June 26 is the 177th day of the year (178th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 188 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events[link]

• 221 – Roman Emperor Elagabalus adopts his cousin Alexander Severus as his heir and receives the title of Caesar.
• 363 – Roman Emperor Julian is killed during the retreat from the Sassanid Empire. General Jovian is proclaimed Emperor by the troops on the battlefield.
• 1409 – Western Schism: the Roman Catholic church is led into a double schism as Petros Philargos is crowned Pope Alexander V after the Council of Pisa, joining Pope Gregory XII in Rome and Pope Benedict XII in Avignon.
• 1541 – Francisco Pizarro is assassinated in Lima by the son of his former companion and later antagonist, Diego Almagro the younger. Almagro is later caught and executed.
• 1718 – Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich of Russia, Peter the Great's son, mysteriously dies after being sentenced to death by his father for plotting against him.
• 1723 – After a siege and bombardment by cannon, Baku surrenders to the Russians.
• 1848 – End of the June Days Uprising in Paris.
• 1857 – The first investiture of the Victoria Cross in Hyde Park, London.
• 1870 – The Christian holiday of Christmas is declared a federal holiday in the United States.
• 1886 – Henri Moissan isolated elemental Fluorine for the first time.
• 1907 – The 1907 Tiflis bank robbery took place in Yerevan Square, now Freedom Square, Tbilisi.
• 1909 – The Science Museum in London comes into existence as an independent entity.
• 1917 – The first U.S. troops arrive in France to fight alongside Britain and France against Germany in World War I.
• 1918 – World War I, Western Front: Battle for Belleau Wood – Allied Forces under John J. Pershing and James Harbord defeat Imperial German Forces under Wilhelm, German Crown Prince.
• 1924 – American occupying forces leave the Dominican Republic.
• 1927 – The Cyclone roller coaster opens on Coney Island.
• 1934 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Federal Credit Union Act, which establishes credit unions.
• 1936 – Initial flight of the Focke-Wulf Fw 61, the first practical helicopter.
• 1940 – World War II: under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the Soviet Union presents an ultimatum to Romania requiring it to cede Bessarabia and the northern part of Bukovina.
• 1941 – World War II: Soviet planes bomb Kassa, Hungary (now Košice, Slovakia), giving Hungary the impetus to declare war the next day.
• 1942 – The first flight of the Grumman F6F Hellcat.
• 1945 – The United Nations Charter is signed in San Francisco.
• 1948 – The Western allies begin an airlift to Berlin after the Soviet Union blockades West Berlin.
• 1948 – William Shockley files the original patent for the grown junction transistor, the first bipolar junction transistor.
• 1948 – Shirley Jackson's short story The Lottery is published in The New Yorker magazine.
• 1952 – The Pan-Malayan Labour Party is founded in Malaya, as a union of statewise labour parties.
• 1953 – Lavrentiy Beria,head of MVD, is arrested by Nikita Khrushchev and other members of the Politburo.
• 1955 – The South African Congress Alliance adopts the Freedom Charter at the Congress of the People in Kliptown.
• 1959 – The Saint Lawrence Seaway opens, opening North America's Great Lakes to ocean-going ships.
• 1960 – The former British Protectorate of British Somaliland gains its independence as Somaliland.
• 1960 – Madagascar gains its independence from France.
• 1973 – At Plesetsk Cosmodrome 9 people are killed in an explosion of a Cosmos 3-M rocket.
• 1974 – The Universal Product Code is scanned for the first time to sell a package of Wrigley's chewing gum at the Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio
• 1975 – Two FBI agents and a member of the American Indian Movement are killed in a shootout on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota; Leonard Peltier is later convicted of the murders in a controversial trial.
• 1977 – The Yorkshire Ripper kills 16 year old shop assistant Jayne MacDonald in Leeds, changing public perception of the killer as she is the first victim who is not a prostitute.
• 1978 – Air Canada Flight 189 to Toronto overruns the runway and crashes into the Etobicoke Creek ravine. Two of 107 passengers on board perish.
• 1991 – Ten-Day War: the Yugoslav people's army begins the Ten-Day War in Slovenia.
• 1995 – Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani deposes his father Khalifa bin Hamad al-Thani, the Emir of Qatar, in a bloodless coup.
• 1996 – Irish Journalist Veronica Guerin is shot in her car while in traffic in the outskirts of Dublin
• 1997 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the Communications Decency Act violates the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
• 2003 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Lawrence v. Texas that gender-based sodomy laws are unconstitutional.
• 2006 – Mari Alkatiri, the first Prime Minister of East Timor, resigns after weeks of political unrest.
• 2008 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules in District of Columbia v. Heller that the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution protects an individual right, and that the District of Columbia handgun ban is unconstitutional.

