By Linda Loons
FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
James Vernon Taylor (born March 12, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A six-time Grammy Award winner, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. Taylor is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold more than 100 million records worldwide.
Taylor achieved his breakthrough in 1970 with the No. 3 single “Fire and Rain” and had his first No. 1 hit in 1971 with his recording of “You’ve Got a Friend“, written by Carole King in the same year. His 1976 Greatest Hits album was certified Diamond and has sold 12 million copies in the US alone. Following his 1977 album JT, he has retained a large audience over the decades. Every album that he released from 1977 to 2007 sold over 1 million copies. He enjoyed a resurgence in chart performance during the late 1990s and 2000s, when he recorded some of his most-awarded work (including Hourglass, October Road, and Covers). He achieved his first number-one album in the US in 2015 with his recording Before This World.
Taylor is also known for his covers, such as “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)” and “Handy Man“, as well as originals such as “Sweet Baby James“. He played the leading role in Monte Hellman‘s 1971 film Two-Lane Blacktop.
Taylor married singer Carly Simon in November 1972, in a low-key ceremony at Simon’s home in New York. Taylor was 24 and Simon 29; they divorced in 1983. Their children, Sally and Ben, are also musicians.
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
- Thomas Augustine Arne (composer) –
- William Lyon Mackenzie (politician) –
- Jane Means Appleton Pierce (U.S. First Lady) –
- Clement Studebaker (wagon, carriage, & auto manufacturer) –
- Simon Newcomb (astronomer & mathematician) –
- Jane Delano (nurse) –
- Gordon MacRae (actor) –
- Jack Kerouac (author) –
- Edward Albee (dramatist) –
- Andrew Young (politician) –
- Al Jarreau (singer) –
- Barbara Feldon (actress) –
- Paul Kanter (musician) –
- Liza Minnelli (singer) –
- James Taylor (musician) –
- Darryl Strawberry (baseball player) –
Died
- Henry Bergh (ASPCA founder) –
- Dr. Sun Yat-Sen (Chinese revolutionary leader and statesman) –
- Billy Barker (Canadian WWI ace) –
- Charlie Parker (jazz saxophonist) –
- Olive Patricia Dickason (Métis Canadian historian) –
Events
- United States Post Office was established–
- Coca-Cola was first sold in bottles–
- Girl Scouts started by Juliette Low in Savannah, Georgia–
- First transatlantic radio broadcast made–
- Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi began his second civil disobedience campaign to protest the British government’s salt tax–
- President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave his first fireside chat” to the nation”–
- Germany invaded and annexed Austria (WW II)–
- Pope Pius XII crowned–
- Less than a year after signing the bill that made the New Hampshire Lottery the first state-run lottery in America, New Hampshire Governor John W. King purchased the first New Hampshire Lottery Sweepstakes ticket–
- Beatle Paul McCartney married photographer Linda Eastman–
- Boston Celtics’ Larry Bird scored 60 points in a basketball game against Atlanta Hawks–
- Les Misérables opened on Broadway–
- Janet Reno became the first woman to serve as attorney general of the U.S.–
- Lance Mackey won his second consecutive Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race–
- Fifty-three year old Mitch Seavey became the oldest winner of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. In 2012, Seavey’s son Dallas became the youngest winner of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.–
Weather
- Blizzard of ‘88 dumped 50 inches of snow on Middletown, Connecticut–
- All-New England Flood, the costliest and most widespread ever–
- Wichita Falls, Texas, reported a record high of 95F; but only six days earlier, the town had reported a record low of 8F.–
- “Superstorm” developed in eastern U.S.–
COURTESY www.almanac.com
