This Week In History: May 18 – May 24

Headlines & tidbits from the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s.

American Experience:

1934 – Clyde Champion Barrow and Bonnie Parker were shot to death by Texas and Louisiana state police officers as they attempted to escape apprehension in a stolen 1934 Ford V-8 near Bienville Parish, Louisiana.

1964 – Johnson unveiled his vision for America: “In your time we have the opportunity to move not only toward the rich society and the powerful society, but upward to the Great Society. The Great Society rests on abundance and liberty for all. It demands an end to poverty and injustice, to which we are totally committed in our time.”

1973 – President Nixon confesses his role in Watergate cover-up

1980 – Mount St Helens blows its top in Washington State, 60 die

Movies & TV:

1956 – “Bob Hope Show,” last airs on NBC-TV

1967 – “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” debuts on NET (now PBS)

1974 – Dean Martin Show, last airs on NBC-TV

1977 – “Smokey & the Bandit,” premieres

1980 – “Empire Strikes Back” premieres

Music & Radio:

1954 – Robert Zimmerman aka Bob Dylan is Bar Mitzvahed

1955 – Chuck Berry records his hit song “Maybellene.” The song rose to No. 5 on the pop charts, one of the first rock and roll songs by an African American musician to hit the charts.

1958 – South Pacific soundtrack album goes to #1 & stays #1 for 31 weeks

1960 – Alan Freed & eight other DJ’s accused of taking radio payola

1963 – Little Stevie Wonder recorded his first number 1 hit, “Fingertips – Pt. 2,” He was 13 years old.

1965 – Beatles’ “Ticket to Ride,” single goes #1

1969 – Who release rock opera “Tommy”

1969 – Beatles’ “Get Back,” single goes #1 & stays #1 for 5 weeks

1977 – Jefferson Starship was prohibited from putting on a free concert in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco because of a city ban on electronic instruments. This would inspire the hit years later, “We Built This City.”

1979 – Elton John becomes 1st western rocker to perform live in USSR

1979 – Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr played together for the first time since the break-up of The Beatles, at the wedding reception of Eric Clapton and Pattie Boyd.

1983 – David Bowie’s “Let’s “Dance,” single goes #1 with the help of Stevie Ray Vaughan

Hollywood Headlines:

1945 – Lauren Bacall & Humphrey Bogart wed

1982 – Sophia Loren jailed in Naples for tax evasion

1986 – Cher called David Letterman an asshole on Late Night on NBC

The Arts:

1986 – “Singin’ in the Rain” closes at Gershwin Theater NYC after 367 performances

Sports:

1941 – Joe Louis beats Buddy Baer on DQ in 7 for heavyweight boxing title

1966 – Muhammad Ali TKOs Henry Cooper in 6 for heavyweight boxing title

1976 – Muhammad Ali TKOs Richard Dunn in 5 for heavyweight boxing title

1988 – Red Sox retire Bobby Doerr’s #1

Automobile News:

1959 – Ford wins battle with Chrysler to call its new car “Falcon”

1977 – Janet Guthrie became the first female to qualify for the Indianapolis 500.

Technology & Inventions:

1954 – IBM announces vacuum tube “electronic” brain that could perform 10 million operations an hour

1956 – At the Institute of Radio Engineers Convention, a tape head is described that can record the frequencies of video, making it possible to record TV programs on tape

1959 – 1st house with built-in bomb shelter exhibited (Pleasant Hills Pa)