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Ice T, a American rapper and actor, is 66 today.

Lesley Gore died on this day 9 years ago, aged 68. She was an American singer and songwriter. At the age of 16, she recorded her first hit song "It's My Party", a US number one in 1963. She followed it up with ten further US Billboard top 40 hits including "Judy's Turn to Cry" and "You Don't Own Me". Gore said herself she considered "You Don't Own Me" as her signature song. Gore later worked as an actress and television personality. She composed songs with her brother Michael Gore for the 1980 film Fame, and received an Academy Award nomination for "Out Here On My Own". She hosted several editions of the LGBT-oriented public television show In the Life on American TV in the 2000s.

Claire Bloom, a English actress who is known for her leading roles in A Streetcar Named Desire, A Doll’s House, and Long Day’s Journey, is 93 today.

Nat King Cole died on this day 59 years ago, aged 45. He was an American singer, jazz pianist, and actor. Cole started his career as a jazz pianist in the late 1930s, where he formed The King Cole Trio which became the top-selling group (and the only black act) on Capitol Records in the 1940s. His trio was the model for small jazz ensembles that followed. Starting in 1950 he transitioned to become a solo singer billed as Nat King Cole. Despite achieving mainstream success, during his career he faced intense racial discrimination. While not a major vocal public figure in the civil rights movement, Cole was a member of his local NAACP branch and participated in the 1963 March on Washington. He regularly performed for civil rights organizations. From 1956 to 1957, he hosted the NBC variety series The Nat King Cole Show, which became the first nationally broadcast television show hosted by an African American. Some of his most notable singles include "Unforgettable", "Smile", "L-O-V-E", "When I Fall in Love", "Let There Be Love", "Mona Lisa", "Autumn Leaves", "Stardust", "Straighten Up and Fly Right", "The Very Thought of You", "For Sentimental Reasons", "Embraceable You" and "Almost Like Being in Love". His 1960 Christmas album The Magic of Christmas (also known as The Christmas Song), is the best-selling Christmas album released in the 1960s; and was ranked as one of the 40 essential Christmas albums (2019) by Rolling Stone.

14:19pm on February 14th 94 Sophie Ellis-Bextor — Murder On The Dancefloor 52 Daft Punk — One More Time +4 34 Kylie Minogue — On A Night Like This 32 Wheatus — Teenage Dirtbag 26 The Supermen Lovers & Mani Hoffman — Starlight 19 U2 — Stuck In A Moment You Can’t Get Out Of 16 Robbie Williams & Kylie Minogue — Kids 05 Moloko — The Time Is Now -6

Juan Ponce Enrile, the Filipino politician and lawyer who is known for his role in the administration of Ferdinand Marcos, is 100 today.

Bob Paisley died on this day 28 years ago, aged 77. He was an English professional football manager and player who played as a wing-half. Paisley came from a small County Durham mining community and, in his youth, played for Bishop Auckland before he signed for Liverpool in 1939. During the Second World War he served in the British Army, and could not make his Liverpool debut until 1946. In the 1946–47 season he was a member of the Liverpool team that won the First Division title for the first time in 24 years. He was made club captain in 1951, and remained with Liverpool until he retired from playing in 1954. He stayed with the club, and took on the two roles of reserve team coach and club physiotherapist. By this time Liverpool had been relegated to the Second Division and its facilities were in decline. Shankly was appointed Liverpool manager in December 1959, and he promoted Paisley to work alongside him as his assistant in a management/coaching team that included Joe Fagan and Reuben Bennett. Under their leadership, the fortunes of Liverpool turned around dramatically and, in the 1961–62 season, the team gained promotion back to the First Division. Paisley filled an important role as tactician under Shankly's leadership, and the team won numerous honours during the next twelve seasons. He spent almost 50 years with Liverpool and is regarded as one of the greatest managers of all time. Reluctantly taking the job in 1974, he built on the foundations laid by his predecessor Bill Shankly. Paisley is the first of four managers to have won the European Cup three times. He is also one of five managers to have won the English top-flight championship as both a player and manager at the same club.

17:53 at February 13th 86 Sophie Ellis-Bextor — Murder On The Dancefloor 41 Wheatus — Teenage Dirtbag 40 Daft Punk - One More Time 35 Kylie Minogue — On A Night Like This +4 33 The Supermen Lovers & Mani Hoffman — Starlight 23 Robbie Williams & Kylie Minogue — Kids 23 U2 — Stuck In A Moment You Can’t Get Out Of 20 Moloko — The Time Is Now 15 Artful Dodger & Romina Johnson — Movin’ Too Fast -3 08 S Club 7 — Reach -3

Paul Biya, the President of Cameroon since 1982, is 91 today. Kim Novak, an American actress and painter, is 91 today.

