Today in History: Sunday, December 10, 2023

Television and Radio
Six-year old Donny Osmond made his singing debut on “The Andy Williams Show” in 1963…Here I come to save the day! “Mighty Mouse Playhouse,“ the first Saturday morning cartoon, debuted on CBS in 1955. It aired through 1967…The Monkees’ Davy Jones guest-starred on the ABC comedy “The Brady Bunch” in 1971…The Rankin/Bass stop-animation special “Rudolph’s Shiny New Year” featuring the voices of Red Skelton, Morey Amsterdam, Frank Gorshin and Hal Peary first aired on ABC in 1976…Prime time soap “Number 96” debuted on NBC in 1980. The apartment complex-set series, based on the Australian hit original, ran for three consecutive nights but was canceled shortly thereafter…In 1990, NBC presented the made-for TV movie “The Dreamer of Oz: The L. Frank Baum Story,“ which featured John Ritter as the author of “The Wonderful World of Oz.” 

Movies:
The Academy Award-winning “Lawrence of Arabia” starring Peter O’Toole premiered in 1962. The film won seven Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director (David Lean)…“Superman: The Movie,” directed by Richard Donner and starring Christopher Reeve, Marlon Brando, Gene Hackman and and Margot Kidder premiered in Washington, D.C. in 1978…“Out of Africa,” based on the book by Isak Dinesen, directed by Sydney Pollack and starring Robert Redford and Meryl Streep opened in Los Angeles in 1985. It won seven Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director…”The Green Mile“, the film based on a Stephen King story and which starred Tom Hanks and Michael Clarke Duncan, was released in theaters in 1999.

​Music:
The charity single “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” performed by Band Aid, the supergroup comprised of several of the biggest acts in the United Kingdom at the time, was released in the United States in 1984. The song helped benefit the problems of famine in Ethiopia… Reaching No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart: “Good Vibrations” by The Beach Boys in 1966; “Say Say Say” by Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson in 1983; “Look Away” by Chicago in 1988.

News:
Civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway in 1964… famous soul singer Otis Redding is among those who perished in a plane crash in 1967.
 
Celebrity Birthdays:
Actress Fionnula Flanagan (“Rich Man, Poor Man”) is 82; actress-singer Gloria Loring is 77; actress Susan Dey (“The Partridge Family”) is 71; actor-director Kenneth Branagh (“Henry V”) is 63; actress Nia Peeples (“Fame”) is 62; Chef Bobby Flay is 59; actress Emmanuelle Chriqui (“Entourage”) is 48; actress Raven-Symone is 38; Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Joe Burrow is 27.

Did You Know?
“The Dreamer of Oz: The L. Frank Baum Story” marked Jason Ritter’s first credited acting appearance. He first appeared in the opening credits of his father’s sitcom, “Three’s Company.” He was the little blonde haired boy running up to Joyce DeWitt in the petting zoo scene.