Archives
March 18
Events
1813 - David Melville of Newport, Rhode Island patented the gas streetlight. He celebrated by having the new lights installed in front of his house!1902 - Enrico Caruso recorded 10 arias for the Gramophone Company. The recording session took place in Milan, Italy and Caruso walked away with $500 for his effort.
1910 - Hold on to your hats! The opera, "Pipe of Desire", was first performed this day at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. Frederick Sheperd Converse wrote the work that turned out to be the first opera by an American composer to be performed at the Met.
1918 - The first seagoing ship made of concrete was launched at Redwood City, CA, near San Francisco. The ship was named "Faith" and those who launched her had plenty of that. They had faith that the vessel wouldn’t sink. It didn’t. "Faith" cost $750,000 to build.
1931 - Schick, Inc., the razor company, displayed the first electric shaver -- in Stamford, CT.
1940 - "Light of the World" was first heard on NBC radio. The soap opera was unique in that it featured the Bible as the center of the story line.
1940 - Glen Gray and his orchestra recorded "No Name Jive" on Decca Records.
1953 - Major-league baseball announced the first team relocation since 1903. The Boston Braves told of their plans to move west to Milwaukee, WI. The Red Sox stayed in Beantown. After almost two more decades, the Braves moved again, this time they went south to Atlanta. The Brewers then took over Milwaukee County Stadium.
1954 - How’s this for confidence? RKO Pictures was sold to become the first motion picture studio to be owned by an individual. That person was none other than Howard Hughes. The selling price? $23,489,478.
1959 - Bill Sharman of the Boston Celtics began what was to be the longest string of successful consecutive free throws (56 in a row) to set a new National Basketball Association record.
1967 - The Beatles went gold, receiving a gold record for the single, "Penny Lane". The ‘B’ side of hit record was the also-popular "Strawberry Fields Forever".
1970 - Brook Benton received a gold record for the hit single, "Rainy Night in Georgia". It was Benton’s first hit since 1963’s "Hotel Happiness".
1978 - The Bee Gees started an eight-week stay at the top of the pop music charts with "Night Fever" (they had a total of nine #1 hits) from the "Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack. Makes you want to get out that white suit and black shirt, doesn’t it?
1985 - The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) announced plans to merge with Capital Cities Communications to form Cap Cities/ABC. The $3.5 billion merger was the 11th largest corporate merger in U.S. history.
1985 - History was made in the short-lived United States Football League. A pro football record was set by Denver and Houston of the USFL with a total of 112 passes thrown in the game. Houston went airborne 69 times, Denver took to the air 43 times.
1986 - The U.S. Treasury Department announced that a clear, polyester thread was to be woven into bills in an effort to thwart counterfeiters.
Birthdays - March 18
1782 - John Calhoun (U.S. Vice President under John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson [1825-1832]; the first VP to resign office: became a U.S. Senator; died Mar 31, 1850)1837 - Grover (Stephen) Cleveland (22nd [1885-1889] & 24th [1893-1897] U.S. President; only one to serve 2 nonconsecutive terms; only president to be married in White House [to Frances Folsom (2 sons, 3 daughters)]; the 1st to have a child born there; died June 24, 1908)
1844 - Nikolai (Nikolay Andreyevich) Rimsky-Korsakov (composer: Scheherazade, Song of India, The Flight of the Bumblebee; died June 21, 1908)
1886 - Edward Everett Horton (narrator: Fractured Fairy Tales on The Bullwinkle Show; actor: It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Lost Horizon, Sex and the Single Girl, Arsenic and Old Lace; died Sep 29, 1970)
1901 - William H. (Henry) Johnson (artist: expressionist: Minnie, Sun Setting, Denmark; returned to U.S. when Hitler began destroying African and primitive themes; known later for historical African-American figures and events: Going to Church, Mom and Dad; died in 1970)
1911 - Smiley (Lester Alvin) Burnette (actor: Western Double Features, Gene Autry Matinee Double Features, Dick Tracy: The Original Serial, King of the Cowboys, Springtime in the Rockies, Silver Spurs; died Feb 16, 1967)
1923 - Andy Granatelli (auto racer: “STP is the racer’s edge.”)
