NEW YORK (AP) — Her memories of recording “Rockin’
Around the Christmas Tree” are a little hazy.

She remembers the producer placing decorations around
the studio and blasting the air conditioner on a warm
Nashville day to create a holiday spirit. The musicians,
she recalls, nailed it in a couple of takes.

That’s about it. After all, Brenda Lee was 13 years old at
the time — and it was 66 years ago, in 1958.

Brenda Lee ( Mae Tarpley) is 81 years young today.

Michael Cole, who most famously portrayed Pete Cochran,
one of the three young undercover cops on ABC’s crime
drama Mod Squad (1968-1973), died on Tuesday at the 
Medical Center in Tarzana, California. No cause of death
has been revealed at this time.

Cole was the last surviving member of the original cast.

On December 10, 1690, a failed attack on Quebec and subsequent
near-mutiny force the Massachusetts Bay Colony to issue the
first paper currency in the history of the Western Hemisphere.

On its final approach to Madison, Wisconsin on December 10,
1967, the private plane carrying soul-music legend Otis Redding
would crash into the frigid waters of a small lake three miles
short of the runway, killing seven of the eight men aboard,
including Redding.

His megahit “Sittin’ On The Dock Of The Bay” would be released
in its “unfinished” form several weeks later. It would soon
become history’s first posthumous #1 hit and the biggest pop
hit of Redding’s career.