ON THIS DAY 5 13 2023

This Day in History: May 13

Featured Event

1950

American musician Stevie Wonder, a child prodigy who developed into one of the most creative musical figures of the late 20th century, was born in Saginaw, Michigan.




Stevie Wonder, original name Stevland Hardaway Judkins, also called Stevland Hardaway Morris, (born May 13, 1950, Saginaw, Michigan, U.S.), American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, a child prodigy who developed into one of the most creative musical figures of the late 20th century.
Blind from birth and raised in inner-city Detroit, he was a skilled musician by age eight. Renamed Little Stevie Wonder by Berry Gordy, Jr., the president of Motown Records—to whom he was introduced by Ronnie White, a member of the Miracles—Wonder made his recording debut at age 12. The soulful quality of his high-pitched singing and the frantic harmonica playing that characterized his early recordings were evident in his first hit single, “Fingertips (Part 2),” recorded during a show at Chicago’s Regal Theatre in 1963. But Wonder was much more than a freakish prepubescent imitation of Ray Charles, as audiences discovered when he demonstrated his prowess with piano, organ, harmonica, and drums. By 1964 he was no longer described as “Little,” and two years later his fervent delivery of the pounding soul of “Uptight (Everything’s Alright),” which he also had written, suggested the emergence of both an unusually compelling performer and a composer to rival Motown’s stable of skilled songwriters. (He had already cowritten, with Smokey Robinson, “The Tears of a Clown.”)


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Stephen Colbert

American comedian




Stephen Colbert, in full Stephen Tyrone Colbert, (born May 13, 1964, Washington, D.C., U.S.), American actor and comedian who was best known as the host of The Colbert Report (2005–14), an ironic send-up of television news programs, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (2015– ).
After graduating with a theatre degree (1986) from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, Colbert joined the Second City comedy improv troupe in Chicago. There he met Amy Sedaris and Paul Dinello, with whom he created the award-winning sketch show Exit 57 (1995–96) and the bizarre sitcom Strangers with Candy (1999–2000), both on the Comedy Central cable network. Colbert worked on several other television projects before joining in 1997 Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, which was hosted by Jon Stewart. For eight years he was a correspondent and writer on the news parody, where he became a fan favourite for such segments as “This Week in God,” a look at religious issues in the news, and “Even Stephven,” a mock debate between Colbert and fellow correspondent Steve Carell.


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