Births[link]

• 1501 – Cho Shik, Korean Joseon Dynastys Neo-Confucian scholar and politicians (d. 1572)
• 1575 – Anne Catherine of Brandenburg, queen of Denmark and Norway (d. 1612)
• 1582 – Johannes Schultz, German composer (d. 1653)
• 1681 – Hedwig Sophia, duchess of Holstein-Gottorp, Swedish writer (d. 1708)
• 1685 – Antonio Bernacchi, Italian castrato, composer, and teacher of singing (d. 1756)
• 1689 – Edward Holyoke, American academic (d. 1769)
• 1694 – Georg Brandt, Swedish chemist and mineralogist (d. 1768)
• 1702 – Philip Doddridge, English religious leader (d. 1751)
• 1703 – Thomas Clap, American academic (d. 1767)
• 1730 – Charles Messier, French astronomer (d. 1817)
• 1798 – Wolfgang Menzel, German writer (d. 1873)
• 1817 – Branwell Bronte, British painter and poet (d. 1848)
• 1819 – Abner Doubleday, American Major General (d. 1893)
• 1821 – Bartolomé Mitre, Argentine historian and politician (d. 1906)
• 1824 – William Thomson, Irish-born physicist (d. 1907)
• 1835 – Thomas W. Knox, American author (d. 1896)
• 1839 – Sam Watkins, American Confederate soldier and author (d. 1901)
• 1854 – Robert Laird Borden, Canadian politician (d. 1937)
• 1865 – Bernard Berenson, American art historian (d. 1959)
• 1866 – George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon, English financier of Egyptian excavations (d. 1923)
• 1869 – Martin Andersen Nexø, Danish writer (d. 1954)
• 1880 – Natalia, Princess Brassova (d. 1952)
• 1881 – Ya'akov Cohen, Israeli poet (d. 1960)
• 1892 – Pearl S. Buck, American writer, Nobel laureate (d. 1973)
• 1895 – George Hainsworth, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1950)
• 1898 – Willy Messerschmitt, German aircraft designer (d. 1978)
• 1898 – Chesty Puller, American military officer (d. 1971)
• 1899 – Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia (d. 1918)
• 1901 – Stuart Symington, American politician (d. 1988)
• 1902 – Hugues Cuénod, Swiss Tenor (d. 2010)
• 1904 – Frank Scott Hogg, Canadian astronomer (d. 1951)
• 1904 – Peter Lorre, Hungarian actor (d. 1964)
• 1906 – Alberto Rabagliati, Italian singer (d. 1974)
• 1906 – Viktor Schreckengost, American industrial designer (d. 2008)
• 1907 – Debs Garms, American baseball player (d. 1984)
• 1909 – Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis Presley's manager (d. 1997)
• 1909 – Wolfgang Reitherman, American animator (d. 1985)
• 1911 – Babe Didrikson Zaharias, American athlete (d. 1956)
• 1913 – Aimé Césaire, French Martinican poet and politician (d. 2008)
• 1913 – Maurice Wilkes, British computer scientist (d. 2010)
• 1914 – Kathryn Johnston, American police shooting victim (d. 2006)
• 1914 – Laurie Lee, British writer (d. 1997)
• 1915 – Paul Castellano, American organized crime figure (d. 1985)
• 1915 – Charlotte Zolotow, American author
• 1916 – Virginia Satir, American psychotherapist and author (d. 1988)
• 1916 – Giuseppe Taddei, Italian opera singer (d. 2010)
