Through The Rear Window: TODAY IS ... 29 JANUARY

Friday, January 29, 2010

TODAY IS ... 29 JANUARY

TODAY IS ...

29 JANUARY

HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES

Roman Catholic saints –
         Valerius of Trèves,
         Saint Juniper
         St. Sainian of Troyes
         St. Sulpicius Severus
         St. Gildas the Wise.

Gibraltar – Constitution Day

BIRTHDAYS -

1986 - Drew Bell is an American actor and dancer who has made various television appearances, including the television series Jake 2.0, Standoff, Desperate Housewives and The Bold and the Beautiful, in which he has played the role of Thomas Forrester since 2004. He was also in the television movie, Love's Abiding Joy.

1985 - Isabel Lucas - an Australian actress perhaps best known for her role as Tasha Andrews on the Australian television soap opera Home and Away (2003–2006) and for her active role in various environmental awareness organisations including Greenpeace International. Lucas moved to Los Angeles in early 2008 and has since been featured in film and television projects including Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Daybreakers.

1982 - Heidi Jo Mueller - an American actress. She portrayed the role of Kay Bennett on the NBC daytime soap opera Passions from 2003 until 2008

1982 - Adam Lambert - an American singer, songwriter, and actor who finished as the runner-up on the eighth season of American Idol – 2009

1981 - Jonny Lang is a Grammy Award-winning American blues, gospel, and rock singer, songwriter and recording artist.

1979 - April Scott - an American actress and model who has appeared on television programs such as Deal or No Deal and CSI: Miami, she also starred in the direct-to-video prequel to the Dukes of Hazzard movie.

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1979 - Andrew Heying - best known for his roles in films such as 10 Things I Hate about You (1999), The Broken Hearts Club (2000) and O (2001). He had recurring roles on several television series, including Full House, Party of Five, 7th Heaven, Related, Step By Step, Sabrina The Teenage Witch and The Amanda Show, and was a regular in the final season of Thunder Alley. He also starred as Zack Dell in the movie Camp Nowhere (1994) and had a small role in Independence Day (1996)

1977 -Justin Hartley - an American actor most popular for having portrayed the role of Fox Crane on the NBC daytime soap opera Passions and Oliver Queen/Green Arrow in Smallville..

1975 - Sara Gilbert - an American actress best known for her role as Darlene Conner-Healy from 1988–1997 in the U.S. sitcom Roseanne.

1970 - Heather Graham - an American actress and fashion model who became known for her performance in Gus Van Sant's 1989 Drugstore Cowboy and her role as Rollergirl in the 1997 film Boogie Nights directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. She has been part of two ensemble casts that have earned Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations for Outstanding Performance by a Cast (Boogie Nights and Bobby

1963 - Monica Horan - an American actress best known for her role as Amy MacDougall-Barone on the television sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond.

1962 - Nicholas Turturro, Jr. - an American film, television and prolific on-stage character actor, perhaps best known for his role as James Martinez, on NYPD Blue from 1993 to 2000.

1956 - La Toya Jackson - an American singer–songwriter, musician, author, television personality and actress. She is the fifth child of the famous Jackson family. She had a career as a singer throughout the 1980s and 1990s, and returned to music in 2004 with her Billboard charting songs "Just Wanna Dance" and "Free the World".

1954 - Oprah Winfrey is an African-American businesswoman, actress, multi-media entrepreneur, and television talk show host.

1951 - Ann Jillia - American singer, dancer, actress. TV: It's A Living (Cassie) and The Ann Jillian Story (1988, which chronicled her real-life battle with breast cancer).

1945 - Tom Selleck - an American actor, screenwriter and film producer, perhaps best known for his starring role as Hawaii-based private investigator Thomas Magnum on the 1980s television show Magnum, P.I..

1939 - Germaine Greer - an Australian-born writer, academic, journalist and scholar of early modern English literature, widely regarded as one of the most significant feminist voices of the later 20th century.

1918 - John Forsythe is an American stage, television and film actor. Forsythe starred in three television series, spanning three decades, as single playboy father Bentley Gregg in the 1950s sitcom Bachelor Father (1957–1962); as the unseen millionaire Charles Townsend on the 1970s crime drama Charlie's Angels (1976–1981)

1913 - Victor Mature - American actor, starring in many Biblical epics. He was billed as "A beautiful hunk of man." Film: One Million B.C. (1940, Tumak the caveman), Samson and Delilah (1949, Samson) and After the Fox. Quote: "Actually, I am a golfer. That is my real occupation. I never was an actor; ask anybody, particularly the critics."

OTHER EVENTS –

2009 – Gus Van Sant directed Milk starring Sean Penn, Emile Hirsch and Josh Brolin which opens in Australia. The story of Harvey Milk, and his struggles as an American gay activist who fought for gay rights and became California's first openly gay elected official.

