This Day in History

Sonny Bono dies in skiing accident

On this day in 1998, Sonny Bono who stepped into spotlight as half of ‘Sony& Cher’ a 1960s singing and acting duo sensation, dies in a skiing accident while on vacation with his family in South Lake Tahoe, California.
Turned into a respected California lawmaker and US congressman, the 62-year-old Bono and his fourth wife, Mary, were visiting the Heavenly Ski Resort, located on the Nevada-California border some 55 miles south of Reno, Nevada, with their young son and daughter when he disappeared and was later found dead.
Bono’s death occurred less than a week after another high-profile accident killed Michael Kennedy, the son of the late US Attorney General and Senator Robert F. Kennedy, on the ski slopes of Aspen, Colorado.
A songwriter and singer, Bono teamed with the prominent songwriter Phil Spector and sang back-up for the Righteous Brothers. While married to his first wife, Donna Rankin, Bono met the 16-year-old Cherilyn Sarkasian; they made several recordings together, but struck gold with their 1965 mega-hit “I Got You Babe.” Bono divorced Rankin and in 1969 had a daughter, Chastity, with Cher; they later married. In 1971, the couple’s TV show, The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, premiered, having lasted until 1974, when the couple split amid rampant gossip about extramarital affairs.

Alexandre Dumas’ first duel

In 1825, also on January 5, 23-year-old Alexandre Dumas fights his first duel. He sustains no serious injury, although his pants fall down in the fight. He’ll later fill his romantic works, including The Three Musketeers, with duels, battles, and daring escapades.
Son of one of Napoleon’s generals, Dumas worked in the household of the Duke D’Orleans, who became King Louis-Philippe. He began writing plays, which became huge hits with the public, then turned to historical novels. The Three Musketeers was published in 1844, followed by The Count of Monte Cristo in 1845.
Alexandre Dumas led a tempestuous life filled with ruinous love affairs. His illegitimate son also became a writer – the two were later known as Dumas pere (French for “father”) and Dumas fils (French for “son”). The Dumas pere died in 1870. Five years later, his son was admitted to the elite Academie Francaise and died in 1895.