Posted by Marty Party on February 19, 2010
| Today’s Birthdays: |
| Benicio Del Toro | |
| 1967 | He won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Traffic in 2000 and was nominated again for the award three years later for 21 Grams. His other notable films include The Wolfman, Che, Sin City, License to Kill, The Usual Suspects and The Hunted. (Age: 43) |
| Justine Bateman | |
| 1966 | Actress (T-V’s Family Ties) (Age: 44) |
| Hana Mandlikova | |
| 1962 | Tennis Hall-of-Famer (Age: 48) |
| Prince Andrew of Britain | |
| 1960 | (Age: 50) |
| Ray Winstone | |
| 1957 | Actor (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Beowulf, Quadrophenia, The Limey) (Age: 53) |
| Jeff Daniels | |
| 1955 | Actor (Traitor, The Squid and the Whale, Dumb and Dumber, Speed, Arachnophobia, Love Hurts, Something Wild) (Age: 55) |
| Francis Buchholz | |
| 1950 | Ex-Scorpions bassist (Age: 60) |
| Mark Andes | |
| 1948 | MPTU/Ian McLagan & the Bump Band/Alejandro Escovedo/Jo Jo Gunne/ex-Firefall/ex-Heart/ex-Spirit bassist (Age: 62) |
| Tony Iommi | |
| 1948 | Black Sabbath guitarist (Age: 62) |
| Paul Dean | |
| 1946 | Loverboy guitarist (Age: 64) |
| This Day In History: |
| 2008 | A Gene Simmons sex tape starts circulating the Internet. The KISS singer-bassist moves quickly to stop its distribution. |
| 2008 | Ray Davies of The Kinks releases his second solo album, Working Man’s Cafe. |
| 2007 | Playboy names Scarlett Johansson the world’s sexiest female celebrity. |
| 2007 | Van Halen’s reunion tour is postponed without explanation. Apparently, when Eddie’s spokesperson (and girlfriend) announced the reunion on February 2nd, there was no signed deal between the band, singer David Lee Roth and tour promoter Live Nation. |
| 2005 | Lindsay Lohan’s father, Michael Lohan, is arrested on New York’s Long Island and charged with D-U-I after crashing his car into a utility pole. |
| 2002 | Don’t Worry About Me, a solo album by the late Joey Ramone, hits stores. |
| 2001 | President Bush dedicates the Oklahoma City Museum, which displays mementos from the Timothy McVeigh terrorist bomb explosion of April 19th, 1995. |
| 2001 | Paul Simon is honored as the MusiCares Person of the Year in Los Angeles. |
| 1999 | Metallica’s Garage Inc. is simultaneously awarded gold, platinum and quadruple-platinum plaques. |
| 1999 | Dennis Franz receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. |
| 1995 | Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee marries Baywatch’s Pamela Anderson on the beach in Cancun, Mexico. Anderson wears a white bikini to the ceremony. |
| 1987 | A controversial anti-smoking ad airs for the first time on television. It features Yul Brynner, who was at the time dying of lung cancer. |
| 1986 | The Soviet Union launches the Mir space station. |
| 1985 | “Mickey Mouse” is welcomed to China as part of the 30th anniversary of Disneyland. The touring mouse plays 30 cities in 30 days. |
| 1985 | Cherry Coke is introduced by the Coca-Cola Company. |
| 1985 | Mick Jagger releases his first solo album, She’s the Boss. |
| 1981 | A New York judge rules that George Harrison “subconsciously plagiarized” The Chiffons‘ 1963 hit “He’s So Fine” when composing “My Sweet Lord.” Harrison is ordered to pay 587-thousand-dollars to ABKCO Music, which, ironically, is owned by former Beatles business manager Allen Klein. |
| 1980 | AC/DC singer Bon Scott (born Ronald Belford) dies in London after choking on his own vomit following a drinking binge. He was 33. |
| 1977 | Manfred Mann’s Earth Band’s lyrically imprecise remake of Bruce Springsteen’s “Blinded by the Light” hits number-one on the chart. |
| 1977 | Rock music is shut out at the 19th annual Grammy Awards. Stevie Wonder, George Benson and Chicago are the big winners. Starland Vocal Band is named Best New Artist and wins a second statue as well. |
| 1976 | 17 days after entering the studio, The Ramones complete work on their self-titled debut album. |
| 1976 | Squeeze is dropped by its first UK label, RCA. The band’s debut single, which was to have been “Take Me I’m Yours,” is scrubbed. The group finds another label and finally releases the single two years later. |
| 1974 | KISS make their national TV debut on Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert. |
| 1974 | The first American Music Awards airs, hosted by Smokey Robinson, Helen Reddy and Roger Miller. The annual event created by Dick Clark is held weeks before the Grammys with winners elected by the public. |
| 1972 | Paul McCartney releases “Give Ireland Back to the Irish.” It’s immediately banned by the BBC, which helps boost sales in the UK. |
| 1968 | Paul McCartney, his girlfriend Jane Asher, Ringo Starr and his wife Maureen fly to India to join John Lennon, George Harrison and their wives at Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s Academy of Transcendental Meditation. |
| 1966 | Billboard reports that after The Rolling Stones finish touring Australia and New Zealand, they’ll fly to Los Angeles and record nine songs for a film called Back, Behind and in Front. The movie never materializes. |
| 1964 | Actor Peter Sellers marries Swedish stunner Britt Ekland. |
| 1945 | 30-thousand Marines land on Iwo Jima. |
| 1942 | President Roosevelt signs an executive order giving the military the authority to relocate and intern Japanese-Americans. |
| 1934 | Bob Hope marries singer Dolores Reade. Despite reports that he was a less-than-faithful husband, the marriage lasts for 69 years, until his death in 2003. |

Classic Rock
