October 16
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Events on This Day
1793 - Queen Marie Antoinette lost her head in a guillotine incident (she had been found guilty of treason) on this day. On the scaffold she accidentally stepped on the executioner’s foot, and her last words were, “Monsieur, I ask your pardon. I did not do it on purpose.”1829 - The Tremont House (now known as the Tremont Hotel) opened in Boston, MA. It was called the first modern hotel in America. Each of the Tremont’s 170 luxurious rooms went for $2 a day and included four meals...
1846 - The painkiller, ether, was demonstrated successfully for the first time -- in Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital. The drug was administered by William T.G. Morton, a ‘dentist’ (he never attended dental or medical school), of Charlestown, MA.
1909 - The first seesaw World Series ended , after each team -- Pittsburgh Pirates vs. Detroit Tigers -- had won alternately until game seven. Pittsburgh pitcher Babe Adams came through with a 6-hit, 8-0 win over Detroit. It was his third complete-game victory and gave the Pirates their first world championship.
1912 - It was the day for game eight of the World Series. What? Game eight? Yes, it seems game two was called for darkness with the score tied, and did not count. Anyway, back to game eight, between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Giants: Boston won, 3-2, in ten innings. Talk about even-steven baseball...
1916 - Margaret Sanger, Fania Mindell and Ethel Burne opened the doors of the first birth control clinic in the United States, right smack in the middle of Brooklyn at 46 Amboy Street on this day. Ms. Sanger served 30 days in jail for her bold action. A year earlier she had been indicted for using the U.S. mail to disseminate birth control information in three languages throughout the United States. A public nurse, Margaret Sanger went on to become the first president of the International Planned Parenthood Foundation in 1953.
1928 - The forerunner of the frosted electric light bulb was patented. No, it wasn’t the work of Thomas Edison, Westinghouse, General Electric, or any of his army, either. It was one Marvin Pipkin who lit up at receiving this patent.
1939 - Radio listeners welcomed The Right to Happiness on the NBC Blue network. The 15-minute radio drama turned out to be one of the longest-running radio shows of its kind. It moved over to CBS in 1941, then back to NBC in 1942. Fourteen years later Right to Happiness returned to CBS where it stayed until its last days in 1960. The show had a theme song, Song of the Soul, and what seemed like a cast of thousands. It just took a lot of different radio actors to play the continuing roles over a 21-year period.
1941 - Fry Me Cookie, with a Can of Lard was recorded by the Will Bradley Orchestra on Columbia. Ray McKinley, co-leader of the band, was featured.
1942 - The Robe
, by Lloyd C. Douglas, was published. In 1953 the historical novel about the crucifixion of Jesus was made into a movie that captured three Oscars.
1945 - Barry Fitzgerald starred as Judge Barnard Fitz in His Honor, the Barber, which debuted on NBC radio.
1946 - Former Nazi foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and nine other Nazi leaders convicted at the Nuremberg trials were hanged. Ribbentrop had helped conclude Germany’s alliance with Italy and Germany’s temporary nonaggression pact with the U.S.S.R., but was ultimately condemned for his planning of Germany’s invasion of Poland.
1953 - In Havana, Cuba Fidel Castro, his brother Raul, and other revolutionaries were brought to a secret trial. Castro stated, “History Will Absolve Me.” He was sentenced to 15 years. Dictator Fulgencio Batista later released Castro and his men in a general amnesty release.
1955 - Mrs. Jules Lederer made news. She replaced Ruth Crowley as a columnist in 26 newspapers. Mrs. Crowley, a writer of advice to the lovelorn, had died in July of 1955 and was replaced by the woman whose advice column was seen in hundreds of newspapers. She wrote under the famous pen name, Ann Landers. ‘Eppie’ Lederer, who died June 22, 2002, was also the twin sister of another advice columnist, Abigail Van Buren.
