May 26
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Events on This Day
1836 - The U.S. House of Representatives adopted what became known as the Gag Rule -- to try to stop people from submitting antislavery petitions to Congress. Representative John Quincy Adams led the opposition to what he thought to be an unconstitutional attempt to suppress the freedom to petition. Adams lost repeated battles and came close to being censured, but by 1844 enough Northerners had changed their position on the issue for the House to vote to repeal the Gag Rule.1913 - Actors’ Equity Association -- a labor union representing those who work in live theatrical performance -- was organized in New York City.
1927 - The Ford Motor Company manufactured its 15-millionth Model T automobile.
1928 - Andrew Payne ran 3,422 miles in 84 days in a time of 573 hours, 4 minutes and 34 seconds to win the Bunion Derby that had started in Los Angeles and ended at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Upon reaching the finish line of the grueling run, Mr. Payne was heard to exclaim, “Yeeeeeowwwwww! My dawgs’ are on fire!”
1933 - Francis X. Bushman narrated a special broadcast of Roses and Drums. The broadcast on WBBM, Chicago not only celebrated the opening of the World’s Fair in Chicago the following day, but also honored the new U.S. President, Franklin D. Roosevelt.
1940 - Invitation to Learning was first heard on CBS radio. The educational radio program ran for 15 years on the network.
1942 - Lionel Hampton and his band recorded the classic, Flying Home, for Decca Records.
1945 - U.S. B-29s firebombed Tokyo. Parts of the imperial palace were damaged as was the nearby business district of Marunouchi, which was the targeted area.
1948 - The Provisional Government of Israel transformed the Haganah (underground military organization) into the regular army of Israel.
1954 - Liberace presented a three-hour, one-man concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Look at the official attendance: 13,000 women and 3,000 men! The performance nearly broke the box office mark of 18,000 set by pianist Ignace Jan Paderewski.
1956 - Perry Como became the first major TV variety-show host to book a rock and roll act on his program. The ‘Incomparable Mr. C.’ booked Carl Perkins for the show and Perkins sang Blue Suede Shoes. The appearance came some two months after Perkins had missed his originally scheduled appearance with Como because of a devastating car crash.
1958 - On the cover of LIFE magazine was Vice President Richard M. Nixon in Caracas, Venezuela -- getting his car kicked by and unhappy protestor.
1959 - Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher, Harvey Haddix, threw a no-hitter for 12 innings; but lost to the Milwaukee Braves 1-0 in the 13th inning. That’s when Braves slugger Joe Adcock whacked a home run to win the game.
1961 - Dave Garroway told the NBC-TV brass that he was ready to retire. “I want to give up the Today show,” he said, “to stop talking awhile and start looking, thinking and listening to people.” Garroway voiced his trademark, “Peace,” with palm facing the camera, for the last time, after 10 years of early morning informing and entertaining.
1966 - Guyana (formerly British Guiana) declared its independence from England.
1969 - Dick Cavett began a prime time summer TV series three nights a week on ABC. The critics said, “It’s two nights and three quarters of one too much for Cavett.” Within two years, ABC decided that Cavett would be the star of its late night offering five nights a week against Johnny Carson. Guess who kept his job?
1972 - The shooting of Alabama Governor George Wallace was all over the cover of LIFE magazine.
1973 - Kate Schmidt set an American women’s javelin record with a toss of 207 feet, 10 inches in Modesto, CA.
1977 - The man called The Human Fly, George Willig, did the impossible. He scaled the World Trade Center in New York City, by fixing himself up to the window washer mechanism and walking straight up until falling into police custody when he reached the top! It took Willig three and a half hours to make the climb, and $1.10 in fines - a penny per floor.
1978 - Resorts International Hotel Casino opened in Atlantic City, New Jersey. It was the first (legal) casino in the U.S. outside of Nevada. Resorts International had made an initial investment of ninety-one million dollars in the project and people from all over the world came to try their luck at the new resort.
1981 - Fourteen people were killed when a Marine jet crashed onto the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz off Florida.
