May 20, 1946

Hello, everyone!  Are you ready for the next edition of the Tuesday Timeline?  I hope you are because I've got another new topic to talk about.  As you well know, this month is going to feature celebrity birthdays, and my job is to try and find one piece of trivia for each year that they have been alive.  Two weeks ago, I featured George Clooney, and last week, I featured Stevie Wonder.  Maybe I should feature a female this week to try and balance things out a bit.

For now though, let's have a look at the events and celebrity birthdays for May 20.

526 - A quarter of a million people are killed after an earthquake devastates the area that is now called Syria and Antiochia

1570 - Cartographer Abraham Ortelius issues Theatrum Orbis Terrarum - the first modern atlas

1609 - William Shakespeare's sonnets are first published in London

1813 - The Battle of Bautzen takes place in Saxony, Germany when Napoleon Bonaparte leads his troops into battle with Russian and Prussian forces

1862 - The Homestead Law is passed by President Abraham Lincoln

1873 - Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis receive a patent to manufacture blue jeans with copper rivets

1883 - The eruption of Mt. Krakatoa begins - would erupt three months later, killing 36,000 people

1891 - Thomas Edison displays the prototype of the first kinetoscope

1899 - The very first traffic ticket was issued to Jacob German in New York City when he was arrested for speeding while driving 12 miles an hour!

1927 - Charles Lindbergh takes off from Roosevelt Field, Long Island, New York to embark on the world's first solo non-stop fight across the Atlantic Ocean

1932 - Amelia Earhart takes off from Newfoundland to embark on the world's first solo non-stop flight across the Atlantic by a female pilot

1969 - The Battle of Hamburger Hill in Vietnam ends

1980 - Quebec residents vote in favour of not separating from Canada with 60% of the votes during the 1980 Referendum

1983 - The discovery that the HIV virus causes AIDS is first published in scientific magazines

1989 - Actress/comedienne Gilda Radner succumbs to ovarian cancer at the age of 42

1996 - Jon Pertwee - the Third Doctor - dies at the age of 76

2011 - Wrestler Randy Savage dies of cardiac arrhythmia at the age of 58

2012 - Singer Robin Gibb of The Bee Gees dies of liver and kidney failure at the age of 62

2013 - An EF5 tornado devastates the community of Moore, Oklahoma, killing 24 and injuring 377 others

And, a very happy birthday to John Cruickshank, David Hedison, Constance Towers, Anthony Zerbe, John Strasberg, Joe Cocker, Mary Pope Osborne, Dave Thomas, Cindy McCain, Dean Butler, Ron Reagan, Jane Wiedlin, Susan Cowsill, Bronson Pinchot, John Billingsley, Tony Goldwyn, Dan Abrams, Mindy Cohn, Timothy Olyphant, Busta Rhymes, Matt Czuchry, Angela Goethals, Candace Bailey, and Jack Gleeson.

Okay, so I've left off one celebrity birthday on purpose.  And, as I said before, this person is female.  So, when was she born?

May 20, 1946.  Oh, NO!  Well, okay, the positive is that I'm debuting the new Tuesday Timeline year logo to go with the new colour scheme of the blog.  The negative?  I have to come up with sixty-eight fun facts about this celebrity superstar!  Why couldn't I have chosen someone born in 1990 instead?

Oh well...since I can't go back on my word, I may as well let you know that today's blog subject is CHER.  And Cher has definitely been a huge force in the recording industry for nearly five whole decades!  So, I'm thinking that finding 68 pieces of trivia for every single one of Cher's 68 years of life will be easy.  At least...I HOPE so.

1 - Cher's name at birth was Cherilyn Sarkisian.

2 - Cher's mother was married EIGHT times!  Three of those marriages were to Cher's father!

3 - Cher herself was only married twice in comparison - once to Sonny Bono, and once to Gregg Allman.

4 - Cher has two children.  Elijah Blue Allman and Chaz Bono (formerly known as Chastity).

5 - She is the oldest female artist to have a #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with the single "Believe".  At the time, she was 52 years old.

6 - Cher was once so poor as a child that she reportedly used rubber bands to hold her shoes together.

7 - Her first stage production was for a fifth grade performance of the musical "Oklahoma!"

8 - Her childhood idol growing up was Audrey Hepburn, and she even began dressing like her when "Breakfast at Tiffany's" was released.

9 - She is dyslexic, going undiagnosed for many years before being diagnosed with it as an adult.

10 - Dropped out of high school when she was 16 to pursue a career in entertainment.

11 - Cher first met her first husband Sonny Bono in 1962.  Cher was just 16...Sonny was 27. 

12 - And would you believe that Cher was originally hired to be Sonny's housekeeper?  It's kind of like "Who's The Boss", only in reverse.

13 - Sonny and Cher first began performing together in 1964...under the stage name of Caesar & Cleo.  Don't worry if you haven't heard of them.  They never had a hit...

14 - ...that is until the group started recording as Sonny and Cher, and their hit "I Got You Babe" hit #1 during the summer of 1965.

