Daily Almanac for Wednesday July 17, 2024

By Michelle Dumas

The former star of Young and the Restless, Knight Rider and Baywatch, David Hasselhoff, is 72 today. Here he is in 2013 at the Cannes Film Festival 2013. By Georges Biard, CC BY-SA 3.0, https commons.wikimedia.org

FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS

David Michael Hasselhoff (born July 17, 1952), nicknamed “The Hoff“, is an American actor, singer, and television personality. He has set a Guinness World Record as the most watched man on TV. Hasselhoff first gained recognition on The Young and the Restless (1975–1982), playing the role of Dr. Snapper Foster. His career continued with his leading role as Michael Knight on Knight Rider (1982–1986) and as L.A. County Lifeguard Mitch Buchannon in Baywatch (1989–2000). He also produced Baywatch from the 1990s until 2001 when the series ended with Baywatch Hawaii.

Hasselhoff has appeared in films, including Dodgeball (2004), The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2004), Click (2006), Hop (2011), and Piranha 3DD (2012). Before Samuel L. Jackson, Hasselhoff was the first actor to portray the Marvel Comics character Nick Fury in the telefilm Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. (1998). In 2000, he made his Broadway debut in the musical Jekyll & Hyde. Following his debut, he starred in other musicals including Chicago and The Producers.

Hasselhoff has released a total of 15 studio albums, which found success mostly in German-speaking parts of Europe, where he has garnered multiple gold and platinum awards, with the single “Looking for Freedom” achieving number one in Germany and Switzerland. Hasselhoff has also worked as a talent show judge on television shows such as America’s Got Talent (2006–2009) and Britain’s Got Talent (2011).

David Hasselhoff in costume as Michael Knight in 1986. By Rex Gutierrez, CC BY 3.0, https commons.wikimedia.org

TODAY’S ALMANAC

Question of the Day

I just inherited a wisteria with my new house. How should I care for it?

Wisterias need full sun, which we presume you have. They like to be in moist, well-drained soil that has been fortified with peat moss or leaf mold. If your plant is young, give it a general-purpose fertilizer in the spring. If it is mature, give it a complete fertilizer, such as 10-10-10, in the spring. If you’re in one of the northern zones, use pine boughs or leaves to mulch your wisteria in the fall for protection through the winter. Prune established plants to encourage flowering. Do this in late summer by removing new growth to above the sixth or seventh leaf from the base of each branch.

Advice of the Day

Of what use is it for a cow to give plenty of milk if she upsets the pail?

Home Hint of the Day

Should you bag your lawn clippings or leave them be? As the grass clippings decompose, they provide up to half the nitrogen your lawn needs. Chemical fertilizers will hinder the decomposition. Instead, feed your lawn with organic fertilizers such as compost, lime, blood meal, bonemeal, and wood ashes.

Word of the Day

Nipper

A fore tooth of a horse. The nippers are four in number.

Puzzle of the Day

Better (Blank) than (Blank).(What’s the saying? Fill in the blanks!)

1) late 2) never

Born

  • John Jacob Astor (businessman) – 
  • James Cagney (actor) – 
  • Art Linkletter (television personality) – 
  • Phyllis Diller (actress) – 
  • Nils Bohlin (inventor of seat belts) – 
  • Diahann Carroll (singer) – 
  • Lucie Arnaz (actress, daughter of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz) – 
  • David Hasselhoff (actor) – 
  • Mark Burnett (television producer) – 
  • Bitty Schram (actress) – 
  • Eric Moulds (football player) – 

Died

  • Billie Holiday (jazz & blues singer) – 
  • Ty Cobb (baseball player) – 
  • Joseph Maher (actor) – 
  • Hugh Reilly (actor) – 
  • Walter Cronkite (newscaster) – 
  • Morgan Paull (actor) – 
  • John Robert Lewis (American politician; civil rights leader) – 

Events

  • Florida formally ceded by Spain to the U.S.– 
  • First photo taken of star other than Sun (Vega), Harvard College Observatory– 
  • U.S. National Cemetery Act passed– 
  • In Boston, Massachusetts, the Harvard School of Dental Medicine established as the first university-based dental school in the U.S.– 
  • Disneyland Park opened in Anaheim, California– 
  • Contact with Surveyor 4 lost 2.5 minutes before Moon touchdown– 
  • U.S. Apollo 18 and U.S.S.R. Soyuz 19 docked with each other in space marking the first such link-up between spacecrafts from the two nations– 
  • Maiden flight of B-2 stealth bomber– 
  • Two triple plays were made by the Minnesota Twins in a game against the Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox won 1-0– 
  • Last 400 Woolworth’s department stores closed– 
  • Tsunami in Indonesia– 

Weather

  • Atlanta, Georgia, received its 14th consecutive day of rain– 

 

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