September 17
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Events on This Day
1717 - The first synod of the Presbyterian Church in America met in Philadelphia.1776 - The Presidio of San Francisco was founded as a Spanish fort.
1787 - The Constitution of the United States of America was signed by delegates from twelve states at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, PA. The U.S. Constitution is the world’s oldest working Constitution.
1789 - Sir William Herschel discovered Mimas and Enceladus, satellites of Saturn. Herschel had also discovered the planet Uranus in 1781, which led to his position as private astronomer to the king in 1782.
1796 - U.S. President George Washington delivered his Farewell Address, in which he announced his decision not to seek a third term as president. Washington warned the new nation to avoid entanglements with foreign governments.
1872 - Phillip W. Pratt of Abington, MA patented an automatic sprinkler system for putting out fires. The system was operated by means of a valve to which cords and fuses were attached. The cords held the valve closed with a spring-loaded lever. In case of a fire, when the fuses ignited, the cords burned, and the valve opened, releasing a stream of water.
1911 - American aviation pioneer Cal P. Rodgers took off on a flight into the record books on this day. Rodgers left Sheephead Bay at Brooklyn, New York headed for Long Beach, California. His was the first transcontinental airplane flight. It took Rogers some 84 days to make the trip in his Vin Fiz Flyer. He arrived in Long Beach on December 10, 1911. His actual time in the air was 3 days, 10 hours and 14 minutes.
1920 - The National Football League (NFL) was formed -- in Canton, Ohio. Canton is now the home of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
1931 - RCA Victor began demonstrating a very early version of the long-playing (LP), 33-1/3 RPM phonograph record. It would be another 17 years before RCA rival Columbia would begin mass production of the LP.
1939 - The Soviet Union attacked Poland, some two weeks after Nazi Germany had launched its assault. The Russians took 217,000 Poles prisoner and occupied eastern Poland within a week with losses of 737 dead and 2,000 wounded. The Polish submarine Orzel escaped from internment and sailed on to fight the Germans against long odds.
1939 - The Harry James Orchestra and Frank Sinatra recorded All or Nothing at All on Columbia Records.
1944 - Allied infantry glider troops entered Holland as airborne troops parachuted in to capture the Arnhem bridge as part of Operation Market-Garden. The plan called for the airborne troops to be relieved, but many were left stranded and eventually were evacuated or forced to surrender to the Germans.
1947 - The U.S. Department of Defense was established, uniting all branches of the armed services. James V. Forrestal was sworn in as the first Secretary of Defense.
1948 - Count Folke Bernadotte of Sweden, the U.N. mediator for Palestine, was assassinated in Jerusalem by members of the extreme Zionist Stern Group.
1949 - The Canadian passenger steamer Noronic was gutted by fire at a Toronto pier. 118 people were killed by the fire and from moke inhalation.
1953 - Ernie Banks became the first black baseball player to wear a Chicago Cubs uniform. Banks was also quick to say, “Let’s play two!” Banks was the Cubs’ outstanding shortstop from 1954 to 1960. In 1961 he was moved to left field, then to first base, where he spent the rest of his career. In 1969, Ernie Banks was voted the Cub’s best player ever by Chicago fans. ‘Mr. Cub’ retired in 1971.
1954 - Rocky Marciano retained possession of the world heavyweight boxing title. He knocked out Ezzard Charles in the eighth round of their championship bout.
1955 - The Perry Como Show moved to Saturday nights on NBC-TV. Soon, U.S.A. audiences would “Sing along with me ... I’m on my way to the stars...” with the incomparable Mr. C. Como’s hourlong variety show replaced his three-times-per-week, 15-minute show, which had been on the air since 1948. The new version of The Perry Como Show soon became Saturday’s highest-rated TV program, beating CBS competitor Jackie Gleason.
1959 - The X-15 rocket plane made its first flight. (Its first unpowered glide flight had happened on June 8, 1959.)
