December 27
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Events on This Day
1845 - Dr. Crawford Williamson Long used anesthesia for childbirth for the first time, when he delivered his own child in Jefferson, Georgia.1900 - Carrie Nation staged her first raid on a saloon at the Carey Hotel in Wichita, Kansas. She broke each and every one of the liquor bottles she could see, which means, about all of them behind the bar, for sure. Nation usually did her damage with a hatchet; calling her vandalism, hatchetation.
1903 - The barbershop quartet favorite, Sweet Adeline, was sung for the first time -- in New York City. The song was composed by Henry Armstrong with the words of Richard Gerard. The title of the song came from a theatre marquee that promoted the great operatic soprano, Adelina Patti. Now female barbershop quartets call themselves Sweet Adelines.
1927 - The Jerome Kern (music) and Oscar Hammerstein II (lyrics) musical, Show Boat, opened at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York City. Its star, Helen Morgan, received excellent reviews from critics of the show; a musical about riverboat show people and their romances and disappointments. It was inspired by the novel, Show Boat, written by Edna Ferber in 1926.
1932 - Radio City Music Hall, in New York City, opened. It was the largest indoor theatre in the world. The gala grand opening show was a six-hour extravaganza that lost half a million dollars within three weeks. The theatre has since been renovated to recapture its original decorative charm. An Art Deco cathedral of entertainment, it seats more than 6,200 people and is still a must-see for those visiting New York. During the holiday season, audiences continue to get a kick out of seeing the world-famous Rockettes perform in precision on Radio City Music Hall’s nearly 10,000-square-foot stage.
1939 - The Glenn Miller Show, also known as Music that Satisfies, started on CBS radio. The 15-minute, twice-a-week show was sponsored by Chesterfield cigarettes and was heard for nearly three years.
1940 - Singer Al Jolson and actress Ruby Keeler were divorced after 12 years of marriage. They had separated a year earlier; but Jolson talked Keeler into co-starring with him in the Broadway show, Hold on to Your Hats. She left the show before the opening and then left the marriage.
1945 - The International Monetary Fund was established in Washington DC. 28 nations signed an agreement creating the World Bank.
1946 - The American team won the Davis Cup for the first time since 1938. The competition was held at Melbourne, Australia.
1947 - “Hey kids... What time is it? It’s Howdy Doody time!” Buffalo Bob (Smith), Clarabelle the Clown (Bob Keeshan), Judy Tyler and a host of others joined Howdy Doody on NBC-TV. The show stayed on the air for 13 years.
1949 - Queen Juliana of the Netherlands signed an act granting sovereignty to Indonesia after more than three centuries of Dutch rule.
1954 - Gian Carlo Menotti’s opera The Saint of Bleecker Street premiered at the Broadway Theatre -- on Broadway. The Saint of Bleecker Street won Menotti the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1955.
1961 - The Styne-Comden-Green musical Subways Are for Sleeping premiered in the Big Apple.
1968 - Don McNeill’s The Breakfast Club signed off for the last time on ABC radio, after 35 years on the air.
1968 - Frank Borman, J. A. Lovell, Jr. and W.A. Anders became the first U.S. astronauts to land at night. Their space capsule, Apollo 8, made a safe nighttime spashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
1971 - Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy and Woodstock of Charles Schulz’ famous Peanuts comic strip made the cover of Newsweek magazine this day.
1975 - The Staple Singers reached the top spot on the pop music charts for the second time in their career. This time with Let’s Do It Again. The song, the theme from the movie soundtrack of the same name, was the last hit the group would have. I’ll Take You There was The Staple Singers’ first number one hit (June 3, 1972).
1978 - King Juan Carlos ratified Spain’s first democratic constitution.
1978 - The South Pole had a record high temperature of 7.5° F (-13.6° C). (That record was broken on Dec 25, 2011: 9.9°F [-12.3°C].)
1979 - Soviet forces seized control of Afghanistan. President Hafizullah Amin, who was overthrown and executed, was replaced by Babrak Karmal. The action resulted in the U.S. boycotting the Summer Olympics the following year.
