ON THIS DAY 5 9 2023

This Day in History: May 9

Featured Event

Mike Wallace

American television interviewer and reporter




Mike Wallace, original name Myron Leon Wallace, (born May 9, 1918, Brookline, Massachusetts, U.S.—died April 7, 2012, New Canaan, Connecticut), American television interviewer and reporter who was best known for his work on the TV news program 60 Minutes.


After graduating from the University of Michigan (1939), Wallace worked as an announcer and newscaster on radio, delving into various programs including talk shows, quiz shows, serials, and the news. He served as a naval communications officer during World War II and was subsequently hired as a radio reporter in Chicago. In the 1950s he began to work on television, hosting several television quiz shows. Wallace joined CBS as a reporter in 1963 and was coeditor of the long-running 60 Minutes from its first program in 1968. He was a regular contributor until 2006, though he periodically conducted interviews for the show thereafter. Noted for his aggressive, bruising style (which led some of his guests to experience “Mike fright”), he traveled the world interviewing some of the most famous and powerful figures, and he won numerous Emmy Awards. Wallace wrote several books, including the memoir Between You and Me (2005; cowritten with Gary Paul Gates).

SEE ALL RELATED CONTENT

Billy Joel

American musician


.

Billy Joel, in full William Martin Joel, (born May 9, 1949, Bronx, New York, U.S.), American singer, pianist, and songwriter in the pop ballad tradition whose numerous hit songs in the 1970s and ’80s made him an enduring favourite on the concert circuit.
Joel, whose father was a German Jewish immigrant, was raised in Hicksville, a middle-class suburb on Long Island, New York. He was steered toward classical music by his parents and began piano lessons at age 4. At age 14, enamoured of the British Invasion and soul music, he began playing in bands. With the rock and blue-eyed soul group the Hassles, he recorded two albums in the late 1960s, and a stint in the heavy metal duo Attila followed.


SEE ALL RELATED CONTENT