On This Day: September 18

On This Day September 18

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Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1905 – Oscar-winning actress Greta Garbo, born Greta Lovisa Gustafson (d. 1990)

1933 – Emmy-winning actor Robert Blake (“Baretta,” “Money Train,” “Lost Highway”)

1939 – Actor Fred Willard (“This Is Spinal Tap,” “Waiting for Guffman,” “Best in Show,” “A Mighty Wind,” “For Your Consideration,” the “Anchorman” movie series)

1940 –  Actor, singer and former teen idol Frankie Avalon, best known for his hit single “Venus” and the “Beach Party movie series

1961 – Emmy-winning actor James Gandolfini, best known for playing mobster Tony Soprano in the HBO series “The Sopranos” (d. 2013)

1971 – Actress-producer Jada Pinkett Smith (“True Colors,” “A Different World,” “The Nutty Professor,” “Menace II Society,” “Set It Off, “Scream 2,” “Ali,” “The Matrix Reloaded/Revolutions,” “Madagascar”) 

1971 – Former professional cyclist Lance Armstrong

1973 – Actor James Marsden (“X-Men,” “Superman Returns,” “Hairspray,” “Enchanted,” “Hop,” “27 Dresses,” “The Notebook”)

1975 – Actor-comedian Jason Sudeikis (“Saturday Night Live,” “Hall Pass,” “Horrible Bosses,” “Epic,” “We’re the Millers”) 

History Highlights
History Highlights

1793 – President George Washington lays the cornerstone to the United States Capitol in the building’s southeast corner during a Masonic ceremony that concludes with a 15-gun salute. Washington would return periodically to oversee construction, but did not live to see Congress occupy the new building. He died in December 1799, less than a year before the Senate and House would first convene in the Capitol.

1851 – The first edition of The New York Times is published as the New-York Daily Times and costs readers two cents. 

1964 – After a four-season run in primetime, Tod Stiles and Buz Murdock park their Chevy Corvette for the last time as CBS broadcasts the “Route 66” series finale.

1965 – Television viewers meet secret agents Maxwell Smart and 99 as NBC debuts “Get Smart.” The spy sitcom, starring Don Adams and Barbara Feldon and created by comedic genius Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, runs for five seasons and introduces viewers to the first true mobile phone—embedded in the bottom of Smart’s shoe.

1975 – FBI agents in San Francisco capture newspaper heiress and fugitive Patty Hearst and charge her with armed robbery. Hearst is the granddaughter of media mogul William Randolph Hearst.

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1961 – Bobby Vee starts a two-week run at No. 1 on the singles chart with “Take Good Care of My Baby.”

1970 – Jimi Hendrix, considered one of rock music’s greatest guitarists of all time, dies of an apparent drug overdose in London at the age of 27. Hendrix dazzled audiences in the 1960s with groundbreaking guitar-playing techniques and experimental sounds.

1976 – “Play That Funky Music,” by Ohio-based funk-rock band Wild Cherry, kicks off three weeks as a No. 1 single. The track sells more than 2.5 million copies in the U.S. and becomes the band’s only Top 40 song.

1983 – Members of Kiss appear without makeup for the first time during an interview on MTV. 

1987 – The Beatles, Bob Dylan and Brian Wilson are nominated to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

1993 – Mariah Carey dominates the Billboard Hot 100 with “Dreamlover,” which holds at No. 1 for eight weeks. It becomes her seventh career chart-topper.

1999 – TLC kicks off three weeks on top of the Billboard singles chart with “Unpretty.”

2004 – “Goodies,” by Ciara featuring Petey Pablo, is in the middle of a seven-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. pop chart.

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On This Day: September 11

On This Day September 11

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Celebrity Birthdays
Celebrity Birthdays

1940 – Director Brian DePalma (“Carrie,” “Dressed to Kill,” “Blow Out,” “Scarface,” “The Untouchables,” “Carlito’s Way,” “Mission: Impossible”)

1961 – Oscar and Golden Globe-winning actress Virginia Madsen (“Candyman,” “Ghosts of Mississippi,” “The Rainmaker,” “Sideways,” “Designated Survivor”)

1962 – Emmy-winning actress Kristy McNichol (“Family,” “Empty Nest”)

1965 – Singer-songwriter-producer Moby, born Richard Melville Hall (“Go” and “Porcelain,” “Everything is Wrong and Play”)

1967 – Grammy and Emmy-winning jazz singer, pianist and actor Harry Connick, Jr.

1977 – Grammy-winning rapper and actor Ludacris, born Christopher Brian Bridges and best known for playing Tej Parker in the “The Fast and the Furious” movies

History Highlights
History Highlights

1961 –  Packing winds of 175 miles per hour, Hurricane Carla barrels into Texas. It kills 46 people and injures more than 450 others, with many lives spared due to the evacuation of nearly half a million people from the Texas coast. Carla is the first storm to garner live television coverage, featuring a young reporter named Dan Rather, who went on to become an acclaimed CBS News journalist.

1970 – Secret agent Maxwell Smart calls Agent 99 for the last time as the final episode of “Get Smart” airs on CBS. 

1971 – One of the most colorful figures of the Cold War dies: former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, who went head-to-head with President John F. Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis. 

1974 – The St. Louis Cardinals take seven hours, four minutes and 25 innings to beat the New York Mets at Shea Stadium. The contest sets a National League record for innings played in a night game. Fans finally go home after 3 a.m. 

1985 – Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds becomes the all-time hit leader with his 4,192nd hit to break Ty Cobb’s record. Rose lined a 2-1 pitch off San Diego pitcher Eric Show to left-center field for a single in the first inning. It was the 57th anniversary of Ty Cobb’s last game in the majors.

2001 – Four coordinated attacks using commercial airliners are launched against the U.S. by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda, leaving thousands dead or injured. New York City’s iconic World Trade Center is destroyed, part of The Pentagon outside Washington, D.C. is damaged, and heroic passengers aboard another jet wrest control from the terrorists and crash it into a rural Pennsylvania field to prevent it from striking a major city. 

Musical Milestones
Musical Milestones

1965 – The Beatles conquer the singles chart with “Help!”

1969 – John Lennon tells his business manager he’s quitting The Beatles, but doesn’t inform the band until days later. 

1971 – “Go Away Little Girl,” by Donny Osmond, begins a three-week run at No. 1 on the singles chart. 

1976 – “(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty” by KC and the Sunshine Band boogies its way to the top of the Billboard Hot 100. It’s the band’s third No. 1 single.

1982 – Chicago’s “Hard to Say I’m Sorry” is on top of the singles chart.

1993 – Mariah Carey kicks off an eight-week domination of the singles chart with “Dreamlover.”

1999 – “Bailamos,” by Enrique Iglesias, begins its second and final week on top of the Billboard Hot 100.

2004 – “Goodies,” by Ciara featuring Petey Pablo, kicks off seven weeks on top of the singles chart.

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