1547 - Ivan the Terrible was crowned Czar of Russia.

1866 --- Mr. Everett Barney patented the all-metal screw clamp skate. Remember those? They would clamp on to the edges of the soles of shoes and you tightened them with a key. With the advent of athletic shoes, there was no place to clamp the skates so the clamp skate disappeared. In its place? Roller blades!
 

1868 --- William Davis, a Detroit, Michigan fish dealer, received a patent for a refrigerator car ('ice box on wheels'). He also designed the first refrigerated railway car.

1883 --- The United States Civil Service Commission was established as the Pendleton Act went into effect.

1920 --- Prohibition began in the U.S., which banned the sale of all alcoholic beverages. Gangsters flourished, importing and producing bootleg alcohol, and American drank more than ever. Prohibition was finally repealed in 1933. The end of the 'noble experiment.'

1921 --- The motion picture, The Kid, opened in movie houses. The classic starred Charlie Chaplin and featured a little tyke, soon to be a Hollywood favorite. Jackie Coogan continued to make movies until his death in 1984. 

1932 --- Duke Ellington and his Orchestra recorded "It Don't Mean a Thing."

1938 --- Benny Goodman and his band, plus a quartet, brought the sound of jazz to Carnegie Hall in New York City. When asked how long an intermission he wanted, he quipped, “I don’t know. How much does Toscanini get?”
 

1939 --- The comic strip Superman made its debut.

1957 --- The Cavern Club opened for business in Liverpool, England. The rock club was just a hangout for commoners. Then, things changed -- big time. It all started in the early 1960s when four kids from the neighborhood popped in to jam. They, of course, turned out to be The Beatles.

1961 --- Mickey Mantle signed a contract which made him the highest paid baseball player in the American League. ‘The Commerce Comet’ stepped up to the plate for $75,000 for the 1961 season. Over in the National League, Willie ‘Say Hey’ Mays, was making more money than any baseball player. He had a contract for $85,000.

1964 --- Hello Dolly! opened at the St. James Theatre in New York City. Carol Channing starred in the role of Mrs. Dolly Levi. The musical was an adaptation of Thornton Wilder’s play, The Matchmaker. The show, with an unforgettable title song, was hailed by critics as the “...possible hit of the season.” It was possible, all right. Hello Dolly! played for 2,844 performances. And, it returned to Broadway in the 1990s, again starring Carol Channing.

1970 --- Buckminster Fuller, the designer of the geodesic dome, was awarded the Gold Medal of the American Institute of Architects.

 
1970 --- John Lennon's London Art gallery exhibit of erotic lithographs, Bag One, was closed by Scotland Yard and eight prints were confiscated as evidence of pornography.

1980 --- Paul McCartney was jailed in Tokyo for possession of a half pound of marijuana. He spent ten days behind bars before being kicked-out of the country by Japanese authorities. The remainder of his tour was canceled.

1883 --- The United States Civil Service Commission was established as the Pendleton Act went into effect. Today’s the day to hug a postal worker, for one.

1987 --- Red M&Ms returned for the first time in 11 years after being banned because the original red dye used in the candy had caused cancer in laboratory rats.

 
1987 --- The Beastie Boys became the first act censored on "American Bandstand."

1988 --- Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder was fired as a CBS sports commentator one day after telling a TV station in Washington, DC, that, during the era of slavery, blacks had been bred to produce stronger offspring.

1991 --- Boxer George Foreman’s wife Joan gave birth to yet another George, George the 5th. The couple already had three sons: George the 2nd, George the 3nd, and George the 4th. Dad is George the 1st.

1996 --- Jimmy Buffett’s sea plane Hemisphere Dancer was shot at by Jamaican police who mistook him for a drug smuggler. U2’s Bono was in the plane with Buffett at the time. Jimmy wrote a song about the incident, Jamaica Mistaica, that appears on the album Banana Wind.

2000 --- A truck loaded with evaporated milk was rammed into California's state capitol building in Sacramento, CA. The driver was killed in the incident.

2002 - U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft announced that John Walker Lindh would be brought to the United States to face trial. He was charged in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, VA, with conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens, providing support to terrorist organizations, and engaging in prohibited transactions with the Taliban of Afghanistan.

1944 My Heart Tells Me - The Glen Gray Orchestra (vocal: Eugenie Baird)
Shoo, Shoo, Baby - The Andrews Sisters
Paper Doll - The Mills Brothers
Pistol Packin’ Mama - Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters

1952 Slowpoke - Pee Wee King
Sin (It’s No) - Eddy Howard
Undecided - The Ames Brothers
Let Old Mother Nature Have Her Way - Carl Smith

1960 Why - Frankie Avalon
Running Bear - Johnny Preston
Way Down Yonder in New Orleans - Freddie Cannon
El Paso - Marty Robbins

1968 Hello Goodbye - The Beatles
Judy in Disguise (With Glasses) - John Fred & His Playboy Band
Woman, Woman - The Union Gap
For Loving You - Bill Anderson & Jan Howard

1976 I Write the Songs - Barry Manilow
Theme from Mahogany (Do You Know Where You’re Going To) - Diana
Ross
Fox on the Run - Sweet
Convoy - C.W. McCall

1984 Say Say Say - Paul McCartney & Michael Jackson
Owner of a Lonely Heart - Yes
Karma Chameleon - Culture Club
Slow Burn - T.G. Sheppard

* information from KALW 91.7 San Francisco - listen online!