• 1919 – Richard Neustadt, American political historian (d. 2003)
• 1921 – Violette Szabo, French WWII secret agent (d. 1945)
• 1922 – Eleanor Parker, American actress
• 1923 – Barbara Graham, American murderer (d. 1955)
• 1924 – Kostas Axelos, Greek philosopher (d. 2010)
• 1925 – Pavel Belyayev, Soviet cosmonaut (d. 1970)
• 1927 – Robert Kroetsch, Canadian author (d. 2011)
• 1928 – Jacob Druckman, American composer (d. 1996)
• 1928 – Yoshiro Nakamatsu, Japanese inventor
• 1929 – Milton Glaser, American designer
• 1931 – Colin Wilson, British writer
• 1933 – Claudio Abbado, Italian conductor
• 1933 – Gene Green, American baseball player (d. 1981)
• 1934 – Jeremy Wolfenden, British journalist (d. 1965)
• 1934 – Dave Grusin, American jazz pianist
• 1936 – Robert Maclennan, British politician
• 1936 – Jean-Claude Turcotte, Cardinal Archbishop of Montreal
• 1937 – Sombat Metanee, Thai film actor
• 1937 – Robert Coleman Richardson, American physicist, Nobel laureate
• 1938 – Gerald North, American climatologist
• 1938 – Billy Davis, Jr., American singer (The 5th Dimension)
• 1941 – Yves Beauchemin, Canadian novelist
• 1942 – Gilberto Gil, Brazilian singer and Minister of Culture
• 1942 – James J. Dillon, American professional wrestling manager
• 1943 – John Beasley, American actor
• 1943 – Georgie Fame, British singer
• 1943 – Warren Farrell, American author
• 1944 – Wolfgang Weber, German footballer
• 1945 – Malachi York, Nuwaubian leader
• 1951 – Pamela Bellwood, American actress
• 1951 – Gary Gilmour, Australian cricketer
• 1953 – Robert Davi, American actor
• 1954 – Steve Barton, American actor (d. 2001)
• 1955 – Mick Jones, British guitarist (The Clash, Big Audio Dynamite)
• 1955 – Dick Mol, Dutch paleonthologist
• 1955 – Gedde Watanabe, American actor
• 1956 – Chris Isaak, American singer
• 1957 – Patty Smyth, American singer (Scandal)
• 1957 – Philippe Couillard, Quebec neurosurgeon and politician
• 1959 – Mark McKinney, Canadian actor
• 1960 – Zachary Breaux, American jazz guitarist (d. 1997)
• 1961 – Greg LeMond, American cyclist
• 1961 – Terri Nunn, American singer (Berlin)
• 1962 – Jerome Kersey, American basketball player
• 1962 – Preston A. Whitmore II, American screenwriter and film director
• 1963 – Richard Garfield, American game designer
• 1963 – Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky, Russian businessman
• 1963 – Mark McClellan, American government official
• 1963 – Harriet Wheeler, British singer (The Sundays)
• 1964 – Tommi Mäkinen, Finnish rally driver
• 1966 – Minaguchi Yuko, Japanese voice actress
• 1966 – Jürgen Reil, American drummer (Kreator)
• 1966 – Dany Boon, French director, actor and writer
• 1967 – Todd Pletcher, American horse trainer
• 1968 – Paolo Maldini, Italian footballer
• 1968 – Shannon Sharpe, American football player
• 1969 – Colin Greenwood, British musician
• 1969 – Ingrid Lempereur, Belgian swimmer
