Today in History: Wednesday, February 14, 2024

Television
Then Senator John F. Kennedy appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” in 1954. Eight years later, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy conducted a tour of the White House on TV in 1962…The first telecast of 1959 theatrical classic “Ben-Hur” aired in a five-hour block on CBS in 1971…John Lennon and Yoko Ono began a week-long stint as co-hosts on daytime talker “The Mike Douglas Show” in 1972. One of their guests was rock pioneer Chuck Berry…Walter Cronkite announced his retirement from the “CBS Evening News” in 1980…CBS debuted miniseries, “Alex Haley’s Queen,” an adaptation of Haley’s novel “Queen: The Story of an American Family,” in 1993…“Barbra Streisand: Timeless” aired on Fox in 2001. The special was a farewell-tour concert.

Movie
The original “Dracula” film starring Bela Lugosi as the titular vampire opened in theaters in 1931.  In 2000, the film was selected by the United States Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry as “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”…“The Silence of the Lambs”, directed by Jonathan Demme and starring Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins, opened in 1991. It won five Oscars: Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published…Comedy film “Wayne’s World” starring Mike Myers and Dana Carvey, based on their Saturday Night Live sketch premiered in 1992.

Music
Whitney Houston’s debut album, “Whitney Houston”, was released in 1985. It won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female 1986, Billboard Album of Year.

Celebrity Birthdays 
Politician Michael Bloomberg is 81; magician Raymond Teller of Penn & Teller is 75; “The Good Doctor” star Freddie Highmore is 31.

Did You Know?
“The Mike Douglas Show” premiered locally on KYW in Cleveland on December 11, 1961. In September 1963, Douglas’ show was syndicated to four other television markets that had a Westinghouse-owned station: Pittsburgh, Boston, Baltimore and San Francisco. Less than one year later, the show had expanded to a total of 27 cities. More stations picked up the talk show and it stayed on the air until Nov. 30, 1981.