FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS

Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the “King of Rock and Roll“, he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century. His energized interpretations of songs and sexually provocative performance style, combined with a singularly potent mix of influences across color lines during a transformative era in race relations, led him to both great success and initial controversy.

Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, and relocated to Memphis, Tennessee, with his family when he was 13 years old. His music career began there in 1954, recording at Sun Records with producer Sam Phillips, who wanted to bring the sound of African-American music to a wider audience. Presley, on rhythm acoustic guitar, and accompanied by lead guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black, was a pioneer of rockabilly, an uptempo, backbeat-driven fusion of country music and rhythm and blues. In 1955, drummer D. J. Fontana joined to complete the lineup of Presley’s classic quartet and RCA Victor acquired his contract in a deal arranged by Colonel Tom Parker, who would manage him for more than two decades. Presley’s first RCA Victor single, “Heartbreak Hotel“, was released in January 1956 and became a number-one hit in the United States. Within a year, RCA would sell ten million Presley singles. With a series of successful network television appearances and chart-topping records, Presley became the leading figure of the newly popular sound of rock and roll.

In November 1956, Presley made his film debut in Love Me Tender. Drafted into military service in 1958, Presley relaunched his recording career two years later with some of his most commercially successful work. He held few concerts, however, and guided by Parker, proceeded to devote much of the 1960s to making Hollywood films and soundtrack albums, most of them critically derided. In 1968, following a seven-year break from live performances, he returned to the stage in the acclaimed television comeback special Elvis, which led to an extended Las Vegas concert residency and a string of highly profitable tours. In 1973, Presley gave the first concert by a solo artist to be broadcast around the world, Aloha from Hawaii. Years of prescription drug abuse and unhealthy eating habits severely compromised his health, and he died suddenly in 1977 at his Graceland estate at the age of 42.

Having sold over 500 million records worldwide, Presley is recognized as the best-selling solo music artist of all time by Guinness World Records. He was commercially successful in many genres, including pop, country, R&B, adult contemporary, and gospel. Presley won three Grammy Awards, received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award at age 36, and has been inducted into multiple music halls of fame. He holds several records, including the most RIAA certified gold and platinum albums, the most albums charted on the Billboard 200, the most number-one albums by a solo artist on the UK Albums Chart, and the most number-one singles by any act on the UK Singles Chart. In 2018, Presley was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Donald Trump.

TODAY’S ALMANAC

Question of the Day

When I was young and it would rain while the sun was shining, someone might say, “The Devil is beating his wife.” Where did this saying come from?We think that the saying originated in Hungary, and in the United States it was used primarily in the Deep South. Others have called this weather phenomena “a monkey’s wedding” (South Africa) or have used the saying “The witch is making butter” (Poland) to describe it. Whatever expression you use, it’s a pretty nifty thing to see.

Advice of the Day

Drink rosemary tea to enhance your memory.

Home Hint of the Day

If you need a hole in a piece of wood and don’t have a drill bit handy, put a nail in the drill’s chuck (the part of the drill that tightens around the bit). It will work nearly as well as a drill bit.

Word of the Day

Cirrocumulus cloudThin cloud that appears as small “cotton patches.”

Puzzle of the Day

What is the difference between a locomotive and a hound?One runs on the track, and the other tracks on the run.

Born

• Arcangelo Corelli (composer) – 1653
• Dorothy Canfield Fisher (author) – 1879
• Marjorie Lawrence (opera singer) – 1909
• Michiaki Takahashi (virologist best know for inventing first chickenpox vaccine ) – 1928
• Rene Russo (actress) – 1954
• Richard Karn (actor, game show host) – 1956
• Michael Jordan (basketball player) – 1963
• Jerry O’Connell (actor) – 1974
• Jason Ritter (actor) – 1980
• Paris Hilton (heiress) – 1981
• Ed Sheeran (musician) – 1991

Died

• Geronimo (Chiricahua Apache leader) – 1909
• Wilfred Laurier (8th Prime Minister of Canada) – 1919
• Lee Strasberg (actor and director) – 1982
• Thelonious Monk (jazz pianist) – 1982

Events

• Myles Standish appointed commander of Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts– 1621
• Tie broken: Thomas Jefferson to be U.S. president; Aaron Burr, Vice President– 1801
• Baron Karl von Drais de Sauerbrun patented draisine (bicycle precursor)– 1818
• Confederate H. L. Hunley was first submarine to sink a warship (USS Housatonic)– 1864
• Columbia, South Carolina, burned by Union Army (U.S. Civil War)– 1865
• First sardines canned in Maine– 1876
• The National Congress of Mothers, later known as the PTA, founded– 1897
• Marcel Duchamp’s painting, Nude Descending a Staircase, outraged viewers– 1913
• First publication of Newsweek magazine– 1933
• Elvis Presley awarded his first gold album for Elvis”“– 1960
• 9-pound 6-ounce chain pickerel caught near Homerville, Georgia– 1961

Weather

• McIntosh, South Dakota, recorded a low temperature of -58 degrees F– 1936
• Record low of 60 degrees below zero F, Labrador– 1973
• Blizzard dumped more snow in Boston than any other storm in the state’s history— including the Blizzard of 1978—Logan International Airport measured 27.5 inches– 2003

COURTESY www.almanac.com