1985 - A.J. Foyt made it to his 30th Indianapolis 500 as he got his sluggish Indy-car to start. In addition to winning four Indianapolis 500s as a driver, A.J. Foyt won the 1972 Daytona 500 and the 24 Hours of LeMans, making him the only man to have won the crown jewels of Indy car, NASCAR Winston Cup and international sports car racing.
1986 - Sylvester Stallone set a sales record for a non-sequel film with the release of Cobra. Ticket sales for the opening day premiere were $12.4 million.
1991 - A Lauda Air Flight 004, a Boeing 767, crashed in Thailand, killing all 223 people aboard. The plane had departed from Hong Kong, China en route to to Vienna, Austria with a stop in Bangkok, Thailand. The jetliner broke up and crashed into the jungle shortly after leaving Bangkok. Investigators blamed an engine thrust reverser that inexplicably deployed.
1994 - Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley were married in the Dominican Republic. The marriage ended on Jan 18, 1996.
1995 - These films opened in U.S. theatres: Casper, with Bill Pullman, Christina Ricci, Cathy Moriarty, Eric Idle and Ben Stein; and Johnny Mnemonic, starring Keanu Reeves, Dina Meyer, Ice-T and Takeshi Kitano.
1996 - Buddy Lazier won the Indianapolis 500.
1997 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin arrived in Paris to sign an historic agreement between NATO and Russia.
1997 - Australian Prime Minister John Howard made an unexpected personal apology to tens of thousands of Aborigines forcibly taken from their parents under a past government policy of assimilation.
1999 - The U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 1259, the Social Security and Medicare Safe Deposit Box Act of 1999, commonly referred to as the ‘Social Security lockbox’. The legislation put obstacles in the way of using government surpluses that came from Social Security taxes.
2000 - Shanghai Noon debuted in the U.S. The movie starred Jackie Chan, Owen Wilson, Lucy Liu and Roger Yuan.
2001 - Republicans and moderate Democrats drove a sweeping $1.35 trillion tax cut through the U.S. Congress, handing President George Bush (II) a political triumph.
2002 - Barges being pushed by a towboat crashed into the piers of an interstate highway bridge in Oklahoma. Fourteen people were killed when part of the bridge fell into the Arkansas River.
2002 - Helio Castroneves won his second straight Indianapolis 500.
2003 - An airplane carrying Spanish peacekeepers crashed into a mountain in northeastern Turkey while making its third attempt to land in thick fog. All 74 people aboard the the Ukrainian-chartered Yak-42 were killed.
2004 - Terry Nichols was convicted on 161 counts of murder in the (Oklahoma) state trial over his role in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. Nichols was already serving a life sentence in a U.S. federal prison.
2005 - Actor Eddie Albert died at 99 years of age. He was a circus trapeze flier before becoming a stage and radio actor. Albert appeard in some 200 films, but is probably most fondly rememberd as the constantly befuddled city slicker-turned-farmer in TV’s Green Acres.
2006 - Las Vegas Sands, owner of the Venetian Hotel and Casino, won a hotly-contested license to build Singapore’s first casino for $3.2 billion.
2006 - Edouard Michelin died when his fishing boat sank off the coast of Brittany. Michelin was the 43-year-old managing partner and co-chief executive of the Michelin Group; and was the great-grandson of Édouard Michelin (1859–1940), a co-founder of the company.
2007 - Tens of thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets chanting “Freedom, Freedom!” to protest President Hugo Chavez’s decision to deny renewal of the broadcast license of RCTV, the country’s most-watched TV station, and an outlet for opposition to Chavez.
2008 - Composer Earle H. Hagen died at his home in Rancho Mirage, CA. He was 89 years old. Hagene co-wrote the jazz classic Harlem Nocturne and composed the themes for popular TV shows such as The Andy Griffith Show, I Spy, The Mod Squad and others.
2009 - The International Red Cross said the number of cholera cases in Zimbabwe was expected to reach 100,000, warning that the epidemic was Africa’s worst in 15 years.
