August 12
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Events on This Day
1851 - Isaac Singer of New York City patented the double-treadle sewing machine on this day. Although a sewing machine had already been patented, Singer’s sewing machine was revolutionary, having a double treadle. With patent in hand, Isaac set up shop in Boston, Massachusetts and began to manufacture his invention. Even after huge settlements paid to Elias Howe, another sewing machine patent holder, Singer, through business innovations like installment buying, after-sale servicing and trade-in allowances, had the marketplace all sewn up...1865 - Joseph Lister became the first doctor to use disinfectant during surgery. Hmm. Joseph Lister. That name rings a bell. Yep. Same Joseph Lister as the one whose name is on those bottles of Listerine mouthwash.
1877 - Thomas A. Edison finished figuring out his first phonograph. Edison handed the model of his invention to John Kreusi with instructions on how to build it. Kreusi, a confident man, bet the inventor $2 and said that there was no way that the machine would ever work. He lost the bet.
1879 - The first National Archery Association tournament began in Chicago, IL. No, Robin Hood was nowhere to be seen...
1918 - Regular air-mail service began between New York City and Washington, DC.
1936 - Berlin, Germany was host to the Olympics and the youngest winner of a gold medal (to that day). The U.S.A.’s 13-year-old diver, Marjorie Gestring, won the springboard event.
1937 - Comedian Red Skelton got his first taste of network radio as he appeared on the Rudy Vallee Show on NBC.
1940 - Will Bradley and his trio recorded Down the Road a Piece on Columbia Records.
1944 - Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., the eldest son of Joseph and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, was killed, along with his co-pilot, when their explosives-laden Navy plane blew up over England.
1953 - The Soviet Union conducted a secret test of its first hydrogen bomb.
1955 - President Eisenhower raised the minimum wage in the U.S. from 75 cents to $1 an hour.
1964 - For the 10th time in his major-league baseball career, Mickey Mantle hit home runs from both the left and ride sides of the plate in the same game -- setting a new baseball record. Would we call this ‘am-bat-extrous’?
1966 - The last tour for The Beatles began at the International Amphitheater in Chicago; and John Lennon apologized for boasting that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus Christ. London’s Catholic Herald said Lennon’s comment was “arrogant ... but probably true.”
1967 - Fleetwood Mac made their stage debut at the National Blues and Jazz Festival in Great Britain.
1970 - President Richard M. Nixon signed into law the most comprehensive postal legislation since the founding of the Republic, Public Law 91-375. The U.S. Post Office became the United States Postal Service, an independent government corporation.
1973 - Golfer Jack Nicklaus won his 14th major golf title, breaking a record held for nearly 50 years by Bobby Jones. Nicklaus won the PGA Championship for the third time.
1977 - The first reusable orbital spacecraft (space shuttle), christened Enterprise, made its first test flight by gliding off the back of a Boeing 747 jumbo jet and landing safely at Edwards Air Force Base in California’s Mojave Desert.
1978 - Pope Paul VI, who had died six days earlier at age 80, was buried in St. Peter’s Basilica.
1981 - IBM (International Business Machines) introduced the Model 5150 PC (personal computer). The IBM PC ran on the Intel 8088 microprocessor at 4.77 mHz with one or two 160K floppy disk drives. It had 16 kilobytes of memory, expandable to 256k, five 8-bit ISA slots, a 65-watt power supply, no built-in clock, no built-in serial or parallel ports, and no built-in video capability -- it was available with an optional color monitor. MS-DOS 1.0/1.1 was issued with the PC (IBM later released its own operating system: PC-DOS). Prices started at $1,565. The IBM PC was a smashing success and IBM quickly became the #1 microcomputer company, with Apple dropping to #2.
1982 - Terry Felton of the Minnesota Twins set a major-league record for rookie pitchers. He had no wins and 14 losses. Guy Morton of the Cleveland Indians had lost 13 games, but won his 14th, back in 1914.
1982 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average hit bottom, closing at 776.92. The next morning, a bull market began that lasted until the 500-point crash of 1987.
1984 - Luis Aparicio and Don Drysdale, who began their playing careers on the same day (in 1956), were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. Also inducted were Pee Wee Reese, Harmon Killebrew and Rick Ferrell.