15 - Teenagers were so in love with Sonny and Cher's fashion style that Cher was even inspired to design her own line of clothing!

16 - Sonny and Cher married in 1964, but the marriage was already in trouble as early as 1969 when Sonny cheated on her with several women.

17 - However, when Sonny and Cher were offered their own show after they appeared as guest hosts on "The Merv Griffin Show", they decided to stay together...at least they agreed to it then.

18 - That show was The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour", which premiered in August 1971.

19 - That same year, Cher achieved her very first solo #1 single in "Gypsys, Tramps, & Thieves".

20 - Although Cher's divorce from Sonny Bono was finalized in June 1975, the marriage was reportedly over three full years before that in 1972.  Cher continued with the variety show until 1974 though.

21 - She had a two year love affair with record executive David Geffen in the early 1970s.

22 - She is the winner of three Golden Globe Awards, won in 1974 for her variety series with Sonny Bono, 1984 for "Silkwood", and 1988 for "Moonstruck".

23 - She is also the winner of an Emmy Award for her 2003 concert special "Cher:  The Farewell Tour".

24 - She is also the winner of a Grammy Award where she won for her single "Believe".

25 - She is also the winner of an Academy Award in 1988 for Best Actress for the film "Moonstruck".

26 - Sadly, she was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award in 2010 for her role in "Burlesque"...

27 - ...the good news is that she lost the award!

28 - She was featured twice on People's Most Intriguing People of The Year issues in 1975 and 1987 respectively.

29 - There was a twenty-five year gap between two of Cher's #1 hits between 1974's "Dark Lady" and 1999's "Believe".

30 - Cher appeared on the cover of People Magazine a total of 13 times.

31 - If you allow #1 dance hits, Cher has had at least one #1 hit in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s.

32 - Cher isn't wearing flowered panties in the video for "If I Could Turn Back Time".  That's actually a tattoo!  Rumour has it that she's underwent procedures to remove it.

33 - In total, Cher has six tattoos.

34 - She's also been called the "poster girl" of plastic surgery, even though Cher herself has stated that she hasn't had as many procedures as people think.

35 - Cher was awarded with an award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 1999 for her contribution to fashion.

36 - One of Cher's favourite designers was Bob Mackie - who also designed the costumes for "The Carol Burnett Show".

37 - Appeared on an episode of "Will & Grace".

38 - Is widely considered to be one of the biggest gay icons in the world.

39 - She performed the Star-Spangled Banner at Super Bowl XXXIII in 1999.

40 - Despite having a "Farewell Tour" which lasted between 2002 and 2005, Cher is currently embarking on the "Dressed To Kill" tour, which begin in March 2014.

41 - Reunited with Sonny Bono in a 1987 episode of "Late Night With David Letterman.

42 - She read a heartfelt eulogy for Sonny Bono after his January 1998 death.

43 - Performed a cover version of "The Shoop Shoop Song" in 1990 to promote the movie "Mermaids", which she starred in alongside Winona Ryder and Christina Ricci.

44 - Identifies herself as a Buddhist.

45 - Stands at five feet, eight-and-a-half inches tall.

46 - She lived with Gene Simmons for several years.

47 - She was offered the role of Thelma in the 1991 film "Thelma & Louise".  The part eventually went to Geena Davis.

48 - She really wanted to play the role of Morticia Addams in "The Addams Family", but Anjelica Huston won the part instead.

49 - She was forced to wear braces in adulthood.

50 - Suffers from a fear of flying.

51 - She was offered a role in "The Witches of Eastwick" on May 20, 1986 - Cher's 40th birthday.

52 - Is one of only six actors/actresses to have both a #1 single and an Academy Award.

53 - Auditioned for the role of Bonnie Parker in 1967's "Bonnie and Clyde".  The part went to Faye Dunaway.

54 - Before giving birth to Chastity/Chaz Bono, Cher suffered four miscarriages.

55 - She was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in May 1998.

56 - Cher's ex-husband, Gregg Allman and her son Elijah made cameo appearances in the "If I Could Turn Back Time" video.

57 - "If I Could Turn Back Time" was actually banned from MTV for a period of time.

58 - Cher married Gregg Allman just three days after her divorce from Sonny Bono was finalized.

59 - The video for "Song For The Lonely" is one of the last videos made that features the World Trade Center.  The video was filmed just days before the 9/11 attacks.

60 - Cher re-recorded her hit single "I Got You Babe" with Beavis and Butt-Head in 1993.

61 - Released a total of twenty-five studio albums.

62 - In November 2010, Cher placed her handprints in cement in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre.

63 - Turned down the opportunity to perform at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia due to Russia's anti-gay stance.

64 - She is not a registered Democrat, but has been seen at several Democratic conventions over the years.

65 - Contributed to "Operation Helmet".

66 - Has done work with "Habitat for Humanity".

67 - Worked as a model for photographer Richard Avedon in the late 1960s.

68 - Her latest album was released in 2013.

Whew.  I'm exhausted!  That was a lot to write!  But, at 68, Cher certainly shows no sign of slowing down at all!