Thursday, August 15, 2002
  WOODSTOCK DAY - The Woodstock Music and Art Fair opened on this day in 1969. Two dozen bands came to play on a wooden stage in the middle of a pasture. It was a happening unlike any other before it ... and, probably like none after. 450,000 people formed a love-in for three days and nights.
1848 - M. Waldo Hanchett of Syracuse, NY patented the dental chair.
1877 - Thomas Edison wrote the president of the Telegraph Company in Pittsburgh, PA. The letter stated that the word, “hello” would be a more appropriate greeting than “ahoy,” as suggested by Alexander Graham Bell when answering the telephone.
1911 - Procter & Gamble Company of Cincinnati, OH introduced Crisco hydrogenated shortening.
1914 - The Panama Canal opened. The U.S. steamship "Ancon" was the first ship through.
1948 - CBS-TV inaugurated the first nightly news broadcast, with anchorman Douglas Edwards.
1969 - Three Dog Night (Danny Hutton, Cory Wells and Chuck Negron) were awarded a gold record for the album, Three Dog Night. Where’d the name of the group come from? In Australia, the aborigine tribes of several regions slept outside all year. As the temperatures got colder, the tribesmen would sleep with a dog to keep warm. In colder weather, they would huddle with two dogs. It must have been an extremely cold night when the group was formed...
1970 - On this day, Mrs. Pat Palinkas became the first woman to ‘play’ in a pro football game. She held the ball for the Orlando (Florida) Panthers.
1971 - Bahrain, a group of islands in the Persian Gulf midway between the tip of the Qatar Peninsula and the Saudi Arabian mainland, gained independence from Great Britain. It became the State of Bahrain.
1980 - I Me Mine, an autobiography by former Beatle George Harrison, went on sale.
1981 - Lionel Richie and Diana Ross hit number one on the pop music charts with their beautiful duet, Endless Love. It was a huge success for the two singers. Endless Love was number one for 9, count ’em, nine weeks.
1983 - Six-month-old Lisa Harap of Queens Village, NY became the youngest identifiable living person to appear on a cover of TIME magazine.
1984 - New York City turned out to honor the Team USA Olympic medalists. An estimated two million people lined the streets during the 10-block-long ticker-tape parade.
1984 - Pete Rose returned to become player and manager of the Cincinnati Reds after being away from his hometown for six years. Rose had been in Philadelphia and Montreal.
1991 - Paul Simon performed a free concert in Central Park, New York. The show attracted some 750,000 people. The album, Paul Simon’s Concert in the Park is still attracting people.
1996 - Bob Dole won the Republican presidential nomination. At the party’s convention in San Diego, he offered himself as the “bridge to a time of tranquillity” and described himself as “the most optimistic man in America.”
1997 - The Los Angeles Dodgers retired player, scout, coach, manager, executive Tommy Lasorda’s uniform #2 in a pre-game ceremony at Dodger Stadium.
1997 - Films opening in the U.S.: Cop Land, starring Sylvester Stallone, Harvey Keitel, Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro, Janeane Garofalo, Robert Patrick, Michael Rapaport, Annabella Sciorra and Malik Yoba; Event Horizon, with Laurence Fishburne, Sam Neill, Kathleen Quinlan, Joely Richardson, Richard T. Jones, Jack Noseworthy, Jason Isaacs and Sean Pertwee; and Steel, starring Shaquille O’Neal, Annabeth Gish, Richard Roundtree, Judd Nelson, Irma P. Hall, Ray J and Charles Napier.
 
Today's Birthdays
  TV chef Julia Child is 90. Singer Bill Pinckney of The Drifters is 77. Actress Pat Priest ("The Munsters") is 66. Drummer Pete York of The Spencer Davis Group is 60. Author-journalist Linda Ellerbee is 58. Actress Debra Messing ("Will and Grace") is 34. Actor Ben Affleck is 30. Actress Natasha Henstridge ("The Whole Nine Yards," "Species") is 28.