank Ballard & the Midnighters record the original version of "The Twist"...

1963) Brian Epstein and Ed Sullivan sign a 3-show contract for Beatles appearances on the Sunday night show...

1972) Berry Oakley of the Allman Brothers is killed in a motorcycle accident one year and 13 days after Duane Allman met the same fate, just 3 blocks away (Oakley was 24)...

1981) Dodger pitcher Fernando Valenzuela becomes the 1st rookie ever to win the Cy Young Award (less than a month later he wins Rookie of the Year honors)...

1984) 13-year old Gary Coleman undergoes his 2nd kidney transplant in Los Angeles (he had his 1st transplant at 5)...

1986) Sperry Rand and Burroughs merge to form "Unisys", becoming the 2nd largest computer company...

1989) Melissa Etheridge and Joe Cocker entertain Germans celebrating the newly destroyed Berlin Wall...

1990) Derrick Thomas of Kansas City sets an NFL record with 7 sacks in a 17-16 Chiefs win over Seattle (Thomas will die at 33 in February, 2000 from injuries that paralyzed him in a car crash)...

2000) A cable car crammed with skiers caught fire in an Alpine tunnel in Austria, killing 155...

2002) 38-year old Barry Bonds wins an unprecedented 5th MVP award (we're not sure whether or not he was on steroids then)...

Happy Birthday To...

1922) Author Kurt Vonnegut Jr...

1925) Jonathan Winters...

1937) Warner Wolf...

1960) Stanley Tucci...

1962) Demi Moore...

1964) Calista Flockhart...

Commentary...

Traditionally this is the holiday honoring veterans that draws the smallest crowds on 5th Avenue and it's a damn shame. Let's remember that this day of remembrance was originally dedicated to World War I veterans but was changed to honor veterans of all wars and both the living and dead deserve that tribute. Especially the living. Please do your part to remember those that died so that we may live and honor those that survived to preserve our freedom...

Saturday, November 12, 2005...

At 9:16am on November 12, 2001, flight 587, an Airbus A300-605R crashed in Belle Harbor, Queens shortly after taking off from JFK Airport on a flight to Santo Domino in the Dominican Republic. All 260 people aboard the flight and 5 on the ground were killed. There were no survivors...

This is part of an NTSB statement issued after the crash: "Because this crash occurred 2 months after 911, there was initial concern that it might have been the result of an international criminal act. The Board found no such evidence, nor did any law enforcement agencies"...

The official ruling from the NTSB was that "the pilot's excessive rudder pedal inputs led to the crash of American Flight 587". Some personal observations will follow in my commentary...

More November 12 Memories...

1920) Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis is elected baseball's 1st commisioner...

1933) The first known photo of the "Loch Ness Monster" is taken...

1941) WOV and WNEW swap call letters...

1958) "Tom Dooley" by The Kingston Trio is #1 (the song is a century old Blue Ridge Montains tune originally called "Tom Dula")...

1966) Donovan releases "Mellow Yellow"...

1970) The Doors make their last appearance with Jim Morrison in New Orleans...

1979) Barefooted Eagles kicker Tony Franklin boots a 59-yard field goal to help Philadelphia beat Dallas on Monday Night Football...

1982) Yuri Andropov is elected to succeed the late Leonid Brezhnev as general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party's Central Committee...

1985) After 18 years and several name changes, the group Starship tops the charts for the 1st time with "We Built This City" (there is a misconception that this song is about New York, it is not. The song is dedicated to the city of San Francisco which is often referred to by natives as "The City")...

1993) H.R. Haldeman, former Nixon White House chief of staff dies at 67...

1996) Jonathan Schmitz is convicted of second-degree murder for shooting Scott Amedure, a gay who'd revealed that he had a crush on Schmitz on "The Jenny Jones Show"...

1997) Ramzi Yousef is found quilty of masterminding the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center...

1998) Daimler-Benz completes a merger with Chrysler to form Daimler-Chrysler...

2001) American Airlines flight 587 crashes in Belle Harbor, Queens killing 265 (feature story)...

2002) Stan Lee files a lawsuit against Marvel Entertainment Inc. claiming he was cheated out of millions after creating Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk and Daredevil...

Happy Birthday To...

1939) Ruby Nash Curtis (Ruby & the Romantics)...

1943) Brian Hyland...

1944) Booker T. Jones...

1944) Al Michaels...

1945) Neil Young...

1961) Nadia Comaneci...

1966) David ("Friends") Schwimmer...

1970) Tonya Harding...

Commentary...

When that American Airlines plane went down in Belle Harbor I was working at WCBS-FM and had a direct line of sight to the tremendous amount of smoke created by the crash, being in the Viacom Building on Broadway, some several miles away from the Rockaway section of Queens. First and foremost, everyone thought this was an act of terrorism occuring so closely after 911. The weather was clear as a bell and the way the plane suddenly fell out of the sky shortly after takeoff was puzzling...

Both the FAA and NTSB had reason enough to believe the possibility existed, doing what we can only hope was a thorough investigation but coming to the conclusion that there wasn't any...

Doubts remain to this day...

Sunday, November 13, 2005...

November 13th through the years...

1805) Viennese butcher Johann George Lehner invents a recipe and calls it the "frankfurter"...

1927) The Holland Tunnel connecting New York and New Jersey beneath the Hudson River opens to the public...

1940) Walt Disney's "Fantasia" has its world premiere at New York's Broadway Theater...

1942) The minimum draft age is lowered from 21 to 18...

1956) The Supreme Court strikes down laws calling for racial segregation on public buses (thank you Rosa Parks)...

1960) Sammy Davis Jr. marries Swedish actress May Britt...

1961) The Tokens release "The Lion Sleeps Tonight"...

1965) "Fever" by the McCoys is released (lead singer is Rick Derringer)...