2009 - The California Supreme Court upheld Proposition 8, the November initiative that amended the state constitution to define marriage as the union of a man and a woman. The court did allow same-sex couple married before Nov 4 to remain legally wed.
2010 - The U.S. space shuttle Atlantis returned from its 32nd -- and final -- voyage bringing back six astronauts from a mission to the International Space Station.
2010 - Long-time radio/TV game-show host Art Linkletter died at his home in Bel-Air, CA. He was 97 years old. His many books included Kids Say the Darndest Things (1957). Linkletter’s House Party ran on CBS radio and TV for 25 years, and his People Are Funny aired on NBC radio-TV for 19 years.
2011 - Tokyo Electric Power, operator of Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, detailed a new leak of radioactive water as Greenpeace slammed the country’s “inadequate response” to a growing threat to sea water and health.
2012 - Egyptian presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq paid tribute to the “glorious revolution” that toppled Hosni Mubarak. Shafiq, the last prime minister to serve under Mubarak, vowed there would be “no recreation of the old regime” as he prepared to face off against Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood in a runoff on June 16-17. (Morsi won 51.73%-48.27%.)
2013 - At the 66th Cannes Film Festival, the Palm d’Or went to Blue Is the Warmest Color: The Life of Adele. The romantic coming-of-age drama was written, produced, and directed by Abdellatif Kechiche and stars Léa Seydoux and Adèle Exarchopoulos.
2014 - China’s government announced plans to scrap some 6 million older, polluting vehicles during the year to start cleaning up hopelessly smog-choked cities.
2015 - The U.S. Internal Revenue Service said cyberthieves used an IRS online service to gain access to information from more than 100,000 taxpayers.
2016 - Group of Seven (G7: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, U.K., U.S.) leaders, meeting in Japan, agreed on the need to send a strong message on maritime claims in the western Pacific, where an increasingly assertive China was locked in territorial disputes with Japan and several Southeast Asian nations.
2017 - Motion pictures opening in the U.S. included: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, starring Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Keira Knightley, Kaya Scodelario, Orlando Bloom, Stephen Graham, Javier Bardem, David Wenham, Brenton Thwaites, Golshifteh Farahani, Kevin McNally, Goran D. Kleut, Paul McCartney and Jessica Green; Black Butterfly, starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Piper Perabo and Antonio Banderas; and Drone, with Mary McCormack, Sean Bean and Joel David Moore.
2017 - Germany-based BMW announced its recall of more than 45,000 older 7-Series cars in the U.S. -- because the doors could open unexpectedly while the car is moving.
2018 - South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in, and North Korean dictator, Kim Jong Un, met at a border truce village. The main purpose of this second summit was to make sure Kim understood that his upcoming meeting with POTUS Trump in June 2018 would take place only if Kim reaffirmed his pledge to denuclearize.
2019 - The turnout for the European Union election neared 51% for 27 nations, the highest in 27 years. Green parties celebrated big gains in elections for the 751-seat European Parliament amid growing voter concerns over climate change, expressed in large-scale student protests in recent months.
2019 - Ireland voters overwhelmingly endorsed a plan to liberalize the country’s constitution to make it easier for couples to divorce. Just over 82% of voters endorsed removing a requirement that couples be separated for four of the previous five years before they could divorce.
2020 - Twitter, urging people to “get the facts,” added a link to two of POTUS Trump’s tweets where he made false claims about mail-in ballots. Twitter said fact checkers had found no evidence to support Trump’s claims and that voting by mail was already in use -- successfully -- in a number of states.
2020 - Stanley Ho, the opportunistic casino tycoon, died at 98 years of age in Hong Kong. Ho led the transformation of the tiny territory of Macau off the coast of China into the world’s most lucrative gambling destination. He left behind 14 children -- and a $6 billion-plus fortune.
2020 - COVID-19 news:
1)Chile’s LATAM Airlines Group filed for U.S. bankruptcy protection, becoming the world’s largest carrier to seek an emergency reorganization due to the pandemic. Chile was averaging 4,000 new coronavirus cases daily.