1961 - The sitcom Car 54, Where Are You? premiered on NBC. The sitcom, starring Joe E. Ross as Gunther Toody and Fred Gwynne as Francis Muldoon, ran for 60 episodes -- through Sep 8, 1963.
1961 - A new team debuted in the National Football League: the Minnesota Vikings. The Vikings defeated the Chicago Bears by a score of 37-13 in the team’s first game.
1963 - The Fugitive, starring David Janssen as Richard Kimble, premiered on ABC-TV. Kimble was cleared on the Aug 29, 1967, and narrator William Conrad announced “the day the running stopped.”
1964 - The situation comedy Bewitched premiered on ABC-TV. Elizabeth Montgomery played the witch, Samantha Stevens, twitching her magical nose all the way to July 1, 1972.
1965 - CBS-TV debuted an oxymoron this night in 1965. Hogan’s Heroes, a comedy, took place in a World War II Nazi POW camp. For six years the prisoners, under the lead of Colonel Robert Hogan (played by former KNX, Los Angeles, radio air personality, Bob Crane), managed to outwit the incompetent and inept Nazi Colonel Wilhelm Klink (played very competently by Werner Klemperer [2-time Emmy-Award winner for his role]) and Nazi Sgt. Shultz (played quite deftly by John Banner).
1965 - The Smothers Brothers Show, a sitcom, debuted on CBS-TV. Dick Smothers played young executive Dick Smothers, who worked for publisher Leonard J. Costello (Rolland Winters). Dick was trying to enjoy life as a prosperous bachelor, when his brother Tom (played by Tom) showed up as an apprentice angel. Tom, who had been lost at sea some years before, had to perform good deeds on earth in order to gain permanent angel wings. Instead of the helpful angel, he was often the blundering angel, constantly depending on brother Dick to get him out of scrape after scrape. The Smothers Brothers Show ran in this format for one year. The funny and talented duo returned in February of 1967 with The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, and continued to get into scrape after scrape -- this time with the network.
1966 - Mission Impossible premiered on CBS-TV. Peter Graves, Steven Hill, Barbara Bain, Martin Landau and Greg Morris starred. The theme music was written by Lalo Schifrin. Mission Impossible ran until September 1973.
1967 - The Doors performed Light My Fire on The Ed Sullivan Show. Sullivan had requested that lead singer Jim Morrison delete the line, “Girl, we couldn’t get much higher,” but Morrison refused.
1972 - M*A*S*H premiered on CBS-TV. The Korean War sitcom ran through Sep 19, 1983. Stars of the show: Alan Alda as Hawkeye, Wayne Rogers played Trapper John, Loretta Swit was Hot Lips Houlihan, Larry Linville (Frank Burns), Gary Burghoff (Radar), McLean Stevenson (Henry Blake), William Christopher (Francis Mulcahy), Jamie Farr (Maxwell Klinger), Harry Morgan (Sherman Potter), Mike Farrell (B.J. Hunnicut), David Ogden Stiers (Charles Emerson Winchester), Kellye Nakahara (Nurse Kellye), Jeff Maxwell (Igor), Rosalind Chao (Soon-Lee), Edward Winter (Colonel Flagg), and Allan Arbus as Sidney Freedman.
1973 - Arranger and conductor Hugo Winterhalter died of cancer in Greenwich, Connecticut. He was 64 years old. Winterhalter’s 1956 recording of Canadian Sunset, with its composer, Eddie Heywood, at the piano, was a million-seller.
1976 - NASA rolled out the space shuttle Enterprise in Palmdale, CA.
1978 - In the 30th Emmy Awards winners included All in the Family (Outstanding Comedy Series), Ed Asner in Lou Grant (Outstanding Actor - Drama Series), and Sada Thompson in Family (Outstanding Actress - Drama Series).