1956 - William J. Brennan, Jr. was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
1962 - World Series time again: The New York Yankees scored the game’s only run in the fourth inning. In the ninth, San Francisco Giants’ Willie Mays ripped a double to right off pitcher Ralph Terry, but great fielding by Roger Maris kept Matty Alou from scoring. Willie McCovey hit a liner toward right, but second-baseman Bobby Richardson grabbed it, giving the Yankees their second straight world championship. Terry was named Series MVP.
1964 - China became the world’s fifth nuclear power. It detonated its first atomic bomb -- at Lop Nor PRC.
1964 - Harold Wilson of the Labor Party assumed office as prime minister of Great Britain, succeeding Conservative Sir Alec Douglas-Home.
1969 - The once-lowly New York Mets won their first World Series baseball championship. The ‘Miracle Mets’ were 100-to-1 long shots at the beginning of the season. Lindsey Nelson and Ralph Kiner were at the mike on radio for one of the most exciting finishes in baseball history.
1972 - John Fogerty and Creedence Clearwater Revival called it a career ... and the group disbanded. Fogerty would continue in a solo career with big hits including, Centerfield and The Old Man Down the Road.
1976 - Memphis, TN disc jockey Rick Dees and His Cast of Idiots made it all the way to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 with the immortal Disco Duck (Part 1). Dees is still around, but not as a recording artist. He’s a DJ in Los Angeles and is hosting several varieties of the Weekly Top 40 show, syndicated around the world.
1976 - Stevie Wonder’s album, Songs in the Key of Life wound up at number one in the U.S. It turned out to be no fluke. With greats, such as Sir Duke, Isn’t She Lovely and I Wish, the double-album stayed at #1 for 14 weeks. Other tracks: Love’s in Need of Love Today, Have a Talk with God, Village Ghetto Land, Contusion, Knocks Me Off My Feet, Pastime Paradise, Summer Soft, Ordinary Pain, Saturn, Ebony Eyes, Joy Inside My Tears, Black Man, Ngiculela - Es Una Historia/I Am Singing, If It’s Magic, As, Another Star, All Day Sucker, Easy Goin’ Evening (My Mama’s Call).
1978 - Cardinal Karol Wojtyla was elected the 264th Pope: His Holiness John Paul II.
1983 - The Baltimore Orioles beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 4 games to 1 in the World Series. The Orioles featured Cal Ripken, Eddie Murray, a stingy pitching staff and clutch performances by other great players. The Phillies were led by Mike Schmidt and a group of veterans nicknamed The Wheeze Kids: Pete Rose (age 42), Joe Morgan (40), Tony Perez (41) and Steve Carlton (38). After losing the Series opener in Baltimore, the Orioles won the next four games. In the fifth game, Murray hit two home runs and MVP Rick Dempsey another, giving the Orioles their third World Series championship.
1983 - Actor Anthony Quinn lit up the Great White Way in the revival of the 1968 musical, Zorba, that reunited Quinn with Lila Kedrova, who played Madame Hortense. They both had appeared in the film portrayal, Zorba the Greek, which won Quinn a nomination for Best Actor, and an Oscar for Kedrova as Best Supporting Actress. This was one of the few films that came before the Broadway show, rather than the reverse.
1984 - Bishop Desmond Tutu, General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for “his role as a unifying leader figure in the campaign to resolve the problem of apartheid in South Africa.”
1986 - Chuck Berry celebrated his 60th birthday with a concert in his home town of St. Louis, Missouri (at the Fox Theatre). The show was organized by Keith Richards (The Rolling Stones) and the concert was used in a documentary titled, Hail! Hail! Rock ’N’ Roll, an overview of Berry’s career.
1987 - WBA, WBC & IBF undisputed, as they say, World Heavyweight Champion Mike Tyson pummeled Tyrell Biggs (TKO) in the seventh round at Trump Plaza, Atlantic City, NJ.
1992 - Sinead O’Connor was booed off the stage at a show honoring Bob Dylan at Madison Square Garden (famous for booing folks off the stage), New York. The crowd was acting in disapproval of O’Connor’s tearing up a picture of Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night Live October 3, 1992.