1985 - The world’s worst single-aircraft disaster happened when a crippled Japan Air Lines Boeing 747, on a flight from Tokyo to Osaka, crashed into Mount Osutaka. The aircraft had a sudden decompression that damaged hydraulic systems and the vertical fin. That damage also disabled the flight controls for the rudder and elevator. All 15 crew members and 505 of the 509 passengers were killed. One of those who perished in the crash was Kyu Sakamoto, whose Sukiyaki held the #1 spot on U.S. pop charts in 1963.
1986 - Rod Carew became the first player in the history of the California Angels franchise to have his uniform retired. Number 29 played for the Angels for seven years.
1988 - The Last Temptation of Christ, the controversial film directed by Martin Scorsese, opened despite demonstrations and protestations by religious groups.
1988 - The U.S. Senate confirmed Dick Thornburgh to succeed Edwin Meese III as attorney general (vote was 85-to-0).
1992 - The United States, Mexico and Canada agreed to form a free-trade zone that would remove most barriers to trade and investment and create the world’s largest trading bloc: The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
1993 - U.S. President Clinton lifted the ban on rehiring air traffic controllers fired (by President Reagan) after their strike in 1981.
1994 - Woodstock ’94 began in Saugerties, New York (it ran thru August 14). 235,000-350,000 rockers attended the show, which featured 30+ bands, included Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sheryl Crow, Areosmith, Metallica and Nine Inch Nails.
1995 - Bones Thugs N’ Harmony hit #1 with their album, E. 1999 Eternal. Number one for two weeks, the album featured: Da Introduction, East 1999, Eternal, Crept and We Came, Down ’71 (The Getaway), Mr. Bill Collector, Budsmokers Only, Tha Crossroad, Me Killa, Land of Tha Heartless, No Shorts, No Losses, 1st of tha Month, Buddah Lovaz, Die Die Die, Mr. Ouija 2, Mo’ Murda and Shotz to tha Double Glock.
1996 - The Republican Party opened its 36th national convention in San Diego by celebrating Bob Dole as a tested, trustworthy leader who would lower taxes and bring compassionate conservatism to the White House.
1997 - Steel workers in West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania ended a 10-month strike at Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp. with a new contract. It was the longest strike of a major steel company.
1998 - Swiss banks agreed to pay $1.25 billion to settle lawsuits filed by Holocaust survivors and their heirs. The banks had kept millions of dollars deposited by Holocaust victims and their relatives before and during World War II.
2000 - The Russian nuclear submarine Kursk sank, killing its 118-man crew during naval exercises in the Barents Sea. The Kursk was one of Russia’s most powerful nuclear submarines. The sinking followed the accidental explosion of one of its own on-board torpedos.
2000 - Evander Holyfield won a 12-round unanimous decision over John Ruiz in Las Vegas for the WBA heavyweight title.
2000 - Academy Award-winning Actress (The Farmer’s Daughter [1947]) Loretta Young died at 87 years of age. She made over 100 movies during a career spanning some 70 years.
2001 - Space shuttle Discovery arrived at the international space station delivering three new residents (American astronaut Frank Culbertson and Russians Vladimir Dezhurov and Mikhail Tyurin) to the 240 mile high outpost.
2002 - Iraq’s information minister, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf told the Arabic satellite TV station Al-Jazeera that there was no need for U.N. weapons inspectors to return to Baghdad. al-Sahhaf branded as lies allegations that Saddam Hussein still had weapons of mass destruction.
2003 - An Internet worm targeting MS Windows users spread rapidly around the world, triggering computer crashes and slowing Web connections. The worm was dubbed Blaster, but also known as LoveSan or MSBlaster.
2004 - New Jersey Governor James E. McGreevey, a twice-married father, announced his resignation with the disclosure that he was gay and had been involved in an extramarital affair with a man who threatened to undermine his “ability to govern.”
2004 - Greece’s $930 million, 3km Rion-Antirion Bridge across the western end of the Gulf of Corinth opened to traffic. The bridge crosses the Corinth strait near the city of Patras, connecting Peloponnese with mainland Greece.