1980 - The John Lennon hit, (Just Like) Starting Over, began a five-week stay at #1 on the pop charts. The hit was from the album, Double Fantasy. Lennon was murdered on December 8th of that year, as the single and LP had started their climb up the charts.
1983 - Pope John Paul II visited Mehmet Ali Agca at Rome’s Rebibbia prison and personally pardoned him for the 1981 attempt on the Pope’s life.
1983 - A propane gas fire devastated sixteen blocks of Buffalo, NY.
1984 - British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was the woman most admired by the American people, according to a Gallup Poll. It marked the third consecutive year that the ‘Iron Lady’ received that honor.
1986 - Corazon Aquino, President of the Philippines, was named TIME magazine’s Man of the Year. The only other women who had been so named were Queen Elizabeth II in 1952; and the Duchess of Windsor, Wallis Warfield Simpson, in 1936.
1989 - U.S. President George Bush (I), on a visit to Beeville, TX, said he was determined to bring deposed Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega to justice “for poisoning the children of the United States of America and people around the world” with illegal drugs.
1991 - Amid strained U.S.-Philippine relations, the Philippine government ordered the U.S. to close its Subic Bay naval base near Manila by January 12, 1992.
1995 - Disregarding world criticism and some violent protests, France set off a fifth nuclear bomb on Mururoa Atoll in the South Pacific.
2001 - U.S. officials announced that Taliban and al-Qaeda prisoners captured in Afghanistan would be held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
2001 - U.S. President George Bush (II) extended permanent trade status (formerly called “most-favored-nation” status) to China. Bush’s proclamation this day ended a long history of an annual review in the U.S. Congress of China’s permanent trade status.
2002 - Film director George Roy Hill, 81, died. His films included The Sting and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
2002 - Max debuted in U.S. theatres. The war drama stars John Cusack, Noah Taylor, Leelee Sobieski, Molly Parker and Paul Hipp.
2003 - British stage and film actor Alan Bates died. He was 69 years old. His films included Zorba the Greek and Georgy Girl.
2006 - Telephone lines and Internet service went down across much of Asia after two powerful earthquakes off Taiwan damaged undersea cables.
2007 - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas held a summit, seeking to resolve a dispute over planned Israeli construction in east Jerusalem.
2007 - Pakistan’s leading opposition candidate, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, was assassinated in a suicide attack in Rawalpindi. The attack, at the end of a campaign rally, also killed 20 others. After climbing in to her bulletproof vehicle, Bhutto had stood up through its sunroof to wave to the crowds. Doctors reported that Bhutto died from a bullet wound.
2008 - Israel began retaliating for rocket fire from militants in the Gaza Strip. Warplanes pounded dozens of security compounds across the Hamas-ruled territory in waves of airstrikes, killing nearly 200 people and wounding 270 others in the single bloodiest day of fighting in years.
2008 - Experts estimated that the mountain pine beetle was expected to kill virtually every mature lodgepole pine in Colorado. The beetle had destroyed pine forests from Mexico to Canada.
2009 - The United States was reported to have quietly opened a third, largely covert front against the Al-Qaeda terror network in Yemen. The Pentagon was spending more than 70 million dollars in 18 months, and using teams of special forces to train and equip Yemeni military, Interior Ministry and coast guard forces.
2009 - A South Korean consortium, led by Korea Electric Power (KEPCO), won a $20 billion contract to build four nuclear reactors in the United Arab Emirates.
2010 - A Tel Aviv University team that had been excavating a cave in central Israel reported that teeth found in the cave were about 400,000 years old and resemble those of other remains of modern man, known scientifically as Homo sapiens, found in Israel. The remains were twice as old as the oldest known remains found prior to this.
2011 - Sears Holdings Corporation said a sharp drop in holiday sales was forcing it to close as many as 120 stores in its Kmart and Sears chains. The retail giant announced that it would maintain only its better performing stores.
2012 - 46-year-old Sunando Sen was shoved in front of a moving subway train which crushed him to death in Queens, NY. 31-year-old Erika Menendez was later charged with the killing. Menendez said she had hated Muslims and Hindus since 9/11/2001 and assumed Sen to be one. He was Hindu, but no Hindus were involved in the WTC attacks.
