February 11, 2012: Whitney Houston Dies

The last known photo, 3 days earlier

February 11, 2012: Whitney Houston is found dead in her bathtub at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, outside Los Angeles. She was only 48 years old.

Born in Newark, New Jersey on August 9, 1963, and raised in neighboring East Orange, the daughter of singer Cissy Houston and a cousin of singer Dionne Warwick, she was one of the biggest singers in the world from 1985 to 1995. Songs like "How Will I Know" and "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" hit Number 1.

Her performance of the National Anthem before Super Bowl XXV is often hailed as the best version ever. She turned to acting, and in the film The Bodyguard, she sang Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You." It seemed to be Number 1 for years.

But her marriage to former New Edition singer Bobby Brown led her to drugs. One of the finest voices in music seemed to slip further and further away from the spotlight, surpassed in fame by Alanis Morissette, Britney Spears, Beyoncé Knowles, and those women's respective imitators. When she was seen in public, she always looked tired, and her behavior became more and more erratic, until her death.

To make matters worse, history repeated itself: Her only child, daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown, having just begun her own singing and acting careers, was found the same way, unconscious in a bathtub. She didn't die immediately, but was in an irreversible coma, and died on July 26, 2015, only 22.

It was a tremendous shame, because most of us hadn't seen Whitney at anywhere near her best since the film Waiting to Exhale came out, and gave her both her last real starring role and the last of her Number 1 hits, in 1995. She was only 32. Up to then, those other singers I mentioned, who came later? She was bigger than any of them. And better.

But she became a punchline well before she became a dead rock star. She may have had more than "One Moment In Time," but that moment has passed, and we still don't have the answer to to the question in another of her hits: "Where Do Broken Hearts Go?"

*

February 11, 2012 was a Saturday. Earlier in the day, North London soccer team Arsenal played Sunderland, at the Stadium of Light in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, in the North-East of England. After falling behind the weaker "Black Cats," the "Gunners" tied the game on a goal by Aaron Ramsey. They won the game in stoppage time by Thierry Henry. Having returned to Arsenal on a brief loan, after starring with them from 1999 to 2007, it was the 228th and last goal he scored for them, a team record.

Houston died a few hours later. Osama bin laden and Muammar Gaddafy had both been killed a few hours after goals scored by Ramsey, and so people began to talk about "The Curse of Aaron Ramsey." Ramsey took it in stride, and kept on scoring for Arsenal. I have a separate entry for the "curse" story.

There were 8 games played in the NBA that day:

* The New York Knicks beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 100-98 at the Target Center in Minneapolis.

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the San Antonio Spurs, 103-89 at the Prudential Center in Newark.

* The Los Angeles Clippers beat the Charlotte Bobcats, 111-86 at the Time Warner Cable Arena (now the Spectrum Center) in Charlotte.

* The Dallas Mavericks beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 97-94 in double overtime at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 99-84 the Quicken Loans Arena (now the Rocket Arena) in Cleveland.

* The Denver Nuggets beat the Indiana Pacers, 113-109 at the Bankers Life Fieldhouse (now the Gainbridge Fieldhouse) in Indianapolis.

* The Orlando Magic beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 99-94 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee.

* And the Phoenix Suns beat the Sacramento Kings, 98-84 at the Power Balance Pavilion (now the Sleep Train Arena) in Sacramento.

And there were 12 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 5-2 at the Wells Fargo Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.

* The New York Islanders beat the Los Angeles Kings, 2-1 at the Nassau Coliseum. Mark Streit scored the winning goal, 1:36 into overtime.

* The New Jersey Devils lost to the Florida Panthers, 3-1 at the Prudential Center in Newark. 

* In the opener of the weekly Saturday night CBC broadcast Hockey Night In Canada, the NHL's original rivalry was held at the Air Canada Centre (now the Scotiabank Arena) in Toronto, and the Montreal Canadiens beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-0.

* The Boston Bruins beat the Nashville Predators, 4-3 in a shootout at the TD Garden in Boston.

* The Edmonton Oilers beat the Ottawa Senators, 4-3 at Scotiabank Place (now the Canadian Tire Centre) in Ottawa.

* The Tampa Bay Lightning beat Buffalo Sabres, 2-1 at the First Niagara Center (now the KeyBank Center) in Buffalo.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Winnipeg Jets, 8-5 at the Consol Energy Center (now the PPG Paints Arena) in Pittsburgh.

* The Columbus Blue Jackets beat the Minnesota Wild, 3-1 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

* The St. Louis Blues beat the Colorado Avalanche, 3-2 at the Scottrade Center (now the Enterprise Center) in St. Louis. Carlo Colaiacovo scored the winning goal with 1:42 left in overtime.

* The Phoenix Coyotes beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 3-0 at the Jobing.com Arena (now the Desert Diamond Arena) in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, Arizona.

* In the nightcap of Hockey Night In Canada, the Calgary Flames beat the Vancouver Canucks, 3-2 in a shootout at the Saddledome in Calgary.

* And the Detroit Red Wings, the Dallas Stars, the Washington Capitals, the Carolina Hurricanes, the San Jose Sharks and the Anaheim Ducks were not scheduled.