By StephanieLee Elliott
FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
Gladys Maria Knight (born May 28, 1944), known as the “Empress of Soul”, is an American singer. A ten-time Grammy Award-winner, Knight recorded hits through the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s with her family group Gladys Knight & the Pips, which included her brother Merald “Bubba” Knight and cousins William Guest and Edward Patten.
Knight has recorded two number-one Billboard Hot 100 singles (“Midnight Train to Georgia” and “That’s What Friends Are For” which she did with Dionne Warwick, Sir Elton John and Stevie Wonder), eleven number-one R&B singles and six number-one R&B albums. She has won seven Grammy Awards (four as a solo artist and three with the Pips) and is an inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Vocal Group Hall of Fame along with The Pips. Two of her songs (“I Heard It Through the Grapevine” and “Midnight Train to Georgia”) were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame for “historical, artistic and significant” value. She also recorded the theme song for the 1989 James Bond film Licence to Kill. Rolling Stone magazine ranked Knight among the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. She is also a recipient of the National Medal of Arts and Kennedy Center Honors.
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 Moore (poet) –
- Ian Fleming (writer) –
- Frank Drake (American astronomer) –
- Rudy Giuliani (politician) –
- Gladys Knight (singer) –
- Hunter “Patch” Adams (doctor) –
- Christa Miller (actress) –
- Kylie Minogue (singer) –
- Elisabeth Hasselbeck (The View co-host) –
- Jesse Bradford (actor) –
- Michael Oher (football player) –
- Cameron Boyce (actor) –
Died
- Noah Webster (writer) –
- Phil Hartman (actor) –
- Mildred Wirt Benson (original author, under the pen name Carolyn Keene, of the Nancy Drew mystery books) –
- Maya Angelou (poet) –
Events
- French West India Company secured royal grant of all French colonies in America–
- First stamp auction in the U.S.–
- The Sierra Club, dedicated to the conservation of natural resources, was founded–
- Patent application for John B. Gruelle’s Raggedy Ann doll filed–
- R.H. Macy & Co. was incorporated–
- On With the Show, the first all-color talking picture, premiered in New York City–
- Golden Gate Bridge opened to vehicles–
- When a Man Loves a Woman by Percy Sledge topped charts–
- Mars 3 orbiter and lander was launched–
- An unidentified soldier killed during the Vietnam War was buried with military honors in the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington, Virginia. (He was later identified via DNA testing, and exhumed.)–
- The cover of Vanity Fair featured a photo of President Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan kissing–
- Hubble Space Telescope photographed unknown object TMR-1C–
- Baby Jessica McClure, who held the attention of the nation when she fell into an abandoned well at 18 months old, graduated from Greenwood High School in Texas–
- In Germany, several people reported seeing what seemed to be UFOs. A police investigation found that it was a 29-year old man proposing to his girlfriend accompanied by glowing paper lanterns–
Weather
- Three tornadoes tore through Cincinnati, Ohio–
- It was 97 degrees F in San Francisco, California–
- Mother Nature dumped up to 10 inches of snow on parts of Wisconsin–
- 100 degrees F in Portland, Oregon–
- Large hail hit areas of Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey–
COURTESY www.almanac.com