TUESDAY ALMANAC – June 24

NOTABLE DATES, UPCOMING U.S. OBSERVANCES

July 4, Friday – U.S. Independence Day
Sept. 1, Monday – Labor Day
Sept. 11, Thursday – Patriot Day
Sept. 22, Monday – Fall begins (Autumn Equinox is 2:19 p.m. EDT)

BIRTHDAYS

Solange Knowles (singer, model, actress, sister of Beyonce) … 39
Candice Patton (actress, Iris on “The Flash”) … 40
Minka Kelly (actress, “Titans”, “Friday Night Lights”) … 45
Mindy Kaling (producer, comic actress, “Late Night,” “The Mindy Project”, “The Office”) … 46
Peter Weller (actor, “Star Trek: Into Darkness”, “Robocop”, “Pulp Fiction”) … 78
Mick Fleetwood (drummer with Fleetwood Mac) … 78

Today’s Birthdays grade: A founding member of Fleetwood Mac and the original Robocop are today’s biggest cultural touchstones, plus we’ve got a super-successful alum from The Office and more. Solid! Grade: B.

[Want to try something different with the daily birthdays? Try grading them! Some days have “good” celebs, some have “great” celebs, some have “lousy” celebs. For fun, give the group an arbitrary grade: A-plus through F-minus. Sidekick will give you our take on it; you can to take the concept and run with it.]

BIRTHDAY QUOTE QUIZ – Ask your listeners “Who said it?” HINT: Today’s their birthday!

“It’s no secret to everyone that the whole band has at one point been emotionally involved (with other band members) as partners.”

(A) Mick Jagger (The Rolling Stones)
(B) Chris Martin (Coldplay)
(C) Mick Fleetwood (Fleetwood Mac)

ANSWER: (C) Mick Fleetwood

THIS DAY IN HISTORY

2019 – The “Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge” attraction fully opened to the public at Disneyland in Anaheim. It took less than an hour before it became packed and people were turned away.
* Trying to get into Star Wars land on the first day. Wookiee mistake.

2018 – For the first time, women were allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia after a ban against it was lifted.
* But no dancing to celebrate!

1998 – Telecommunications giant AT&T struck a deal to buy cable TV giant TCI.
* Yippee! Consolidation means lower phone and cable bills for everybody!

1997 – The Air Force released a report on the so-called “Roswell Incident,” suggesting the alien bodies witnesses reported seeing in 1947 were actually life-sized dummies.
* So obviously the Air Force thinks WE’RE dummies, too.

1962 – The first prototype home video recorder was demonstrated at the BBC Studios in London.
* “Blimey! Now I can tape the Benny Hill Show!”

1947 – Private pilot Kenneth Arnold flying near Mt. Rainier, Washington reported the first modern day UFO sighting as “nine silvery discs appeared out of nowhere” – shortly afterwards, a reporter in Pendleton, Oregon wrote that Arnold had seen “flying saucers,” the first use of that term in print.
* It rolled off the tongue so much better than “airborne disks,” “levitating garbage can lids,” “giant floating quarters” …

1938 – A 500-ton meteorite landed near Pittsburgh, PA.
* And no, I don’t know how they weighed it.

1923 – H.B. Reese invented the “peanut butter cup.”
* See, he was walking down the street eating some chocolate, and this other guy was coming around the corner eating some peanut butter, and …

THIS DAY IN MUSIC HISTORY

2016 – A U.S. jury concluded that Led Zeppelin did not copy the opening chords of “Stairway To Heaven” from the U.S. band Spirit, saying the riff Led Zeppelin was accused of taking from Spirit’s 1967 song “Taurus” “was not intrinsically similar.” During the trial, defense lawyers argued the chord progression in question was very common and had been in use for more than 300 years.

2014 – A working draft of Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” set a record at auction after selling for $2m at Sotheby’s. The manuscript, said to be the only known draft of the final lyrics, was written in pencil in 1965 by the 24 year-old Dylan.

2004 – The Fender Stratocaster that Eric Clapton used to record “Layla” (nicknamed Blackie) sold at a Christie’s auction for $959,500 in New York, making it the most expensive guitar in the world to that point. The proceeds of the sale of this and dozens of other guitars went towards Clapton’s Crossroads addiction clinic, which he founded in 1998.

2000 – KISS auctioned off memorabilia from their touring days. The items brought in $876,000 on the first day of the two-day event.

1992 – Billy Joel received his high school diploma from Hicksville High School on Long Island, N.Y. He failed to graduate with his class in 1967 because of missed gym and English credits.

1990 – New Kids On The Block’s Donnie Wahlberg spent two days in a hospital after falling through an unlocked trapdoor mid-concert in Saratoga Springs, New York.