2013 - The first of the Denver businesses approved to sell recreational marijuana received licenses. (Colorado levies a flat 15 percent excise tax on recreational marijuana, and it is estimated to have earned the state some $2.3 billion since 2014.)
2013 - A&E TV announced that it had reversed its decision to drop Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson from the Louisiana-based show. This, after Fans protested his suspension over anti-gay remarks and big-name corporate sponsors stuck by the series.
2014 - North Korea’s Internet and 3G mobile networks were paralyzed and the totalitarian dictatorship blamed the U.S. for systemic instability in the country’s networks. The attacks apparently came in response to North Korea’s hacking attack on Sony Studios scomputer systems.
2015 - Singer Stevie Wright died at 68 years of age. During the late 1960s Wright was the lead singer of the Australian pop band The Easybeats, who had the 1966 hit Friday on My Mind.
2015 - Meadowlark Lemon, ‘clown prince’ of the Harlem Globetrotters, died in Scottsdale, Arizona. He was 83 years old. Lemon played in more than 16,000 games for the touring Globetrotters and was a 2003 inductee into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
2015 - China’s national legislature approved the country’s first anti-terrorism law. Critics voiced concern that the new law’s requirement that tech companies must share information with the government would hurt business interests and further infringe upon human rights in the country.
2016 - Carrie Fisher, the 1977 Star Wars character Princess Leia, died in Los Angeles following a massive heart attack. An autopsy later revealed that the 60-year-old Fisher had cocaine and other drugs in her system.
2017 - Former U.S. President Barack Obama told Britain’s Prince Harry in a BBC Radio 4 interview that he was concerned about the effect of the Internet on public life. “Social media is a really powerful tool for people of common interests to convene and get to know each other and connect, but then it’s important for them to get offline, meet in a pub, meet at a place of worship, meet in a neighborhood and get to know each other, because the truth is that on the Internet, everything is simplified, and when you meet people face-to-face, it turns out they’re complicated,” Mr. Obama said.
2018 - A former deputy intelligence chief of China was sentenced to life in prison for corruption. Ma Jian was found guilty of crimes including accepting bribes and insider trading. He was also ordered to pay more than 50 million yuan ($7.26 million) in penalties.
2019 - U.S. radio disc jockey Don Imus died in Texas. He was 79 years old. His radio show "Imus in the Morning" aired on various stations and digital platforms until 2018. Imus was labeled a “shock jock” for making shocking statements on the air. He was fired by CBS Radio (but reportedly collected a multimillion dollar settlement of his five-year contract) in April 2007 after describing the Rutgers University women’s basketball team as “nappy headed hos.”
2019 - The United Nations General Assembly approved a suspicious Russian-led resolution to start the process of drafting a new international treaty to combat cybercrime. This, over the objections of the European Union, the United States and other countries. Human Rights Watch’s Louis Charbonneau has said that “if the plan is to develop a convention that gives countries legal cover for internet blackouts and censorship, while creating the potential for criminalising free speech, then it’s a bad idea. It’s one thing to combat cybercrime. But we shouldn’t create a Trojan horse that helps governments clamp down on free expression,” he said.
2020 - POTUS Trump urged senior Justice Department officials to declare the 2020 election results “corrupt.” They didn’t because the results were legit. (Notes of the phone request were released on July 30, 2021.)
2020 - South Korea announced its extension of social distancing measures to try to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic -- for another six days, to Jan. 3. This, as it continued to report near-record numbers of new COVID-19 cases each day.
2021 - A lone gunman shot four people to death and wounded three, including a police officer, in a Denver-area shooting spree. Police killed the gunman. A 5th victim died the following day.
2021 - A federal appeals court upheld Google’s settlement in a class action case over allegations that it collected Wi-Fi data illegally with its "Street View" program. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the argument that the $13 million settlement was unfair because it only distributed money to privacy groups and did not pay the class members. Judge Bridget Bade argued in the decision that it was not feasible to distribute money directly to the 60 million people whose data was allegedly inadvertently collected.