2005 - New movies in the U.S.: Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, starring Rob Schneider, Eddie Griffin, Arija Bareikis, Oded Fehr and Til Schweiger; Four Brothers, with Mark Wahlberg, Tyrese Gibson, Andre Benjamin, Garrett Hedlund, Terrence Dashon Howard, Taraji P. Henson and Sofia Vergara; The Great Raid, starring Benjamin Bratt, James Franco, Connie Nielsen, Joseph Fiennes and Mark Consuelos; and The Skeleton Key, with Kate Hudson, Gena Rowlands, Peter Sarsgaard, John Hurt and Joy Bryant.
2005 - 104 Ecuadorians attempting to emigrate to the U.S. were killed when their small boat sank in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Colombia. Just nine people were rescued two days later after being spotted clinging to a wooden box and buoys.
2006 - The U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution seeking a ‘full cessation’ of violence between Israel and Hezbollah. The month of fighting had killed more than 800 people and inflamed Mideast tensions.
2006 - 400 paratroopers were deployed to join the struggle to control scores of forest fires in northwestern Spain. A total of 24 people were arrested since Aug 1 on suspicion of deliberately starting many of the fires.
2007 - TV talk-show host Merv Griffin died at 82 years of age. Griffin created the TV game show Jeopardy in 1964 and sold the rights for the show to Coca-Cola for $250 million in 1986. On his tombstone, Griffin has the phrase, “I WILL NOT BE RIGHT BACK AFTER THIS MESSAGE”
2008 - Two-thirds of U.S. corporations paid no federal income taxes between 1998 and 2005. This, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office.
2008 - The U.S. Navy agreed to restrict loud sonar blasts from anti-submarine vessels in large areas of the world’s oceans to protect whales and other vulnerable creatures.
2009 - China’s state media reported that authorities in northern China have shut down the Dongling Lead and Zinc Smelting Co. in Shaanxi province after it was found to have caused lead poisoning that sickened more than 300 children.
2010 - 10,276 people in Inner Mongolia (China) set a new world record for the longest chain of human dominoes. The previous human domino record was set by 9,234 students in Singapore in 2000.
2011 - Motion pictures opening in U.S. theatres: 30 Minutes or Less, with Jesse Eisenberg, Danny McBride, Nick Swardson, Aziz Ansari and Michael Peña; Final Destination 5, starring Nicholas D'Agosto, P.J. Byrne, Tony Todd, Emma Bell, and David Koechner; Glee: The 3D Concert Movie, starring Dianna Agron, Gwyneth Paltrow, Lea Michele, Darren Criss and Jane Lynch; and Aarakshan, with Vinay Apte, Sushant Seth and Amitabh Bachchan.
2011 - Libya’s news agency, JANA, reported that those carrying a satellite phone without a permit would be charged as spies for NATO -- and could be sentenced to death as punishment for treason. Many Libyans were using satellite phones to communicate with one another after the government cut off mobile phone communications when the civil war started in February 2011. (Libya’s 6-month-old civil war had been deadlocked for months despite NATO’s airstrikes to protect civilians.)
2012 - Marathon man Stephen Kiprotich delivered Uganda’s second-ever Olympics gold medal. That evening, the closing ceremony was billed as a diverse ‘Symphony of British Music.’
2013 - The City of London demanded that ad-firm Renew London remove its small network of high-tech trash cans that tracked nearby citizens. A dozen bins around the city could connect to the Internet and gather data on those passing by.
2014 - A U.S. federal judge upheld a Maryland law banning assault rifles and limiting gun magazine size.
2015 - Two huge explosions tore through an industrial area where toxic chemicals and gas were stored in the northeastern port city of Tianjin, China. Tianjin Dongjiang Port Ruihai International Logistics was identified as the owner of the site. A few days after the blast, police confirmed for the first time the presence of deadly sodium cyanide at the site. The final death toll was set at 173 with no hope of finding 8 missing. Residents whose homes were destroyed were offered 2,000 yuan ($312) for three months.
2016 - Movies opening in the U.S. included: Florence Foster Jenkins, starring Rebecca Ferguson, Meryl Streep and Simon Helberg; Pete’s Dragon, with Karl Urban, Bryce Dallas Howard and Robert Redford; the animated, Sausage Party, featuring the voices of Seth Rogen, Kristen Wiig and Jonah Hill; Anthropoid, starring Cillian Murphy, Jamie Dornan and Harry Lloyd; Blood Father, starring Mel Gibson, Elisabeth Röhm and William H. Macy; Edge of Winter, with Tom Holland, Joel Kinnaman and Rachelle Lefevre; The Fight Within, starring John Major Davis, Lelia Symington and Matt Leddo; Hell or High Water, starring Chris Pine, Ben Foster and Katy Mixon; Joshy, with Thomas Middleditch, Adam Pally and Alex Ross Perry; My King, with Vincent Cassel, Emmanuelle Bercot and Louis Garrel; and Operation Chromite, starring Liam Neeson, Sean Dulake and Jung-jae Lee.
