65 years ago today, Elvis Presley performed live at Pearl Harbor’s Bloch Arena in a benefit for the USS Arizona Memorial. The concert was sold out. Even the opening acts before Elvis took the stage (such as Minnie Pearl) had to buy their tickets. It was Elvis’s return to performing after a stint in the army and there was no better cause one could imagine. READ how much was raised… (1959)
The Elvis Presley benefit raised over $60,000 for the USS Arizona Memorial. More importantly, it brought awareness of the cause to the desk of President John F. Kennedy (like Dwight D. Eisenhower, a World War II veteran). The final amount of money was raised with the President’s help for the Arizona Memorial, and it was officially dedicated in 1962. Elvis would visit the Arizona Memorial every time he performed in Hawaii.
MORE Good News on this Date:
- Fairy tale city of art and trade, Venice, was founded on the island of Rialto (421)
- The British Parliament abolished the slave trade (1807)
- 126 years ago today, the modern Olympics began in Athens, Greece (1896)
- 97 percent of all Dutch physicians went on strike against Nazi registration (1943)
- While still in his twenties, Martin Luther King Jr. led 25,000 to the state capitol in Montgomery, Ala. (1965)
- John & Yoko staged first bed-in for peace in Amsterdam (1969)
- Wiki Wiki Web, the world’s first wiki was made public by Ward Cunningham in Portland, Oregon (1995)
- The Dunkin’ Donuts, Baskin-Robbins Community Foundation gave $1 million to put food in backpacks for poor children to take home from school throughout America (2014)
- Notable Birthday: Gloria Steinem, 88 (1934)
217 years ago today, the world’s first passenger train service began selling tickets. The Swansea and Mumbles Railway used horse-drawn rail-borne train carriages to transport people from the Welsh city of Swansea to the village known as Oystermouth. Passenger services operated from The Mount, the world’s first recorded railway station.
Industry was the birth of this important innovation which would soon begin popping up all over Europe. The original purpose of the railway was to transport coal, iron ore, and limestone, with construction completed in 1806, and operations beginning without formal ceremony using horse-drawn vehicles.
The line ran from the Brewery Bank adjacent to the Swansea Canal in Swansea, around the wide sweep of Swansea Bay to a terminus at Castle Hill (near the present-day Clements Quarry) in the tiny isolated fishing village of Oystermouth (known as Mumbles).
In February 1807, approval was given to carry passengers along the line, when one of the original proprietors, Benjamin French, offered to pay the company the sum of twenty pounds in lieu of tolls for the right to do so for twelve months. Despite being the first of its kind, just 13 years later a new turnpike road further inland robbed the line of much of its business. (1807)
Happy Birthday to Sir Elton John, who turns 77 years old today. Growing up in London, the singer-songwriter learned to play piano at age three. In his 5-decade career, Elton John has sold more than 300 million records, making him one of the best-selling musical artists in the world.
He has more than fifty Top 40 hits, such as Rocket Man, Tiny Dancer, and Bennie and the Jets, and seven consecutive No. 1 US albums. His tribute single, re-penned in dedication to the late Princess Diana, Candle in the Wind 1997 sold over 33 million copies worldwide and is the best-selling single in the history of the UK and US singles charts.
Born “Kenneth Dwight, he changed his name to Elton Hercules John in homage to two members of an early musical group he worked with. Elton Dean and vocalist Long John Baldry. Despite a strict childhood, The Dwights were keen record buyers, and that exposed a young Elton to Rock and Roll pianists like Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard. “I’m more of a Little Richard stylist than a Jerry Lee Lewis, I think. Jerry Lee is a very intricate piano player and very skillful, but Little Richard is more of a pounder.”
John has won 5 Grammys, 5 Brit Awards, two Tonys, two Oscars, the Kennedy Center Honor, France’s Legion d’honneur, and of course the knighthood. In 1976, Elton John became chairman of the board at Watford F.C., his hometown football club, from which he took them on a purple patch of finishing 2nd in the country, and reaching the FA Cup final. He still holds a large financial stake in the club and can be seen in the “Sir Elton John Stand” at their stadium of Vicarage Road. WATCH a 70th birthday video tribute… (1947)
202 years ago today was the Greek Uprising, celebrated by Greeks around the world as Independence Day.
The revolt was launched against the Ottoman Empire, which had ruled over Greece for 300 years. The symbolic launch was the moment Bishop Germanos of Patras raised the flag of revolution—the banner and the cross—over the Monastery of Agia Lavra in the Peloponnese peninsula.
Under the battle cry “Freedom or death”, they won the revolution eight years later—thanks to the naval assistance from France, Russia, and Great Britain, and artists like the poet Lord Byron promoting the struggle. The Treaty of Edirne was signed in 1879 establishing an independent Greek state.
The public holiday includes parades throughout the country with people wearing traditional Greek clothing, and military flyovers in Athens. (1821)
And, 15 years ago today, 13 Palestinian girls and boys from a West Bank refugee camp traveled with their musical director to Israel to perform for elderly Holocaust survivors.
Most of the audience at the Holocaust Survivors Center did not know the youths were Palestinians from such a rough area until it was announced. Amidst gasps, the orchestra began to play songs for peace, and the audience broke out in applause. The event was part of “Good Deeds Day,” an annual event at the Center. (2009)
And, 50 years ago today, a Royal Air Force sergeant survived a jump from 18,000 feet without a parachute. The 21-year-old WWII gunner decided when his Lancaster bomber was on fire, it was better to jump than burn. His fall was broken by pine trees and soft snow and he suffered only a sprained leg.
Nicholas Stephen Alkemade was subsequently captured and interviewed by the German Gestapo, who were initially suspicious of his claim to have fallen without a parachute until the wreckage of the aircraft was examined. He was a celebrated prisoner of war, before being repatriated in May 1945. Reportedly, the Germans gave Alkemade a certificate testifying to the fact, according to Guy Murchie, in The World Aloft. (1944)
Happy 59th Birthday to Sarah Jessica Parker, the producer and actress who portrayed Carrie Bradshaw—one of the greatest TV girlfriends in history—on the HBO hit series Sex and the City. Over six seasons, her performances won her two Emmys, four Golden Globes, and three Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Parker made her Broadway debut at age 11, and three years later was starring in the title role of the musical Annie. She returned to the stage in early 2020 starring with her husband Matthew Broderick in Plaza Suite. After COVID-19 caused the closing of the theater, she posted a hopeful message on Instagram.
“Broadway doesn’t stay quiet for long. We will be back. The Rialto will hum. Times Square will hustle and bustle. . . We count the days until the marquees are once again lit.”
The fashionista continues to work in television (Divorce)—and in films such as The First Wives Club, The Family Stone, and Failure to Launch. Yet she is also a fashion designer (SJP shoes and handbags), and she owns a production company called Pretty Matches. WATCH a Plaza Suite interview with the couple… (1965)
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