• 1969 – Mike Myers, American baseball player
• 1970 – Paul Thomas Anderson, American filmmaker
• 1970 – Irv Gotti, American record producer
• 1970 – Sean Hayes, American actor
• 1970 – Matt Letscher, American actor
• 1970 – Chris O'Donnell, American actor
• 1970 – Nick Offerman, American actor
• 1971 – Max Biaggi, Italian motorcycle racer
• 1972 – Garou, Canadian singer
• 1972 – Jai Taurima, Australian long jumper
• 1973 – Gretchen Wilson, American singer
• 1973 – Rebecca Budig, American actress
• 1973 – Jussi Sydänmaa, Finnish musician (Lordi)
• 1974 – Jason Craig, American artist
• 1974 – Jeff Frankenstein, American musician (Newsboys)
• 1974 – Derek Jeter, American baseball player
• 1974 – Jason Kendall, American baseball player
• 1974 – Nicole Saba, Lebanese singer
• 1974 – Matt Striker, American professional wrestler
• 1975 – Chris Armstrong, Canadian hockey player
• 1975 – Jonah Sorrentino, American hip hop artist
• 1975 – Terry Skiverton, English football player
• 1976 – Ed Jovanovski, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1976 – Paweł Małaszyński, Polish actor
• 1976 – Chad Pennington, American football player
• 1977 – Mark Jindrak, American professional wrestler
• 1977 – Florian Kehrmann, German handball player
• 1977 – Kubo Tite, Japanese cartoonist
• 1977 – Quincy Lewis, American basketball player
• 1979 – Wálter Herrmann, Argentinian basketball player
• 1979 – Ryo Fukuda, Japanese racing driver
• 1979 – Ryan Tedder, American musician
• 1979 – Brandi Burkhardt, American actress and beauty pageant contestant
• 1980 – Jason Schwartzman, American actor
• 1980 – Michael Vick, American football player
• 1980 – Chris Shelton, American baseball player
• 1980 – Sinik, French singer and rapper
• 1980 – Hamílton, naturalized Togolese footballer
• 1981 – Damien Sargue, French singer
• 1982 – Zuzana Kučová, Slovak tennis player
• 1983 – Vinícius, Brazilian footballer
• 1983 – Felipe Melo, Brazilian footballer
• 1984 – Elijah Dukes, American baseball player
• 1984 – Raymond Felton, American basketball player
• 1984 – Deron Williams, American basketball player
• 1984 – Jose Juan Barea, American basketball player
• 1984 – Aubrey Plaza, American comedian, writer and actress
• 1984 – Gabrielle Walcott, Trinidad and Tobagoian beauty pageant contestant
• 1985 – Urgyen Trinley Dorje, 17th Karmapa Lama, Tibetan spiritual leader
• 1986 – Francisco Jiménez Tejada, Spanish footballer
• 1987 – Carlos Iaconelli, Brazilian racing driver
• 1987 – Samir Nasri, French footballer
• 1988 – Oliver Stang, German footballer
• 1988 – Rina Nakanishi, Japanese model and singer (AKB48)
• 1991 – Houssem Chemali, French footballer
• 1991 – Diego Falcinelli, Italian footballer
• 1992 – Jennette McCurdy, American actress and singer
• 1992 – Joel Campbell, Costa Rican footballer
• 1993 – Ariana Grande, American actress and singer
• 1995 – Reema Major, Canadian rapper
• 2005 – Princess Alexia of the Netherlands

