In Saved by the Light Brinkley explained that he was struck by lightning on September 17, 1975, while using a telephone at his home in Aiken, South Carolina.

Three demo albums of Aiken's vocals were created before American Idol with the aid of studio time given as a birthday gift by his mother: a cassette called Look What Love Has Done ( by Clayton Grissom ), a cassette and CD entitled Redefined ( by Clayton Aiken ), and a CD that combined some songs from each of the previous demos: " Look What Love Has Done, Vol 2 " ( by Clay Aiken ).

* On Seventh Avenue ( 1996 ) ( TV movie ) ... Tom Aiken

Aiken starred in and executive produced his first TV special ( December 2004 ), titled A Clay Aiken Christmas, with special guests Barry Manilow, Yolanda Adams, and Megan Mullally ; the special was released on DVD later that month.

By focusing on the stark and desperate situations of his characters, Aiken appealed to the emotions of his audiences.

Aiken found a song, " On My Way Here ", written by OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder, that struck a chord with him and became the inspiration for the album's theme in addition to the album title.

Aiken earned the distinction of being only the eighth artist to ever have his first four albums debut in the Billboard Top 5.

The album contains ten cover songs and four new songs, one of which Aiken co-wrote.

Aiken earned the distinction of being only the eighth artist to ever have his first four albums debut in the Billboard Top 5.

He has been married four times: to Kathryn Baker in 1964, to Marilyn Aiken in 1975, to Jill Donahue in 1981, and to Malgosia Tomassi around 1986.

Although she always claimed a birthdate of 1894 and that she was one of a family of twenty children, the 1900 Federal Census shows " Loretter Aiken " in Brevard was born in March 1897 and was the youngest of four ( out of five ) surviving children of James P. and Mary Aiken.

NuStart Energy Development, LLC selected a site from Oswego, Port Gibson, St. Francisville, Louisiana, Aiken, South Carolina, Lusby, Maryland and Scottsboro, Alabama — four of the sites have operating reactors, one has an unfinished nuclear power plant, and one is the Savannah River Site.

* Philosophy in the Twentieth Century ( 1962 ), four volumes, William Barrett and Henry D. Aiken, editors, Random House

As a senior in 2002, Aiken had 68 catches for 990 yards, both school records, as well as four touchdowns.

The Thomas Crane Public Library was built in four stages: the original building ( 1882 ) by architect H. H. Richardson ; an additional ell with stack space and stained glass ( 1908 ) by William Martin Aiken in Richardson's style ; a major expansion ( 1939 ) by architects Paul A. and Carroll Coletti, with stone carvings by sculptor Joseph A. Coletti of Quincy ; and a recent addition ( 2001 ) by Boston architects Childs, Bertman, and Tseckares, which doubled the size of the library.

The show's judges first saw Aiken as a nerdy type unlikely to be a typical pop idol, but after hearing him sing Heatwave's " Always and Forever " decided to advance him to the next round.

Eventual Season 2 runnerup Clay Aiken chose Sedaka's 1972 song " Solitaire " for his performance.

Sedaka dissolved into tears, telling Aiken that he officially passed ownership of the performance of " Solitaire " to Clay, offering to record and produce a single of the song or an entire CD with him.

Although it did not appear on his debut CD itself, Aiken recorded and added " Solitaire " as the B-side to the single " The Way ," whose sales were faltering.

Other guests included The Captain and Tennille ; Natalie Cole ; Connie Francis ; recording legend and decades-long Sedaka friend and former manager Don Kirshner ; and new Solitaire " owner " Clay Aiken, among many others.

" The Way "/" Solitaire " is the second commercial double A-side CD single by Clay Aiken released on March 16, 2004, on the RCA label.

* " The Way / Solitaire ", a 2004 single by Clay Aiken

Symbolism had a significant influence on modernism, and its traces can be detected in the work of many modernist artists, including T. S. Eliot, Wallace Stevens, Conrad Aiken, Hart Crane, and William Butler Yeats in the anglophone tradition and Rubén Darío in Hispanic literature.

* Dwight Filley Davis, ( 1879 – 1945 ), an American tennis player and politician who is best remembered as the founder of the Davis Cup international tennis competition, had a summer home in Aiken.

In August 2009, it was revealed that American Idol alum, Clay Aiken, had signed with Decca.

Stunts such as withdrawing the Irish Army's band from playing at diplomatic functions which the Governor-General attended, or in one notorious case the sight of O ' Kelly and Defence Minister Frank Aiken storming out of a diplomatic function at the French Legation when McNeill, the guest of honour, had arrived, damaged O ' Kelly's reputation and image, particularly when the campaign backfired.

Unable to bring the issue of the partition of Ireland to the UN ( because of Britain's veto on the Security Council ) and because of unwillingness of other Western nations to interfere in what these Western nations saw as British affairs at that time ( the US taking a more ambiguous position ), Aiken ensured that Ireland vigorously defended the rights of small nations such as Tibet and Hungary, nations whose problems he felt Ireland could identify with and had a moral obligation to help.

However Aiken refused to reconcile with former friends who had taken sides in the Civil War.

Howard Aiken had developed the Harvard Mark I, one of the first large-scale digital computers, while Wassily Leontief was an economist who was developing the input-output model of economic analysis, work for which he would later receive the Nobel prize.

He was the favoured candidate of party elders such as Seán MacEntee and Frank Aiken, the latter managing Colley's campaign and annoyed at Lemass's quick decision to retire before Colley had built up his support.

Aiken has talked about having had a little liposuction under his chin while undergoing treatment for temporomandibular joint disorder.

Aiken had filled out an application to participate in the reality show Amazing Race when a friend of his insisted that he try out for American Idol instead.

With longer, flat ironed, spiky hair and a penchant for wearing striped shirts, Aiken had established a trademark look by the final American Idol season 2 show.

In an interview prior to the start of the fifth season of American Idol, Executive Producer Nigel Lythgoe revealed for the first time that Aiken had led the fan voting every week from the Wild Card week to the finale, when the possibly-random voting result gave Studdard the win.

Stated in the cited People article, " The buzz about Aiken's exit was fueled earlier this week when his picture disappeared online and Billboard, citing unnamed sources, reported Friday that Aiken, 30, had been dropped by the label.

After hosting and performing in the American Idol Christmas special in 2003, Aiken has had several subsequent hosting jobs.

If he had played the tenth question, he would have won $ 500, 000 ; Aiken and the 5th grader playing with him both had the correct answer.

On December 23, 2008, Aiken had his caricature unveiled at world famous Sardi's restaurant.

The 2005 Joyful Noise tour featured a series of vignettes, written by Aiken, which told the story of an older woman who had lost the Christmas spirit and a young boy who helps her find it again.

Aiken told ET that he had been sleeping when the incident occurred.

Gray supported the idea of a visit, but had doubts over whether Aiken was the right person to make it, and stressed that the Irish were only likely to obtain arms if they co-operated with the British Purchasing Commission.

Aiken was also considered for the role of Harry Potter as he had previously worked with director Chris Columbus on Stepmom.

They performed the experiment preliminarily at Hanford Site, but later moved the experiment to the Savannah River Plant in South Carolina near Aiken where they had better shielding against cosmic rays.

He married in 1929 Canadian writer Jessie McDonald after she had divorced Conrad Aiken, making Armstrong the stepfather of the young Joan Aiken.