The 5th Dimension's 1967 recording of Up, Up and Away took home 6 Grammy Awards at the 10th annual ceremony held February 29, 1968. Producers Johnny Rivers and Marc Gordon took home Record of the Year. Jimmy Webb, songwriter, received Song of the Year. The 5th Dimension won Best Performance by a Vocal Group, Best Performance by a Chorus, Best Contemporary Group Performance (Vocal or Instrumental), and Best Contemporary Single.
Boris Karloff (horror movie icon) won a Grammy for Best Recording for Children, for his work on Dr. Seuss: How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
Elvis Presley won Best Sacred Performance for his recording of How Great Thou Art.
The Beatles won 4 Grammys for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band: Album of the Year; Best Album Cover, Graphic Arts; Best Contemporary Album; and Best Engineered Recording - Non-Classical.
Gone With the Wind, Victor Fleming's epic and now iconic WWII film, set several records at the 12th Academy Awards ceremony February 27, 1940. Some of the records have been broken but at the time, they were significant.
Gone With the Wind was nominated for 13 awards and won 8 of them. The biggest win was Hattie McDaniel for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mammy. She is the first African American actor to receive an Oscar, beating the likes of Olivia de Havilland and Geraldine Fitzgerald.
Gone With the Wind won Outstanding Production (Best Picture) and Best Director for Victor Fleming. Vivien Leigh won Best Actress, beating Bette Davis, Great Garbo, and Greer Garson. Sidney Howard was posthumously awarded Best Screenplay. Lyle R. Wheeler won Best Art Direction. Best Film Editing went to Hal C. Kern and James E. Newcom. Best Cinematography, Color went to Ernest Haller and Rennahan. It was the first year the cinematography category had been split into Color and Black and White.
The film was nominated for Best Actor for Clark Gable. Olivia de Havilland was nominated for Best Supporting Actress. Max Steiner was nominated for Best Original Score. This was the first year an award for Best Special Effects was given, and Gone With the Wind was nominated for that Category but lost to The Rains Came.
William Cameron Menzies was given an honorary award for his outstanding achievement in the use of color for the enhancement of dramatic mood in the production of Gone With the Wind.
The Wizard of Oz came up with 6 nominations and took home only two. Herbert Stothart won for Best Original Score. Over the Rainbow, written by Yip Harburg and music by Harold Arlen, won Best Song.
It was nominated for Outstanding Production, Best Art Direction and Best Special Effects. Judy Garland was given the Academy Juvenile Award.
Granville T. Woods, born April 23, 1856 in Columbus, Ohio, was an African American inventor who held over 50 US patents. He had to leave school at age 10 to work to help support his poor family. He worked in a machine shop, where he learned machining and blacksmithing.
In 1872, he worked as a fireman for the Danville and Southern Railroad in Missouri. In 1874, he moved to Springfield, Illinois where he worked at a rolling mill. He studied mechanical and electrical engineering in college but there is no evidence he received a college degree.
Among his inventions are a egg incubator, an automatic brake, a steam boiler furnace, and a patented Synchronous Multiplex Railway telegraphs, which allowed communications between train stations from moving trains.
Thomas Edison filed a claim to ownership of this invention, saying he had created it first. He took Woods to court twice, but Woods prevailed both time. Woods spent a lot of time defending his inventions from others who claimed they were the ones who invented them.
Woods died of a cerebral hemorrhage in New York City, January 30, 1910. In 2006, he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
David Lean's historical-romance drama Doctor Zhivago, set during WWI and the Russian Civil War, took home five Golden Globes at the 23rd annual ceremony February 28, 1965. It won all categories for which it was nominated. It was by far the biggest winner of the night.
Doctor Zhivago won Best Picture - Drama. Omar Sharif won Best Actor for his work in the titular role. David Lean won Best Director. Maurice Jarre won for Best Original Score, beating Henry Mancini for his work on The Great Race. Robert Bolt won for Best Screenplay.
The only other movie to win more than one award was The Sound of Music, who won two of four nominations. It won Best Film - Musical or Comedy and Julie Andrews won Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy. Robert Wise was nominated for Best Director but lost to Lean. Peggy Wood was nominated for Best Supporting Actress but lost to Ruth Gordon.
The Great Race, one of my favorites, received four nominations, but failed to win any awards.
A bit of a departure from the usual Twilight Zone fare, Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge was a short film presented at a French film festival, in which Rod Serling was in attendance. It is reported that he hunted down the producers and bought it for a one-time showing on the Twilight Zone. The film is based on a short story written by Ambrose Bierce, originally published in 1890. The film won the Academy Award for Best Short Subject.