1995 - A vast throng of black men gathered in Washington DC for the Million Man March, led by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. Over 800,000 black men attended.
1996 - Director Spike Lee’s Get on the Bus opened across the U.S. It’s the story of a group of men who board a bus headed for the historic ‘Million Man March’ in 1995. The group boards the bus as strangers but emerges three days and thousands of miles later as brothers. The drama stars Ossie Davis, Charles Dutton, Andre Braugher, Richard Belzer, Thomas Jefferson Byrd, Harry Lennix, Isaiah Washington, Roger Guenveur Smith, Hill Harper, Gabriel Casseus, Wendell Pierce, Deaundre Bonds, Albert Hall, Bernie Mac and Steve White.
1996 - During the second presidential debate, U.S. President Bill Clinton was asked if his Republican opponent Bob Dole was too old to be president. Clinton replied, “It’s the age of his ideas that I question.”
1997 - American novelist James A. Michener died in Texas. He was 90 years old. Michener wrote some 47 books, including Tales of the South Pacific, The Bridges at Toko-Ri, Sayonara, The Source, Iberia, Centennial, Chesapeake, The Covenant, Space, Poland, Texas and Alaska.
1998 - Movies debuting in the U.S. this day: Beloved, with Oprah Winfrey, Danny Glover and Thandie Newton; Bride of Chucky, starring Jennifer Tilly, Brad Dourif and Katherine Heigl; and Practical Magic, with Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, Dianne Wiest and Stockard Channing.
1998 - Protestant David Trimble and Roman Catholic John Hume were named as co-winners of the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize. The Northern Ireland political laders were rewarded for “their efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict in Northern Ireland.”
1999 - A New York Air National Guard plane rescued Dr. Jerri Nielsen from a South Pole research center. Dr. Nielsen developed breast cancer many months before, but no plane could reach her during in the extreme cold of the Arctic winter months. With no chance of leaving the station, Dr. Nielsen had no choice but to treat herself until help arrived on this day.
2000 - Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan and his son were killed in a plane crash south of St. Louis while en route to a rally for Carnahan’s U.S. Senate campaign.
2001 - A wing of the U.S. Senate building in Washington DC was closed following confirmation that a letter to Senator Tom Daschle (D-SD) carried anthrax. It was later found that the anthrax contained the additive bentonite to enhance suspension in air. Twelve Senate offices were closed and hundreds of staffers underwent anthrax tests.
2002 - A Bush Administration official reported that North Korea had told the U.S. it had a secret nuclear weapons program in violation of a 1994 agreement signed with the Clinton administration.
2002 - The Arthur Andersen accounting firm was sentenced to five years probation and fined $500,000 for obstructing a federeal investigation of the energy company Enron.
2003 - Pope John Paul II celebrated his 25th anniversary, reaching a milestone matched by only three of his predecessors.
2004 - Pierre Salinger died of a heart attack near his home in southern France. He was 79 years old. Salinger served as press secretary to two U.S. presidents, JFK and LBJ.)
2005 - The reentry module of the Chinese manned spacecraft Shenzhou 6 landed safely in Inner Mongolia, China.
2006 - The Langeled pipeline, longest underwater gas pipeline in the world, was officially opened by Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Jens Stoltenberg. The Langeled moves gas from Norway 750 miles (1,200 kilometers) under the North Sea to Great Britain. Construction of the pipe, by Norwegian firm Hydro, began in 2004 and was expected to eventually supply one fifth of Britain’s natural gas requirements.
2006 - California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced that he was setting up an emissions-trading scheme between California and the ‘Northeastern states greenhouse gas reduction consortium’ in an attempt at curbing the output of greenhouse gases.
2007 - A study in Hong Kong found that Lupeol, a compound in fruits like mangoes, grapes and strawberries, appears to be effective in killing and curbing the spread of cancer cells in the head and neck.
