American Idol has brought to light dozens of famous musicians in the decades since it first aired on June 11, 2002. The show, created by Simon Fuller, was based on a British show titled Pop Idol, which featured the same concept of searching for the best musicians around. The show took the same format for most of its run time, which included multiple auditions in front of producers and eventually the judge panel, who would then decide who from each city would get to go to Hollywood (the next round). For seasons 1 through 8, the judging panel consisted of Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul, and Simon Cowell, who each brought their own energy and approach to the industry. Once they selected who would go to Hollywood, there would be 3 rounds of eliminations, which they would also decide on before turning the choice over to the public in the semifinals round. During the semi-finals, viewers were able to vote for their favorite performances using a toll-free number as many times as they wanted during the 2-hour voting window.
The final stretch of the competition was also determined by the viewers, as well as being filmed in front of a live audience. The show was incredibly successful during its first season and quickly became a star in the broadcast television industry with its unique viewer involvement and stars. The winner of the very first season was none other than Kelly Clarkson, who has since become incredibly popular and even hosts her own talk show. In the Clarke-Times Courier on May 18th, 2006, they published the thoughts of many in their community about the show. One person said, “I’m probably the only person in the country who doesn’t watch it”. Another said she doesn’t watch a lot of TV, but she always makes time for the show, and her family knows not to interrupt her watching time. Despite being 4 years after the premiere, this article accurately depicts just how popular the show became in such a short time!
Ella Fitzgerald was a revolutionary jazz singer and songwriter who fought her way out of a troubled childhood using music. In her obituary, published in The Daily Mail in Catskill, New York, they shared the story of how a young girl went from shy to Frank Sinatra’s “all-time favorite”. She grew up in New York, living in various homes after family deaths, including that of her mother and aunt. At 15, she became involved in some criminal activity and was taken into custody before being sent to an abusive reform school in New York. Ella escaped this school and took to the streets of Harlem, performing to earn money for herself. When she was 17, she performed at the Apollo Theater, where she won first place at amateur night. She continued to perform and sing in Harlem, and later was invited to perform with the Tiny Bradshaw Band at venues like the Harlem Opera House and Yale University. From here, she was able to launch her musical career and joined the band as the lead female vocalist. By 21, she began to record music, which hit the top of the charts upon release. As her career grew, she had the opportunity to perform on shows like The Bing Crosby Show and The Frank Sinatra Show, as well as alongside other famous jazz musicians, such as Louis Armstrong. She continued to record music and change the jazz genre for decades. In 1986, Ella was diagnosed with diabetes and other ongoing health issues, but it wasn’t until 1991 that she gave her last performance. As her condition worsened, she underwent surgery to amputate both of her legs due to complications, and eventually passed from these health issues on June 15, 1996. By the time she passed, she had recorded over 2,000 songs, won 14 Grammys, received a Presidential Medal of Freedom, and hundreds more awards and recognitions for her career. Today, her legacy as the ‘First Lady of Song’ lives on in the music industry as a whole.
(1945 – 1980s) Classified Information: Pentagon Papers First Printed, 1971
On June 13, 1971, the New York Times published the first of many articles detailing a classified federal report on the history of United States involvement in Indochina (Vietnam). The report was commissioned in 1967 by the Secretary of Defense to document all involvement until 1968. Daniel Ellesburg, a senior research associate from MIT, worked on this project and was responsible for the unauthorized leaking of large portions of the report to the New York Times. The Times published the first of various articles based on the information given to them on June 13, and was able to publish 3 more days’ worth of articles before they were faced with a court order from the Department of Justice to stop. This didn’t stop the information from spreading like wildfire, and the stories appeared days later in papers across the country, including The Gazette in Cedar Rapids the next day, where they summarized what had been shared the day before. The New York Times, joined by the Washington Post, pushed back against this order, and a later Supreme Court case allowed them to resume publishing the information they had been given. The report reflected poorly on the Nixon Administration, which was seeking re-election at the time. As a result, this led to the many shady moves by the administration to devalue the word of Ellesburg, later uncovered during the Watergate scandal. The papers greatly changed the way the public viewed US involvement in Vietnam, but it wasn’t until 2011 that the report was fully unclassified to the public.
On June 13, 1940, French forces left the city of Paris and declared it an open city. The next day, on June 14th, German forces invaded the occupied Paris. In the morning, an announcement was made that German forces would be entering the city that day, and an 8 pm curfew was being put in place. By the time the German tanks rolled into the city, over 2 million Parisians had fled the city. This occupation was one of many in the Germans’ attempt to take over various European countries, like Poland. In the Newark Sunday Call, a correspondent from Paris who had traveled with the Germans described the imagery of Nazi-Occupied Paris. He described a dead city upon arrival, writing, “I just do not recognize Paris again”. As they began to place more and more flags with swastikas on them around the city, the correspondent wrote that it all seemed unreal, like a real-life version of Arabian Nights. I thought this was a fascinating piece of history, a first-hand account of the German occupation of Paris as it first began.
Amid the civil war, there was a serious lack of burial grounds for the influx of soldiers dying in the conflict. The answer to this lack of space was the creation of Arlington National Cemetery. The Arlington Estate was the childhood home of Confederate General Robert E. Lee and was seized by the federal government during the Civil War. On June 15, 1864, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton designated 200 acres of the estate as a national cemetery where veterans were to be buried. While the estate couldn’t be recovered by Lee after the war, his family considered making it a museum as well as a cemetery. An article in the Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette described how various historical figures made the land an important historical landmark, and the Daughters of the Confederacy were looking into turning it into a museum to memorialize that, but ultimately, the land remained a cemetery primarily. Since 1864, the cemetery has been expanded to include over 350 acres and is the final resting place for over 400,000 veterans.
Join me again next week to discover more of history’s hidden gems and timeless tales.
Explore the “Read All About It” archives to read stories that spotlight our partners and their communities, announcements from our team, updates on current projects, and so much more. Discover articles about engagement, outreach, primary sources, community, digitization, education, and other topics of interest. Delve into the happenings in this week in history and take a deep dive into the events and people who helped shape our communities, our nation, and the world.
Hear Ye, Hear Ye, READ ALL ABOUT IT!
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