1968) The Beatles' animated film "Yellow Submarine" premieres...

1971) "Old Fashioned Love Song" by Three Dog Night is released...

1977) The comic strip "Li'l Abner" by Al Capp appeared in newspapers for the last time (I had the pleasure of knowing Al Capp who had a wooden leg. The cartoonist, who wrote material for the morning show at WRKO in the 60s used a thumb tack to keep the sock on his artificial leg and needed solitude when he created. A strange but very creative man)...

1979) Former California Governor Ronald Reagan announces his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination while in New York...

1979) 76er Darryl Dawkins shatters the fiberglass backboard doing a monster dunk in Kansas City and 3 weeks later shatters another one in Philadelphia. This pattern continues giving sportscasters video highlights for years...

1986) President Reagan publicly acknowledges that the U.S. sent "defensive weapons and spare parts" to Iran but denies this was payment to free U.S. hostages...

1992) Elton John performs in Mexico City for 90,000 fans...

1993) In college football's game of the year, Lou Holtz coached Notre Dame beats Bobby Bowden's #1 ranked Florida State Seminoles 31-24. Both teams had 16-game winning streaks going into the game played at South Bend...

1995) Atlanta's Greg Maddux wins his 4th straight Cy Young Award, something no other pitcher has done before or since...

1997) "The Lion King" opens at the New Amsterdam Theater on Broadway...

1998) "The Wizard of Oz" is released on the big screen by Warner Brothers 59 years after its original release...

1998) President Bill Clinton settles with Paula Jones to the tune of $850,000...

1999) Lennox Lewis becomes the 1st British heavyweight champ in 100 years with a unanimous 12 round decision over Evander Holyfield in Las Vegas...

Happy Birthday To...

1934) Garry Marshall...

1947) Joe Mantegna...

1949) Whoopi Goldberg...

1954) Chris Noth...

1963) Jets QB (again) Vinny Testaverde...

1967) Jimmy Kimmel...

Thursday, November 10, 2005

"Can you tell me how to get...how to get to Sesame Street"...

"Sesame Street", designed as an educational tool for pre-schoolers, debuted on November 10, 1969. This legendary, pioneering public television show combined education and entertainment and brought it to a level of excellence that not even the show's creators envisaged...

The show's original format called for humans to be shown in plots on the street with segments of animation, live action shots and Muppets all interacting. The show was shown to test groups for immediate feedback and then finely tuned to perfection. "Sesame Street" has received more Emmy Awards than any other program. The original series has been televised in 120 countries with more than 20 international versions produced...

The show was originally seen on National Education Television and late in the first year was moved to NET's successor, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). It was taped on 81st Street & Broadway in Manhattan and then moved to its current location, the Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens. Brooklyn Heights was the model for the set used on "Sesame Street", it was where the creators of the show lived at the time...

How big does "Sesame Street" remain 36 years since its inception ? In an average week 5.6 million households with 7.5 million viewers watch the show. And tell me anyone alive today who doesn't know these characters: "Big Bird", "Oscar the Grouch", "Bert and Ernie", "Kermit the Frog" and "The Muppets"...

And finally, tell me the name of anyone alive who hasn't heard this song:

"Sunny day, sweepin' the clouds away, on my way to where the air is sweet. Can you tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street"...

More November 10 Memories...

1775) The U.S. Marines are organized under authority of the Continental Congress...

1928) Faced with a scoreless tie at halftime, Notre Dame coach Knute Rockne asks the "Fighting Irish" to "win one for the Gipper", an Irish player who died 8 years earlier. The Irish do, beating undefeated Army 12-6 at Yankee Stadium...

1956) Billboard's annual DJ poll finds that Elvis Presley is the most-played Pop & Country male artist...

1957) The largest regular season crowd (102,368) in NFL history watches the Rams-49ers play in Los Angeles...

1963) Detroit's Gordie Howe scores his 545th goal breaking the record set by Maurice "Rocket" Richard (that record would be broken by Wayne Gretsky in 1989)...

1965) The Rolling Stones are #1 with "Get Off My Cloud"...

1967) The Moody Blues release "Nights in White Satin"...

1969) "Sesame Street" debuts (feature story)...

1969) Gene Autry receives a gold record for "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", a song released 20 years earlier...

1973) David Essex's "Rock On" is released...

1974) Bachman-Turner Overdrive (BTO) top the charts with "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet"...

1975) The ore-hauling ship Edmund Fitzgerald and its crew of 29 vanish on Lake Superior during a storm (inspiring the Gordon Lightfoot hit, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald")...

1980) CBS News anchor Dan Rather claims he was kidnapped in a cab but it turns out that Dan refused to pay his cab fare (what's the cab fare Kenneth ?)...

1982) The Vietnam Veterans Memorial opens to visitors in Washington, DC...

1982) Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev dies at 75...

1984) Backup Maryland QB Frank Reich stages one of the greatest comebacks in college football history throwing 6 TDs in the second half and overcoming a 31-0 deficit to beat Miami 42-40 (Reich will orchestrate another big comeback in the NFL)...

1991) Cleveland QB Bernie Kosar ends his NFL record of 308 passes without an interception on the losing end of a 32-30 game against the Philadelphia Eagles (the Browns set a club record for largest lead blown: 23-0)...

1993) John Wayne Bobbitt is acquitted on the charge of marital sexual assault against his wife Lorena Bobbitt (Lorena a.k.a. "The blade" is later acquitted of malicious wounding of her husband. Just one big happy couple)...

1994) Jazz singer Carmen McRae dies of a stroke at 72...

1996) Miami's Dan Marino becomes the first quarterback in NFL history to pass for more than 50,000 yards...

1997) WorldCom Inc. & MCI Communications Corp. agree to a $37 billion merger...