The story, set during the Civil War, a Confederate prisoner is due to be hanged. French actor Roger Jacquet plays the prisoner Peyton Farquhar. The Twilight Zone episode aired February 28, 1964.
I've only seen it a couple of times but it is one of my favorites.
Michael Langley, born in Shreveport, Louisiana, became the first black four-star general in the United States Marine Corps in history.
He graduated from University of Texas at Arlington with a degree in information systems analysis. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Marines. Since then he has served in Afghanistan, served as commander of the US Marine Forces-Europe and Africa, deputy commander of the Fleet Marine Force, Atlantic.
In June 2022, Langley was nominated for promotion to general and assignment as commander of the US Africa Command, and was confirmed by the Senate in August 2022, making him the first black 4-star general in the 246-year history of the USMC.
Earl Scruggs received a second Grammy for his 1949 composition of Foggy Mountain Breakdown, at the 44th annual ceremony on February 27, 2002. He first released his instrumental March 15, 1950. It reached No. 55, and was featured as background music in the 1967 movie Bonnie and Clyde. He recorded it with Lester Flatt and their performance was awarded a Grammy for Best Country Performance, Duo or Group - Vocal Or Instrumental at the 11th ceremony in 1969.
He recorded another performance in 2001 with comedian Steve Martin on second banjo, Vince Gill on guitar, Marty Stuart in mandolin, Paul Shaffer on piano among many others. This work won the Grammy for Best Country Instrumental Performance in 2002. In 2004, it was selected for preservation by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry.
The pop group Train won two awards for their performance of Drops of Jupiter. Paul Buckmaster won Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s). Their song also won Best Rock Song.
Dolly Parton won Best Female Country Vocal Performance for Shine.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon won Best Score Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media.
Rosemary Clooney, Count Basie, and Al Green received Lifetime Achievement Awards.
Billy Joel received MusiCares Person of the Year.
Janet Jackson received Recording Academy's Governors Award.
Considered one of the best movies ever made, It Happened One Night, became the first movie to win the top five awards at the 7th annual ceremony held February 27, 1935. It won: Best Picture, Best Director for Frank Capra, Best Actor for Clark Gable, Best Actress for Claudette Colbert, and Best Adaption for Robert Riskin. It won all the categories in which it was nominated.
One Night of Love received 6 nominations, the most for any movie that evening, but only came away with two, including the Academy's first Award for Best Original Score. It also won for Best Sound Recording,
Apparently the awards for Best Supporting Actor and Actress were not given out at this time. Bette Davis was nominated for one of her many.
Lift Every Voice and Sing was written in 1900 by lyricist James Weldon Johnson and set to music by his brother J. Rosamond Johnson. The song is a prayer of thanksgiving to God and a prayer for faithfulness and freedom.
After its premiere in 1900, the hymn was sung within Black American communities and the NAACP began to promote it as a "Negro national anthem" in 1919.
In 1923, the Manhattan Harmony Four, a male gospel group, recorded Lift Every Voice and Sing. Their performance was added to the National Recording Registry in 2016.
In 2021, Representative Jim Clyburn sponsored a bill which proposed that Lift Every Voice and Sing be designated as the "national hymn" of the US, although other songs have been proposed to become the national hymn. The Star Spangled-Banner will remain as the national anthem.
Lift Every Voice and Sing was sung on September 24, 2016 at the opening ceremonies of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, where President Obama gave the keynote address.
Manhattan Transfer's performance of Birdland received two Grammy Awards at the 23rd annual ceremony held February 25, 1981. Janis Siegel won the award for Best Arrangement of Voices. Manhattan Transfer won for Best Jazz Fusion Performance, Vocal or Instrumental.
John Williams also took home two awards for his composition for The Empire Strikes Back: Best Instrumental Composition and Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or a Television Special.
Pat Benatar won her first Grammy for her album Crimes of Passion. She received the Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female.
Ella Fitzgerald won her 10th Grammy that evening. Her album A Perfect Match won for Best Jazz Performance, Female.
Intuitive Machine's uncrewed spacecraft Odysseus landed successfully on the moon yesterday, February 22, 2024. It is the first time a spacecraft from the US has landed on the moon since 1972, the last Apollo mission. NASA payed Intuitive Machines, a private company, $118M to deliver 6 instruments to the moon.