2021 - Japan’s defense minister Nobuo Kishi agreed to launch a military hotline with China. Kishi held a video call with Wei Fenghe where the Japanese defence chief stressed the importance of stability in the Taiwan strait.
2022 - Luka Dončić became the first player to register a 60-21-10 triple-double (player logging 10 or more of three statistical categories in the box score) in NBA history. The Dallas Mavericks beat the NY Knicks 126-121. It was first 60-point game in Mavs franchise history. (Dončić registered career highs of 60 points and 21 rebounds and 10 assists for that triple-double.)
2022 - Officials extended a driving ban in Buffalo, NY with 100 military police and additional state troopers helping local police enforce traffic control and ticketing. The lock down followed a massive winter storm that killed several dozen people. (The dead were found in stranded vehicles, on sidewalks, near street corners, and in snowbanks. And some were found in homes that had been without power since the storm began.) More than 40 inches of snow had blanketed the county.
and more...
Birthdays on This Day December 27
1571 - Johannes Kepler
‘founder of modern optics’: formulated eyeglass design for nearsightedness and farsightedness; coined term: Dioptrice, describing real, virtual, upright and inverted images and magnification; discovered the properties of total internal reflection; astronomer: 1st to correctly explain planetary motion; used stellar parallax caused by the Earth’s orbit to measure distance to the stars; suggested that Sun rotates about its axis, that tides are caused by the Moon; formed basis of integral calculus; derived the universally accepted birth year of Christ; writer: Astronomia Pars Optica, Dioptrice, Stereometrica Doliorum; died Nov 15, 16301773 - Sir George Cayley
pilot: first manned glider flight; scientist: ‘father of aerodynamics’: designed gliders, helicopters, airplanes; died Dec 15, 18571822 - Louis Pasteur
chemist, scientist: developed pasteurization process, rabies vaccination; died Sep 28, 18951879 - Sydney Greenstreet
actor: Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, Across the Pacific, Passage to Marseilles, Malaya; died Jan 18, 19541901 - Marlene Dietrich (Maria Magdelene von Losch)
actress: The Blue Angel, 1st German talkie; Morocco, Kismet, Destry Rides Again, Judgment at Nuremberg, Witness for the Prosecution; died May 6, 19921906 - Oscar Levant
musician, actor: An American in Paris, The Bandwagon, Romance on the High Seas; died Aug 14, 19721911 - Anna Russell
comedienne: operatic parodies: The Ring of the Nibelungs, How to Write Your Own Gilbert and Sullivan Opera; died Oct 18, 20061915 - William H. Masters
physician: Masters of Masters and Johnson: Human Sexual Response, On Sex and Human Loving; died Feb 16, 20011926 - Lee Salk
child psychologist, writer: Preparing for parenthood : understanding your feelings about pregnancy, childbirth, and your baby; died May 2, 19921928 - Richard D. Trentlage
jingle writer: wrote jingles for Oscar Mayer, McDonald’s, the (U.S.) National Safety Council, V8; died Sep 21, 20161931 - Scotty Moore
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame musician: guitar: Elvis Presley’s guitarist from 1954 to 1958 [Blue Suede Shoes, Hound Dog, All Shook Up]; ranked in Rolling Stone magazine’s 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time; died Jun 28, 20161931 - Walter Norris
pianist, composer: Drifting; died Oct 29, 20111933 - Dave Marr
golf champion: PGA [1965]; died Oct 5, 19971939 - John Amos
actor: Good Times, Die Hard 2: Die Harder, Coming to America, Future Cop1940 - Jerry Lambert
horse racing jockey; died Feb 23, 20151941 - Phil (Philip Joseph) Gagliano