2016 - Sweden defeated the U.S. Women’s National Team in the quarterfinal round of women’s soccer at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games in Brazil. The game was settled by a penalty-kick shootout, which Sweden won 4-3 after the teams were tied 1-1 at the end of regulation and at the end of 30 minutes of extra time.
2016 - Track and field competition got underway at the Rio Olympics. Ethiopia’s Almaz Ayana beat a world record that had stood since 1993 in the women’s 10,000 with a winning time of 29:17.45, over 15 seconds clear of second-place Vivian Cheruiyot of Kenya. American Michelle Carter shocked New Zealand’s Valerie Adams, coming from behind to get the gold medal and post a U.S. record mark of 20.63 meters, destroying her previous best mark of 20.02. Anita Marton of Hungary took the bronze behind Adams. In the men’s 20 kilometer race walk final, Zhen Wang and Cali Zelin won gold and silver for China, respectively. Dane Bird-Smith continued Australia’s recent run of walking success with a bronze medal.
2017 - POTUS Trump signed an emergency spending bill to pump more than $2 billion into a program that allowed veterans to receive private medical care at government expense. Trump signed the VA Choice and Quality Employment Act of 2017 while at his New Jersey golf club. The bill, which addressed a budget shortfall at the Department of Veteran Affairs (that had threatened medical care for thousands of veterans), provided $2.1 billion to continue funding the Veterans Choice Program.
2018 - NASA launched its first spaceship to explore the Sun. The $1.5 billion Parker Solar Probe blasted off on a strategic mission to protect the Earth by studying the mysteries of dangerous solar storms. The car-sized probe was launched aboard a massive Delta IV-Heavy rocket. The probe is using repeated gravity assists from Venus to incrementally decrease its orbital perihelion (point closest to the sun). The spacecraft trajectory includes seven Venus flybys over som seven years to gradually shrink its elliptical orbit around the Sun -- for a total of 24 orbits.
2018 - The head of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, and other leaders of the banned group, were sentenced to life in prison on charges of incitement to murder and violence during protests in 2013. It was the latest of several life sentences for Mohammed Badie, who was also sentenced to death in separate trials since his 2013 arrest.
2019 - The Trump administration unveiled broad changes to the signature U.S. environmental law, in a move critics said will drive more endangered animals and plants to extinction. The Endangered Species Act had maintained broad bipartisan support since its inception in 1973, but it had long drawn the ire of some, including POTUS Trump, who felt it was overly restrictive to business.
2019 - More Trump mischief: The POTUS announced he would seek to deny green cards to migrants who wanted Medicaid, food stamps, housing vouchers or other forms of public assistance. The public charge regulation — pushed by White House senior adviser Stephen Miller and other hard-line officials — was the latest part of Trump’s vast immigration persecution. While Trump has railed against migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border, the new regulation represents his most ambitious effort to restrict legal immigration.
2019 - FBI agents raided the private island of Jeffrey Epstein, the financier accused of sexual misconduct. Little Saint James is located between the islands of St. Thomas and St. John in the Virgin Islands. The raid came two days after the 66-year-old Epstein died by suicide. Little Saint James locals said Epstein was flying in underage girls long after his conviction for sex crimes -- and authorities did nothing to stop him. “It was like he was flaunting it,” says an employee at the airstrip on St. Thomas. “But it was said that he always tipped really well, so everyone overlooked it.” “On multiple occasions I saw Epstein exit his helicopter, stand on the tarmac in full view of my tower, and board his private jet with children -- female children,” says a former air traffic controller at the airstrip who asked to remain anonymous. “...the girls were just so young. They couldn’t have been over 16...”
2020 - Israel said it had foiled a cyberattack on its defense industry by the Lazarus Group, a North Korean state-sponsored hacking organization. Israel’s Defense Ministry said hackers posing as potential employers sent job offers to defense workers trying to infiltrate their networks and gather sensitive information. The group built fake profiles on the LinkedIn network to disguise its hackers and separately attempted to hack Israeli defense firms via their websites.