2007 - British actress Deborah Kerr died. She was 86 years old. Kerr, born in in Helensburgh, Scotland, shared one of cinema’s most famous kisses -- with Burt Lancaster in the surf in From Here to Eternity. Her many films included The King and I (w/Yul Brynner), King Solomon’s Mines, The Prisonerof Zenda, An Affair to Remember and The Sundowners.
2007 - Libya and Vietnam, countries once shunned by the West, were elected overwhelmingly to two-year terms on the United Nations Security Council.
2008 - A heavy sandstorm turned Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, into a pinkish haze, sending many people to the hospital with respiratory problems and delaying a number of international flights.
2009 - Motion Pictures opening in U.S. theatres: All the Best: Fun Begins, with Sanjay Dutt, Bipasha Basu and Fardeen Khan; Black Dynamite, with Miguel Núñez, Obba Babatunde, Kevin Chapman, Tommy Davidson, Richard Edson, Arsenio Hall, Darrel Heath, Buddy Lewis, Brian McKnight, Byron Minns, James McManus, Phil Morris, Miguel Nunez, Salli Richardson-Whitfield, Tucker Smallwood, John Salley, Chris Spencer, Mike Starr, Nicole Sullivan, Kym Whitley, Mykelti Williamson, Bokeem Woodbine, Cedric Yarbrough and Roger Yuan; Law Abiding Citizen, starring Gerard Butler, Jamie Foxx, Viola Davis, Bruce McGill, Leslie Bibb, Colm Meaney, Regina Hall and Michael Irby; New York, I Love You, with Kevin Bacon, Justin Bartha, Maggie Q, Orlando Bloom, James Caan, Hayden Christensen, Blake Lively, Julie Christie, Bradley Cooper, Chris Cooper, Drea de Matteo, Carla Gugino, Ethan Hawke, John Hurt, Irfan Khan, Shia LaBeouf, Cloris Leachman, Natalie Portman, Rachel Bilson, Christina Ricci, Olivia Thirlby, Goran Visnjic, Eli Wallach, Robin Wright Penn, Anton Yelchin and Burt Young; The Little Traitor, starring Ido Port, Alfred Molina, Jake Barker, Theodore Bikel, Vivian Brunstein and Levana Finkelstein; The Maid, with Catalina Saavedra, Claudia Celedón, Alejandro Goic, Andrea García-Huidobro, Mariana Loyola and Agustín Silva; The Stepfather, with Dylan Walsh, Sela Ward, Penn Badgley, Adrianne Palicki, Amber Heard, Paige Turco, Braeden LeMasters, Skyler Samuels and Jon Tenney; and Where the Wild Things Are, starring Catherine Keener, Benicio Del Toro, Forest Whitaker, Lauren Ambrose, Catherine O’Hara, Tom Noonan, Michael Berry and James Gandolfini.
2009 - Bank of America reported losses of $2.2 billion in the third quarter, providing further evidence that consumers were struggling to pay their bills.
2010 - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that while immigrants are welcome in Germany, they must learn the language and accept the country’s cultural norms. “This multicultural approach, saying that we simply live side by side and live happily with each other has failed. Utterly failed.”
2011 - Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Dan Wheldon (33) died in a 15-car pileup at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The British IndyCar driver was killed when his car flew over another vehicle and hit a catch fence.
2011 - Houston-based Kinder Morgan agreed to buy El Paso Corporation for $38 billion in cash, stock and assumed debt, making Kinder the largest operator of natural gas pipelines in the U.S.
2012 - U.S. President Barack Obama and challenger Mitt Romney held their second debate of the 2012 presidential campaign. This time, at New York’s Hofstra University. This meeting saw Obama bring the desired energy sought by worried Democrats after the president’s lackluster performance in the first debate two weeks earlier. A forceful Obama defended his policies and challenged Romney on shifting positions on key issues while arguing his Republican rival's proposals would favor the wealthy if he was elected on November 6. Romney repeatedly attacked Obama’s record, saying millions of unemployed people and a sluggish economic recovery showed the president’s policies had failed.