2009 - Former American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson made the largest ever leap to number one in US chart history, rising 96 places. Her single, My Life Would Suck Without You, rose from 97 to the top of the Billboard chart after selling 280,000 downloads in its first week of release.

2006 – Bryan Adams plays for 10,000 screaming fans in Karachi, Pakistan to benefit earthquake relief. It’s the first major concert by a Western star in decades.

2006 - Arctic Monkeys went to No.1 on the UK album chart with their debut album 'Whatever People Say I Am That's What I'm Not'. The Sheffield-based bands album became the fastest-selling debut in chart history after shifting more than 360,000 copies in its first week of release.

2005 – The first direct commercial flights from the mainland China (from Guangzhou) to Taiwan since 1949 arrived in Taipei. Shortly afterwards, a China Airlines carrier landed in Beijing.

2005 - Ciara feat Petey Pablo Goodies went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with her debut single. The eighteen year old R&B singer from Atlanta, Georgia, was just the eighteen years old.

2004 – In America starring Paddy Considine and Samantha Morton starts screening in Australia. An Irish immigrant family adjusts to life in the United States.

2002 – In his State of the Union Address, United States President George W. Bush describes "regimes that sponsor terror" as an Axis of Evil, in which he includes Iraq, Iran and North Korea

2001 - A New York based data company issued a chart listing sales of posthumous albums. The idea came about after radio stations wanted to distinguish between proper recordings when the artists were alive and CD's released after they died. Mike Shalett founder of SoundScan said there was only one problem. What to call the chart. The Top 5 chart had The Doors at No.5, Eva Cassidy at 4, Jimi Hendrix at 3, Bob Marley at 2 and 2Pac at No.1.

1999 – Hole are among the performers at the Big Day Out festival in Adelaide, Australia. However, their set is cut short when Courtney Love howls, “An Australian bug just bit me really hard. I’m not joking. I’m gonna die. What f*cking bug was that? Oh my God, it was a bug and it was this big. What kind of bugs do you have here? I’m scared. If I die, you guys have our last show.”

1998 – An American Werewolf in Paris starring Tom Everett Scott and Julie Delpy started screening in Australia. An American man unwittingly gets involved with werewolves who have developed a serum allowing them to transform at will.

1998 – Opening three weeks behind schedule, Paul Simon’s musical “The Capeman” premieres in New York to universally poor reviews. Critics claim that while Simon’s musical mixture of Latin and doo-wop was favorable, the story line was consistently faulted.

1996 - George Michael had the UK No.1 single with 'Jesus To A Child', the singers sixth UK No.1 as a solo artist and the first single from his come-back album 'Older', (after lengthy litigation with his record company).

1996 - At the 23rd American Music Awards, The Lion King wins Favorite Soundtrack.

1996 - 6,138th performance of "Cats" is held in London, surpassing record of Broadway's longest-running musical, "A Chorus Line"

1996 - 23rd American Music Award Garth Brooks wins

1995 - Andre Agassi defeats Pete Sampras to win Australian Open

1992 – US President Clinton partially lifts the ban on gays in the military, stating he will eventually lift the ban altogether.

1991 - The Play "The Piano Lesson" closed at the Walter Kerr Theatre after 320 performances.

1991 – 22 years to the day that The Beatles played live on the roof of their London offices, Manchester band James played a live set on the roof of Manchester’s Piccadilly radio station attracting several thousand on-lookers.

1989 - Marc Almond started a four-week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Something's Gotten Hold Of My Heart' with guest vocals from Gene Pitney, (who had a hit with the song in 1967.

1989 - 77th Australian Men Tennis: Ivan Lendl beats Miloslav Mecir (62 62 62)

1988 – No. 1 Chart Toppers Pop Hit: “Need You Tonight,” INXS. The group is only the third from Australia – and the first in five years – to top the pop chart.

1987 - The Communist Party Central Committee endorses Gorbachev's proposals of economic and social reform, including allowing more than one candidate to run for a party office.

1987 - Sissy Spacek, Anne Bancroft and Ed Berke starred in Night Mother which commenced screening in Australia. What would you do if someone you loved sat down with you one night and calmly told you that they were going to end their life before morning.

1987 - "Physician’s Weekly" announced that the smile on the face of Leonardo DeVinci's Mona Lisa was caused by a "...facial paralysis resulting from a swollen nerve behind the ear."

1983 - Prince hits UK chart with Little Red Corvette.

1983 - Australian group Men At Work went to No.1 on the British and American singles and album charts simultaneously with 'Down Under' and 'Business As Usual'. The last artist to achieve this was Rod Stewart in 1971.

1983 - 40th Golden Globes Gandhi, ET & Tootsie win

1982 - Shakin' Stevens was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Oh Julie', the Welsh singers third UK No.1. Barry Manilow covered the song in the US.