2)Germany extended social distancing rules. Germany’s virus caseload topped 179,000 with just over 8,300 deaths.2021 - The Biden administration defended a huge Trump-era oil and gas project in the North Slope of Alaska designed to produce more than 100,000 barrels of oil a day for some 30 years. This, despite President Biden’s pledge to move the U.S. the away from fossil fuels.
2021 - Amazon reached a deal to acquire the film and TV company MGM for $8.45 billion. The acquisition for the e-commerce giant meant it would own a library of content consisting of as many as 4,000 films and 17,000 hours of TV. Experts predicted the merger would help Amazon attract even more big-spending Prime subscribers as its Prime Video service competed with the likes of Netflix and Disney Plus.
2021 - France declared a mandatory quarantine period for people coming from Britain due to the increasing prevalence there of a highly contagious coronavirus variant first detected in India.
2022 - Local police were having trouble defending their response to the massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. 19 students and two teachers were killed. Victor Escalon of the Texas Department of Public Safety said there were no officers outside the school to confront the 18-year-old gunman. He also had trouble answering questions about the initial police response and why officers took at least an hour to directly confront the shooter even though scores of police officers were on the scene.
2022 - Justin Timberlake sold his entire song catalog to a management company, joining a wave of recent mega stars who were selling the rights to their music for big bucks. London-based firm Hipgnosis Song Management announced the purchase of all the singer’s copyrights on tracks he wrote or co-wrote – a total of around 200 songs. Among JT’s No. 1 hits involved were SexyBack, Can’t Stop the Feeling and Mirrors. The dollar figure behind the deal was said to be upwards of $100 million.
2023 - Movies scheduled to open in the U.S. included: About My Father, starring Robert De Niro, Leslie Bibb and David Rasche; Kandahar, with Gerard Butler, Navid Negahban and Ali Fazal; The Little Mermaid, starring Halle Bailey, Jonah Hauer-King and Melissa McCarthy; The Machine, with Mark Hamill, Martyn Ford and Bert Kreischer; and You Hurt My Feelings, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Tobias Menzies and Michaela Watkins.
and more...
Birthdays on This Day May 26
1799 - Alexander Pushkin
poet: Eugene Onegin, The Bronze Horseman, Ruslan and Lyudmila, Southern Verse Tales; playwright: Boris Godunov; novelist: Tales of Belkin, The Captain’s Daughter; died Jan 29, 1837 [mortally wounded in a duel Jan 27]1886 - Al Jolson (Asa Yoelson)
singer: Sonny Boy; actor: The Jazz Singer, Rhapsody in Blue, Rose of Washington Square; died Oct 23, 19501897 - Norma Talmadge
actress: The Forbidden City, The Social Secretary, Dubarry; died Dec 24, 19571903 - Estes Kefauver
politician: U.S. Senator from Tennessee [1949–1963]; 1956 running mate of Democratic presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson; died Aug 10, 19631907 - John Wayne (Marion Morrison)
Academy Award-winning actor: True Grit [1969]; Stagecoach, Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, The Searchers, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, They Were Expendable, The Quiet Man, The Alamo, The Green Berets, The Shootist; died Jun 11, 1979
1908 - Robert Morley (Adolph Milton)
actor: Marie Antoinette, Around the World in 80 Days, The African Queen, War and Remembrance, Of Human Bondage, Istanbul; producer; died Jun 3, 19921910 - Laurance S. Rockefeller