2012 - Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev declared war on tobacco, calling for a ban on tobacco advertising, an end to smoking in public and an increase in the price of cigarettes.
2013 - The U.S. Congress, with hours to go before the government reached its $16.7 trillion debt limit, approved a deal to end a government shutdown. The 16-day shutdown of U.S. National Parks cost the parks and surrounding communities an estimated $44 million in lost visitor spending. And a 2014 report said five states lost over $20 million in the shutdown.
2013 - Washington became the second state to adopt rules for the recreational sale of marijuana. In 2012, Washington and Colorado legalized the possession of up to an ounce of pot by adults over 21, with voters deciding to set up systems of state-licensed growers, processors and sellers. The measures forced state officials to craft rules for a fledgling industry barred by U.S. federal law for more than 70 years.
2014 - Michigan lawyers said the city of Detroit would demolish the Joe Louis Arena, home of the Red Wings hockey team, and give the land to creditor Financial Guarantee Insurance (FGIC) -- as part of a settlement in the city’s bankruptcy. So, where would the Red Wings play hockey, you ask? In a new $650 million sports and entertainment district in Downtown Detroit.
2015 - Movies opening in U.S theatres incluced: Bridge of Spies, starring Tom Hanks, Alan Alda and Amy Ryan; Crimson Peak, with Jessica Chastain, Charlie Hunnam and Tom Hiddleston; Goosebumps, starring Jack Black, Odeya Rush and Halston Sage; the documentaries All Things Must Pass and The Russian Woodpecker; Beasts of No Nation, with Idris Elba, Abraham Attah and Ama K. Abebrese; The Diabolical, starring Wilmer Calderon, Kurt Carley and Merrin Dungey; Experimenter, with Taryn Manning, Winona Ryder and Peter Sarsgaard; Meadowland starring Olivia Wilde, Juno Temple and Elisabeth Moss; Room, with Brie Larson, Joan Allen and William H. Macy; Truth, starring Cate Blanchett, Elisabeth Moss and Robert Redford; Woodlawn, with Sean Astin, Jon Voight and C. Thomas Howell; and Crimson Peak, starring Jessica Chastain, Charlie Hunnam and Tom Hiddleston.
2015 - A U.S. jury found Apple Inc. had incorporated microchip technology owned by the Univ of Wisconsin-Madison’s patent licensing arm into some of the company’s iPhones and iPads -- without permission. Apple was ordered to pay more than $234 million in damages.
2016 - The WikiLeaks website released its ninth batch of emails, more results from the apparent hack of the personal email account of Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. Clinton aides said the releases were the results of a computer hack and accused the Russians of engineering the cyber theft in an effort to help Donald Trump’s campaign.
2017 - The European Union reaffirmed its support for the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers. This, despite criticism of the accord by POTUS Donald Trump. The E.U. urged U.S. lawmakers not to reimpose sanctions on Tehran.
2017 - Downgraded Hurricane Ophelia hit Ireland leaving three people dead, 120,000 homes and businesses without power and every school in the country closed.
2018 - The U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions on a network of businesses it said had financial links to the Basij paramilitary group, which enforced internal security in Iran. Among other malign activities, the IRGC’s Basij militia was recruiting, training, and deploying child soldiers to fight in IRGC-fueled conflicts across the region.
2018 - A Chinese maker of rabies vaccine was fined $1.3 billion for falsifying production records in a scandal that prompted a nationwide crackdown on the industry. Changchun Changsheng Life Sciences Ltd. also was stripped of its production licenses for vaccines and drugs. Disclosure of the case, and the failure of authorities to act immediately after finding inconsistencies in the company’s records in late 2017, triggered a public outcry -- after deaths and injuries due to fake or shoddy medicines, milk, toys and other products.