baseball: SL Cardinals [World Series: 1967, 1968], Chicago Cubs, Boston Red Sox, Cincinnati Reds; died Dec 19, 20161941 - Les Maguire
musician: piano: group: Gerry and The Pacemakers: Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying, I Like It1941 - Mike Pinder
musician: piano; songwriter, singer: group: The Moody Blues: Go Now, Tuesday Afternoon [Forever Afternoon], Ride My See-Saw, Voices in the Sky, Question, Story In Your Eyes, Nights in White Satin1943 - Cokie Roberts
TV news: ABC News Nightline, senior news analyst: National Public Radio; died Sep 17, 20191943 - Diane Stanley
author, illustrator: The Giant and the Beanstalk, The Farmer in the Dell, Charles Dickens, Saladin1943 - Roy (Hilton) White
baseball: NY Yankees [World Series: 1976-1978/all-star: 1969, 1970]1944 - Mick Jones
musician: guitar: group: Foreigner: Feels like the First Time, Cold as Ice, Long Long Way from Home, Hot Blooded, Blue Morning Blue Day, Double Vision, Waiting for a Girl like You, I Want to Know What Love Is, That Was Yesterday1946 - Rich Jones
basketball: San Antonio Spurs1947 - Bob McKay
football: Univ. of Texas; NFL: Cleveland Browns, New England Patriots1947 - Mickey Redmond
hockey: Detroit Red Wings player/broadcast color analyst1948 - Gérard Depardieu
actor: A Pure Formality, My Father the Hero, Cyrano deBergerac, Jean De Florette, The Return of Martin Guerre, Tartuffe, Choice of Arms, Loulou, Going Places, The Holes1951 - Karla Bonoff
songwriter: Home [Bonnie Raitt]; Tell Me Why [Wynonna Judd]; Isn’t It Always Love [Lynn Anderson]; Someone To Lay Down Beside Me, Lose Again, If He’s Ever Near [Linda Ronstadt]1952 - Tovah Feldshuh
actress: Holocaust, The Triangle Factory Fire Scandal, Brewster’s Millions, Blue Iguana, A Day in October1952 - David Knopfler
musician: guitar, singer: group: Dire Straits: Sultans of Swing; solo: Romeo & Juliet, Tunnel of Love, Skateaway; LPs: Release, Behind the Lines, Cut the Wine1952 - (Gordon) Craig Reynolds
baseball: pitcher: Pittsburgh Pirates, Seattle Mariners [all-star: 1978], Houston Astros [all-star: 1979]1955 - E.E. Bell
actor: I Am Stamos, 61*, My Giant, Grizzly Mountain, Air Force One, Forget Paris, Moment of Truth: Cradle of Conspiracy1958 - Steve Jones
golf pro: Indiana Senior PGA Player of the Year [1998, 1999]; coach: Butler University men’s golf squad1962 - Sherri Steinhauer
golf: LPGA: career earnings: $2,042,3811964 - Ian Gomez
actor: The Drew Carey Show, Underclassman, Connie and Carla, Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star, Chasing Papi, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Jake in Progress, Celebrity Poker Showdown1964 - Theresa Randle
actress: Law & Order Criminal Intent, Malcolm X, Sugar Hill, Girl 6, Beverly Hills Cop III, Space Jam, Spawn1966 - Eva LaRue
actress: Grace in Sara, Lakeview Terrace, Little Pieces, Ice, Remembrance, A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes: The Annette Funicello Story1966 - Bill Goldberg
pro wrestler: WCW world heavyweight champ; football [defensive tackle]: NFL: Los Angeles Rams [1990–1991], Atlanta Falcons [1993–1994], Carolina Panthers [1995]; actor: Half Past Dead 2, Kill Speed1970 - Lorenzo Neal
football [running back]: Fresno State Univ; NFL: New Orleans Saints, New York Jets, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Tennessee Titans, Cincinnati Bengals, San Diego Chargers1971 - Savannah Guthrie
NBC-TV host: The Today Show co-anchor [2012- ]; White House correspondent [2008-2011]; co-anchor The Daily Rundown [MSNBC 2010, 2011]; Chief Legal Analyst [2011– ]1971 - Bryan Smolinski
hockey [center]: Boston Bruins, Pittsburgh Penguins, New York Islanders, LA Kings, Ottawa Senators1971 - James Stewart
