FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS

The Supremes were an American girl group and a premier act of Motown Records during the 1960s. Founded as the Primettes in Detroit, Michigan, in 1959, the Supremes were the most commercially successful of Motown’s acts and the most successful American vocal band, with 12 number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100. Most of these hits were written and produced by Motown’s main songwriting and production team, Holland–Dozier–Holland. It is said that their breakthrough made it possible for future African American R&B and soul musicians to find mainstream success. Billboard ranked the Supremes as the 16th greatest Hot 100 artist of all time.

Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson, Diana Ross, and Betty McGlown, the original members, were all from the Brewster-Douglass public housing project in Detroit. They formed the Primettes as the sister act to the Primes (with Paul Williams and Eddie Kendricks, who went on to form the Temptations). Barbara Martin replaced McGlown in 1960, and the group signed with Motown the following year as the Supremes. Martin left the act in early 1962, and Ross, Ballard, and Wilson continued as a trio.

During the mid-1960s, the Supremes achieved mainstream success with Ross as lead singer and Holland–Dozier–Holland as its songwriting and production team. In 1967, Motown president Berry Gordy renamed the group Diana Ross & the Supremes, and replaced Ballard with Cindy Birdsong. In 1970, Ross left to pursue a solo career and was replaced by Jean Terrell, and the group reverted the name to the Supremes again. During the mid-1970s, the lineup changed with Lynda Laurence, Scherrie Payne and Susaye Greene, joining until the group, after 18 years from its foundation, disbanded in 1977.

TODAY’S ALMANAC

Question of the Day

Who said “the best laid plans of mice and men”?

A similar phrase was first used in a poem called To a Mouse” by Robert Burns: “The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men / Gang aft agley, / An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain / For promis’d joy!” John Steinbeck used the last part of the phrase for the title of his popular novel Of Mice and Men, now a well-known moral fable, stage play, and movie.”

Advice of the Day

To soothe a sore throat, boil pomegranate rinds in water and drink as a tea.

Home Hint of the Day

If a door refuses to latch, check the positioning of the strike plate. Within the doorjamb, adjust the strike plate up or down, in or (with a shim) out, until the door latches.

Word of the Day

Bosh

Empty talk; contemptible nonsense; trash; humbug.

Puzzle of the Day

Why are two pints of strawberries after they are eaten like persons singing?

They are a quart-et (eaten).

Born

• Benedict Arnold (General in U. S. Revolutionary War) – 1741
• The Marquess of Lansdowne (Canadian Governor General 1883-1888) – 1845
• Albert Schweitzer (physician) – 1875
• Hugh Lofting (author) – 1886
• John Dos Passos (novelist) – 1896
• Faye Dunaway (actress) – 1941
• Holland Taylor (actress ) – 1943
• LL Cool J (rapper & actor) – 1968
• Jason Bateman (actor) – 1969

Died

• Edmond Halley (astronomer) – 1742
• Lewis Carroll (author) – 1898
• Humphrey Bogart (actor) – 1957
• Jeanette MacDonald (singer) – 1965
• Ray Kroc (fast food entrepreneur) – 1984
• Shelley Winters (actress) – 2006
• Darlene Conley (actress) – 2007
• Ricardo Montalban (actor) – 2009
• Conrad Stafford Bain (Canadian-American actor) – 2013
• Alan Rickman (actor) – 2016

Events

• The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut were adopted– 1639
• First successful cesarean operation in the U.S.– 1794
• Gideon Hawley became first state school superintendent in the United States (for New York state)– 1813
• First nonstop trans-Canada flight completed– 1949
• Marilyn Monroe married Joe DiMaggio– 1954
• Diana Ross sang with the Supremes for the last time, Las Vegas, Nevada– 1970
• The first probe to land on Saturn’s moon, Titan, signaled it survived its descent. The Huygens space probe was designed to last only minutes on Titan’s surface, but surpassed the expectations of mission managers. Huygens descended the atmosphere, contacted the surface, and transmitted for at least an hour and a half– 2005
• Andean bear Billie Jean gave birth to the first of twin cubs, at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C.– 2010
• 40,000 pounds of liquid chocolate flooded I-40 due to overturned tanker near Flagstaff, Arizona – 2019
• A tanker carrying 40,000 pounds (about 3,500 gallons) of 120-degree-F liquid chocolate became unhitched from the main truck and rolled over on westbound Interstate 40, at milepost 211, east of Flagstaff, Arizona. No one was injured. The biodegradable contents of the damaged tanker had to be pumped out onto the median so that the vehicle could be lifted onto a tow truck. It took crews about 4 hours to clean up the river of chocolate before several closed lanes could open once more.– 2019

Weather

• Blizzard hit Chicago, Illinois– 1918
• Burlington, Vermont, received 23.1 inches of snow in 24 hours– 1934
• After two weeks of very cold weather, unseasonably warm temperatures accompanied by chinook winds and heavy rains were brought to northern and central Idaho. The catastrophic flooding caused mudslides that blocked and washed out sections of U.S. 95, Idaho’s main north-south highway. With total damage of about $50 million, it was called the worst natural disaster in the state’s history.– 1974
• Avalanche near Park City, about 20 miles east of Salt Lake City, Utah– 2005

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