2019 - 129 House Republicans joined every House Democrat to pass a nonbinding resolution opposing POTUS Trump’s abrupt withdrawal of U.S. forces from northeastern Syria, paving the way for Turkey to invade and slaughter America’s Kurdish allies.
2019 - The U.K. Supreme Court ruled that judge Claire Gilham be allowed to take her case to an employment tribunal because excluding her from whistleblowing protection rules would breach her human rights. Gilham, a district judge, said she was bullied, victimized and suffered a breakdown after raising concerns about the dangers of government cuts to legal services.
2020 - Movies scheduled to open in U.S. theatres included: Honest Thief, starring Liam Neeson, Kate Walsh and Jai Courtney; 2 Hearts, with Jacob Elordi, Radha Mitchell and Adan Canto; Don’t Look Back, starring Kourtney Bell, Will Stout and Skyler Hart; Ghabe, with Adel Darwish, Nathalie Williamsdotter and Ahmad Fadel; The Opening Act, starring Mircea Monroe, Debby Ryan and Ken Jeong; and The Shade Shepherd, with Jordon Hodges, Randy Spence and Caroline Newton.
2020 - From our "Duhhh" department: Michigan said it would prohibit the open carrying of firearms at polling stations, clerk’s offices and other places where absentee ballots were tabulated -- to prevent voter intimidation.
2020 - A Texas state judge issued an injunction blocking enforcement of Governor Greg Abbott’s order limiting counties to one mail-in ballot drop-off location.
2020 - Russia reported a record high 15,150 new cases of COVID-19, including 5,049 in the capital city of Moscow. The Kremlin said it was worried by a record surge in cases but that the situation was still under control. Ath the time, Russia had the world’s fourth highest infection tally.
2021 - Squid Game, Netflix’s biggest original series, was estimated to be worth almost $900 million for the streaming giant. The nine-episode thriller, in which cash-strapped contestants play childhood games with deadly consequences in a bid to win 45.6 billion won ($38.58 million), became an international hit.
2021 - CNN reported that COVID-19 was the leading cause of death for U.S. police officers. And alhough some members of law enforcement were among the first to be eligible to receive vaccines, many law enforcement officers and their unions had resisted vaccine mandates. This, despite the effectiveness of the shots in preventing severe cases and death.
2022 - Tens of thousands of people marched in Paris to protest the rising cost of living. The march intensified pressure on French President Emmanuel Macron, who was facing a crisis in the National Assembly, the lower house of France’s Parliament. Inflation in France had risen above 6 percent, lower than in the rest of Europe but high enough to anger French citizens.
2022 - The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation contributed another $1.2 billion to the effort to eradicate polio worldwide, bringing its total commitment to nearly $5 billion. The foundation announced at the World Health Summit in Berlin that it would provide the money to help the Global Polio Eradication Initiative realize its strategy to end the polio virus through 2026. The initiative focused on two countries where polio was endemic, Pakistan and Afghanistan. “The last steps to eradication are by far the toughest. But our foundation remains dedicated to a polio-free future,” foundation CEO Mark Suzman said.
and more...