Odysseus landed near the moon's south pole, where ice and water are present.
John Williams took home three Grammy Awards at the 20th annual celebration held February 23, 1978. His composition of Star Wars soundtrack won Best Instrumental Composition for Main Title from Star Wars, Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or a Television Special, and Best Pop Instrumental Performance. He had the most wins of that evening.
The Eagles went home with two wins: Record of the Year for Hotel California and Best Arrangement for Voices for New Kid In Town.
Actress, comedienne, director, and producer, Niecey Nash, born February 23, 1970 in Palmdale, California, recently won a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for her performance in Monster. It was her fifth nomination. She also won an Image Award from NAACP, Critics Choice Award, and a Gold Derby for her work. She was also nominated for her role in Monster for a Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild Award, OFTA Television Award, Women's Image Network Award, International Online Cinema Awards, Black Reel Award, Critics Choice Super Awards, Pena de Prata, Awards Daily Cooler Awards, and Astra Television Awards.
We came to love her when we watched Reno 911! and Clean House, so it is so wonderful to see her win a prestigious award like this.
Bette Davis took home the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Jezebel at the 11th annual ceremony held February 23, 1939. She had been nominated twice before and won the award for her work in Dangerous in 1935. After this, she racked up eight more nominations, but failed to win any of them.
Jezebel took home another prize, Best Supporting Actress for Fay Bainter for her performance.
Jezebel had been nominated for Outstanding Production, Best Scoring for Max Steiner, and Best Cinematography.
Walt Disney was given an Honorary Award "for creating Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,". The Academy gave him one statuette and seven miniature statuettes indicating the seven dwarfs. This is a rare case of a film being recognized in two consecutive years. Snow White had been nominated for Best Score the previous year.
Hannah Atkins, born November 1, 1923 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, is the first African American woman to be elected to the Oklahoma House of Representatives. She graduated from St. Augustine's College (now University) in Raleigh in 1943. In 1959, she worked at Fisk University in Nashville, until she and her family moved back to Winston-Salem. In 1953, they moved to Oklahoma and Atkins became a branch librarian for the Oklahoma City Public Library. In 1962, she became a reference librarian for the Oklahoma State Library. She then worked her way up to chief of general reference and acting law librarian.
She worked as an instructor of law and instructor of library science at Oklahoma City University.
Atkins was elected to the Oklahoma House of Representatives in 1968 and served until 1980, fighting for health care, child welfare, mental health reform, women's rights and civil rights.
In 1980, Jimmy Carter named her to the General Assembly of the 35th Session of the United Nations. She returned to Oklahoma in 1982 and worked as consultant to the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, assistant director of the Department of Human Services, Cabinet Secretary for Social Services, and Secretary of State. She had oversight of the Department of Mental Health, the Department of Corrections, and the Pardon and Parole Board. She was the highest ranking woman in Oklahoma state government until her retirement in 1991.
She continued to serve as a member of the Oklahoma Task Force for the Bombing Memorial.
One of the most beloved and iconic science-fiction movies of all time, The Day the Earth Stood Still, released in 1951 barely got a nod from the Golden Globe awards ceremony held February 21, 1952. Many great movies were released that year but few of them have had the staying power of Robert Wise's masterpiece.
It won a Golden Globe for Promoting International Understanding. Huh? That's not a category any more. It received a nomination for Best Music, Original Score for Bernard Herrmann, but lost to September Affair. Herrmann's music is eerie and perfect for an alien encounter.
The Day the Earth Stood Still was selected for preservation in the Library of Congress' National Film Registry in 1995.
Perry Henry Young, Jr., born March 12, 1919 in Orangeburg, South Carolina, became the first African American to fly for a commercial airline in the US. His family moved to Ohio and began attending Oberlin College. He earned his private pilot's license at 20 and dropped out of college to pursue a career in aviation.
Unfortunately, Young could not find work as a commercial pilot due to racial discrimination. When the US entered WWII, he got a job as one of 40 African American flight instructors for the 99th Pursuit Squadron, and trained over 150 Tuskegee Airmen during his tenure.
After the war, he still could not find employment as a pilot. In 1946, he tried to establish a small airline in Haiti, but it closed. He remained in Haiti, flying for the Societe Haitienne-Americaine de Development Agricole and in 1953 began working for the Puerto Rico Water Resources Authority as an executive pilot.
He worked on Baffin Island, Canada as an aviation mechanic, and then moved to the Virgin Islands to pilot for KLM, flying passengers to the Dutch islands.