2020 - UNICEF USA announced its first major program supporting children in the United States. The agency used a initial investment of $1 million for an initiative to help U.S. cities become more child-friendly. Houston, TX; San Francisco, CA; Minneapolis, MN and Prince George’s County, MD served as the first group of cities and the first county to implement the ambitious, two-year process toward recognition as a UNICEF Child Friendly City.
2021 - A South Korean military court sentenced disgraced K-pop star Seungri to three years in prison for crimes -- including providing prostitutes to foreign businessmen. Before his fall from grace, Seungri was one of the biggest stars in K-pop because of the success of "Big Bang", which attracted huge followings in Asia and other parts of the world after its debut in 2006. Forbes magazine reported in 2016 that the group had made $44 million in pretax earnings the previous year.
2021 - Cryptocurrency platform Poly Network said hackers behind one of the biggest ever digital coin heists had returned over half of the $610 million-plus they stole and said the theft was done “for fun.”
2021 - Motion pictures scheduled to open in the U.S. included Fall, starring Grace Caroline Currey, Virginia Gardner, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Mason Gooding; Mack & Rita, with Martin Short, Wendie Malick and Diane Keaton; and Bodies Bodies Bodies, starring Amandla Stenberg, Maria Bakalova and Rachel Sennott)
2022 - The House approved the landmark Inflation Reduction Act, marking yet another legislative win for both the party and President Biden. The bill, which passed in a partisan 220-207 vote, cleared the Senate 51-50. “There are a few days in a congressional career that feel truly historic. To me, this is one of them,” House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) said. The bill aimed to curb inflation by reducing the federal government budget deficit, lowering prescription drug prices, and investing into domestic energy production while promoting clean energy. It was signed into law by President Biden on August 16, 2022.
2022 - Author Salman Rushdie was attacked by a man who rushed onto the stage, where Rushdie about to start a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, NY. The man stabbed Rushdie repeatedly, including in the neck and abdomen. The attacker was pulled away before being taken into custody by a state trooper; Rushdie was airlifted to UPMC Hamot, a tertiary trauma centre in Erie, Pennsylvania, where he underwent surgery before being put on a ventilator. Rushdie lost sight in one eye and the use of one hand but survived the murder attempt.
and more...
Birthdays on This Day August 12
1753 - Thomas Bewick
illustrator [of books]: Fables of Aesop, History of Quadrapeds, British Birds; died Nov 8, 18281849 - Abbott Thayer
artist: created camouflage pattern for military; died May 29, 19211880 - Christy (Christopher) ‘Matty’ Mathewson
‘Big Six’: Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher: developed the screwball; New York Giants {World Series: 1905: shut out Philadelphia in 1st three games, 1911, 1912, 1913], Cincinnati Reds; manager: Cincinnati Reds; coach: NY Giants; president: Boston Braves; died Oct 7, 19251881 - Cecil B. DeMille
Academy Award-winning film producer: The Greatest Show on Earth; The Ten Commandments, The Crusades, The Sign of the Cross, King of Kings, Cleopatra, The Plainsman, Reap the Wild Wind, The Buccaneer; died Jan 21, 1959
1887 - Erwin Schrödinger
physicist, theoretical biologist: one of the fathers of quantum mechanics; awarded the 1933 Nobel Prize in Physics for the Schrodinger equation; died Jan 4, 19611892 - Alfred Lunt
Tony Award-winning actor: Quadrille [1955]; The Guardsman, Sally of the Sawdust; died Aug 3, 19771910 - Jane Wyatt
Emmy Award-winning actress: Father Knows Best [1957, 1958-59, 1959-60]; Gentleman’s Agreement, Lost Horizon, Amityville 4; died Oct 20, 2006)1911 - Cantinflas (Mario Moreno Reyes)
comic actor: Around the World in 80 Days, Pepe; Mexico’s vaudeville: carpas; died Apr 20, 19931915 - Michael Kidd (Milton Greenwald)
choreographer, dancer: It’s Always Fair Weather, Smile; died Dec 23, 20071917 - Marjorie Reynolds (Goodspeed)
actress: Gone with the Wind, The Time of Their Lives, Doomed to Die; died Feb 1, 19971925 - Dale L. Bumpers
Governor of Arkansas [1971-1975]; U.S. Senator from Arkansas [1975-1999]; died Jan 1, 20161926 - John Derek (Derek Harris)
actor: All the King’s Men, Prince of Players, Ambush at Tomahawk Gap, Exodus; director: Bolero; married to Bo Derek; died May 22, 19981926 - Joe Jones
singer: You Talk Too Much; pianist for B.B. King; died Nov 27, 20051927 - Porter Wagoner
singer: Satisfied Mind, Sorrow on the Rocks, Big Wind, Cold Hard Facts of Life, Misery Loves Company, The Carroll County Accident; w/Dolly Parton: Daddy Was An Old-Time Preacher Man, Please Don’t Stop Loving Me; songwriter: Tore Down, I Haven’t Learned a Thing, Ole Slew Foot; died Oct 28, 20071928 - Bob (Robert Ray) Buhl
baseball: Milwaukee Braves [World Series: 1957/all-star: 1960], Chicago Cubs, Philadelphia Phillies; died Feb 16, 20011929 - Buck Owens (Alvis Edgar Owens Jr.)
