Jo Stafford (1917–2008) was an American traditional pop music singer
and occasional actress whose career spanned five decades. Admired for
the purity of her voice, she achieved by 1955 more worldwide record
sales than any other woman artist. Born in Coalinga, California,
Stafford made her first musical appearance at age twelve. She was
trained as an opera singer before turning to popular music. With her two
older sisters, she appeared in Alexander's Ragtime Band in 1938, where
she met musicians with whom she formed the The Pied Pipers and became
the group's lead singer. Her work with the USO, giving concerts for
soldiers, earned her the nickname "G.I. Jo". From 1945, Stafford was a
regular host of the NBC series The Chesterfield Supper Club and later
appeared on television including two series called The Jo Stafford Show.
In 1961, the album Jonathan and Darlene Edwards in Paris won Stafford
her only Grammy Award. In the 1970s, she recorded a cover of the Bee
Gees hit "Stayin' Alive". Her work is recognized by three stars on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame. Her 1952 song "You Belong to Me" made her the
first woman to reach number one on the U.K. Singles Chart.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jo_Stafford>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1330:
Led by voivode Basarab I, Wallachian forces defeated the
Hungarian army in an ambush at the Battle of Posada.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Posada>
1892:
William Heffelfinger was paid $525 by the Allegheny Athletic
Association, becoming the first professional American football player on
record.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Heffelfinger>
1944:
Second World War: The Royal Air Force sank the German
battleship Tirpitz on the ninth attempt, resulting in about 1,000 deaths
of the sailors on board.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_battleship_Tirpitz>
1996:
A Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 747 and a Kazakhstan Airlines
cargo plane collided in mid-air near New Delhi, killing 349 people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charkhi_Dadri_mid-air_collision>
2006:
Although the Georgian government declared it illegal, South
Ossetia held a referendum on independence, with about 99 percent of
voters supporting, to preserve the region's status as a de facto
independent state.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Ossetian_independence_referendum,_2006>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
peri:
A sprite or supernatural being in Persian mythology.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/peri>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
God's purpose in sending His Prophets unto men is twofold. The
first is to liberate the children of men from the darkness of ignorance,
and guide them to the light of true understanding. The second is to
ensure the peace and tranquillity of mankind, and provide all the means
by which they can be established.
--Bahá'u'lláh
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bah%C3%A1%27u%27ll%C3%A1h>