1876: The telephone is patented by inventor Alexander Graham Bell. The phone has been featured countless times in Al's work, either as a basis for a whole song ("Phony Calls," "Cell Phones"), as a key element in a song ("Albuquerque," "Ringtone"), as a common prop (UHF), or as a device to start a live performance ("A Complicated Song").

1913: Baseball-commentating legend Mel Allen is born in Birmingham, Alabama. Even though they appeared at opposite ends of the movie, both Mel and Al would make cameos in The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! How about that.

1934: The great Florence Henderson is born in Dale, Indiana. Florence, as you know, would gain fame as both the motherly Carol of The Brady Bunch (the "lovely lady" mentioned in Al's Men Without Hats parody...well, "The Brady Bunch") and as Wesson cooking oil's lead spokesperson, but she also has many links to Al! In 1996 Florence would be featured in Al's "Amish Paradise" video (taking over Michelle Pfeiffer's role), and then later that same year would show up in Al's Disney Channel special (There's No) Going Home. Al would briefly talk about his experience working with Florence when A&E did a Biography episode about her in 2001. And both Florence and Al would make cameo appearances during the Academy Awards segment of Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult.

1948: Usually silent comic magician Teller is born in Philadelphia as Raymond Joseph Teller. Al and the band would perform the first ever live version of "The Night Santa Went Crazy" on Penn and Teller's ill-fated series Sin City Spectacular for the FX cable network. Teller and Al had both previously appeared in the Ramones' "Something To Believe In" video. Finally, on the Weird Al Show: The Complete Series DVD, Al would claim in the commentary for "Talent Show" that the famous comedy/magic duo was invited to appear on the episode and participate in the titular talent show, but unfortunately they had other commitments.

1953: The Gremlins' favorite film, Walt Disney's animated masterpiece Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, finally opens in Guyana...only sixteen years after its original release. In the music video for the Lady Gaga parody "Perform This Way," Al depicts the lyric about him being an "evil queen" by literally dressing up as Queen Grimhilde, the so-called Evil Queen from this movie.

1954: Matt Groening, creator, writer, and (if you believe any non-animated artwork) apparent sole illustrator of The Simpsons, is born in Portland, Oregon. Al has said on a few occasions that he is a big fan of the show, as can be apparent with both references in the songs "Frank's 2000" TV" and "Why Does This Always Happen To Me?" and the sound byte between Bart and Moe featured in "Phony Calls." Al would finally achieve entrance into the annals of pop culture history in April 2003 by making a guest appearance on the "Three Gays of the Condo" episode, and in January 2008 Al would return to appear on the "That '90s Show" episode. And although he didn't have any lines (since he was cryogenically frozen), Al had previously appeared on Matt's other awesome animated series, Futurama!

1972: Gruff singer, songwriter, guitarist, and pianist Rob Thomas is born in Landstuhl, Germany. When he's not collaborating on hit songs with rock fossil Santana, Rob headlines Matchbox 20, whose hit "Push" would be included in Al's 1999 medley "Polka Power!"

1975: "How did he do such fantastic stunts with such little feet??" Mel Brooks's comedy masterpiece Blazing Saddles opens in Finland. Al would seemingly allude to the classic spoof toward the end of the February 2008 Rifftrax MP3 for Jurassic Park, specifically when the Tyrannosaurus Rex saves our heroes by attacking one of the two advancing Velociraptors. As the other goes after the T-Rex in retaliation, Al comments as the Raptor, "You bit Ronnie, you beast! I hate you! I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!", emulating one of the effeminate dancers during the "French Mistake" closing number.

1977: Those hippy B-52s, whose hit "Love Shack" would be included in Al's 1992 medley "Polka Your Eyes Out" and whose style Al's 1984 original "Mr. Popeil" largely emulates, make their public debut, performing at an Athens, Georgia party.

1978: Vines acoustic guitarist Ryan Griffiths is born. Al would include the group's hit "Get Free" in his Poodle Hat medley "Angry White Boy Polka."

1980: The horny comedy 10 opens in France, starring Dudley Moore, Julie Andrews, and the painfully untalented Bo Derek. In July 2006 Al would appear on the "1977" episode of VH1's mini-series I Love the '70s Volume 2 to discuss Bo's previous work, the cheesy Jaws rip-off Orca. Al recalled, "The scene where Bo Derek gets her leg bitten off? She went from a 'ten' to about an eight-and-a-half in, like, two seconds!"