1926 - Peter Graves (Aurness) (actor: Mission Impossible, The Winds of War, Airplane, Airplane 2, Stalag 17, The President’s Plane is Missing, The Night of the Hunter; brother of actor James Arness)
1927 - George Plimpton (author: Paper Lion, Shadow Box; actor: Rio Lobo, Reds, Little Man Tate, Just Cause; died Sep 26, 2003)
1932 - John Updike (writer: The Witches of Eastwicke, Rabbit Run)
1936 - Frederik Willem de Klerk (president: South Africa [1989-1994]; recipient [with Nelson Mandela] of Nobel Peace Prize [1993] for democratization of South Africa)
1937 - Mark Donohue (auto racer: Indianapolis 500 winner [1972]; killed practicing for Austrian Grand Prix at Graz, Austria Aug 19, 1975)
1938 - Shashi Kapoor (actor: Gulliver’s Travels, Sammy and Rosie Get Laid, Heat and Dust, The Householder)
1938 - Charley Pride (country singer: Kiss an Angel Good Mornin’, Why Baby Why; member of Grand Ol’ Opry, CMA Entertainer of the Year [1971], Male Vocalist of the Year [1971-1972]; semipro baseball player)
1941 - Margie Bowes (country entertainer: Grand Ole Opry; married to Doyle Wilburn of the Wilburn Brothers)
1941 - Pat (Robert Patrick) Jarvis (baseball: pitcher: Atlanta Braves, Montreal Expos)
1941 - Wilson Pickett (singer: In the Midnight Hour, Land of 1000 Dances, Funky Broadway, Mustang Sally, It’s Too Late, Don’t Knock My Love; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer [1991])
1942 - Jeff Mullins (basketball: Duke Univ. All-American, 1964 Olympics, Atlanta Hawks)
1943 - Kevin Dobson (actor: Kojak, Knots Landing, Shannon, Dirty Work, Code of Honor, Midway)
1947 - B.J. (Barrie James) Wilson (musician: drummer: group: Procol Harum: Whiter Shade of Pale; died Oct 8, 1990)
1948 - Guy Lapointe (hockey: NHL: Montreal Canadiens, SL Blues, Boston Bruins)
1950 - Brad Dourif (actor: Phoenix, Color of Night, Wild Palms, Final Judgement, Jungle Fever, Body Parts, Mississippi Burning, Blue Velvet, Dune, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Studs Lonigan)
1950 - John Hartman (musician: drums: group: The Doobie Brothers: Listen to the Music, Long Train Runnin’, China Grove, Black Water, What a Fool Believes; veterinarian)
1952 - Glenn McDonald (basketball: Long Beach State Univ., Boston Celtics)
1952 - Mike Webster (‘Iron Mike’: Pro Football Hall of Famer: Pittsburgh Steelers center [1974-1988]: Super Bowl IX, X, XIII, XIV; played more seasons [15] and more games [220] than any player in Steelers’ history; died Sep 24, 2002)
1956 - Ingemar Stenmark (Swedish skier: holds individual racing record of 86 wins including 46 giant slalom and 40 slalom out of 287 contests, [1974-1989])
1959 - Irene Cara (singer: Fame, The Dream; actress: Fame, Ain’t Misbehavin’, Caged in Paradiso, City Heat, For Us the Living, Killing ’Em Softly)
1963 - Vanessa L. Williams (singer: LPs: The Comfort Zone, The Sweetest Days; actress: Eraser, Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man; Broadway: Kiss of the Spider Woman, Into The Woods; Miss America 1984)
1964 - Bonnie Blair (Olympic Gold medalist [1988] and world record holder: speed skater [1994])
Chart Toppers - March 18
1949
Far Away Places - Margaret Whiting
Powder Your Face with Sunshine - Evelyn Knight
Cruising Down the River - The Russ Morgan Orchestra (vocal: The Skyliners)
Don’t Rob Another Man’s Castle - Eddy Arnold
1957
Young Love - Tab Hunter
Round and Round - Perry Como
Little Darlin’ - The Diamonds
There You Go - Johnny Cash
1965
Eight Days a Week - The Beatles
Stop! In the Name of Love - The Supremes
The Birds and the Bees - Jewel Akens
I’ve Got a Tiger by the Tail - Buck Owens
1973
Killing Me Softly with His Song - Roberta Flack
Love Train - O’Jays
Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001) - Deodato
Teddy Bear Song - Barbara Fairchild
1981
9 to 5 - Dolly Parton
Keep on Loving You - REO Speedwagon
Woman - John Lennon
Guitar Man - Elvis Presley
1989
Lost in Your Eyes - Debbie Gibson
The Living Years - Mike & The Mechanics
Roni - Bobby Brown
From a Jack to a King - Ricky Van Shelton