Birthdays on This Day October 16
1758 - Noah Webster
author, lexicographer: Webster’s American Dictionary of the English Language; died May 28, 18431854 - Oscar (O’Flahertie Fingal Wills) Wilde
playwright: The Importance of Being Earnest, Picture of Dorian Gray; died Nov 30, 19001886 - David Ben-Gurion
Israel’s first prime minister; died Dec 1, 19731888 - Eugene (Gladstone) O’Neill
Nobel Prize [1936] and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright: The Ice Man Cometh [1946]; Long Day’s Journey into Night; died Nov 27, 19531898 - William O. Douglas
jurist: U.S. Supreme Court Justice [1939-1975]; died Jan 19, 19801900 - Goose (Leon Allen) Goslin
Baseball Hall of Famer: Washington Nationals [World Series: 1924, 1925, 1933], St. Louis Browns, Detroit Tigers [World Series: 1934, 1935/all-star: 1936]; drove in 100 or more runs on eleven occasions, hit .300 or better eleven times; career: .316 average, 2735 hits, 37 more in World Series competition; died May 15, 19711906 - George Lott
International Tennis Hall of Famer [enshrined 1964]; U.S. Open Tennis Mixed Doubles Champion [w/Betty Nuthall - 1929 & 1931] [w/Helen Jacobs - 1934]; author [w/Jeffrey Bairstow]: How to Play Winning Doubles [1979]; died Dec 2, 19911923 - Bert Kaempfert
musician: Wonderland by Night, Red Roses for a Blue Lady, Three O’Clock in the Morning; died June 21, 19801924 - Linda Darnell
actress: Dakota Incident, Blackbeard the Pirate, Anna and the King of Siam, Forever Amber, Buffalo Bill, The Mark of Zorro; died Apr 10, 19651925 - Angela Lansbury
Tony Award-winning actress: Mame [1966], Dear World [1969], Gypsy [1975], Sweeney Todd [1979]; Murder, She Wrote, Death on the Nile, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Harlow, Blue Hawaii, The Manchurian Candidate, The Long Hot Summer, The World of Henry Orient, The Harvey Girls, Picture of Dorian Gray, National Velvet; voice: teapot: Beauty and the Beast; died Oct 11, 20221927 - Günter (Wilhelm) Grass
novelist: Dog Years, The Tin Drum; won 1999 Nobel Prize in Literature; died Apr 13, 20151931 - Chuck (Charles) Colson
government: Watergate co-conspirator; died Apr 21, 20121938 - Nico (Christa Päffgen)
singer: group: The Velvet Underground: LP: The Velvet Underground & Nico; actress: La Dolce Vita, Chelsea Girls; died Jul 18, 19881940 - Barry Corbin
actor: Northern Exposure, Boone, The Chase, Urban Cowboy, Who’s Harry Crumb1940 - Dave Debusschere
Basketball Hall of Famer: player coach: Detroit Pistons, New York Knicks; ABA commissioner, assistant coach, Knicks director of basketball ops [1980s]; died May 14, 20031941 - Mel Counts
basketball: Oregon State Univ; U.S. Olympic Basketbal Gold Medal Winner [1964]; Boston Celtics, Phoenix Suns, LA Lakers1941 - Tim (James Timothy) McCarver
baseball: catcher: SL Cardinals [World Series: 1964, 1967, 1968/all-star: 1966, 1967], Philadelphia Phillies, Montreal Expos, Boston Red Sox; broadcaster: NY Mets, ABC Sports; died Feb 16, 20231942 - Dave Lovelady
musician: drums: group: The Fourmost: Hello Little Girl, I’m in Love, A Little Loving, Baby I Need Your Loving1943 - C.F. (Fred) Turner
musician: group: Bachman-Turner Overdrive: Takin’ Care of Business, Let It Ride, You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet, Looking Out for Number One, Hey You1945 - D.D. (Dwight Douglas) Lewis
football: Dallas Cowboys linebacker: Super Bowl V, VI, X, XII, XIII1946 - Suzanne Somers (Mahoney)
actress: Three’s Company, She’s the Sheriff, Step by Step, American Graffiti, Seduced by Evil1947 - Bob (Robert Hall) Weir (Hall)
musician: guitar, singer: founding member of The Grateful Dead: Touch of Grey, Truckin’; solo: LP: Ace, Heaven Help the Fool; other groups: Kingfish, Bobby and the Midnites, RatDog, The Other Ones, The Dead, Furthur1947 - David Zucker