A helicopter airline, New York Airways, had previously rejected Young because he did not meet their minimum helicopter flight time, but decided to 'break the color line'. They contacted him in the Virgin Islands and hired him on December 17, 1956. He took his first official flight as a copilot on February 5, 1957.
He continued to fly for NYA until they went out of business in 1979. He flew sightseeing helicopter tours in New York until he retired.
He passed away in Middletown, New York on November 8, 1998.
Marj Dusay, born February 20, 1936 in Hays, Kansas, had a lengthy career in soap operas or daytime dramas such as All My Children and The Guiding Light, but to us Trekkies, we know here from the infamous Star Trek episode Spock's Brain, widely considered to be the worst of the original series.
In the first episode of the third season, the crew of the Enterprise has to deal with a woman who has abducted Spock's brain for her planet's 'controller'. The woman Kara, played by Dusay, utters the phrase "Brain and brain! What is brain?"
A dubious role to become famous, but it worked for Marj.
She passed away in New York City in 2020 at age 83.
We Shall Overcome is a gospel song that has become an anthem for the civil rights movement in the US. It is believed to have "descended" from Charles Albert Tindley's I'll Over Come Day, first published in 1901. Tindley, a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church, authored about fifty gospel hymns.
In October 1945, members of the Food, Tobacco, Agricultural, and Allied Workers union began a five-month strike against the American Tobacco Company. One of the strikers, Lucille Simmons, led a slow version of the song, We'll Overcome (I'll be All Right), to keep up the spirits of the members, mostly female and African American, during the cold winter.
Pete Seeger changed the lyrics to "We Shall..." in 1947 and added a few verses. In 1952, it was first recorded and released by Laura Duncan and The Jewish Young Singers, where it is identified as a Negro spiritual.
In 1957, Seeger performed the song for an audience that included Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who said how much the song stuck with him.
Joan Baez led a crowd of 3,000 people in singing We Shall Overcome during the August 1963 March On Washington. LBJ used the phrase "we shall overcome" March 15, 1965 in a speech to Congress after the "Bloody Sunday" attacks on civil rights demonstrators during the Selma to Montgomery marches.
Martin Luther King Jr. used the lyrics from We Shall Overcome in a speech delivered on March 31, 1968, just four days before his assassination. At his funeral over 50,000 people sang We Shall Overcome.
It has become an international phenomenon as it is sung wherever people's rights are being violated.
Here is the Turtle Creek Chorale's performance with the Women's Chorus of Dallas. I am proud to be part of this recording.
Ella Fitzgerald, first lady of jazz, won her eight Grammy Award at the 19th annual ceremony, held February 19, 1977. She won Best Jazz Vocal Performance for Fitzgerald and Pass...Again, the second album of four she recorded with guitarist Joe Pass.
George Benson won Record of the Year for This Masquerade. It was in contention for Album of the Year and Song of the Year. I recognize every other album and song nominated in these three categories, and Benson's is the only one I do not know and, after listening to it just now, have never heard it before. I suppose his music did not get any airplay in my area back then.
Songs in the Key of Life by Stevie Wonder won Album of the Year, and Barry Manilow's I Write the Songs won Song of the Year.
Starland Vocal Band won Best New Artist, beating Brothers Johnson, Boston(!), and Wild Cherry. Unfortunately, they are best known for their only hit, Afternoon Delight, which won Best Arrangement for Voices (duo, group or chorus).
Natalie Cole won Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female for her Sophisticated Lady (She's a Different Lady).
Helen Hayes, with Henry Fonda, James Earl Jones & Orson Welles, won the Grammy for Best Spoken Word Recording for Great American Documents. This win made Helen Hayes become the second person to become an EGOT, someone who has won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony.
Sergey Prokopyev, born February 19, 1975 in the former Soviet Union, has been in space twice, spending over 567 days in space.
His first mission was aboard Soyuz MS-09 as commander to the International Space Station in June 2018. He remained on board, participating in Expeditions 56 and 57, before returning to Earth in December 2018.
His second mission was aboard Soyuz MS-22 as commander in September 2022 to the ISS. He participated in Expeditions 67-69, spending a year in space, before returning to Earth in September 2023 aboard Soyuz MS-23.
Marvel Comics' supernatural hero, Ghost Rider, came to the silver screen February 16, 2007. Stunt motorcycle rider Johnny Blaze (played by Nicholas Cage) sells his soul save his father, and becomes the Ghost Rider.