singer: I’ve Got a Tiger by the Tail, Act Naturally, Waiting in Your Welfare Line, Made in Japan; songwriter: Crying Time; TV host: Hee Haw, Buck Owen’s Ranch House; died Mar 25, 20061931 - William Goldman
screen writer: Marathon Man, The Princess Bride, All the President’s Men, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Chaplin; died Nov 16, 20181932 - Charlie O’Donnell
TV announcer: Wheel of Fortune, Burt Luddin’s Love Buffet, Let’s Go Back, The Quiz Kids Challenge, Solid Gold, The Wizard of Odds, Monopoly, American Bandstand; radio DJ: KRLA [Los Angeles]; died Nov 1, 20101933 - Parnelli (Rufus) Jones
auto racer: Indianapolis 500 winner [1963]1935 - Sam Moore
singer: duo: Sam and Dave: Hold On, I'm Comin’, Soul Man1939 - George Hamilton
actor: Love at First Bite, Act One, The Survivors, Zorro, the Gay Blade, Where the Boys Are, Evel Knievel, The Dead Don’t Die, Doc Hollywood, All the Fine Young Cannibals, Two Weeks in Another Town, Your Cheatin’ Heart1939 - Larry Ziegler
golf: Senior PGA Tour: in top 70 on the all-time money list1941 - Jennifer Warren
actress: Amazons, Slap Shot, The Intruder Within, Confessions of a Married Man, Fatal Beauty, Partners in Crime1949 - Jesse Adams
actor [1974-2004]: X-rated films: Sex Museum, Fantasm Comes Again, The Executive Lady, The Handyman and the Stepdaughter, The Sensuous Detective, A Place Beyond Shame, Yummy Youngies, Oriental Hawaii, Taboo VII: The Wild and the Innocent1949 - Mark Knopfler
musician: guitar, songwriter, singer: group: Dire Straits: Money for Nothing1950 - Jim Beaver
actor: Supernatural, Deadwood, Harper’s Island, Justified; memoir: Life’s That Way1950 - George McGinnis
basketball: Indiana University, Indiana Pacers, Philadelphia 76ers1952 - Ronald Guttman
actor: The Fifth Column, The Tollbooth, 27 Dresses, The Guru, August Rush, 13, Tickling Leo, Mrs. Harris, Recto/Verso, The Beast, And the Band Played On, Her Alibi, Lost, Lipstick Jungle, Heroes, The West Wing, Sex and the City, All My Children, Law & Order [Criminal Intent, SVU]1954 - Sam J. Jones
actor: Texas Payback, Fists of Iron, Thunder in Paradise, Maximum Force, Fist of Honor, Silent Assassins, 10, Flash Gordon, The Highwayman1954 - Pat Metheny
musician: jazz-guitar: LPs: Bright Size Life, Watercolors, Pat Metheny Group, New Chautauqua, American Garage, As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls, Offramp, Travels, Rejoicing, First Circle, Song X, Still Life [Talking]1956 - Bruce Greenwood
actor: Thirteen Days, National Treasure: Book of Secrets, Star Trek [2009], Hollywood Homicide, Double Jeopardy, Déjà Vu, I, Robot, Dinner for Schmucks, Capote, Super 81959 - Suzanne Vega
musician: folk-guitar, singer, songwriter: Luka, Marlene on the Wall, Small Blue Thing, Calypso, Tom’s Diner1961 - Roy Hay
musician: guitar: group: Culture Club: Karma Chameleon1963 - Brit Morgan
actress [1987-1996]: X-rated films: Cheeks II: The Bitter End, On Trial, Cheeks IV: A Backstreet Affair, Beyond Innocence, Beaver Ridge1963 - Anthony Ray aka Sir Mix-a-Lot
