By Vickie Sellers
FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O’Connell (/ˈaɪlɪʃ/ EYE-lish; born December 18, 2001) is an American singer and songwriter. She first gained public attention in 2015 with her debut single “Ocean Eyes“, written and produced by her brother Finneas O’Connell, with whom she collaborates on music and live shows. In 2017, she released her debut extended play (EP), titled Don’t Smile at Me. Commercially successful, it reached the top 15 of record charts in numerous countries, including the US, UK, Canada, and Australia.
Eilish’s first studio album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? (2019), debuted atop the US Billboard 200 and UK Albums Chart. It was one of the best-selling albums of the year, buoyed by the success of its fifth single “Bad Guy“, Eilish’s first number-one on the US Billboard Hot 100. This made her the first artist born in the 21st century to release a chart-topping single. The following year, Eilish performed the theme song “No Time to Die” for the James Bond film of the same name, which topped the UK Singles Chart and won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2022. Her subsequent singles “Everything I Wanted“, “My Future“, “Therefore I Am“, and “Your Power” peaked in the top 10 in the US and UK. Her second studio album, Happier Than Ever (2021), topped charts in 25 countries. She wrote and performed “What Was I Made For?” from Barbie (2023), which became her second number one single in the UK.
Eilish has received multiple accolades, including seven Grammy Awards, two American Music Awards, two Guinness World Records, three MTV Video Music Awards, three Brit Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and an Academy Award. She is the first woman and the youngest artist in Grammy history to win all four general field categories—Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, as well as Best New Artist—in the same year. She is also the first person born in the 21st century to win an Academy Award. She was featured on Time magazine’s inaugural Time 100 Next list in 2019 and the Time 100 in 2021. According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and Billboard, Eilish is the 26th-highest-certified digital singles artist and one of the most successful artists of the 2010s. She was honored as one of the BBC 100 Women in December 2022.
Eilish has a history of political activism, focusing on climate change awareness, body positivity, women’s reproductive rights and gender equality.
TODAY’S ALMANAC
Question of the Day
Advice of the Day
Home Hint of the Day
Word of the Day
Puzzle of the Day
Born
- Edward MacDowell (composer) –
- Ty Cobb (baseball player) –
- Betty Grable (actress) –
- Steven Spielberg (director) –
- Ray Liotta (actor ) –
- Brad Pitt (actor) –
- Katie Holmes (actress) –
- Christina Aguilera (singer) –
- Billie Eilish (singer) –
Died
- Chris Farley (actor) –
- Joe Barbera (half of the Hanna-Barbera animation team that made cartoon characters such as Tom and Jerry, Yogi Bear, and the Flintstones) –
- Majel Barrett-Roddenberry (actress and producer) –
- Connie Hines (actress) –
- Zsa Zsa Gabor (actress and socialite) –
Events
- The Great Comet reached perihelion–
- New Jersey became the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution–
- John William Draper took the first photo of the Moon–
- The 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, prohibiting slavery, went into effect–
- National Anti-Saloon League was founded–
- U.S. President Woodrow Wilson married Edith B. Galt, a descendent of Pocahontas–
- Civil rights activist Rosa McCauley married Raymond Parks–
- Giant panda, Basi, celebrated her 25th birthday at China’s Fuzhou Zoo. (She far surpassed the normal panda life expectancy of 12 years!)–
Weather
- Central Park in New York City experienced a record low temperature of 10 degrees below zero F–
- A sudden gale of wind of almost cyclonic force blew through Howe, Indiana, and caused snowballs to form spontaneously and roll along the ground like tumbleweeds–
- Freezing rain in the Memphis, Tennessee, area caused 170 evening auto accidents–
COURTESY www.almanac.com