football [running back]: Univ of Tennessee; NFL: Jacksonville Jaguars, Detroit Lions1972 - Thomas Wilson Brown
actor: Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Diggstown, Days of Our Lives, Knots Landing1972 - Kevin Ollie
basketball [guard]: Univ of Conneticut; NBA: Dallas Mavericks, Orlando Magic, Sacramento Kings, Philadelphia 76ers, New Jersey Nets, Chicago Bulls, Indiana Pacers, Milwaukee Bucks, Seattle SuperSonics, Cleveland Cavaliers1972 - Dewayne Washington
football [cornerback]: North Carolina State; NFL: Minnesota Vikings, Pittsburgh Steelers, Jacksonville Jaguars, Kansas City Chiefs1973 - Tabatha Cash
actress [1992-1996]: X-rated films: Emmanuelle’s Secret, Emmanuelle in Venice, Up and Cummers: The Movie, The Erotic Adventures of Aladdin X, Bad Hair Day1974 - Masi Oka
actor: Hawaii Five-0, Heroes, Friends with Benefits, Searching for Sonny, Get Smart, House of the Dead 2: Dead Aim; digital effects artist: The Perfect Storm, Star Wars prequel trilogy, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest1975 - Jeff D’Amico
baseball [pitcher]: Milwaukee Brewers, New York Mets, Pittsburgh Pirates, Cleveland Indians1976 - Charley Hoffman
golf champ: PGA: 2007 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic; 2010 Deutsche Bank Championship; 2014 OHL Classic at Mayakoba; 2016 Valero Texas Open1979 - Walker Hayes
singer: You Broke Up with Me, U Gurl, AA, Fancy Like1979 - Carson Palmer
football [quarterback]: Univ of Southern California; NFL: Cincinnati Bengals [2003–2010]; Oakland Raiders [2011–2012]; Arizona Cardinals [2013–2017]1981 - Emilie de Ravin
actress: Brick, Carrie [2002], Lost, Roswell, BeastMaster1981 - Patrick Sharp
hockey [forward]: NHL: Philadelphia Flyers [2002-2005]; Chicago Blackhawks [2005-2015]: 2010, 2013, 2015 Stanley Cup champs; Dallas Stars [2015-2017]; Chicago Blackhawks [2017-2018]1982 - Michael Bourn
baseball [outfielder]: Philadelphia Phillies [2006–2007], Houston Astros [2008–2011], Atlanta Braves [2011–2012], Cleveland Indians [2013–2015], Atlanta Braves [2015], Arizona Diamondbacks [2016], Baltimore Orioles [2016]1983 - Cole Hamels
baseball [pitcher]: Philadelphia Phillies: 2008 World Series MVP1986 - Jamaal Charles
football [running back]: Univ of Texas; NFL: Kansas City Chiefs [2008–2016]: over 2,000 combined rushing, receiving yards in 2013 [with 19 touchdowns]; Denver Broncos [2017]; Jacksonville Jaguars [2018]1986 - Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce
Jamaican track and field sprinter: broke several 100 meter world records; Olympic gold medalist: Beijing 2008, London 20121988 - Hayley Williams
songwriter, singer: group: Paramore: Misery Business, Crushcrushcrush, That’s What You Get, Decode, Ignorance1990 - Cinthya Carmona
actress: East Los High, Greenhouse Academy, Ambushed, Skin in the Game1991 - Chloe Bridges
actress: Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam, Forget Me Not, Family Weekend, Mantervention, The Final Girls, Nightlight, The Carrie Diaries, Pretty Little Liars, Daytime Divas1991 - Shay Mooney
singer: half of the country duo Dan + Shay: 19 You + Me, Tequila, Speechless, All to Myself, 10,000 Hours, Glad You Exist1993 - Olivia Cooke
actress: Bates Motel, The Quiet Ones, The Signal, Ouija, Thoroughbreds, Ready Player One
and still more...
Hit Music on This Day December 27
1944White Christmas (facts) - Bing Crosby
Santa Claus is Coming to Town (facts) - Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters
1953
1962
1971
1980
1989
1998
2007
2016
and even more...
Those were the days, my friend. We thought they’d never end...
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