1984: The pop single "To All the Girls I've Loved Before" by the superduo of Latin-music legend Julio Iglesias and country icon Willie Nelson is released. The first single off Julio's then-upcoming 1100 Bel Air Place album (his thirty-fifth!), this cover of a 1975 Albert Hammond song would set the tone for the eventual album, which contained a number of additional duets with such artists as Diana Ross and the Beach Boys. For what was intended to be Julio's big breakout single into the U.S., it would be nice to say that the song offered something new and fresh--or at least different. But alas, one's left with a very ordinary, keyboard-flavored '80s ballad, one that sadly doesn't really benefit from the collaboration or from the uniqueness of its participants...and that's saying something when Willie Nelson's voice doesn't do anything for a recording! Regardless of the song's quality, it would nevertheless do the trick and become a huge hit for both artists, becoming Julio's signature English number in the process. In Billboard the single would top the "Country Singles" chart, hit #3 on the "Adult Contemporary" chart, and #5 on the "Hot 100"...becoming Julio's first top twenty hit and only top ten U.S. hit as well. Although Al has never parodied it, he would invoke the hit during a newsbreak on that September's Al-TV special. Al would report that the success of Julio's duets from the album had prompted him to collaborate with none other than Ozzy Osbourne. Al explains, "Julio and Ozzy will be going into the studio soon to record the middle-of-the-road/heavy metal instant classic "To All the Rabid Bats I've Beheaded with My Bare Teeth Before,' and it should be out for Christmas."

1986: The somewhat laughable sequel Rocky IV premieres in Finland. Perhaps one of the only highlights in the film is the appearance of James Brown performing the movie's theme, "Living In America." Al would parody the song later that year for Polka Party! as "Living With A Hernia," and the video would even have a subtle nod to the song's movie of origin.

1991: The Coen Brothers' quirky gangster drama Miller's Crossing opens in Germany. Perhaps the movie's most famous single shot, in which mentally challenged boxer Drop Johnson (Mario Todisco) screams while a fight goes on off-camera, would be seen during the opening montage on the Straight Outta Lynwood Tour.

1992: The ultra-hip Mike Myers hit Wayne's World opens in theaters, resulting in the highest grossing February opening weekend in movie history (it would eventually be beaten in 1997 by Dante's Peak). Al would state in the 1992 AlMusic how much he loved the movie (so much that he even bought the Wayne's World action figures!). In addition to starting the modern day trend of Saturday Night Live movies (bringing us such classics as It's Pat: The Movie and A Night at the Roxbury...cough), Wayne's World also turned Queen's excellent "Bohemian Rhapsody" into a hit all over again. In the aforementioned AlMusic, Al would decide to show the "original" video of the song, so he played Bad News's off-key "extra-metalized" remake. He would also give the newly repopularized ballad a distinction of its own, as the next year he turned it into "Bohemian Polka," the only time a polka "medley" consisted of just one song!

1997: Cheesy, overblown musical biopic Evita opens in Turkey. In January 2005 Al would appear on the "1996" episode of VH1's mini-series I Love the '90s Part Deux to discuss the demonstrations across Argentina protesting the casting of Madonna as the title character, the country's doomed former First Lady Eva Perón.

1997: Stupid, stupid, stupid "updated but authentic" tragic love story William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet opens in South Africa (if only there was an anti-apartheid-esque movement against this). In January 2005 Al would appear on the "1996" episode of VH1's mini-series I Love the '90s Part Deux to offer his opinion of the film. Specifically he said, "I thought the writing was good, but it felt a little dated somehow."

1998: The Weird Al Show's first episode to be produced, "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Hamster," is repeated on most CBS stations. It would be seen two more times before CBS cancels its entire Saturday morning lineup in September.

1999: This Day In Weird Al History premieres at All Things Yankovic. Similar to traditional "on this day in history" features both on and off the Internet, it would trace daily events that happened not only in Al's life and career but also in the lives and careers of those he's worked with or parodied, not to mention events related to the numerous television shows and movies Al has referenced or parodied over the years. Each individual event would be researched from scratch (no Wikishortcuts allowed!) and hand-typed, usually with a slightly entertaining spin on it. Events would range from 551 BCE to present day (sometimes with an event being included on the very day it's presented, such as a concert). There are currently daily entries for all 366 possible days of the year containing 7,713 events to date. Yippee!

2003: The Eminem "drama" 8 Mile opens in Turkey. Al parodied Eminem's Academy Award-winning theme song "Lose Yourself" as the Poodle Hat lead-off track "Couch Potato." He also would have parodied the movie in a music video, but Eminem nixed that idea. Jerk.

2010: The Knack frontman Doug Fieger dies in Woodland Hills, California after battling lung cancer for six years. Doug not only wrote the group's iconic hit "My Sharona," on which Al of course based his parody "My Bologna," but he was also the one who urged Capitol Records to sign Al to the label in 1979. Doug and Al had remained close friends, with Doug praising Al's work in the VH1 Behind the Music and Driven specials and then appearing on the network's debate series The List when Al hosted a week of shows in August 2000. Bringing it all back around, in 2006 Doug even let Al cover "My Sharona" for the bridge in the R. Kelly parody "Trapped In The Drive-Thru" as a backup in case Al couldn't get permission from Led Zeppelin to use "Black Dog." And of course, Doug was one of the first celebrities to sign our petition to get Al into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Bless you, sir.

Is there an event I forgot? By all means let me know!!!!

Recording dates and tour dates available at Weirdal.com, compiled by Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz. Most release dates, birthdays, and chart positions according to the Internet Movie Database, the Library of Congress, and the All Music Guide.