Grammy Award-winning rapper: Baby Got Back [1993]; Let’s G, I’m a Trip, Square Dance Rap, Rippin’, Posse on Broadway, Ironman, My Hooptie1964 - Ben English
actor [2002-2012]: X-rated films: Young and the Raunchy, 2 Heads R Better Than 1, Mothers and Daughters, Mamasans: The Asian MILF Movie, Man with a Maid: Tales of Victorian, Teacher and Me, Cheerleader School1965 - Peter Krause
actor: The Catch, Civic Duty, We Don’t Live Here Anymore, It’s a Shame About Ray, The Truman Show, Lovelife, Double Edge, Dirty Sexy Money, Parenthood, Six Feet Under1967 - Andrew Glover
football [tight end]: Los Angeles Raiders, Oakland Raiders, Minnesota Vikings, New Orleans Saints1971 - Yvette Nicole Brown
actress: Community, (500) Days of Summer, Tropic Thunder, Repo Men, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters; more1971 - Pete Sampras
tennis champion: Australian Open [1994], Wimbledon [1993, 94, 95], U.S. Open [1990, 93, 95]1972 - Rebecca Gayheart
actress: Urban Legend, Jawbreaker, Scream 2, Beverly Hills, 90210, Shadow Hours1973 - Todd Marchant
hockey [center]: New York Rangers, Edmonton Oilers, Columbus Blue Jackets, Anaheim Mighty Ducks, Anaheim Ducks1974 - Matt Clement
baseball [pitcher]: SD Padres, Florida Marlins, Chicago Cubs, Boston Red Sox1974 - Greg Spires
football [defensive end]: Florida State Univ; NFL: NE Patriots [1998–2000], Cleveland Browns [2001], TB Buccaneers [2002-2007]: 2003 Super Bowl XXXVII champs; Oakland Raiders [2008]1975 - Casey Affleck
actor: Hamlet [2000], Drowning Mona, American Pie, 200 Cigarettes, Chasing Amy, To Die For, The Kennedys of Massachusetts; younger brother of Ben Affleck1975 - Donovin Darius
football [safety]: Univ of Syracuse; NFL: Jacksonville Jaguars1976 - Brad Lukowich
hockey: Dallas Stars, TB Lightning1976 - Antoine Walker
basketball [forward]: Univ of Kentucky; NBA: Boston Celtics, Dallas Mavericks, Atlanta Hawks, Miami Heat1977 - Plaxico Burress
football [wide receiver]: Michigan State Univ; NFL: Pittsburgh Steelers, NY Giants1980 - Maggie Lawson
actress: Psych, It’s All Relative, Spellbound, Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman, Winter Break, Nancy Drew, Model Behavior, Pleasantville1980 - Dominique Swain
actress: Lolita [1997], Face/Off, Pumpkin, Journeyman, The Pacific and Eddy, Noble Things, The Girl from the Naked Eye1988 - Leah Pipes
actress: Life Is Wild, Sorority Row, Lost at Home, The Deep End, The Originals, Jodi Arias: Dirty Little Secret, The Devil’s Hand1993 - Imani Hakim
actress: Everybody Hates Chris, Sharknado: The 4th Awakens, Sollers Point, Burning Sands, Down for Whatever, Cam, Mythic Quest, The Gabby Douglas Story1994 - Bex Taylor-Klaus
actress: The Killing, Arrow, Scream, The Last Witch Hunter, Discarnate
and still more...
Hit Music on This Day August 12
1951Too Young (facts) - Nat King Cole
Mister and Mississippi (facts) - Patti Page
1960
1969
1978
1987
1996
2005
2014
and even more...
Those were the days, my friend. We thought they’d never end...
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