On This Day: September 17

On This Day September 17

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Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1923 – Legendary country music star Hank Williams, Sr. (d. 1953)

1928 – Actor Roddy McDowall, born Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude “Roddy” McDowall, who played Cornelius and Caesar in the original “Planet of the Apes” sci-fi movie and TV series (d. 1998)

1931 – Oscar, Golden Globe, Tony and Emmy-winning actress Anne Bancroft, born Anna Maria Louisa Italiano (“The Graduate,” “The Miracle Worker,” “The Elephant Man, “Agnes of God,” “Malice”) (d. 2005)

1948 – Golden Globe and Emmy-winning actor John Ritter, best known as Jack Tripper in the hit comedy series “Three’s Company” (d. 2003)

1951 – Actress Cassandra Peterson, a.k.a. Elvira, Mistress of the Dark

1965 – Actor Kyle Chandler (“Friday Night Lights,”  “Super 8,” “Argo,” “Zero Dark Thirty,” “The Wolf of Wall Street,” “King Kong”)

History Highlights
History Highlights

1787 – Drafted in secret by delegates to the Constitutional Convention, the four-page U.S. Constitution is signed, establishing a framework for the government of the United States and an intricate system of checks and balances.

1862 – At the Battle of Antietam, Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia and Union General George B. McClellan’s Army of the Potomac fight to a standstill along a Maryland creek. The bloodiest day in American military history ends with nearly 23,000 soldiers killed, wounded or missing, and changes the course of the Civil War.

1937 – The stone likeness of President Abraham Lincoln’s face is officially dedicated at Mount Rushmore.

1963 – New programming premieres on ABC: “The Greatest Show on Earth” and “The Fugitive,” the latter of which is made into a movie 30 years later, starring Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones. 

1966 – The spy series “Mission: Impossible” debuts on CBS. Thirty years later, in 1996, the first in a series of “Mission: Impossible” movies is produced starring, starring Tom Cruise. 

1972 – The Korean War-era series “M*A*S*H,” starring Alan Alda, begins an 11-year run on CBS

1976 – NASA unveils the first space shuttle, Enterprise, a $10 billion technological marvel that took a decade to develop. 

1978 – A milestone is achieved on the road to a Middle East peace, with the signing of the Camp David Accords. U.S. President Jimmy Carter presides as Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli President Menachem Begin agree to end three decades of hostilities between their nations. 

1996 – Daytime talk show host Oprah Winfrey launches a television book club. Oprah’s Book Club quickly becomes an influential force in the publishing world, with Winfrey’s endorsements capable of catapulting a previously little-known book onto best-seller lists.

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1967 – The Doors are banned from “The Ed Sullivan Show” after front man Jim Morrison breaks his agreement with the producers to replace the word “higher” with “better” in the line “Girl, we couldn’t get much higher” in the song “Light My Fire.” After learning that his band would not be welcome back on the program, Morrison reportedly said, “Hey, that’s okay – we just did the Ed Sullivan Show.”

1969 – Media on both sides of the Atlantic report that Paul McCartney of The Beatles is dead — supposedly killed in a car accident in Scotland in November 1966 and that a double had been standing in for him during public appearances. In fact, Paul and his girlfriend, Jane Asher, were vacationing in Kenya at the time.

1977 – Andy Gibb owns the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 with “I Just Want to Be Your Everything.”

1988 – Guns N’ Roses begins the second and final week at No. 1 on the singles chart with “Sweet Child o’ Mine,” off the band’s debut album, “Appetite for Destruction.”

1994 – “I’ll Make Love to You,” by Boyz II Men, is in the midst of a 14-week domination of the singles chart.

2005 – “Gold Digger,” by Kanye West featuring Jamie Foxx, kicks off 10 weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100.

2011 – Adele dominates the pop chart for a week with “Someone Like You,” off her “21” album. It becomes her second U.S. No. 1.

2016 – Barbra Streisand extends her record as the artist with the most No. 1 albums in chart history (11) when “Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway” reaches the top of the Billboard album chart.

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On This Day: September 9

On This Day September 9

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Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1923 – Oscar and Emmy-winning actor Cliff Robertson (“Charly,” “PT-109,” “Spider-Man”) (d. 2011)

1941 – Soul singing sensation Otis Redding, best known for his 1968 smash “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay” (d. 1967)

1952 – Musician-producer Dave Stewart, who made up half of the Eurythmics

1960 – Golden Globe-winning actor Hugh Grant (“Four Weddings and a Funeral,” “Notting Hill,” “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” “About a Boy,” “Love Actually,” “Cloud Atlas,” “Man From U.N.C.L.E.”)

1966 – Comedic actor and musician Adam Sandler (“Saturday Night Live,” “Billy Madison,” “Happy Gilmore,” “The Wedding Singer,” “Punch-Drunk Love,” “50 First Dates,” “Click,” “Grown Ups”)

1971 – Actor Henry Thomas (“E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” “Legends of the Fall,” “All the Pretty Horses,” “Gangs of New York”) 

1975 – Grammy-winning jazz/standards singer Michael Bublé

History Highlights
History Highlights

1893 – President Grover Cleveland’s wife Frances becomes the first first lady to give birth in the White House when the couple’s daughter, Esther, is born. She remains the only presidential child born in the White House.

1965 – President Lyndon Johnson signs a bill establishing the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) — a Cabinet-level agency — to oversee housing programs across the U.S. 

1971 – A riot erupts at Attica Prison in upstate New York as inmates lash out over living conditions. By the time the tear gas clears four days later, 10 hostages and 29 inmates are dead — most of them killed by state troopers retaking the maximum-security facility. Nearly 90 others are injured.

1974 – The sitcom “Rhoda,” starring Valerie Harper, debuts on CBS and runs for five seasons. It’s a spinoff of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.”

1975 – The TV show that launches John Travolta’s acting career premieres on ABC. It’s “Welcome Back, Kotter,” starring Gabe Kaplan as a Brooklyn high school teacher with his classroom full of troublemaking “Sweathogs.”

1976 – Chinese Communist Party leader Mao Zedong dies in Beijing at the age of 82.

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1956 – Elvis Presley makes his first appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” singing “Don’t Be Cruel,” “Love Me Tender,” “Ready Teddy” and “Hound Dog.” The show garners the largest TV audience ever up to that time, 50 million viewers—one third of the U.S. population. 

1957 – “Diana,” by Paul Anka, tops the pop chart, becoming the Canadian singer-songwriter’s first No. 1 single.

1978 – A Taste Of Honey starts a three-week run at No. 1 on the singles chart with “Boogie Oogie Oogie.” The track also dominates the U.S. soul and disco charts.

1989 – The Massachusetts-based boy band New Kids On the Block rules two major U.S. music charts. Their “Hangin’ Tough” album is No. 1 on the Billboard 200 while the title track is No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

1995 – “Gangsta’s Paradise,” by Coolio featuring L.V., kicks off four weeks as a No. 1 single. The song is part of the soundtrack to the 1995 movie “Dangerous Minds,” starring Michelle Pfeiffer, who also appears in the music video. The track garners Coolio a Best Rap Solo Performance Grammy along with other music industry honors.

2000 – Janet Jackson begins her third and final week on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “Doesn’t Really Matter.”

2006 – Justin Timberlake kicks off seven weeks on top of the pop chart with “SexyBack.” The track is his first No. 1 hit.

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