Whitney Houston, one of the world’s top-selling singers from the mid-1980s to late 1990s, is found dead in the bathtub of her suite at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California on February 11, 2012. Houston’s death was the result of accidental drowning; heart disease and cocaine, which was found in her system, were determined to be contributing factors. The 48-year-old pop diva, known for her soaring voice, won a total of six Grammy Awards and 22 American Music Awards (more than any other female), and was credited with influencing several generations of singers, from Mariah Carey to Jennifer Hudson. Whitney Elizabeth Houston was born on August 9, 1963, in Newark, New Jersey, to John Houston, a theatrical manager, and Cissy Houston, a singer who backed up a variety of artists, including Aretha Franklin and Elvis Presley. Growing up, the younger Houston sang in her church’s gospel choir. In high school, she performed background vocals on songs for Chaka Khan and others, and modeled, becoming one of the first African American women to appear on the cover of Seventeen magazine. In 1983, music producer Clive Davis heard Houston perform at a New York City nightclub and signed her to a recording deal. Her self-titled debut album, released in 1985, sold more than 25 million copies around the world and featured the hit singles “Saving All My Love for You,” “How Will I Know,” “You Give Good Love” and “The Greatest Love of All.” Her next album, 1987’s “Whitney,” was also a top-seller and included the hits “I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me),” “Didn’t We Almost Have It All,” “Where Do Broken Hearts Go” and “So Emotional.” Her third album, 1990’s “I’m Your Baby Tonight,” was another big commercial success. In 1992, the songstress made her movie debut, starring opposite Kevin Costner in the blockbuster “The Bodyguard.” The film’s soundtrack featured Houston’s recording of the ballad “I Will Always Love You,” which became the best-selling single by a female artist in music history. She went on to co-star in “Waiting to Exhale” (1995) and “The Preacher’s Wife” (1996), and also performed on the hit soundtracks for both movies.

On February 10, 1957, Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of the best-selling Little House series of children’s novels based on her childhood on the American frontier, dies at age 90 in Mansfield, Missouri. Laura Elizabeth Ingalls was born in a log cabin near Pepin, Wisconsin, on February 7, 1867, the second of Charles and Caroline Quiner Ingalls’ four daughters. As a child, she lived with her family in Indian Territory in Kansas, as well as in farming communities in Minnesota and Iowa. In the late 1870s, the Ingalls moved to Dakota Territory, settling in present-day De Smet, South Dakota. Laura Ingalls worked as a school teacher in the area, starting in her teens, and in 1885, married Almanzo Wilder, a local homesteader 10 years her senior. In 1886, the couple had a daughter; their only other child, a son, died shortly after his birth in 1889. In 1894, after several years of drought in South Dakota, the Wilders traveled by covered wagon to Mansfield, Missouri, in the Ozarks, where they established a farm. Years later, Laura Ingalls Wilder began contributing essays to local newspapers. In 1932, Wilder, then in her 60s, published her first novel, Little House in the Big Woods, an autobiographical account of pioneer life in Wisconsin. The book became a success, and she went on to publish seven more novels based on her experiences growing up on the American frontier in the 1870s and 1880s. These books, including Little House on the Prairie (1935), On the Banks of Plum Creek (1937) and The Long Winter (1940), chronicled the joys and hardships (including illnesses, crop failures, blizzards, fires and grasshopper plagues) that Wilder and her family experienced. A ninth novel, The First Four Years, (1971) was published posthumously, as were several other books based on Wilder’s journals and letters. Wilder’s daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, an author and journalist, is believed to have helped edit her mother’s books, although the exact extent of her collaboration is unknown.

On February 10, 2014, Shirley Temple Black, who as a child in the 1930s became one of Hollywood’s most successful stars, dies at her Woodside, California, home at age 85. The plucky, curly-haired performer sang, danced and acted in dozens of films by the time she was a teen; as an adult, she gave up making movies and served as a U.S. diplomat. Born on April 23, 1928, in Santa Monica, California, Temple began taking dance lessons when she was three. In 1932, she was discovered by an agent and cast in a series of short films called Baby Burlesks. Her career took off in 1934, when she appeared in the film Stand Up and Cheer then went on to star in such movies as Little Miss Marker (1934), in which she played a girl left with a bookie as an IOU for her father’s bet on a horse; Bright Eyes (1934), which featured her signature song "On the Good Ship Lollipop"; The Little Colonel (1935), the first of four films she made with African American entertainer Bill “Bojangles” Robinson; and Curly Top (1935), which included another one of her hit songs, “Animal Crackers in My Soup.” With America in the midst of the Great Depression, Temple’s sunny optimism lifted the spirits of movie audiences and helped make her the nation’s top box-office draw during the second half of the 1930s. (President Franklin Roosevelt once proclaimed, “As long as our country has Shirley Temple, we will be all right.”) Among Temple’s other films credits from this era are Heidi (1937), Wee Willie Winkie (1937) and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938). Temple’s cinematic career cooled when she entered her teens although she continued to work. The actress married at age 17 in 1945, only to divorce in 1949, a year after giving birth to her first child. In December 1950, she wed businessman Charles Black, and that same month announced her retirement from movie making.