(Fox News) – Legendary crooner Vic Damone passed away on Sunday at the age of 89. He was born Vito Rocco Farinola in Brooklyn, New York.
Damone entered the talent search on Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts and won in April 1947. This led to his becoming a regular on Godfrey’s show. He met Milton Berle at the studio and Berle got him work at two night clubs. By mid-1947, Damone had signed a contract with Mercury Records.(WIKIPEDIA)
Lonnie Melvin "Mel" Tillis(August 8, 1932 – November 19, 2017)
(Fox News) – Country music singer Mel Tillis, whose six-decade career included hits such as “I Ain’t Never” and “Coca Cola Cowboy,” died today (Sunday).
His publicist said Tillis passed away at Munroe Regional Medical Center in Ocala, Fla. He was previously inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and Grand Ole Opry. Former President Barack Obama awarded Tillis the National Medal of Arts in 2012 (below).
Mel Tillis was among eight recipients of President Obama’s National Medal of the Arts in 2012.
Johnny Rivers (John Henry Ramistella) was born in New York City
Rock ‘n’ roll singer, songwriter, guitarist, and record producer Johnny Rivers charted hits during the 1960s and 1970s and remains best known for a string of hit singles between 1964 and 1968, among them a Chuck Berry "Memphis" , "Mountain of Love", "Secret Agent Man", "Poor Side of Town", which went to #1 and a Motown cover, “Baby I Need Your Lovin”.
Although his recording career is slowing down, Johnny Rivers is still touring, however, performing 50 to 60 shows a year. Increasingly he has returned to the blues that inspired him initially.
Harry S. Truman holding up a copy of the Chicago Tribune with the incorrect headline
Harry S. Truman defeated Thomas E. Dewey for the U.S. presidency on this day in 1948. The Chicago Tribune published an early edition that had the headline "DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN (above)." The Truman victory had surprised many polls and newspapers.
President Truman (right) on his campaign train whistle-stop.
On this day in 1963, South Vietnamese President Ngo Dihn Diem was assassinated in a military coup.
Howard Hughes flew his "Spruce Goose," a huge wooden airplane, for eight minutes in California on this day in 1947. It was the plane’s first and only flight. The "Spruce Goose," nicknamed because of the white-gray color of the spruce used to build it, never went into production.
On this day in 1959, Charles Van Doren, a game show contestant on the NBC-TV program "Twenty-One" admitted that he had been given questions and answers in advance.