I enjoyed the movie, even though it didn't receive many positive reviews and Cage was nominated for a Razzie for Worst Actor. However, it was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Horror Film by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films.
It is one of the few Marvel movies in which Stan Lee did not have a cameo, since he was not involved in creating the character of Ghost Rider.
Crispus Attucks, born in 1723 in Framingham, Massachusetts, which was then still part of the British Empire, is considered to be the first American killed in the American Revolutionary War. Although born a slave, he managed to escape, and his owner at the time Deacon William Brown advertised for a runaway slave Crispas. Attucks spent time on the sea and working around the docks on the Atlantic seaboard.
Colonial unrest had been growing since the Stamp Act imposed by Great Britain, which significantly raised taxes. On March 5, 1770, a scuffle between the townspeople and the 29th Regiment of Foot, after a British officer was accused of theft. The colonialists threw snowballs and debris at the soldiers. A group of men including Attucks approached with clubs and sticks.
The soldiers panicked and opened fire. Attucks was the first to die. Four other colonists were killed and six were wounded, in what was to become known as the Boston Massacre. John Adams defended the soldiers and although two were found guilty of manslaughter, none of the soldiers were put to death. Adams described the colonial mob as "a motley rabble of saucy boys, negros and molattoes, Irish teagues and outlandish Jack Tars".
The colonists regarded Attucks and the others as heroes and buried as such in the Granary Burying Ground. Attucks' actions that night helped galvanize the colonists against the British. It was the beginning of the Revolutionary War.
Elizabeth Olsen, born February 16, 1989 in Los Angeles, California, is noted for her roles as Wanda Maximoff (Scarlet Witch) in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the 2014 reboot of the Godzilla franchise. She has twin older sisters Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen who were child stars, but even though no longer acting are still busy with many projects such as fashion design.
In 2021, Elizabeth was nominated for a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for her performance in WandaVision.
The Grammys inducted twenty-six recordings into the Grammy Hall of Fame at the 58th annual ceremony held February 15, 2016. A bunch of my favorites made it in!
The always-entertaining and lovely Andrews Sisters 1942 recording of Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree (with Anyone Else but Me).
Ella Fitzgerald's and Louis Armstrong's collaboration Ella and Louis released in 1956.
The Loco-Motion's first release in 1962 by Little Eva.
Jimmy Buffett's timeless Margaritaville from 1977.
Blondie's first big hit Heart of Glass from 1978
Celebration from Kool & the Gang from 1980.
Joan Jett with the Blackhearts 1981 breakout single I Love Rock 'n' Roll.
Albert Comstock "A.C." Hamlin, born February 10, 1881 in Topeka, Kansas, moved with his family to Oklahoma Territory in 1890. In 1908, he was elected to the Oklahoma House of Representatives due to the majority of African-Americans in Logan County, Oklahoma, which is just north of the capitol. He had served on the school board and a town trustee prior to his election.
The white supremacists in Oklahoma politics created a constitutional amendment created to prevent black people from voting. Thus, Hamlin lost his bid for re-election in 1910. The amendment, known as the 'grandfather clause' was declared unconstitutional in 1915, but Hamlin died in August 1912 of unknown causes.
Now, an awards banquet named for Hamlin is held biennially by Oklahoma's Legislative Black Caucus.
I've been a fan of Maroon 5 ever since I saw them the for the first time on Saturday Night Live, which was probably around the time they won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist at the 47th annual ceremony February 13, 2005. They were nominated for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for their song She Will Be Loved.
Henry Mancini: Pink Guitar, a compilation of works by Mancini, produced by James R. Jensen won Best Pop Instrumental Album.
The Grammy Hall of Fame inducted twenty recordings into its vaults. I have several favorites that were honored that night:
Alexander's Ragtime Band by Arthur Collins & Byron Harlan (1911)
All of Me by Louis Armstrong and his Orchestra (1932)
A Civil War-era African-American spiritual, Go Down, Moses, was first used as a rallying anthem for people who had escaped slavery sometime before July 1862. It could have originated from Virginia in 1853. The sheet music was published under the title Oh! Let My People Go: The Song of the Contrabands in 1862, words and music by Rev. L. C. Lockwood, arranged by Thomas Baker and published by Horace Waters.
The spiritual, also known as When Israel Was in Egypt's Land, describes the exodus of the Israelites from bondage in Egypt. The lyrics discuss freedom to both Israelites and enslaved people.
In an authorized biography of Harriet Tubman, she stated she used Go Down Moses as one of two code songs during her work with the Underground Railroad. It is possible that the song predates the 1853 claim.