2003) Country and Rock stars gather to pay tribute to the late Johnny Cash (who passed away in September '03) by doing his songs at the legendary Ryman Auditorium in Nashville...

Happy Birthday To...

1924) Russell Johnson (The Professor on 'Gilligan's Island')...

1935) 'Jaws' actor Roy Scheider...

1944) Lyricist Tim Rice...

1947) "Please Come to Boston" singer Dave Loggins...

1948) Emerson, Lake and Palmer's Greg Lake...

1949) Dancer Ann Reinking...

1956) Sinbad...

1959) Mackenzie Phillips...

1977) Brittany Murphy...

Commentary...

Some interesting things you may not know about 'Sesame Street':

The company founded by the late Jim Henson who created the Muppets is now run by his son. The workshop is located where his father had it, on the Upper East Side...

Joe Raposo who wrote "The Sesame Street Theme" and several other songs for the show was a Harvard graduate. Raposo died in 1989...

"The Electric Company" is a Sesame Workshop produced show which is taped where "Sesame Street" is currently taped...

Funding for 'Sesame Street' is provided for by the Ready To Learn The No Child Left Behind Act, U.S. Department of Education, PBS, Chuck E. Cheese and McDonald's. Major funding for 'Sesame Street' is provided for Public Broadcasting and by contributions to your PBS station from "Viewers Like You"...

Wednesday, November 9, 2005

Hey, who pulled the plug ???

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the worst power failure to-date in an area covering 9 states in the northeast and 2 provinces of Canada. Some 80,000 square miles and 25 million people were affected by the blackout on November 9, 1965...

Lights began to flicker at 5:17PM and 10 minutes later people from Philadelphia to Providence and Brooklyn to Boston were plunged into darkness. The blackout covered an area as far west as Pittsburgh, as far south as Atlantic City and in the north beyond the New England states into 2 provinces of southeastern Canada. 800,000 were trapped in the subways of New York, railroads ground to a halt, planes circled endlessly, unable to land and flashlights directed automobile traffic. The National Guard was called into service in New York City, upstate New York, Rhode Island and Massachusetts...

While this blackout would not last as long as the one we suffered during that heatwave in July of '77, it would be several hours before electricity was restored with Manhattan being the last area in the metropolitan New York area to get power back at 4AM...

Who's to blame for this massive blackout ? We blamed Canada, Canada blamed us. It is believed that the break occurred between Rochester and Syracuse and in 1965 Con Edison's system was connected to 5 other power companies upstate and in the state of Connecticut. To avoid future problems a major reconstruction program included the building of 3 new power substations, end of problem, or so we thought...

While terrorism wasn't even on the radar screen in 1965, it's interesting to note that rumors of sabotage reached the White House and Lyndon Johnson's press secretary, Bill Moyers (yes, that Bill Moyers) issued this statement: "all of the resources of the Government are being invoked in the investigation". A follow-up statement issued on behalf of the President said "it's pretty well agreed upon that there is substantially no chance of sabotage". But there was enough of a reason to investigate that possibility...

More November 9 Memories...

1938) Nazis looted and burned synagogues and Jewish owned stores and houses in Germany and Austria on "Kristallnacht", the "night of broken glass"...

1953) The Supreme Court upholds a 1922 ruling that major league baseball does not come within the scope of federal anti-trust laws...

1961) Record store manager Brian Epstein sees the Beatles for the 1st time in the Cavern in Liverpool (2 months later he will become their manager)...

1963) "Louie, Louie" is released by the Kingsmen...

1965) A major blackout hits the northeast (feature story)...

1965) The Knicks game against St. Louis scheduled for Madison Square Garden is postponed because of the blackout...

1966) Johnny Rivers tops the charts with "Poor Side of Town"...

1967) The 1st issue of Rolling Stone is published with John Lennon on the cover...

1970) Former French president Charles De Gaulle dies at 79...

1973) Billy Joel releases his "Piano Man" LP...

1978) Donna Summer is #1 with her remake of "MacArthur Park"...

1982) Sugar Ray Leonard retires from boxing (in 1984 he fights once more before becoming a boxing commentator for NBC-TV)...

1985) "The theme from Miami Vice" by Jan Hammer is #1...

1988) Former Attorney General and major Watergate scandal figure John N. Mitchell dies at 75...

1989) Communist East Germany throws open its borders allowing citizens to travel freely to the West. Joyous Germans dance atop the Berlin Wall...

1996) Evander Holyfield, a 5 1/2-1 underdog, batters Mike Tyson to win the WBA heavyweight championship in Las Vegas (this was the beginning of the end for Tyson who had lost to Buster Douglas in 1990 before serving 3 years in prison for rape)...

1997) The Lions' Barry Sanders becomes the 1st player in NFL history to rush for over 1,000 yards in 9 straight seasons (in the same game Sanders passes former Cowboy Tony Dorsett for 3rd place on the all-time rushing list)...

Happy Birthday To...

1930) Sportscaster Charlie Jones...

1935) Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Gibson...

1936) Mary Travers...

1951) Lou ("The Incredible Hulk") Ferrigno...

1973) Nick Lachey...

Commentary...

A recent David Hinckley column in the New York Daily News brought us the news that Mary Travers (Peter, Paul and Mary) is suffering from lukemia. Mary who celebrates her 69th birthday today is soldiering on and plans to perform with the trio in their holiday shows this season...

Here's to a Happy Birthday, Mary and a speedy and complete recovery from your scores of fans, including this one...

Tuesday, November 8, 2005

Election Day through the years (part VII)...

We conclude our series of 'Election Day through the years' on Election Day 2005 with a summary of key elections from 1864 to 2000:

1864) Abraham Lincoln won election to his 2nd term as president by defeating General George McClellan during the height of the Civil War...