1979 - U.S. President Carter formally welcomed Chinese Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping to the White House. The visit followed the establishment of diplomatic relations.

1978 - Sweden outlaws aerosol sprays due to their harmful effect on the ozone layer, becoming the first nation to enact such a ban.

1977 - Gwen Dickey former backing band for The Temptations, went to No.1 on the US singles chart as Rose Royce with 'Car Wash', a No.9 hit in the UK.

1972 - The triple album 'The Concert For Bangla Desh' went to No.1 on the UK album chart. Organised by George Harrison to raise funds for the people caught up in the war and famine from the area. The set featured; Bob Dylan, Ringo Starr, Billy Preston, Eric Clapton, Ravi Shankar and members from Badfinger.

1969 - The "Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour" debuted on CBS-TV.

1969 - Peggy Lee records "Is That All There Is"

1969 - Fleetwood Mac had their only UK No.1 single with the instrumental 'Albatross.'

1968 – During a tour of Australia and New Zealand, The Who, The Small Faces and Paul Jones appeared at the Town Hall, Wellington in New Zealand.

1966 - The Bobby Fuller Four's "I Fought The Law" is released.

1966 - Sweet Charity, with Gwen Verdon, opened at the Palace Theatre in New York City. The musical, by Neil Simon, was an adaptation of the Federico Fellini film, Notti di Cabiria. The play ran for 608 performances. In 1969, Hollywood produced a big-budget version of the Broadway musical starring Shirley MacLaine

1966 - Folk singer Joan Baez wins three gold records this day, for the albums "Joan Baez," "Joan Baez, Vol. 2" and "Joan Baez in Concert."

1964- Stanley Kubrick's nuclear comedy "DR STRANGLOVE –OR HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB." premiered. It was based Red Alert, a serious novel about the nuclear annihilation, that Stanley Kubrick decided to rewrite as a comedy. It's use of hand held camera for action sequences and cutting inspired by the European New Wave ushered in a new style in Hollywood cinema. So, who was Tracey Reed? She played Miss Scott, George C. Scott’s bikini clad secretary and the only woman in the entire movie

1964 - The Beatles spent the day at Pathe Marconi Studios in Paris, France, The Beatles' only studio recording session for EMI held outside the UK. They recorded new vocals for ‘She Loves You’, ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ and ‘Can't Buy Me Love’, after EMI's West German branch persuaded Brian Epstein that they would be unable to sell large quantities of records in Germany unless they were recorded in the German language. A translator coached John, Paul, and George, although their familiarity with the German language from their Hamburg days made things much easier.

1964 - 9th Winter Olympic games open in Innsbruck, Austria

1962 - Warner Bros. Records signs the folk trio Peter, Paul & Mary. They will go on to have big hits with harmonized versions of such Bob Dylan songs as "Blowin' in the Wind" as well as "If I Had a Hammer," "Puff the Magic Dragon" and "Leaving on a Jet Plane."

1960 - Number one hit on UK music charts - Michael Holliday - Starry Eyed

1960 - Bobby Darin's Beyond The Sea hits UK chart.

1959 – John Saxon and Sandra Dee star in The Restless Years which started screening in Australia. Will Henderson is the new boy at the high school. He befriends outcast Melinda Grant, whose illegitimacy marks her and her unstable mother.

1959 Disney's animated feature film Sleeping Beauty premieres at the Fox Wilshire Theater in Los Angeles. Much of the musical score is based on Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet "Sleeping Beauty." It will be nominated for an Oscar for Best Music/Scoring of a Musical Picture.

1958 – The Champs release their instrumental “Tequila” on Challenge Records. It becomes a No. 1 smash, staying there for five weeks.

1958 - Movie actor Paul Newman and actress Joanne Woodward are married.

1957 - Danish architect Joern Utzon is named as the winner of the competition to find a designer for the new Sydney Opera House

1957- Patsy Cline recorded "Walkin' After Midnight."

1953 – We’re Not Married starring Ginger Rogers, Fred Allen, Marilyn Monroe and Eve Arden started screening in Australia. In separate stories, five wedded couples learn that they are not legally married.

1953 - The first movie in Cinemascope (The Robe) premieres

1948 - "Look Ma, I'm Dancin'" opens at Adelphi Theater New York City for 188 performances

1947 - Arthur Miller's "All My Sons," premieres in New York City

1945 - Lionel Barrymore became host of the Lux Radio Theatre on radio this day. Actually, he replaced the previous host. Some guy named Cecil B. DeMille.

1944 – No. 1 Chart Toppers Pop Hit: “My Heart Tells Me,” Glen Gray Orchestra.

1943 - The Donald Duck film Donald's Tire Trouble is released to theatres.

1942 - BBC radio aired a new program 'Desert Island Discs' presented by Roy Plomley, which went on to become the longest running UK radio show