conservationist: donated 92 acres on the top of Sage Mountain for British Virgin Islands’s first national park [1964]; died Jul 11, 20041911 - Ben Alexander (Nicholas Benton Alexander)
actor: All Quiet on the Western Front, Dragnet; died Jul 5, 19691911 - Ziggy Elman
musician [trumpet], composer, conductor, songwriter: And the Angels Sing, Forgive My Heart, Zaggin with Zig; played w/Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey orchestras; died Jun 26, 19681912 - Jay Silverheels (Harold J. Smith)
actor: The Lone Ranger, Broken Arrow, Man Who Loved Cat Dancing; died Mar 5, 19801913 - Peter Cushing
actor: Sherlock Holmes, Star Wars, Tales from the Crypt, The Evil of Frankenstein, The Horror of Dracula, The House That Dripped Blood; died Aug 11, 19941920 - Peggy Lee (Norma Delores Egstrom)
singer: Fever, It’s a Good Day, I Hear Music, The Folks Who Live on the Hill, I’m Just Wild About Harry, I’ve Got the World on a String, Mr. Wonderful; actress: Mister Music, The Jazz Singer, Pete Kelley’s Blues, Is That All There Is?; sang for: Lady and the Tramp; died Jan 21, 20021923 - James Arness (Aurness)
actor: Gunsmoke, How the West was Won, Hondo, The Alamo: Thirteen Days to Glory; Minneapolis, MN radio newscaster; brother of Peter Graves; died Jun 3, 20111926 - Miles Davis
composer, musician: trumpet: My Funny Valentine, ’Round Midnight, So What, Four, Big Foot, Just Squeeze Me, Tempus Fugit, Well You Needn’t; died Sep 28, 19911927 - Jacques Bergerac
actor: Twist of Fate, Les Girls, Gigi, A Global Affair, Missione speciale Lady Chaplin; died Jun 15, 20141929 - Patrick Horgan
actor: The Curse of the Jade Scorpion, George Washington, The Thomas Crown Affair, Music of Williamsburg; author: The Detection of Sherlock Holmes; died Oct 6, 20211939 - Brent Musburger
sportscaster: ABC Sports, CBS Sports, ESPN1940 - Levon Helm
musician: drums, singer: groups: The Band, Hawks, Levon and the Hawks, Crackers, Canadian Squires; died Apr 19, 20121941 - Cliff Drysdale
tennis: first president of the Association of Tennis Professionals [ATP: 1972-1974]; ESPN commentator1942 - Ray Ennis
musician: guitar, singer: group: The Swinging Blue Jeans: Hippy Hippy Shake1942 - Chuck (Charles Oscar) Hartenstein
‘Twiggy’: baseball: pitcher: Chicago Cubs, Pittsburgh Pirates, Boston Red Sox, SL Cardinals, Toronto Blue Jays1944 - Verden Allen
musician: keyboards: group: Mott the Hoople: All the Young Dudes, Ballad of Mott, All the Way to Memphis1944 - Sam Posey
auto racer; radio/TV race commentator1945 - Garry Peterson
musician: drums: The Guess Who: These Eyes, Laughing, No Time, American Woman, Share the Land, Clap for the Wolfman1946 - Mick Ronson
musician [guitar]: group: Mott the Hoople: All the Way From Memphis, Honaloochie Boogie, Hymn for the Dudes, Born Late, All the Young Dudes, Roll Away the Stone; died Apr 29, 19931947 - Darrell (Wayne) Evans
baseball: Atlanta Braves [all-star: 1973], SF Giants [all-star: 1983], Detroit Tigers [World Series: 1984]1948 - Stevie (Stephanie) Nicks
songwriter: Edge of Seventeen; singer: group: Fleetwood Mac: Dreams, Don’t Stop; solo: Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around [w/Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers], Leather & Lace [w/Don Henley], Stand Back, Talk to Me; more1949 - Pam Grier
actress: The Big Bird Cage, Roots: The Next Generations, Fort Apache the Bronx, Miami Vice, Above the Law, Escape from L.A., Mars Attacks!, Ghosts of Mars, Bones1949 - Dan Pastorini
football: Houston Oilers; football handicapper1949 - Philip Michael Thomas
actor: Miami Vice, Hair, False Witness, A Fight for Jenny, Homeboy1949 - Hank Williams Jr
singer: All My Rowdy Friends Have Gone and Settled Down, Whiskey Bent and Hell-Bound, Family Tradition, Raining in My Heart, I’ve Got a Right to Cry, I’d Rather Be Gone, I Fought the Law, Are You Ready? [ABC Monday Night Football intro]; movie soundtrack: Your Cheatin’ Heart1951 - Sally Ride