Deaths[link]

• 363 – Julian the Apostate, Roman Emperor (b. 331)
• 1541 – Francisco Pizarro, Spanish conqueror of Peru
• 1688 – Ralph Cudworth, English philosopher (b. 1617)
• 1784 – Caesar Rodney, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1728)
• 1793 – Gilbert White, English ornithologist (b. 1720)
• 1795 – Johannes Jährig, German linguist (b. 1747)
• 1810 – Joseph-Michel Montgolfier, French inventor (b. 1740)
• 1836 – Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, French composer (La Marseillaise) (b. 1760)
• 1856 – Max Stirner, German philosopher (b. 1806)
• 1878 – Mercedes of Orleans, queen of Spain (b. 1860)
• 1918 – Peter Rosegger, Austrian poet (b. 1843)
• 1922 – Albert I, Prince of Monaco (b. 1848)
• 1939 – Ford Madox Ford, English writer (b. 1873)
• 1943 – Karl Landsteiner, Austrian biologist and physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1868)
• 1945 – Emil Hácha, President of Czechoslovakia (b. 1872)
• 1946 – Yōsuke Matsuoka, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan (b. 1880)
• 1946 – Max Kögel, SS officer (b. 1895)
• 1947 – Richard Bedford Bennett, eleventh Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1870)
• 1948 – Lilian Velez, Filipino actress (b. 1924)
• 1949 – Kim Gu, President of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea (b. 1876)
• 1955 – Engelbert Zaschka, German helicopter pioneer (b. 1895)
• 1956 – Clifford Brown, American jazz trumpeter (b. 1930)
• 1957 – Alfred Döblin, German writer (b. 1878)
• 1958 – George Orton, Canadian athlete (b. 1873)
• 1958 – Andrija Štampar, Croatian physician and United Nations diplomat (b. 1888)
• 1964 – Leo Dandurand, American-born Canadian sports executive (b. 1889)
• 1964 – Gerrit Rietveld, Dutch architect (b. 1888)
• 1967 – Françoise Dorléac, French actress (b. 1942)
• 1975 – Saint Josemaría Escrivá, Spanish Catholic priest (b. 1902)
• 1980 – Miriam Daly, Irish republican activist (b. 1928)
• 1990 – Anni Blomqvist, Finnish novelist (b. 1909)
• 1992 – Herman Rohde, professional wrestler (b. 1921)
• 1993 – William H. Riker, American political scientist (b. 1920)
• 1993 – Roy Campanella, American baseball player (b. 1921)
• 1994 – Jahanara Imam, Bangladeshi writer and activist (b. 1929)
• 1996 – Veronica Guerin, Irish journalist (b. 1958)
• 1997 – Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, Hawaiian singer (b. 1959)
• 2001 – Soccer (dog actor) (b. 1988)
• 2002 – Arnold Brown, the 11th General of The Salvation Army (b. 1913)
• 2002 – Jay Berwanger, American football player and first recipient of the Heisman Trophy (b. 1914)
• 2003 – Marc-Vivien Foé, Cameroon footballer (b. 1975)
• 2003 – Denver Randleman, U.S. Army Seargent (b. 1920)
• 2003 – Strom Thurmond, U.S. Senator (b. 1902)
• 2003 – Sir Denis Thatcher MBE, husband of Margaret Thatcher (b. 1915)
• 2004 – Yash Johar, Indian film producer (b. 1929)
• 2004 – Naomi Shemer, Israeli singer and song-writer (b. 1930)
• 2005 – Richard Whiteley, British television game show host (b. 1943)
• 2006 – Tommy Wonder, Dutch magician (b. 1953)
• 2007 – Liz Claiborne, Belgian-born American fashion designer (b. 1929)
• 2007 – Joey Sadler, All Black rugby player (b. 1914)
• 2010 – Sergio Vega, Mexican Banda singer (b.1969)
• 2010 – Algirdas Brazauskas, President of Lithuania (b. 1932)

Holidays and observances[link]

• Army and Navy Day (Azerbaijan)
• Christian Feast Day:
  • Anthelm of Belley
  • Hermogius
  • John and Paul
  • Josemaría Escrivá
  • Mar Abhai (Syriac Orthodox Church)
  • Vigilius of Trent
  • June 26 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
• Flag Day (Romania)
• Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Madagascar from France in 1960
• International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking (International)
• International Day in Support of Victims of Torture (International)
• Sunthorn Phu Day (Thailand)

