John Jacob Astor (July 17, 1763 – March 29, 1848)

Astor was a German-American business magnate, merchant and investor
who was the first prominent member of the Astor family and the first multi-
millionaire in the United States. He was the creator of the first trust in
America.

Astor arrived in New York following the American Revolutionary War
and built a fur-trading empire that extended to the Great Lakes region
and Canada, and later expanded into the American West and Pacific
coast. He diversified into real estate and later became a famous patron 
of the arts.

Disneyland Park, as it is known today, is located in Anaheim, California and is owned 
and operated by the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts division of The Walt Disney  
Company. Construction began in 1954 and the park was unveiled during a special  
televised press event (below) on the ABC Television Network on Sunday, July 17, 
1955.

Diller was born Phyllis Ada Driver in Lima, Ohio. She began her career working at
KROW radio in Oakland in 1952. Phyllis first appeared in March of 1955 as a stand-
up at The Purple Onion, a cellar club in the North Beach area of San Francisco.

Although she has made her career in comedy, Diller studied the piano for many
years. She later decided against a career in music after hearing her teachers
and mentors play with much more ability than she thought that she would be able
to achieve. She still plays in her private life, however, and owns a custom-made harpsichord.

 

     Kitty Wells (Ellen Muriel Deason) (August 30, 1919 – July 16, 2012)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Singer Kitty Wells, whose hits such as "Making
Believe" and "It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" made her the 
first female superstar of country music, died Monday.

The singer’s family said she died peacefully at home after complications
from a stroke.

Her solo recording career lasted from 1952 to the late 1970s and she made
concert tours from the late 1930s until 2000. That year, she announced she
was quitting the road, although she performed occasionally in Nashville and
elsewhere afterward.

She recorded approximately 50 albums and had 25 Top 10 country hits. Kitty
was listed by various polls from 1953 to 1968 as the No. 1 female country singer.