1983 - Vanessa Williams, Miss New York, was crowned Miss America. Williams was the first black woman in the 62-year history of the Miss America Pageant to win the coveted title. Williams relinquished her crown during her reign when nude pictures of her were published in Penthouse magazine. Vanessa Williams went on to enjoy popularity as a singer (Dreamin’, Save the Best for Last) and an actress (Candyman, Another You, Under the Gun).
1983 - The Cincinnati Reds honored Baseball Hall of Famer Johnny Bench as he ended his 16-year career as a catcher.
1984 - Seventeen years to the day after his first major-league home run, Reggie Jackson of the California Angels hit his 500th career homer -- in a game against the Kansas City Royals.
1984 - Progressive Conservative leader Brian Mulroney took office as Canada’s 18th prime minister.
1986 - The New York Mets clinched their first divisional title since 1973 by defeating the Chicago Cubs 4-2. The Mets later won the World Series as well.
1988 - Lt. General Prosper Avril declared himself president of Haiti after President Henri Hamphy was overthrown by the Presidential Guard.
1989 - At the 41st Emmy Awards, the winners included LA Law (Outstanding Drama Series), Cheers (Outstanding Comedy Series), Dana Delany (Outstanding Actress - Drama Series) and Candice Bergen (Outstanding Actress - Comedy Series).
1991 - The United Nations General Assembly opened its 46th session. The new members were Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, North and South Korea, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands.
1992 - Lawrence Walsh called a halt to his probe of the Iran-Contra scandal. The investigation had lasted 5 1/2 years.
1994 - II, by Boyz II Men, debuted at number one on the Billboard U.S. album chart. Cuts on the LP: Thank You, All Around the World, U Know, Vibin’, I Sit Away, Jezzebel, Khalil [Interlude], Trying Times, I’ll Make Love to You, On Bended Knee, 50 Candles, Water Runs Dry, Yesterday. II was #I for IV weeks.
1996 - Former Vice President Spiro T. Agnew died in Berlin, Maryland. He was 77 years old.
1997 - Red Skelton (Bernard Richard Skelton), comic clown and actor, died at age 84 in Rancho Mirage, CA. Skelton made his debut on radio and Broadway in 1937 and appeared in 43 films. Skelton’s memorable characters include Clem Kadiddlehopper, Freddie the Freeloader and the Mean Widdle Kid.
1999 - Four flicks featured at U.S. theatres this day: Blue Streak (starring Martin Lawrence, Luke Wilson, Peter Greene, William Forsythe); Breakfast of Champions (with Bruce Willis, Albert Finney, Nick Nolte, Barbara Hershey); For Love of the Game (Kevin Costner, Kelly Preston, John C. Reilly, Jena Malone); and Get Bruce! (Whoopi Goldberg, Bette Midler, Nathan Lane, Lily Tomlin and about a zillion others).
2000 - At the summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, swimmer Tom Dolan of the U.S. won the 400-meter individual medley. Dolan set a world record with a time if 4:11.76.
2001 - President George Bush (II) said the U.S. wanted terrorism suspect Osama bin Laden “dead or alive.”
2001 - The U.S. stock markets opened for the first time since the attacks of 9/11. After the longest closure since the Great Depression in 1929, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 684 to 8,920; the Nasdaq dropped 115 to 1,579.
2001 - The Late Show with David Letterman returned to CBS-TV for the first time since the attacks on the World Trade Center; guests included Dan Rather and Regis Philbin.
2002 - Syndicated Amish cooking columnist Elizabeth Coblentz died at 66 years of age. Her cook book includeThe Amish Cook Cookbook and An Amish Christmas. Her column appeared in 105 newspapers.
2003 - New York Stock Exchange chairman Richard Grasso resigned his position due to controversy surrounding his compensation -- estimated at $140 million.