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: June 26

• BBC: On This Day
• The New York Times: On This Day
• On This Day in Canada

Craig Ferguson
Performing stand-up in New York City, 2007
Born	(1962-05-17) May 17, 1962 (age 50) Glasgow, Scotland
Medium	Stand-up, television, film, music, books
Nationality	Scotland; United States
Years active	1980–present
Genres	Observational comedy, satire/political satire/news satire
Subject(s)	Everyday life, popular culture, self-deprecation, politics
Spouse	Anne Hogarth (1983–86) (divorced) Sascha Corwin (1998–2004) (divorced) 1 child Megan Wallace-Cunningham (2008–present) 1 child
Notable works and roles	Host of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson Nigel Wick on The Drew Carey Show Glaswegian in One Foot in the Grave Gobber in How to Train Your Dragon
Website	The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson

Craig Ferguson (born 17 May 1962^[1]) is a Scottish-American television host, stand-up comedian, writer, actor, director, author, and producer. He is the host of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, an Emmy Award-nominated, Peabody Award-winning late-night talk show that airs on CBS. In addition to hosting that program and performing stand-up comedy, Ferguson has written two books: Between the Bridge and the River, a novel, and American on Purpose, a memoir. He became a citizen of the United States in 2008.^[2]

Before his career as a late-night television host, Ferguson was best known in the United States for his role as the office boss, Nigel Wick, on The Drew Carey Show from 1996 to 2003. He also wrote and starred in three films, directing one of them.

Early life[link]

Ferguson was born in the Stobhill Hospital in the Springburn district of Glasgow, Scotland to Robert and Janet Ferguson, and raised in nearby Cumbernauld, growing up "chubby and bullied".^[3][4] When he was six months old, he and his family moved from their Springburn apartment to a council house in Cumbernauld. They lived there as Glasgow was re-housing many people following damage to the city from World War II.^[4] Ferguson attended Muirfield Primary School and Cumbernauld High School.^[5] At age sixteen, Ferguson dropped out of Cumbernauld High School and began an apprenticeship to be an electronics technician at a local factory of American company Burroughs Corporation.^[6]

His first visit to the United States was as a teenager to visit an uncle who lived on Long Island, near New York City.^[7] When he moved to New York City in 1983, he worked in construction in Harlem.^[8][9] Ferguson later became a bouncer at a nightclub, Save the Robots.^[10]

Career[link]

British career[link]

Ferguson's experience in entertainment began as a drummer in a rock band called Exposure. He then joined a punk band called The Bastards from Hell.^[11] The band, later renamed "Dreamboys", and fronted by vocalist Peter Capaldi, performed regularly in Glasgow from 1980 to 1982.^[12] Ferguson credits Capaldi for inspiring him to try comedy.^[3]

After a nerve-wrecking, knee-knocking first appearance, he decided to create a character that was a "parody of all the über-patriotic native folk singers who seemed to infect every public performance in Scotland."^[3] The character, "Bing Hitler" (actually coined by Capaldi as Ferguson started with the monogram of "Nico Fulton" but admittedly later stole the name for his "own nefarious ends"),^[12] premiered in Glasgow, and subsequently became a hit at the 1986 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. A recording of his stage act as Bing Hitler was made at Glasgow's Tron Theatre and released in the 1980s;^[13] a Bing Hitler monologue ("A Lecture for Burns Night") appears on the compilation cassette Honey at the Core.

Ferguson's first television appearance was as Confidence on BBC sitcom Red Dwarf during the episode "Confidence and Paranoia".

Ferguson made his starring television debut in The Craig Ferguson Show, a one-off comedy pilot for Granada Television, which co-starred Paul Whitehouse and Helen Atkinson-Wood.^[14] This was broadcast throughout the UK on 4 March 1990, but was not made into a full series.

