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July 16th Today in History
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Famous People & Celebrities Born on July 16th:
- Barbara Stanwyck
(1907) - She was born Ruby Stevens and started out working at the local telephone company for $14 dollars a week. Years later, in 1944, Stanwyck became the highest paid woman in the U.S. with an annual income of more than $400,000. The actress was so forthright about her age that her publicist, the late Helen Ferguson, used to beg, "Don't tell everybody how old you are. Anybody can be that old if they live long enough." Miss Stanwyck was equally candid about her hair. When it began to turn white early in her career, the studio begged her to dye it, but she refused and was rewarded with a head of gorgeous white hair. She died January 20, 1990, or heart failure. Stanwyck TV: Constance Colby Patterson on The Colbys and Dynasty. Victoria Barkley on The Big Valley. Flicks: East Side, West Side (1949), The Lady Gambles (1949), Sorry, Wrong Number (1948), Double Indemnity (1944), Meet John Doe (1941), Stella Dallas (1937), Annie Oakley (1935), The Woman in Red (1935).
- Orville Redenbacher
(1907) - He died September 19, 1995.
- Ginger Rogers
(1911) - Her real name was Virginia McMath. She's best remembered for dancing with Fred Astaire. Rogers was a devout Christian Scientist who, despite five marriages, was an outspokenly moral woman. She never had children partly, she said, because of the unsettling state of the world. Rogers and Astaire had fun dancing together despite Astaire's insistence upon perfection. Rogers once said that he actually wore her out with his demands to redo scene after scene in an effort to improve them. Rogers died April 25, 1995.
- Corey Feldman
(1971) - Feldman was once a big supporter of Michael Jackson but not anymore. Feldman says he ended his friendship with Jacko during Jackson's 30th anniversary show that took place around the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2002. Feldman says Jackson provided transportation out of New York City for Liz Taylor and Marlon Brando but left Feldmen to fend for himself. To express how he felt, Feldman wrote the song Megalo-Man with lyrics like I believed in your words/ I believed in your lies/ But in September in New York/ You left me to die/ I love you, Megalo-Man. In 1997 the actor formed a band known as "Truth Movement" which he described as a "...Pink Floyd for the 90s." Feldman provided the voice of Donatello in the two Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies (1990 and 1993). Other Feldman flicks: Cursed (2004), Mayor of Sunset Strip (2003)The Lost Boys (1987), Stand By Me (1986), The Goonies (1985), Gremlins (1984).
- Bess Myerson
(1924) - The 1945 Miss America was a frequent co-host of Candid Camera and a panelist on I've Got a Secret.
- Stewart Copeland
(1952) - The former drummer with the Police now composes music for TV and films. Stewart's brother, Ian, is a booking agent who helped discover R.E.M., the Police and the Go-Gos. Copeland compositions: Pecker (1998), She's Having a Baby (1988), Talk Radio (1988), Wall Street (1987), Rumble Fish (1983).
- Jerry Doyle
(1956) - Played security chief Michael Garibaldi on Babylon 5.
- Michael Flatley
(1958) - "The Lord of the Dance." Flatley, the son of Irish immigrants, grew up in Chicago where his father was a plumber. He supposedly holds a record as the world's fastest tap dancer: 35 taps per second. Flatley's feet are insured for more that 70 million dollars and he must soak them in ice after every performance to prevent swelling.
- Fatboy Slim
(1963) - Hits: Praise You (1999)
- Phoebe Cates
(1963) - The actress was born with the name Phoebe Katz. Cates is the wife of actor Kevin Kline who is 16 years her senior. Kline admits having a younger wife often makes him feel young -- but sometimes it just points out how old he really is. Cates flicks: Drop Dead Fred (1991), Bright Lights, Big City (1988), Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982).
- Will Ferrell
(1968) - Anchor Man: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004), Starsky & Hutch (2004), Elf (2003), Old School (2003), Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002), Austin Power's Mustafa. Saturday Night Live.
- Jenna Lewis
(1977) - Survivor. (First season and for Survivor: All-Stars.
Famous and Noteworthy Events on July 16th:
(1439) - Kissing was declared illegal in England in an attempt to stop the spread of the deadly plague.
(1982) - The Reverend Sun Myung Moon, leader of the so-called "Moonies," was convicted of tax fraud. He was fined $25,000 and sentenced to 18 months in prison.
(1994) - The first of several pieces of a comet known as "Shoemaker-Levy" crashed into Jupiter. Huge fragments of the comet traveling at speeds of 130,000 miles per hour hit Jupiter's atmosphere, triggering fireballs 1200 miles wide. The resulting collisions over the next few days had more energy than the total of all the nuclear bombs stored on Earth.
(1935) - The world's first parking meters were installed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
(1941) - Joe DiMaggio set a major league record with a 56-game hitting streak. Joltin' Joe's streak started on May 15, 1941, during which he went to bat 223 times, hit 15 home runs, 4 triples, 16 doubles and 91 singles.
(1945) - The first experimental atomic bomb was detonated at Alamogordo Air Base in New Mexico at 5:30 in the morning. The plutonium bomb blast produced a 1-mile-wide fireball that was visible 400 miles away. A mushroom cloud rose more than 40,000 feet, and the desert sand turned into glass 800 yards around the explosion. The temperature at Ground Zero was almost three times that of the sun.
(1969) - Apollo 11 was launched at 9:32 a.m. Eastern Time. Four days later, the Eagle Lunar Excursion Module landed and humans set foot on the moon for the first time.
(1973) - The so-called "Watergate Tapes" mysteriously surfaced. The tape recordings of White House conversations contained incriminating material that forced President Nixon to resign his office.
(1979) - Saddam Hussein became Iraq's president.
(1981) - 38-year-old singer Harry Chapin was killed on the Long Island Expressway after a tractor-trailer drove into the back of his 1975 Volkswagen. Chapin had several hits in the 1970s including "Taxi" and "Cats in the Cradle."
(1986) - Dolly Parton opened her "Dollywood" amusement park in Tennessee.
(1988) - The longest scoreless professional baseball game in history finally ended on this day in 1988. The game was between two Texas AA teams: the San Antonio Missions and the Jackson Mets. The scoreless game finally came to an end in the bottom of the 26th inning when the Mets hit a run. The game took almost 7 1/2 hours to play.
MORE HISTORIC BIRTHS & EVENTS IN JULY :
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