I wasn't surprised when I found only two short clips of the 25th annual Golden Globe Awards ceremony held February 12, 1968. According to wikipedia.com, NBC imposed a ban on the telecast because the public had been misled on how the winners were chosen. The advertisers of the broadcast determined the Golden Globe winners. Then the Hollywood Foreign Press Association would pressure nominees to attend the ceremony, and threatened to give the award "won by a non-attendee to a losing nominee who was at the ceremony".
The ban lasted until 1974. NBC began broadcasting the ceremonies again, but ended its contract with the HFPA in 1982.
Anywho, the biggest winner of the night was The Graduate which one five out of the seven Golden Globes it was nominated for. It won Best Motion Picture-Comedy or Musical, Best Actress for Anne Bancroft (yea!!), Best Director for Mike Nichols, New Star of the Year-Male for Dustin Hoffman, and New Star of the Year-Female for Katharine Ross.
Hoffman had been nominated for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical but lost to Richard Harris in Camelot. The Graduate had been nominated for Best Screenplay.
Bonnie and Clyde was nominated for seven awards but walked away without any. Bummer.
Carol Burnett won her first Golden Globe for her work on The Carol Burnett Show.
I could only find two short clips of the ceremony, and both featured Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate who had been nominated for her performance in Valley of the Dolls.
The first single from Rod Stewart's Blondes Have More Fun, his ninth studio album, Da Ya Think I'm Sexy? reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, February 10, 1979 and stayed there for four weeks. It went to #1 in the UK, Canada, and Australia. Stewart donated the royalties from the song to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).
Billboard ranked it as #4 on its Top Singles of 1979 year-end chart. The song is certified double-platinum in the US have sold at least 2,000,000 copies.
1917, the WWI film produced and directed by Sam Mendes, won three Academy Awards at the 92nd annual ceremony held February 9, 2020. It had been nominated for a total of 7 Oscars.
It won Best Sound Mixing for Mark Taylor and Stuart Wilson. This was Taylor's first win and third nomination. It was the first Oscar for Wilson and his 6th nomination. His nominations included Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Rogue One, and Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
Roger Deakins won for Best Cinematography. It was his second Oscar win, after fifteen nominations at that time. He won previously for Blade Runner 2049.
1917 won Best Visual Effects for Guillaume Rocheron, Greg Butler, and Dominic Tuohy. This was Rocheron's second Oscar, having won previously for Life of Pi. It was Butler's first Oscar win. It is also Tuohy's first Oscar and third nomination.
1917 was nominated for Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Score, and Best Sound Editing.
Joseph Rainey, born June 21, 1832 in Georgetown, South Carolina, was the first African-American to be elected to the United States House of Representative. His father managed to purchase freedom for his wife and two sons. Rainey worked with his father as a barber and developed a wide social network in his community.
He traveled to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1959, where he met a free woman of color. They married and returned to South Carolina, where their three children were born. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Rainey was forced to work by the Confederates on fortifications in Charleston, SC. He escaped with his family to Bermuda in 1862, where he resumed work as a barber. He and his wife, a successful dressmaker, made a prosperous living and became well respected in Bermuda.
They returned to South Carolina settling in Charleston in 1866 after the war ended. Rainey's wealth and experience helped establish him as a leader in the city, which was 43 percent African-American. He became involved in politics and was elected to the South Carolina Senate in 1870. That same year, he won a special election to fill a vacancy created by the departure of Benjamin Whittemore, who had been censured for corruption.
Rainey was seated December 12, 1870, becoming the first African-American to be elected to the US House of Representatives. He served a total of four terms, a record for black Congressman, until William Dawson in the 1950s.
After leaving Congress, Rainey continued to work in the government in both Washington, DC and South Carolina. He returned to South Carolina when he retired in 1886. He contracted malaria in died in August 1887 in Georgetown.
My hero WALL-E won two Grammy Awards during the 51st annual celebration February 8, 2009. Actually Peter Gabriel got the trophies. The first for Best Song Written for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media for the song Down to Earth.
The second award was for Best Instrumental Arrangement for Define Dancing, arranged by Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman. Newman was also nominated for Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media, but lost to The Dark Night.
John Williams won a Grammy for Best Instrumental Composition for The Adventures of Mutt from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. What was his total tally at that time?
One of my favorites from Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Runnin' Down a Dream, won Best Long Form Music Video.
The lovely Natalie Cole won Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for Still Unforgettable, another compilation of her performing her father's songs.
