Today in History and Celebrity Birthdays

Celebrity Birthdays for Nov. 18: Actress Brenda Vaccaro is 85. Author-poet Margaret Atwood is 85. Actress Linda Evans is 82. Actress Susan Sullivan is 82. Country singer Jacky Ward is 82. Actor Jameson Parker is 77.

Today in History for Nov. 18: On this date: In 1095, Pope Urban II called 600 men to the Council of Clermont, where he asked Europe to recapture the Holy Land from the Turks. A vast crusading army was deployed.

Today in Music History for Nov. 18: In 1926, 1950s pop singer Dorothy Collins, whose real name is Margaret Chandler, was born in Windsor, Ont. She got her start in Canadian radio, then performed with bandleader Raymond Scott in the U.S.

Celebrity Birthdays for Nov. 17: Singer-songwriter Bob Gaudio of The Four Seasons is 82. Movie director Martin Scorsese is 82. Actress Lauren Hutton is 81. "Saturday Night Live" producer Lorne Michaels is 80. Actor-director Danny DeVito is 80.

Today in History for Nov. 17: On this date: In 1558, Queen Mary I, known as Bloody Mary, who tried to return Protestant Britain to Catholicism, died.

Today in Music History for Nov. 17: In 1938, singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot, who became Canada's most famous, and arguably most important, pop musician in the late 1960s, was born in Orillia, Ont.

Celebrity Birthdays for Nov. 16: Journalist Elizabeth Drew is 89. Country singer-songwriter Troy Seals is 86. Actress Joanna Pettet ("Knots Landing") is 82. World champion figure skater Maria Jelinek is 82. Actor Steve Railsback is 79.

Today in Music History for Nov. 16: In 1908, conductor Arturo Toscanini made his debut with the New York Metropolitan Opera with a performance of Verdi's "Aida.

Today in History for Nov. 16: On this date: In 1686, Britain and France signed the Treaty of Neutrality governing possession in North America in the event of war in Europe.

Celebrity Birthdays for Nov. 19: Talk show host Dick Cavett is 88. Media mogul Ted Turner is 86. Fashion designer Calvin Klein is 82. Fred Lipsius, former alto saxophonist and pianist with Blood, Sweat and Tears, is 81.