He has also found success in musical theatre. Beginning in 1991, he appeared on stage as Brad Majors in the London production of The Rocky Horror Show, alongside Anthony Head, who was playing Dr. Frank-N-Furter at the time.^{[citation needed]} In 1994, Ferguson played Father MacLean in the highly controversial production of Bad Boy Johnny and the Prophets of Doom at the Union Chapel in London. The same year, he appeared again at the Edinburgh Fringe, as Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple, opposite Gerard Kelly as Felix and Kate Anthony as Gwendolin Pidgeon, who is now much better known as Aunty Pam in Coronation Street; the play, which was relocated to 1990s Glasgow, later toured Scotland.^[15]

After enjoying success at the Edinburgh Festival, Ferguson appeared on Red Dwarf, STV's Hogmanay Show,^[16] his own show 2000 Not Out, and the 1993 One Foot in the Grave Christmas special One Foot in the Algarve.

In 1993, Ferguson presented his own series on Scottish archaeology for Scottish Television entitled Dirt Detective.^[17] He travelled throughout the country examining archaeological history, including Skara Brae and Paisley Abbey.

U.S. career[link]

After cancellation of his show The Ferguson Theory, Ferguson moved to Los Angeles in 1994. His first U.S. role was as baker Logan McDonough on the short-lived 1995 ABC comedy Maybe This Time, which starred Betty White and Marie Osmond.

His breakthrough in the U.S. came when he was cast on The Drew Carey Show as the title character's boss, Mr. Wick, a role that he played from 1996 to 2003. He played the role with an over-the-top posh English accent "to make up for generations of English actors doing crap Scottish accents." In his comedy special "A Wee Bit O' Revolution", he specifically called out James Doohan's portrayal of Montgomery Scott on Star Trek as the foundation of his "revenge". (At the end of one episode, though, Ferguson broke the fourth wall and began talking to the audience at home in his regular Scottish accent.) His character was memorable for his unique methods of laying employees off, almost always "firing Johnson", the most common last name of the to-be-fired workers.^[18] Even after leaving the show in 2003, he remained a recurring character on the series for the last two seasons, and was part of the 2-part series finale in 2004.

During production of The Drew Carey Show, Ferguson devoted his off-time as a cast member to writing, working in his trailer on set in-between shooting his scenes. He wrote and starred in three films: The Big Tease, Saving Grace, and I'll Be There, which he also directed and for which he won the Audience Award for Best Film at the Aspen, Dallas and Valencia film festivals. He was named Best New Director at the Napa Valley Film Festival. These were among other scripts that, "... in the great tradition of the movie business, about half a dozen that I got paid a fortune for but never got made."^[19] His other acting credits in films include Niagara Motel, Lenny the Wonder Dog, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, Chain of Fools, Born Romantic, The Ugly Truth, How to Train Your Dragon, Kick-Ass and Winnie the Pooh.

Ferguson has been touring the United States and Canada with a stand-up comedy show, and performed at Carnegie Hall on 23 October 2010.

[edit] The Late Late Show

In December 2004, it was announced that Ferguson would be the successor to Craig Kilborn on CBS's The Late Late Show. His first show as the regular host aired on 3 January 2005. By May 2008, Ben Alba, an American television historian and an authority on U.S. talk shows, said Ferguson "has already made his mark, taking the TV monologue to new levels with an underlying story. But he is only just starting ... He is making up his own rules: It's the immigrant experience."^[18]

The Late Late Show averaged 2.0 million viewers in its 2007 season, compared with 2.5 million for Late Night with Conan O'Brien.^[20] In April 2008, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson beat Late Night with Conan O'Brien for weekly ratings (1.88 million to 1.77 million) for the first time since the two shows went head-to-head with their respective hosts.^[21]

By the end of 2009, Craig Ferguson topped Jimmy Fallon in the ratings with Ferguson getting a 1.8 rating/6 share and Fallon receiving a 1.6 rating/6 share.^[22]

Ferguson's success on the show has led at least one "television insider" to say he is the heir apparent to take over David Letterman's role as host of The Late Show.^[18]

Television and appearances[link]

Craig Ferguson has made guest appearances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Show with David Letterman, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Rachael Ray, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, The Howard Stern Show, The Daily Show, The View, Loveline, Real Time with Bill Maher, The Soup, The Talk and The Dennis Miller Show. He also co-hosted Live with Regis & Kelly with Kelly Ripa.