Waylon Jennings died on this day 22 years ago, aged 64. He was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. He is considered one of the pioneers of the outlaw movement in country music. In 1958, Buddy Holly arranged Jennings’ first recording session, a cover of Jole Blon, and hired him to play bass. Jennings gave up his seat on the ill-fated flight in 1959 that crashed and killed Holly, the Big Booper, and Ritchie Valens. He recorded for independent label Trend Records and A&M Records, but did not achieve success until moving to RCA Victor in 1965. In 1972, he acquired Neil Reshen as his manager, who negotiated significantly better touring and recording contracts. After he gained creative control from RCA Records, he released the critically acclaimed albums Lonesome, On’ry and Mean and Honky Tonk Heroes, followed by the hit albums Dreaming My Dreams and Are You Ready for the Country. With Willie Nelson, Tompall Glaser, and Jessi Colter he recorded country music’s first platinum album, Wanted! The Outlaws. He appeared in films and television series, including Sesame Street, and a stint as the balladeer for The Dukes of Hazzard, composing and singing the show’s theme song and providing narration for the show. Jennings struggled wirh cocaine addiction, which he overcame in 1984. Later, he joined the country supergroup the Highwaymen with Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, and Johnny Cash, which released three albums between 1985 and 1995.

Josh Brolin, a American actor, is 56 today.

Sid Caesar died on this day 10 years ago, aged 91. He was an American actor, comedian and writer. He was best known for two pioneering 1950s live television series: Your Show of Shows (1950–1954), which was a 90-minute weekly show watched by 60 million people, and its successor, Caesar's Hour (1954–1957), both of which influenced later generations of comedians. Your Show of Showsand its cast received seven Emmy nominations between the years 1953 and 1954 and tallied two wins. He also acted in films; he played Coach Calhoun in Grease (1978) and its sequel Grease 2 (1982) and appeared in the films It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), Silent Movie (1976), History of the World, Part I (1981), Cannonball Run II (1984), and Vegas Vacation (1997).

Dennis Skinner, a British politician who served as MP for Bolsover from 1970 to 2019, is 92 today.

Whitney Houston died on this day 12 years ago, aged 48. She was an American singer and actress. She was one of the first black women to appear on the cover of Seventeen after becoming a teen model in 1981. With the guidance of Arista Records chairman Clive Davis, Houston signed to the label at the age of 19. Her first two studio albums, Whitney Houston (1985) and Whitney (1987), both peaked at number one on the Billboard 200 and are among the best-selling albums of all time. Hit singles from the albums, including “How Will I Know”, “Greatest Love of All” and “I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)”, established her as a catalyst in the acceptance of black female artists on MTV. Her third studio album, I’m Your Baby Tonight (1990), yielded two Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles, the title track and “All the Man That I Need”. Houston’s rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” at Super Bowl XXV in 1991 received widespread media coverage. Houston made her acting debut with the romantic thriller film The Bodyguard (1992), which despite its mixed reviews became the tenth highest-grossing film to that date. Its soundtrack won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year and remains the bestselling soundtrack album of all time. It generated multiple hit singles, including “I Have Nothing”, “I’m Every Woman” and “I Will Always Love You”; the latter won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year, spent a then-record 14 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 and became the best-selling single by a woman in music history.

Roy Scheider died on this day 16 years ago, aged 75. He was an American actor and amateur boxer. Described by AllMovie as "one of the most unique and distinguished of all Hollywood actors", he gained fame for his leading and supporting roles in celebrated films from the 1970s through to the early to mid-1980s. He was nominated for two Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and a BAFTA Award. His best-known roles include Chief Martin Brody in Jaws (1975) and its sequel Jaws 2 (1978); NYPD Detective "Cloudy" Russo in The French Connection (1971); NYPD Detective "Buddy" in The Seven-Ups (1973); Doc Levy in Marathon Man (1976); Jackie Scanlon / Juan Dominguez in Sorcerer (1977); choreographer and film director Joe Gideon in All That Jazz (1979); Officer Frank Murphy in Blue Thunder (1983); and Dr. Heywood R. Floyd in the 1984 film 2010: The Year We Make Contact, the sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey. He was also known for playing Captain Nathan Bridger in the science-fiction television series seaQuest DSV (1993–1996).

Robert Wagner, an American actor, is 94 today. Leontyne Price, a American soprano, is 97 today.

Joe Pesci, An American actor and musician, is 81 today.

Bill Haley died on this day 43 years ago, aged 55. He was an American rock and roll musician. At the age of four, he had a operation on his inner-ear, which cut and optic nerve, making him blind is his left eye. He is credited by many with first popularizing this form of music in the early 1950s with his group Bill Haley & His Comets and million-selling hits such as "Rock Around the Clock", "See You Later, Alligator", "Shake, Rattle and Roll", "Rocket 88", "Skinny Minnie", and "Razzle Dazzle". Haley has sold over 60 million records worldwide. In 1987, he was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He died of a heart attack caused by alcoholism.

