By Linda Loons
FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
Quincy Delight Jones Jr. (born March 14, 1933) is an American record producer, songwriter, composer, arranger, and film and television producer. His career spans over 70 years, with 28 Grammy Awards won out of 80 nominations, and a Grammy Legend Award in 1992.
Jones came to prominence in the 1950s as a jazz arranger and conductor before working on pop music and film scores. He moved easily between genres, producing pop hit records for Lesley Gore in the early 1960s (including “It’s My Party“) and serving as an arranger and conductor for several collaborations between the jazz artists Frank Sinatra and Count Basie. In 1968, Jones became the first African American to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song for “The Eyes of Love” from the film Banning. Jones was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score for his work on the 1967 film In Cold Blood, making him the first African American to be nominated twice in the same year. Jones produced three of the most successful albums by pop star Michael Jackson: Off the Wall (1979), Thriller (1982), and Bad (1987). In 1985, Jones produced and conducted the charity song “We Are the World“, which raised funds for victims of famine in Ethiopia.
In 1971, Jones became the first African American to be the musical director and conductor of the Academy Awards. In 1995, he was the first African American to receive the academy’s Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. He is tied with sound designer Willie D. Burton as the second most Oscar-nominated African American, with seven nominations each. In 2013, Jones was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as the winner, alongside Lou Adler, of the Ahmet Ertegun Award. He was named one of the most influential jazz musicians of the 20th century by Time.
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
- Johann Strauss, the Elder (composer) –
- Lucy Hobbs Taylor (first U.S. woman dentist) –
- John Luther “Casey” Jones (railroad engineer) –
- Albert Einstein (physicist) –
- Lester Brown (bandleader) –
- Max Shulman (novelist) –
- Hank Ketcham (cartoonist, creator of Dennis the Menace) –
- Frank Borman (astronaut) –
- Michael Caine (actor) –
- Quincy Jones (musician) –
- Billy Crystal (actor) –
- Kirby Puckett (baseball player) –
- Steph Curry (basketball player) –
- Simone Biles (Olympic gymnast) –
Died
- Emile Erckmann (novelist) –
- Henry Woods (federal judge) –
- Thomas Winship (editor of the Boston Globe from 1965-1984, Pulitzer Prize winner) –
- Peter Graves (actor) –
- Stephen Hawking (physicist) –
Events
- Eli Whitney patented the cotton gin–
- U.S. Congress adopted the gold standard–
- Pelican Island (Fla.) became first National Wildlife Refuge in the United States –
- Women granted the right to vote in Saskatchewan–
- Germany began retreat to Hindenburg Line (WWI)–
- First U.S. concrete seagoing ship, S.S. Faith, launched, Redwood City, California–
- U.S. President Warren G. Harding became the first chief executive to file an income tax report–
- Shirley Temple left her footprints and handprints in the wet cement at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood–
- The U.S. Army Air Corp began bombing Osaka, Japan (WWII)–
- Possible UFO sighted in Healdsburg, California–
- Gordie Howe second player in NHL history to score 500 career goals–
- Jack Ruby was found guilty in Dallas of the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald, accused assassin of U.S. President John F. Kennedy–
- Batman, starring Adam West and Burt Ward, aired its last episode–
- OPEC agreed to lower the benchmark price for crude oil by 15%. It marked the first price cut since the group’s formation in 1960–
- Marc Garneau chosen as first Canadian astronaut to go into space–
- Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge founded in Manteo, North Carolina–
- Lebanese hijacker, Fawaz Younis, brought to U.S. to stand trial, found guilty of air piracy in 1985 hijacking–
- The Soviet Congress elected Mikhail Gorbachev to the country’s presidency, one day after clearing the post–
- Alice Cooper, Neil Diamond, Dr. John, Darlene Love, Tom Waits, Jac Holzman, Art Rupe, and Leon Russell were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame–
Weather
- Red snow and hail fell in parts of Italy and present-day Slovenia–
- A tornado swept through Nashville, Tennessee–
- At the end of a four-day storm, a record for the state of Iowa was set in Iowa City, 27.2 inches of snowfall–
COURTESY www.almanac.com