1892) An historical first came with the results of this election as Former President Grover Cleveland became the only president to win non-consecutive terms in the White House. Cleveland easily defeated incumbent Benjamin Harrison...

1904) Incumbent President Theodore Roosevelt defeated Democratic challenger Alton B. Parket...

1932) New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt beats incumbent Herbert Hoover for the presidency. FDR wastes little time changing things as his design for creating jobs for the more than 4 million unemployed workers is made possible with his Civil Works Administration in 1933...

1960) Massachusetts Senator John Fitzgerald Kennedy defeats Vice President Richard M. Nixon for the presidency. The age of Camelot begins...

1966) Edward W. Brooke of Massachusetts becomes the first black to be elected to the U.S. Senate by popular vote...

1966) Ronald Reagan is elected governor of California...

1988) Vice President George H.W. Bush wins the presidential election by defeating Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis...

1994) Republicans gain control of the House of Representatives for the 1st time in 40 years and win a majority in the Senate in midterm elections...

2000) A statewide recount of presidential election ballots begins in Florida. VP Al Gore concedes the election to George W. Bush but calls back an hour later to retract his concession

More November 8 Memories...

1956) After turning down 18,000 names (was "turkey" one of them ?) the Ford Motor Company decides to name their new car, the 'Edsel' after Henry Ford's only son...

1964) Judy Garland and daughter Liza Minnelli appear together at the London Palladium...

1965) The soap opera "Days of Our Lives" debuts on NBC-TV...

1966) The Orioles' Frank Robinson wins the AL MVP award becoming the only player in baseball history to win MVP awards in both leagues (he won the MVP award with Cincinnati in 1961 previously)...

1968) Cynthia Lennon is granted a divorce from John Lennon...

1968) Jean Terrell replaces Diana Ross in the Supremes...

1970) Saints kicker Tom Dempsey, born with half a right foot and without a right hand, establishes a new field goal record with a kick of 63-yards (that record would be equaled in October 1988 by Jason Elam of Denver)...

1979) "The Iran Crisis: America Held Hostage" premieres on ABC-TV. The show is planned to be temporary but will evolve into "Nightline" in March of 1980...

1991) "The Carol Burnette Show" premieres on CBS-TV (this resurrected version of her original show will only run for one season)...

2000) Waco special counsel John C. Danforth releases his final report absolving the government of wrongdoing in the 1993 siege at the Branch Davidian compound in Texas...

Happy Birthday To...

1914) Former "St. Elsewhere" actor Norman Lloyd...

1916) June Havoc...

1927) 'The Singing Rage' Miss Patti Page...

1931) Morley Safer of "60 Minutes"...

1949) Bonnie Raitt...

1951) Mary ("ET") Hart...

1953) Alfre Woodard...

1967) Courtney Thorne-Smith...

1975) Tara Reid...

Commentary...

No sales pitch from me on whether or not you should or will vote today. I can only say that I consider it a privilege to excercise my right to do so and will be making my way to the polls shortly after putting this blog to bed...

Will I make a difference in whether or not a candidate wins or a proposal is passed ? Probably not. I choose to vote simply because I can...

Monday, November 7, 2005

Election Day through the years (part VI)...

Just one day remains before Election Day 2005 and with that in mind we continue our series of key election results through the years by taking you way back to 1820 and bringing you into the 21st century by ending with results from 2000...

1820) James Monroe, our 5th U.S. President ran unopposed for the Democratic-Republican party nomination and to no one's surprise, was reelected. Only one elector did not vote for Monroe so that George Washington would be the only president unanimously chosen by the electoral college...

1848) Whig candidate and Mexican War hero, General Zachary Taylor defeated Democrat Lewis Cass and was elected the 12th President of the United States...

1876) The outcome of this election was not known until the week before the inauguration itself (remind you of another recent presidential election ?). Democrat Samuel Tilden won the popular vote but Republican Governor Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio remained in the race with Tilden just one electoral vote shy of winning. In the end the electoral college selected Hayes as our 19th President...

1916) Woodrow Wilson, our 28th President ran on a platform of getting America involved in World War I to make the world "safe for democracy" and was reelected...

1916) Republican Jeannette Rankin of Montana became the 1st woman elected to Congress...

1944) President Franklin Delano Roosevelt won an unprecedented 4th term in office (our last President allowed to do this) by defeating Thomas E. Dewey...

1962) Richard M. Nixon, who failed in a bid to become governor of California told reporters "You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore"...

1967) Carl Stokes was elected mayor of Cleveland, becoming the 1st black mayor of a major American City (Stokes would later be a news anchor on NBC-TV's channel 4 in New York)...

1972) President Richard M. Nixon was reelected in a landslide over Democrat George McGovern...

1989) L. Douglas Wilder becomes the nation's 1st elected black governor (Virginia)...

1989) David N. Dinkins is elected New York City's 1st black mayor...

1998) House Speaker Newt Gingrich resigns following election results in which the Republican House majority shrinks from 22 to 12...

2000) Republican George W. Bush is elected president over incumbent Democratic Vice President Al Gore who wins the popular vote (the winner is not known for more than a month because of the dimples and chads in Florida, a great name for an R&B duo, 'here they are, 'Dimples & Chads')...

2000) Hillary Rodham Clinton becomes the 1st lady to win public office, defeating Republican Rick Lazio for a U.S. Senate seat from New York...

More November 7 Memories...

1874) "Harper's Weekly" features a cartoon critical of President U.S. Grant with the image of an elephant representing the Republican party (this is the 1st time an elephant will be used to represent Republicans)...

1929) The Museum of Modern Art opens to the public in New York City...

1959) Bill Russell & Wilt Chamberlain play against each other for the 1st time in the NBA as the Celtics beat Philadelphia 115-106 at Boston Garden. Chamberlain outscores Russell 30-22 but Russell outrebounds "The Stilt" 35-30...

