On this day, December 31, in 1995, the last strip of Calvin and Hobbes was published after ten years because Watterson felt that he had achieved all he could in the medium.  Throughout the years, Watterson combated pressures from publishers to merchandise his work.  However, he always refused—stating that it would cheapen his comic and devalue the characters and their personalities.  Watterson himself will not sign autographs and there have been many unsuccessful attempts to find him in his home.

Watterson left a legacy of changing the format of the Sunday comic strip.  Before him, the strips were all a series of symmetrical rectangles for the artists to fill, but Bill Watterson gained an exception to these constraints and drew the panels of his comics exactly as he desired.

On this day, December 30, in 1937, Donald Duck was published in in Paperino, an Italian weekly journal.  Donald Ducks’ first long famous story, Paolino Paperino E Il Mistero Di Marte, translates to Donald Duck an the Mars Mystery and was written by Federico Pedrocchi.  It is the first to feature Donald as an adventurer in a comedic role and also the first of many stories to portray Donald as a space traveler.

On this day, December 29, in 1955, Barbra Streisand recorded her first song, a rendition of the popular song, You’ll Never Know.  The song, produced by Harry Warren and Mack Gordon, was first introduced in 1943.  It has been recorded several times by various artists, including Frank Sinatra and Dick Haymes.  For Barbra Streisand, it was the opening song on her 4-CD box set, Just for the Record.  Included in the box set was also her recording of the same song, sung in a duet at the age of 45.

On this day, December 28, in 1991, Ted Turner became the first media figure to be named Time Magazine’s Man of the Year.  He used to be America’s largest private landowner with about 2 million acres of land.  He also owned the Atlanta Braves, founded the Goodwill Games, was named the Humanist of the Year by the American Humanist Association, and became owner of the largest private bison herd of about 50,000. In addition to these achievements, Turner has many more proprieties, charitable acts, and awards.  He was even inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in April of 2007.

Jones was eventually drawn back to the stage and appeared in the musical Oliver!  He made an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show and was later signed to a contract.

Following his appearance on Ed Sullivan, Jones received screen time in various shows.  On this day, December 27, in 1965, Davy Jones appears on the episode, If you Play Your Cards Right, You Too Can Be a Loser, from ABC television’s Ben Casey.

In addition to his acting career, from 1965 to 1971, Jones was a member of the Monkees.  The Monkees are a pop-rock group that formed for a television show with the same name.  He was the only Monkee to have signed a deal with the studio.  Jones sang lead vocals on many of the group’s songs and continued to perform solo after the Monkees went off air and disbanded.

On this day, December 26, in 1966, Dr. Maulana Karenga, professor and chairman of Black Studies at California State University, Long Beach, created Kwanzaa.  He wanted to find a way to bring African-Americans together as a community after the Watts riots in LA.  Kwanzaa has its roots in the Black Nationalist movement.  Karenga combined various aspects of different harvest celebrations, such as those of the Ashanti and of the Zulu, to form the basis of Kwanzaa.  Its first celebration took place in 1966-1967.

On this day, December 25, in 1939, Rudolph made his first appearance in a booklet written by Robert May and published by Montgomery Ward.  The Christmas-themed story-poem was set to bring more holiday traffic to his store.

Montgomery Ward sold almost 2.5 million copies of the story that year.  When reissued about 7 years later, it sold over 3.5 million copies.  Since then, the story has been translated into 25 different languages, narrated to numerous audiences, and converted into a TV movie.

On this day, December 24, in 1974, in an Atlanta suburb of Georgia, Seacrest was born to Constance and Gary Seacrest.  It was revealed in People magazine that Ryan Seacrest was in the fourth grade when he had his first moment in the spotlight.  He was the “Voice of Dunwoody High School” and earned an internship at WSTR FM with Tom Sullivan.  Sullivan taught Seacrest many things about the radio industry and it was with WSTR FM that Seacrest went on air for the very first show of his broadcasting career.

On this day, December 23, in 1963, the Beach Boys appear on the show for the first time.  Shindig! has had many popular performers over the years, including The Beatles, Sonny and Cher, The Rolling Stones, The Ronettes, Elvis Presley, and more.

The show began having ratings problems by October of 1965 and by January 1966, Shindig! was cancelled and replaced by Batman.

On this day, December 22, in 2000, Madonna and Guy Ritchie were married in an exclusive ceremony in Scotland.  The wedding was held at the Great Hall of Scotland’s 19^th century Skibo Castle.  There were maybe about 60 people in attendance, including Gwyneth Paltrow, Rupert Everett, Donatella Versace, and more.

Madonna’s 4-year-old daughter, Lourdes, led the procession by tossing rose petals.  Following her, Ritchie, entered, dressed in a vibrant teal blazer and plaid kilt.  The best men and maid of honor entered after him.  Finally, the bride entered looking like a princess wearing a dress dated back to more than a century ago.