On February 8, 1865, Martin Delany, born as a free man in Charles Town, Virginia January 24, 1812, was commissioned as a major in the US Army, becoming the first African-American field officer.
Growing up, Delany and his siblings learned to read and write by their mother, despite the prohibition of educating black people. His mother moved them to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania to ensure their continued freedom and learning. His father joined them a year later, after he was allowed to buy his freedom.
At 19, Martin traveled to Pittsburgh, where he attended the Cellar School of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and apprenticed with a white physician. He was one of four black men accepted into Harvard Medical School, but were dismissed after white supremacists complained.
Delany continued to be active in medicine and politics, attending his first National Negro Convention in 1835. He began publishing The Mystery, the first black-owned newspaper printed west of the Appalachians.
In 1856, he moved his family to Chatham, Ontario, Canada, where he assisted in the Underground Railroad, helping escaped slaves who reached freedom in Canada.
During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln called for a military draft. Delany began recruiting black men for the Union Army, and raised thousands of enlistees, forming the new United States Colored Troops. In early 1865, Delany was granted an audience with Lincoln and proposed a corps of black men led by black officers, who could win over black Southerners to the Union.
He was commissioned as major February 8, 1865 as the first black major in the US Army, and achieving the highest rank a black man would reach during the Civil War.
Read more on this amazing man: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Delany
Yvonne Cagle, born April 24, 1959 in West Point, New York, is a NASA astronaut and a retired US Air Force Colonel. She is one of six African-American female astronauts.
She graduated from Novato High School in California and received her BS in biochemistry from San Francisco State University. She completed her doctor of medicine degree from University of Washington in 1985.
While in the Air Force, she served as Air Force Medical Liaison Officer for the STS-30 mission. NASA selected her for astronaut training in 1996. In 2013, she served as part of the reserve crew for Hawai'i Space Exploration and Analog Simulation, part of a study to determine the best way to keep astronauts well nourished during extended missions to Mars or the moon.
She never flew on a mission but still employed at NASA but is not eligible for spaceflights. In 2017, she wheeled Katherine Johnson onto the stage during the 89th Academy Awards, where Johnson received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, presented by Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, and Janelle Monae, stars of Hidden Figures.
Wade in the Water is an African-American spiritual, a genre of music created and sung by African-Americans in slavery. Wade in the Water was estimated to be written during the Civil War around 1863, but the lyrics were not published until 1901, by Frederick J. Work and his brother John Wesley. The first commercial recording was made by the Sunset Four Jubilee Singers and released by Paramount Records.
The song is associated with Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad. It is believed that Tubman, who made thirteen trips to the South and helped free more than 70 people, used this song to warn slaves to get off the main trail and into the water to prevent the slavers' dogs from finding them.
The song has been modified, updated, and recorded many times in the past one hundred years. Billy Preston and Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass have released instrumental versions of it.
Toby Keith, born Toby Keith Covel July 8, 1961 in Clinton Oklahoma, passed away yesterday, February 5, 2024 at 62 from his battle with stomach cancer. His family moved for Fort Smith, Arkansas for a few years, and then moved to Moore, Oklahoma. This is where he began his love for music, watching the live musicians who played at his grandmothers club in Fort Smith.
After graduating from Moore High School, he worked in the oil fields, and formed a band with some friends. They played at local bars until the oil industry tanked. He played football for the semi-pro Oklahoma City Drillers, but continued to perform with his band Easy Money Band.
He got his break in 1993 when his debut single Should've Been a Cowboy went to #1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs. Over the course of his career he released over 20 albums. In 2001, Keith won the Academy of Country Music's Top Male Vocalist and Album of the Year.
In December 2011, he was named Artist of the Decade by the American Country Awards. In September 2023, he received the first Country Icon Award at the inaugural Peoples Choice Country Awards.
I met Toby Keith in September 2011 at a New York Jets game. We were guests of then-head coach Rex Ryan and watched the game from his booth. We found out that Toby was delivered by the same doctor that delivered me and my sister. We were all born in Oklahoma General Hospital in Clinton, Oklahoma.
The fifth annual ceremony of the Emmy Awards (before it was changed to the Primetime Emmy Awards) was held February 5, 1953 at the Hotel Statler in Los Angeles, I Love Lucy won Best Situation Comedy and Lucille Ball won Best Comedienne. Jimmy Durante won Best Comedian. Dragnet won Best Mystery, Action or Adventure Program and What's My Line? won Best Audience Participation, Quiz or Panel Program. Helen Hayes won Best Actress.