1962) Former 1st lady Eleanor Roosevelt dies at 78...

1962) Blackhawks goalie Glenn Hall's NHL consecutive games record ends at 502 because of a back injury (Hall who played without a mask had never missed a game for 7 seasons)...

1963) Elston Howard of the Yankees becomes the 1st black player to be named the American League's MVP (note: it had been done in the National League prior to 1963)...

1965) The "Pillsbury Dough Boy" debuts in TV commercials...

1967) President Lyndon B. Johnson signs a bill establishing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting...

1973) New Jersey becomes the 1st U.S. state to permit girls to play Little League baseball...

1975) Two-time Bruin MVP, Phil Esposito is traded to the Rangers (for Brad Park, Jean Ratelle and 2 others) in a trade that shakes Beantown...

1980) Steve McQueen dies at 50...

1982) Liz Taylor chalks up divorce #7 (John Warner)...

1986) Willie Nelson makes a guest appearance on "Miami Vice" as a corrupt policeman...

1989) Richard Ramirez, convicted of California's "Night Stalker" murders, is sentenced to death...

1991) Frank Zappa is diagnosed with prostate cancer...

1991) Actor Paul Reubens, a.k.a. Pee Wee Herman pleads no contest to charges of indecent exposure (in a Sarasota movie theater)...

1995) The Captain and Tennille (Daryl Dragon and Toni Tennille) renew their wedding vows on their 20th anniversary...

1999) Tiger Woods becomes the 1st golfer since Ben Hogan in 1953 to win 4 straight tournaments...

2000) Garth Brooks files for divorce from wife Sandy...

Happy Birthday To...

1918) Reverend Billy Graham...

1926) Opera singer Joan Sutherland...

1938) Former pitcher and Yankee broadcaster Jim Kaat...

1942) Johnny Rivers...

1943) Joni Mitchell...

1974) Met pitcher Kris Benson...

Commentary...

A footnote on the election of Hillary Clinton in 2000:

I remember running into Rick Lasio who unsuccessfully ran against Hillary Clinton in the 2000 election and Mr. Lasio who is a lawyer by trade explained that there was no way he could have defeated Clinton in that election because of the money behind her but more importantly because of the sympathy factor. The State of New York, where Democrats outnumber Republicans would not vote against the woman who so bravely defended her beleaguered husband...

Our series on "Election Day through the years" ends with tomorrow's Election Day 2005 issue of 'Mel Phillips Remembers'...

Unlike politicians, I don't have the solutions but I do admire the problems...

Friday-Sunday, November 4-6, 2005

Election Day through the years (part III)...

Our series on Election Day continues as we begin with the presidential election of November 4, 1884, the day that Democrat Grover Cleveland defeated Republican James G. Blaine...

On this date in 1924 Nellie T. Ross of Wyoming was elected the nation's 1st woman governor chosen to serve the remaining term of her husband William who died in office (earlier in the week we mentioned Christine Todd Whitman as a female governor but she did not succeed her spouse, nor was she the 1st. That honor is coming up in our November 5 post)...

Calvin Coolidge was re-elected on November 4, 1924 after completing Warren G. Harding's term after Harding died in office...

Same date, this time in 1952, General Dwight D. Eisenhower won election, the Republican's 1st in 24 years, by defeating Democrat Adlai Stevenson. Ike became our 34th president on that day...

1980 saw the Republicans winning a majority of the seats in the Senate and the presidency when Ronald Reagan was elected president in his race with the incumbent, Jimmy Carter...

In my commentary, an interesting footnote on November 4 elections through the years...

More November 4 Memories...

1958) Conway Twitty tops the charts with "It's Only Make Believe"...

1967) Motown releases "I Second That Emotion" by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles...

1971) NBA great, Elgin Baylor of the Lakers announces his retirement because of knee problems

1978) Boston plays Boston in their 1st live appearance...

1978) The Talking Heads release "Take Me To The River"...

1979) Militants storm the U.S. Embassy in Tehran as the Iranian hostage crisis begins (52 hostages are held for the next 14 months)...

1991) Elected into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame: Bobby "Blue" Bland, Booker T. & The M.G.'s, Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Cash, The Isley Brothers, The Yardbirds and Sam & Dave...

1991) Presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter and Bush help Ronald Reagan dedicate his Presidential Library & Museum in Simi Valley, California...

1992) Both the Giants and Jets announce new radio affiliates with Big Blue leaving WNEW (after 32 years) for WOR and The Jets moving from WABC to WFAN...

1995) Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is assassinated by a right-wing Israeli after speaking at a peace rally in Tel Aviv...

1996) Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter wins the American League Rookie of the Year award, receiving all 28 1st place votes (Jeter hit .314 and emerged as a team leader at the age of 22)...

1996) Michael Jackson announces that he and a "friend", Debbie Rowe, were expecting a child, but he denies that the couple used artificial insemination and that Rowe had been paid to carry the baby (uh yeah, right Michael)...

1999) Aaron McKinney who beat gay college student Matthew Shepard and left him to die on the Wyoming prairie, agrees to serve life in prison without parole and promises never to appeal his conviction...

2001) The Yankee era of dominance ends as the Diamondbacks become the youngest franchise (4 years) to win a World Series by beating the Yankees in 7 games, coming from 2 runs behind in the 9th inning to beat unbeatable closer Mariano Rivera, 3-2 (this ends New York's string of 3 consecutive World Championships)...

Happy Birthday To...

1916) Uncle Walter Cronkite...

1930) Doris Roberts...

1937) Loretta Swit...

1946) First Lady Laura Bush...

1961) Kathy Griffin...

1962) "Survivor" host Jeff Probst...

1969) Matthew McConaughey...

Commentary...