2004 - Films debuting in the U.S.: Mr. 3000, starring Bernie Mac, Angela Bassett, Evan Jones, Amaury Nolasco, Michael Rispoli, Paul Sorvino, Brian White, Dondre T. Whitfield, Tom Arnold and Chris North; Silver City, with Chris Cooper, Richard Dreyfuss, Billy Zane, Danny Huston and Daryl Hannah; Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, starring Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie, Casey Affleck, Bai Ling, Giovanni Ribisi, Omid Djalili and Michael Gambon; and Wimbledon, with Kirsten Dunst, Paul Bettany, Austin Nichols, Sam Neill, Jon Favreau, Bernard Hill, James McAvoy, Eleanor Bron, Nikolaj Coster Waldau and James McAvoy.
2004 - In San Francisco Barry Bonds became the first new member of baseball’s 700 home run club in 31 years, joining Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron.
2004 - Backed by 4,000 police officers, the Colombian government seized control of that nation’s largest pharmacy chain, Drogas La Rebaja, saying its creation and expansion had been funded by cocaine trafficking. Prosecutors and police took over more than 400 stores in 28 cities.
2005 - Germany’s 172nd Oktoberfest opened. It ran through Oct 3, 2005. During the celebration, some six million people consumed about six million liters of beer (about 1.578 million gallons).
2006 - Vinson Filyaw was arrested in South Carolina and charged with raping a 14-year-old girl. The 36-year-old Filyaw had abducted the girl on Sep 6 and kept her in an underground bunker. Elizabeth Shoaf was rescued Sep 16 after she used Filyaw’s cell phone to send a text message to her mother.
2007 - A report said voracious pine beetles, that have ravaged more than 35,000 square miles of British Columbia’s forests, had wiped out about 40 percent of the region’s marketable pine trees.
2008 - Gold prices rose $70, the biggest one-day price jump ever, to close at $850.50.
2008 - The U.S. Coast Guard intercepted a submarine-like vessel carrying 7 tons of cocaine, worth about $187 million, about 400 miles south of the Mexico-Guatemala border. The Coast Guard sank the vessel after determining it was too unstable to be towed to port.
2009 - U.S. President Barack Obama said he was abandoning Bush-era plans for a long-range missile defense system based in Poland and the Czech Republic. Czechs and Poles expressed both rancor and relief that Obama was scrapping plans for the missile defense shield on their territories, reflecting deep divisions over the plan that had angered Russia.
2010 - Films debuting in U.S. theatres: the animated Alpha and Omega, featuring the voices of Hayden Panettiere, Christina Ricci, Justin Long, Dennis Hopper and Danny Glover; Catfish, the Ariel Schulman comedy, documentary; Devil, with Chris Messina, Geoffrey Arend, Caroline Dhavernas, Jacob Vargas and Matt Craven; Easy A, starring Emma Stone, Stanley Tucci, Amanda Bynes, Cam Gigandet and Patricia Clarkson; Jack Goes Boating, with Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Ryan, John Ortiz, Lola Glaudini and Elizabeth Rodriguez; and The Town, with Jeremy Renner, Ben Affleck, Blake Lively, Chris Cooper and Jon Hamm.
2010 - Gunmen burst into a bar in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico and killed seven men and a woman. Some 4,000 people had been killed in the city from 2009 to 2010 as the turf war between drug cartels continued.
2012 - New York City police arrested 185 protesters who had gathered for the one-year anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement. The arrest were made to prevent the protesters from forming a ‘People’s Wall’ around the New York Stock Exchange.
2013 - The Grand Theft Auto V video game, made in Edinburgh, Scotland, by Rockstar North, was released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Take-Two Interactive (game company), the American owner of Rockstar North, expected to rake in as much as $1.6 billion (£1 billion) in revenues.
2014 - Movies opening in the U.S. included: the documentary 20,000 Days on Earth and the thriller The Guest, starring Dan Stevens, Ethan Embry, Maika Monroe, Joel David Moore, Lance Reddick and Candice Patton.