It's interesting to see how some things have changed, but others seem to haven't changed. I recognize very few of the shows nominated or the actors and actresses. Also, the presentations have changed. Helen Hayes won Best Actress, but appeared in only one movie in 1953: My Son John. Her movie is not mentioned in the Emmy program and imdb.com doesn't list her Emmy as a win for it. Weird.
Super-sexy, handsome Carl Weathers, born January 14, 1948 in New Orleans, Louisiana, passed away peacefully in his sleep February 1, 2024. He was an award winning actor whose career spanned fifty years. He played football in college at Long Beach City College, and later transferred to San Diego State University. He helped the Aztecs win the 1969 Pasadena Bowl.
However, his first love was acting and received a master in theatre arts from SDSU. He signed with the Oakland Raiders in 1970, helping them win the AFC West Division title, which took them to their first ever AFC Championship Game. After one season, he signed with the British Columbia Lions of the Canadian Football League until 1973.
While still playing football, he began working as an extra, which included an uncredited role in Magnum Force in 1973. His first significant roles came in blaxploitation films, Bucktown and Friday Foster. His breakout role was his performance as Apollo Creed with Sylvester Stallone in Rocky. He played Creed in the next three Rocky films.
In 2019, Weathers appeared as Greef Karga in The Mandalorian of the Star Wars cinematic universe, for which he was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor.
Since I had just turned 7 the September before, I'm not familiar with many of the movies and television shows in 1969, that were nominated and awarded a Golden Globe at the 27th annual ceremony, held February 2, 1969.
I am very familiar with The Carol Burnett Show, which we watched loyally every Saturday night. The show won two Golden Globes that evening. The first was for Best Television Series: Musical or Comedy, beating Rowan & Martin's Laugh-in.
Carol Burnett tied for the Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy with Julie Sommars of The Governor & J.J., which I've never heard of either of them. They beat some stiff competition: Lucille Ball, Diahann Carroll, Barbara Eden, and Debbie Reynolds.
Goldie Hawn won Best Supporting Performance in a Motion Picture for her performance in Cactus Flower. John Wayne won Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture-Drama for True Grit. I haven't seen either one of these movies, but I do like Goldie Hawn.
The toy company Hasbro introduced its line of action figures, G.I. Joe February 2, 1964. Initially, it represented four branches of the US military: Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines. The action figures were 12" in the beginning, but reintroduced in 1982 as a 3.75" scale and a background story involving the evil Cobra organization.
Since the mindset in the 60s was that boys did not play with dolls, parents wouldn't buy their sons dolls, since they were for girls. Hasbro always used the term "action figure" and never "doll" in the marketing of G.I. Joe.
I remember the sailor figure had a beard (I think). I enjoyed many hours of playing with my G.I. Joe toys. I watched the animated series in the 1980s some, and fell in love with Shipwreck. He's still my favorite even though he wasn't in the original release.
G.I. Joe was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in 2004 and the Pop Culture Hall of Fame in 2017.
Earl Lloyd, born April 3, 1928 in Alexandria, Virginia, became the first African-American to play in the National Basketball Association. He played basketball in high school and named to the All-South Atlantic Conference three times and the All-State Virginia Interscholastic Conference twice. He received a scholarship to play basketball at West Virginia State University.
Lloyd led WVSU to two Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association Conference and Tournament Championships in 1948 and 1949.
He was drafted into the NBA during the ninth round in 1950 by the Washington Capitols. Lloyd was one of three black players to be drafted at the same time. He played his first game on Halloween night, one day ahead of Chuck Cooper, and four days ahead of Nat Clifton.
The Nationals folded in January 1951, and he was drafted into the US Army at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He served time in the Korean War before coming back to basketball in 1952. He played six seasons with Syracuse Nationals and two with the Detroit Pistons.
He retired in 1961. He passed away in February 2015 in Tennessee.
On February 1, 1998, Lillian Fishburne was promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral by President Bill Clinton. Born and raised in Maryland, Fishburne was commissioned an ensign after completing Womens Officer School in February 1973. She was assigned as the Personnel and Legal Officer at the Naval Air Test Facility in Lakehurst, New Jersey in August 1974 and assigned as a Navy Recruiter in Miami until November 1977. She served as Commanding Officer, Naval Computer and Telecommunications Station in Key West, and assumed position as Chief, Command and Control Systems Support Division in Washington, DC.