astronaut: first American woman in space: Challenger shuttle [1983]; died Jul 23, 20121958 - Wayne Hussey
musician: guitar, singer: group: The Mission: LPs Gods Own Medicine, The First Chapter, Salad Daze, Neverland, Ever After1959 - Kevin Gage
actor: Happiness Runs, Born That Way, Lightning Bug, Blow, Point Blank, The ’burbs, SpaceCamp1962 - Genie Francis
actress: General Hospital, North and South, Book I & II, Bare Essence, The Young and the Restless1962 - Bob(cat) Goldthwait
actor: Out There, Destiny Turns on the Radio, Scrooged, Police Academy series, One Crazy Summer, voice of Muggle in Capitol Critters, voice of Mr. Floppy in Unhappily Ever After1964 - Lenny Kravitz
singer, songwriter: American Woman, Are You Gonna Go My Way?1966 - Helena Bonham Carter
actress: Mighty Aphrodite, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Howard’s End, Where Angels Fear to Tread, Hamlet, A Room with a View, Lady Jane1966 - Zola Budd (Pieterse)
Olympic track and field star: within a 3-year period, twice broke the world record in the women’s 5,000 meters 15:01.83 [1984], 14:48.07 [1985]1968 - Willie Burton
basketball [guard]: NBA: Philadelphia 76ers, Atlanta Hawks, San Antonio Spurs, Charlotte Hornets1968 - Frederik André Henrik Christian
Crown Prince of Denmark [and heir apparent to the Throne]; elder son of Queen Margrethe II and Count Henrik of Monpezat; when Crown Prince Frederik becomes king, he will be Frederik X of Denmark1970 - Kylie Ireland
actress [1994-2013]: X-rated films: Never Say Never, Again, Decadent Obsession, Tushy Girl Lost, Three on a Honeymoon, Going Down With Love, A Pornstar Is Born1972 - Selenis Leyva
actress: Orange Is the New Black, Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU, Third Watch, The Sopranos, The Good Wife, Girls, Elementary, Madam Secretary, Veep1975 - Nicki Aycox
actress: Cold Case, Criminal Minds, Jeepers Creepers 2, Momentum, Perfect Stranger, Dark Blue, The Employer1975 - Lauryn Hill
singer, songwriter and rapper: group: Fugees: The Score, Killing Me Softly; solo: The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill; more1975 - Travis Lee
baseball: San Diego State Univ; Arizona Diamondbacks, Philadelphia Phillies, Tampa Bay Devils Rays, NY Yankees1975 - P.J. Stock
hockey [center]: NY Rangers, Montreal Canadiens, Philadelphia Flyers, Boston Bruins1978 - Laurence Fox
actor: Inspector Lewis, Becoming Jane, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Agatha Christie’s Marple: The Sittaford Mystery, A Room with a View1979 - Elisabeth Harnois
actress: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Adventures in Wonderland, Point Pleasant, Miami Medical, Dog Hate Cat, Mars Needs Moms, Bad Meat, Riddle1981 - Isaac Slade
singer: co-founder of The Fray: How to Save a Life, Over My Head [Cable Car], You Found Me, Never Say Never, Heartbeat1981 - Ben Zobrist
baseball [second base]: Tampa Bay Devil Rays/Rays [2006–2014]; Oakland Athletics [2015]; Kansas City Royals [2015]: 2015 World Series champs; Chicago Cubs [2016–2019]: 2016 World Series champs1986 - Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey
actress: The Sea Wall, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, I Origins, Alaska1999 - Kerry Ingram
actress: Game of Thrones, Matilda the Musical, Barbarians Rising, Doctors, Free Rein
and still more...
Hit Music on This Day May 26
1945Dream (facts) - The Pied Pipers
Candy (facts) - Johnny Mercer & Jo Stafford
1954
1963
1972
1981
1990
1999
2008
2017
and even more...
Those were the days, my friend. We thought they’d never end...
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