John Williams, an American composer and conductor, is 92 today.

John von Neumann died on this day 67 years ago, aged 53. He was a Hungarian-American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist, engineer and polymath. He had perhaps the widest coverage of any mathematician of his time, integrating pure and applied sciences and making major contributions to many fields, including mathematics, physics, economics, computing, and statistics. He was a pioneer in building the mathematical framework of quantum physics, in the development of functional analysis, and in game theory, introducing or codifying concepts including cellular automata, the universal constructor and the digital computer. His analysis of the structure of self-replication preceded the discovery of the structure of DNA. During World War II, von Neumann worked on the Manhattan Project. He developed the mathematical models behind the explosive lenses used in the implosion-type nuclear weapon. Before and after the war, he consulted for many organizations including the Office of Scientific Research and Development, the Army's Ballistic Research Laboratory, the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. At the peak of his influence in the 1950s, he chaired a number of Defense Department committees including the Strategic Missile Evaluation Committee and the ICBM Scientific Advisory Committee. He was also a member of the influential Atomic Energy Commission in charge of all atomic energy development in the country. He played a key role alongside Bernard Schrieverand Trevor Gardner in the design and development of the United States' first ICBM programs. At that time he was considered the nation's foremost expert on nuclear weaponry and the leading defense scientist at the Pentagon.

2/7/2024 38 Sophie Ellis-Bextor — Murder On The Dancefloor +2 36 Wheatus — Teenage Dirtbag 34 Daft Punk — One More Time +2 28 The Supermen Lovers & Mani Hoffman — Starlight  24 S Club 7 — Reach 24 Robbie Williams & Kylie Minogue — Kids 24 Zombie Nation — Kernkraft 400 24 Sonique — Sky 24 Moloko — The Time Is Now 23 Kylie Minogue — On A Night Like This 23 Sweet Female Attitude — Flowers 23 iiO — Rapture 22 Samantha Mumba — Gotta Tell You 22 Artful Dodger & Romina Johnson — Movin’ Too Fast 21 Destiny’s Child — Bootylicious 20 Sash! — Adelante 20 Mis-Teeq — All I Want 20 Sophie Ellis-Bextor — Take Me Home 20 Gordon Haskell — How Wonderful You Are 19 Outkast — Ms. Jackson  19 Blink-182 — All The Small Things 17 U2 — Stuck In A Moment You Can’t Get Out Of 16 Steps — Chain Reaction / One For Sorrow 16 Baha Men — Who Let The Dogs Out 09 Donell Jones — U Know What’s Up -6

Chris Rock, a American comedian, actor, and filmmaker, is 59 today.

Albert Finney died on this day 5 years ago, aged 82. He was an English actor. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and worked in the theatre before attaining fame for movie acting during the early 1960s, debuting with The Entertainer (1960), directed by Tony Richardson, who had previously directed him in theatre. He is known for his roles in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960), Tom Jones (1963), Two for the Road (1967), Scrooge (1970), Annie (1982), The Dresser (1983), Miller's Crossing (1990), A Man of No Importance (1994), Erin Brockovich (2000), Big Fish (2003), The Bourne Ultimatum (2007), Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007), and the James Bond movie Skyfall (2012). A recipient of BAFTA, Golden Globe, Emmy, Screen Actors Guild, Silver Bear and Volpi Cup awards, Finney was nominated for an Academy Award five times, as Best Actor four times, for Tom Jones (1963), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), The Dresser (1983), and Under the Volcano (1984), and as Best Supporting Actor for Erin Brockovich (2000). He received several awards for his performance as Winston Churchill in the 2002 BBC–HBOtelevision biographical movie The Gathering Storm.

Mamie Van Doren, a American actress, singer, and sex symbol, is 93 today.

George VI died on this day 72 years ago, aged 56. He was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death on 6 February 1952. He was also the last Emperor of India from 1936 until the British Raj was dissolved in August 1947, and the first head of the Commonwealth following the London Declaration of 1949. In September 1939, the British Empire and most Commonwealth countries—but not Ireland—declared war on Nazi Germany, following the invasion of Poland. War with the Kingdom of Italyand the Empire of Japan followed in 1940 and 1941, respectively. George VI was seen as sharing the hardships of the common people and his popularity soared. Buckingham Palace was bombed during the Blitz while the King and Queen were there, and his younger brother the Duke of Kent was killed on active service. George became known as a symbol of British determination to win the war. Britain and its allies were victorious in 1945, but the British Empire declined. Ireland had largely broken away, followed by the independence of India and Pakistanin 1947. George relinquished the title of Emperor of India in June 1948 and instead adopted the new title of Head of the Commonwealth. He was beset by smoking-related health problems in the later years of his reign and died from coronary thrombosis.