director: Airplane!, Naked Gun series, Ruthless People, Top Secret!, Police Squad!, Help Wanted!1948 - Richard Caster
football: NY Jets tight end/wide receiver, Washington Redskins tight end: Super Bowl XVII1949 - Bob Collyard
hockey: NHL: St. Louis Blues1953 - Tony Carey
musician: keyboards: group: Rainbow: LPs: Rainbow Rising, Long Live Rock ’n’ Roll1953 - Mike Sojourner
basketball: Univ. of Utah; Atlanta Hawks1958 - Tim Robbins
Academy Award-winning actor: Mystic River [2003]; The Shawshank Redemption, Bull Durham, Short Cuts, Hudsucker Proxy; director: Dead Man Walking, Cradle Will Rock, Queens Supreme1959 - Gary Kemp
musician: guitar: group: Spandau Ballet: To Cut a Long Story Short, The Freeze, Musclebound, Chant No. 1, True, Gold, Only When You Leave; brother of musician Martin Kemp1960 - Val Skinner
LPGA golf champ: six LPGA Tour wins; 4 Ladies European Tour wins1962 - Flea (Michael Balzary)
musician: bass guitar: group: The Red Hot Chili Peppers: LPs: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Freaky Styley, The Uplift Mofo Party Plan, Mother’s Milk, Blood Sugar Sex Magik, One Hot Minute1965 - German Titov
hockey: Calgary Flames, Pittsburgh Penguins, Edmonton Oilers, Anaheim Mighty Ducks1967 - Josias Manzanillo
baseball [pitcher]: Boston Red Sox, Milwaukee Brewers, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Seattle Mariners, Pittsburgh Pirates, Cincinnati Reds, Florida Marlins1968 - Elsa Zylberstein
actress: César Award [Best Supporting Actress]: I’ve Loved You So Long [2008]; Nucingen Haus, La Fabrique des sentiments, J’invente rien, Qui perd gagne!, Combat d’amour en songe, Metroland, De force avec d’autres, Van Gogh, Bapteme1969 - Juan Gonzalez
baseball [right field]: Texas Rangers, Detroit Tigers, Cleveland Indians, Kansas City Royals1969 - Wendy Wilson
singer: group: Wilson Phillips: Hold On, Release Me; daughter of Beach Boys singer, Brian Wilson1972 - Kordell Stewart
football [quarterback]: Univ of Colorado; NFL: Pittsburgh Steelers, Chicago Bears, Baltimore Ravens1973 - Ike Reese
football: Michigan State Univ; NFL: Philadelphia Eagles1975 - Kellie Martin
actress: Matinee, Troop Beverly Hills, Life Goes On, Christy1977 - John Mayer
musician: guitar; songwriter, singer: Bigger Than My Body, Your Body Is a Wonderland, Love Song for No One, Back To You, No Such Thing, Comfortable, New Deep, Only Heart1981 - Caterina Scorsone
actress: Missing, Goosebumps, Crash, Private Practice, Grey’s Anatomy, Alice, The November Man; more1982 - Pippa Black
actress: Neighbours, Outsourced, My Funny Valentine, Perception, Royal Pains, Lemon Tree Passage1982 - Tyla Wynn
actress [2004-2012]: X-rated films: Hottie for Hire, To Die For, Triumph of the Tushy, Vulvapalooza, I Cream on Genie 2, Down and Dirty, Backwash Babes1984 - Melissa Lauren
actress [2003-2012]: X-rated films: French Connexxxion, Hardcore Models, Double Her Pleasure, Blowjobs Gone Wild, Very Very Bad Santa, Mr and Mrs Sexxx, Lick Between the Lines, Playgirl: Wild with Anticipation, Playgirl: Climactic Tales1992 - Bryce Harper
baseball [outfield]: Washington Nationals [2012–2018]; Philadelphia Phillies [2019– ]1997 - Naomi Osaka
tennis pro: won her first grand slam victory by defeating Serena Williams in the 2018 U.S. Open Championship
and still more...
Hit Music on This Day October 16
1944I’ll Walk Alone (facts) - Dinah Shore
Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby? (facts) - Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters
1953
1962
1971
1980
1989
1998
2007
2016
and even more...
Those were the days, my friend. We thought they’d never end...
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