The footnote I teased with earlier on November 4 elections is this: Since Coolidge's election in 1924 the Republicans have not lost an election. The next November 4 presidential election is in 2008...

The last time the Democrats won an election on November 4th was in 1884 when Grover Cleveland defeated Republican challenger James G. Blaine...

Saturday, November 5, 2005...

Election Day through the years (part IV)...

On November 5, 1912 Woodrow Wilson was elected president, defeating Progressive Republican Theodore Roosevelt and incumbent Republican William Howard Taft...

Same date in 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt won an unprecedented 3rd term in office beating Republican challenger Wendell L. Willkie (sorry but no president should ever be named Wendell)...

In 1946 young (29) Boston Democrat, John F. Kennedy was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and was on his way to the White House...

Nixon was the one on November 5, 1968. It was on that date that Richard Milhous Nixon won the presidency defeating Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey and 3rd party candidate George C. Wallace...

Closer to New York, it was the state of Connecticut that elected the 1st woman governor who didn't succeed her husband when Ella Grasso was elected on this date in 1974...

November 5, 1996 saw voters return President Bill Clinton to the White House for a second term when he defeated former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole...

More November 5 Memories...

1935) The game of "Monopoly" was introduced by Parker Brothers Company...

1960) Country/Pop crossover artist Johnny Horton is killed in an auto accident in Texas at 33...

1981) Former Dolphin running back Mercury Morris is sentenced to 20 years for drug trafficing and possession of cocaine (you can run but you can't hide, Mercury)...

1982) The Nets put the Cleveland Cavaliers in the record books when they hand Cleveland their 24th consecutive loss, 99-91...

1989) Pianist Vladimir Horowitz dies at 86...

1990) Jewish Defense League Rabbi Meir Kahane is shot to death after a speech in Manhattan (his assassin, an Egyptian, is later sentenced to life in prison)...

1994) Former President Ronald Reagan discloses that he has Alzheimer's disease...

1994) 45-year old George Foreman becomes boxing's oldest heavyweight champion by knocking out Michael Moorer in the 10th round of their WBA fight in Las Vegas...

1998) A study shows strong genetic evidence that Thomas Jefferson fathered at least one child by his slave, Sally Hemmings...

1999) A U.S. District Court Judge declares Microsoft a monopoly...

Happy Birthday To...

1931) Ike Turner...

1936) Country producer Billy Sherrill...

1940) Elke Sommer...

1941) Art Garfunkel...

1947) Peter Noone...

1952) Basketball Hall of Famer and broadcaster Bill Walton...

1959) Bryan Adams...

1973) Johnny Damon...

Sunday, November 6, 2005...

Election Day through the years (part V)...

November 6th was an important election day dating back to 1860 when former Illinois congressman Abraham Lincoln defeated 3 other candidates for the U.S. presidency...

On this date in 1861 Jefferson Davis was elected president of the Confederacy...

In 1888 Benjamin Harrison of Indiana won the presidential election beating incumbent Grover Cleveland in the electoral college even though Cleveland led in the popular vote...

November 6, 1900 was a good day for William B. McKinley who was re-elected when he defeated Democrat William Jennings Bryan (who along with Wendell L. Willkie has to be up there for running and losing presidential elections the most number of times)...

In 1928 Republican Herbert Hoover was elected president by beating Alfred E. (not Newman) Smith, former governor of New York...

On November 6th in 1956 President Dwight David Eisenhower was re-elected with a victory over Democrat Adlai E. Stevenson...

This was also a special day for Michael Bloomberg in 2001, the year he won the New York City mayoral race by beating Democrat Mark Green (Bloomberg is up for re-election next tuesday, November 8th)...

More November 6 Memories...

1869) Rutgers beats Princeton 6-4 at New Brunswick, NJ, in the 1st college football game which looked more like soccer than football (there were 25 players on each team and touchdowns were 1 point with no throwing or running with the ball, kicking or batting with hands, feet or head permitted...sounds exciting, eh ?)...

1917) New York allows women the right to vote...

1923) Colonel Jacob Schick patents the 1st electric shaver...

1929) The Providence Steamrollers and Chicago Cardinals play the NFL's 1st night game in Providence with the Cardinals winning 16-0 before 6,000 fans...

1935) Edwin H. Armstrong announces the development of FM broadcasting...

1965) Tonight on "Shindig": The Rolling Stones, Strangeloves and Fontella Bass...

1965) The Animals release "It's My Life"...

1995) Browns owner Art Modell becomes public enemy #1 in Cleveland when he announces plans to move to Baltimore...

1997) Former President George H.W. Bush opens his presidential library at Texas A&M University...

2002) A Beverly Hills jury convicts actress Winona Ryder of stealing $5,500 worth of merchandise from Saks Fifth Avenue (Ryder was later placed on 3 years probation)...

Happy Birthday To...

1931) Director Mike Nichols...

1937) Eugene Pitt of The Jive Five...

1946) Sally Field...

1948) Glenn Frey...

1955) Maria Shriver...

1970) Ethan Hawke...

Thursday, November 3, 2005

Election Day through the years (part II)...

November 3rd was another key Election Day starting with the election of our second president, John Adams. It happened on this date in 1796...

In 1868 Republican Ulysses S. Grant won the presidential election over Democrat Horatio Seymour...

28 years later, on November 3, 1896 Republican William McKinley defeated Democrat William Jennings Bryan for the presidency...

Moving into the 20th century, it was on this date in 1908 that William Howard Taft was elected president, defeating William Jennings Bryan (does that name sound familiar ?)...

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was re-elected in 1936 in a landslide over Republican Alfred M. "Alf" Landon (with a name like 'Alf' he shouldn't have been elected)...

November 3, 1964 saw President Lyndon Baines Johnson soundly defeating Conservative Republican challenger Barry Goldwater to win a White House term in his own right...

Same date in 1992, Democrat Bill Clinton was elected 42nd president by beating President George H.W. Bush...

All of the above presidential elections took place on November 3rd through the years. We also had some landmark election results of a non-presidential nature...

On November 3, 1992 Illinois Democrat Carol Moseley-Braun became the first black woman elected to the U.S. Senate...

And finally, why wouldn't an ex-wrestler become governor of Minnesota ? Of course the answer to that is he would...and did. Jesse "The Body" Ventura was elected governor of Minnesota...

And so ends our history lesson for today on elections through the years...

More November 3 Memories...

1957) Sun Records releases "Great Balls of Fire" by Jerry Lee Lewis...

1957) "At The Hop" is released by Danny & the Juniors...

1961) The Boston Patriots beat the Dallas Texans 28-21 at Braves Field when a fan sneaks onto the field and bats away Dallas QB Cotton Davidson's pass into the end zone as time runs out. Officials decide to let the play stand, ending the game (we love the history of those odd little stories that have helped the Patriots win games, my favorite is the guy who cleared a spot on the field for a winning field goal and then there's the 'tuck rule' that helped Tom Brady and the Pats win a game. What a great country)...

1969) The 5th Dimension top the charts with "Wedding Bell Blues"...

1971) Clint Eastwood's "Play Misty For Me" premieres...

1972) James Taylor and Carly Simon are married in Carly's Manhattan apartment (sadly they will separate in 1982 and later divorce)...

1978) "Different Strokes" premieres on NBC-TV...

1988) Geraldo Rivera breaks his nose in an on-camera brawl with skinheads (you can't make this stuff up folks)...

1991) More than 300,000 attend a free concert in San Francisco's Golden State Park in memory of rock promoter Bill Graham. Acts include the Grateful Dead, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Joan Baez, Santana and a reunited Journey...

1994) Susan Smith is arrested for drowning her two young sons, nine days after claiming the children had been abducted...

1995) The Celtics lose to the Bucks 101-100 in the 1st NBA game played at the Fleet Center in Boston...

2001) The Diamondbacks get 21 hits in the first 6 innings to set a World Series record for hits in a game. By winning Game 6 they set up the 7th and final game against the Yankees tomorrow...

Happy Birthday To...

1918) Baseball Hall of Famer Bob Feller...

1933) Michael S. Dukakis...

1947) Shadoe Stevens...

1948) Lulu...

1952) Roseanne Barr...

1953) Dennis Miller...

1954) Adam Ant...

1955) Phil Simms...

Commentary...

Personal Happy Birthday wishes go out to Shadoe Stevens who was my 6 to 9 nightime jock at WRKO in Boston and who I would later reconnect with at ABC and when Shadoe emceed a tribute to the Zombies' Paul Atkinson...

And to Adam Ant who was signed to CBS-UK originally before he broke loose in America. I had the pleasure of buying Adam his first grade-A, American cheeseburger when he landed in New York for the first time and doing promotion with Adam while at CBS International...

Wednesday, November 2, 2005

Election Day through the years...

November 2nd featured a number of key election results starting with the election of Warren G. Harding in 1920 but what made that election so special wasn't the result but the coverage of that election. The results of that presidential election between Harding and James M. Cox were broadcast on radio for the first time on KDKA in Pittsburgh. The following year Americans spent $10 million on radios. By 1922, some 500 radio stations were broadcasting programs and the era of electronic entertainment had begun...

Fast forward to November 2, 1948 when the Chicago Tribune in an early edition screamed "DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN" in anticipation of an expected win by New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey. The Truman victory surprised many pollsters but no one was more surprised than the editors of the Chicago Tribune in the first case of "oops" in publishing history...

On this date in 1976 a peanut farmer from Plains, Georgia won the presidency by defeating Republican incumbent Gerald R. Ford as Jimmy Carter would become the first U.S. president from the deep south since the Civil War...

Same date, different year, make it 1993. On that date, Christie Todd Whitman was elected the first woman governor of New Jersey. Not to be outdone by the state across the river, New York elected Rudy Giuliani as its 107th mayor...

More November 2 Memories...

1867) "Harpers Bazaar" is founded...

1920) KDKA broadcasts results of presidential election (feature story)...

1948) Truman wins presidency in a surprise election (feature story)...

1959) Charles Van Doren admits having answers in advance when he appeared on the NBC-TV game show, "Twenty-One"...

1960) 66-year old George Weiss resigns as Yankee GM...

1962) The Elvis Presley film "Girls! Girls! Girls!" premieres...

1963) The Beach Boys release "Be True To Your School"...

1964) CBS purchases 80% of the Yankees for $11 million (they'll also buy the remaining 20% at a later date)...

1968) Stevie Wonder tops the charts with "For Once In My Life"...

1971) Cher is #1 with "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves"...

1973) "Barbra Streisand...and Other Musical Instruments" airs on CBS-TV...

1974) The Braves trade Hank Aaron to the Milwaukee Brewers assuring that Aaron will end his career where he started it, in Milwaukee...

1974) George Harrison begins his 1st tour in 8 years...

1976) Jimmy Carter is elected president (feature story)...

1976) New Jersey voters approve gambling in Atlantic City...

1979) Mick and Bianca Jagger are divorced...

1979) Black militant Joanna Chesimard escapes from a New Jersey prison where she was serving a life sentence for the 1973 murder of a state trooper...

1981) Daryl Hall & John Oates top the charts with "Private Eyes"...

1983) President Reagan signs a bill establishing a federal holiday in honor of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr...

1985) Stevie Wonder is #1 with "Part-Time Lover"...

1986) 33-year old Norwegian runner Grete Waitz wins her 8th New York City Marathon and her 5th in a row (5 years later she would win her 9th)...

1992) Infected with HIV, Magic Johnson retires from the NBA...

1993) Whitman elected governor of NJ, Giuliani elected mayor of New York City (feature story)...

1995) Joe Torre is named manager of the Yankees (he will lead them to 5 American League titles and 4 World Series championships in the next 7 seasons)...

Happy Birthday To...

1937) Earl "Speedo" Carroll...

1938) Brooklyn's own David Blatt aka Jay Black...

1938) Pat Buchanan...

1942) Stephanie Powers...

1952) Maxine Nightingale...

1961) k.d. lang...

Tuesday, November 1, 2005

The NBA tips off Season #1...

The NBA 2005-2006 season starts with tonight's games and one year from today the league will celebrate 100 years of professional basketball. Let's go back to that first game between the New York Knickerbockers and Toronto Huskies on November 1, 1946...

The game was played where hockey is king, Toronto, Canada. Talk about confusion, for openers the Knicks were stopped by Canadian customs and asked "what are you?", to which Knicks coach Neil Cohalan replied "we're the New York Knicks". "We're familiar with the New York Rangers, are you anything like that ?" replied the puzzled customs inspector. "They play hockey, we play basketball" was Cohalan's reply back...

Once the Knicks finally managed to get into Maple Leaf Gardens they found a crowd of 7,090 rooting against them but managed to prevail with a 68-66 victory that bore little resemblance to today's game. There were no double-pump slams, no facials, none of that stuff. In fact, the players could not and did not jump very well in a game that featured two-handed set shots. The thought of a jump shot was a radical notion at best...

The entrance fee for each NBA franchise was a mere $10,000 and most of the Knick players were local products from New York area schools. Coach Neil Cohalan was a Manhattan College alum himself. With the exception of forward Hank Biasatti, all of Toronto's players were American. Salaries averaged around $5,000 a season, forcing the players to rely on off-season jobs....

The Huskies ran ads featuring the picture of the tallest man on the court, 6'8" George Nostrand and offered free admission to anyone taller. There is no report on whether or not anyone answered the call for the freebie but if you weren't 6'8", price of admission ranged from 75 cents to $2.50...

More November 1 Memories...

1894) "Billboard Advertising" was published for the first time. It will later become known as "Billboard" magazine...

1938) Seabiscuit beats War Admiral in a match race at Pimlico Race Course. The rags-to-riches people's favorite wins by 3 lengths, wire to wire and breaks the track record for the mile race. 40,000 fans are on hand as well as a national radio audience. Seabiscuit takes home the $15,000 purse for winning...

1946) The NBA debuts (feature story)...

1946) WEAF changes call letters to WNBC...

1947) The legendary racehorse 'Man o' War" dies...

1947) Howard Hughes takes off in his wooden "Spruce Goose" (skims the water is more like it)...

1950) Two Puerto Rican nationalists try to force their way into Blair House in Washington in an attempt to assassinate President Harry S. Truman, one dies in the attempt...

1951) Dodger catcher Roy Campanella wins the 1st of his 3 MVP awards...

1952) The U.S. explodes the first hydrogen bomb...

1959) WOV changes call letters to WADO...

1959) Montreal's Jacques Plante becomes the NHL's 1st goalie to wear a mask after being hit in the face by a puck off the stick of the Rangers' Andy Bathgate in a game won by the Canadiens 3-1 at Madison Square Garden...

1962) The Crystals top the charts with "He's a Rebel" (the actual singers on the record are Darlene Love & the Blossoms)...

1964) The Dave Clark Five perform "Glad All Over" on "The Ed Sullivan Show"...

1969) The Beatles' "Abbey Road" tops the album charts for the first of 11 weeks...

1969) Elvis Presley tops the charts for the last time before his death with "Suspicious Minds"...

1970) In their first regular season meeting, the Giants beat the Jets 22-10 at Shea Stadium...

1973) Leon Jaworski is appointed new Watergate special prosecutor...

1974) Stevie Wonder is #1 with "You Haven't Done Nothin" (backed by the Jackson Five)...

1979) Former first lady Mamie Eisenhower dies at 82...

1984) Billy Ocean is #1 with "Caribbean Queen"...

1988) Jeff Goldblum marries the President (well she actually wasn't then) when he walks down the aisle with Gena Davis...

1999) Football Hall of Famer Walter Payton dies of cancer at 45...

2001) Scott Brosius hits a game-tying home run off of Arizona's batting practice pitcher (well he was, wasn't he ?) Byung Hyun Kim, allowing the Yankees to beat the Diamondbacks in Game 5 of the World Series (Tino Martinez hit one the night before off KIm). The Yankees take a 3-2 series lead (but stand-by Arizona fans)...

Happy Birthday To...

1920) Newspaper columnist James J. Kilpatrick...

1935) Golfing great Gary Player...

1948) Jim Steinman, Meatloaf writer and producer...

1950) America's Dan Peek...

1957) Lyle Lovett...

1972) Jenny McCarthy...

Commentary...

The popularity of College basketball was probably the main reason the NBA started on this date in 1946. In New York's Madison Square Garden and in cities like Philadelphia, Boston and Buffalo, record crowds were filling arenas, so why not professional basketball ?...

The original NBA teams in addition to New York and Toronto in 1946 were: Boston (Celtics), Philadelphia (Warriors), Providence (Steamrollers), Washington (Capitols), Pittsburgh (Ironmen), Chicago (Stags), Detroit (Falcons), St. Louis (Bombers) and Cleveland (Rebels). The Washington Capitols coached by Red Auerbach were Eastern Division Champions but Philadelphia prevailed in the playoffs to take on Western Division Champ, Chicago, beating the Stags 4 games to 1...

Joe Fulks of Philadelphia was the NBA's first scoring champion with a 23.2 average...