2014 - U.S. Senate investigators blamed China for some two dozen successful break-ins of computer networks belonging to Pentagon contractors. The lengthy investigation identified 50+ intrusions since 2012 against contractors working for the U.S. Transportation Command.
2014 - An estimate by the French national auditor showed that fraud in France’s indebted welfare system costs the country between 20-25 billion euros ($26-32 billion) per year. Only a tiny fraction of that is recovered.
2015 - U.S. federal prosecutors said General Motors agreed to pay $900 million to resolve criminal charges for concealing an ignition-switch defect linked to some 169 deaths.
2016 - An Egyptian court upheld a decision to freeze the assets of several prominent human rights campaigners. The five activists named in the court ruling included Gamal Eid and Bahey eldin Hassan, who headed two well-known human rights organizations, as well as investigative reporter Hossam Bahgat, also the founder of a rights group. The UK-based human rights group Amnesty International called the ruling a “shameless ploy” to silence activism.
2016 - Eight people were injured during a mass stabbing in a St. Cloud, Minnesota shopping mall. The attacker, who was shot and killed by an off-duty police officer, wore a security uniform and made references to Allah while attacking. None of the injuries was life-threatening, authorities said.
2017 - India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the country’s biggest dam, the Sardar Sarovar Dam on the Narmada river. It had been a very long-term project: The foundation stone was laid by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1961 and construction began in 1987. The Sardar Sarovar is the second largest dam in the world in terms of the volume of concrete used to build it. The largest is the Grand Coulee Dam in the U.S.
2018 - Public fears about sewing needles concealed inside strawberries on supermarket shelves spread across Australia and New Zealand. Needles had been found in strawberries in all six Australian states. (In Nov 2018 a 50-year-old woman was charged with sabotaging the supermarket strawberries with sewing needles in an act of workplace revenge. Apparently My Ut Trinh, former supervisor at the Berrylicious and Berry Obsession farm in Wamuran, north of Brisbane, felt mistreated by colleagues and had spoken to coworkers about taking revenge.)
2019 - Virginia Governor Ralph Northam issued an executive order setting a goal for his state to produce 100% of its electricity from carbon-free sources by 2050.
2019 - German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government extended a halt on arms exports to Saudi Arabia, pointing to the war in neighboring Yemen and the Social Democrats’ refusal to drop opposition to lifting the moratorium.
2020 - A U.S. federal judge said the city of Berkeley, CA could not require cell phone retailers to warn customers about possible radiation dangers from holding phones close to their bodies. The Berkeley ordinance to that effect had taken effect in 2016.
2020 - A Canadian network of criminals was targeting transport trucks across the country. The same phoney Quebec trucking company — Transport Pascal Charland — was linked to the August 30 theft of $230,000 worth of beef from a Brooks, Alberta beef-packing plant and the September 2 theft of seven hot tubs from a manufacturer in Thorsby, southwest of Edmonton.
2020 - FBI Director Chris Wray told lawmakers that antifa is an ideology, not an organization. Heb delivered the testimony that put him at odds with POTUS Trump, who had said he would designate antifa as a terror group.
2021 - Movies released in the U.S. (theatres and virtual) this day included: Blue Bayou, starring Justin Chon, Alicia Vikander and Mark O’Brien; CopShop, with Frank Grillo, Gerard Butler and Toby Huss; Cry Macho, starring Clint Eastwood, Dwight Yoakam and Fernanda Urrejola; The Eyes of Tammy Fay, with Andrew Garfield, Jessica Chastain and Vincent D’Onofrio; The Duke, starring Matthew Goode, Helen Mirren and Anna Maxwell Martin; Last Night in Rozzie, with Neil Brown Jr., Nicky Whelan and Jeremy Sisto; and Prisoners of the Ghostland, starring Nicolas Cage, Sofia Boutella and Nick Cassavetes.
2021 - A trio of Chinese astronauts returned to Earth after a 90-day stay aboard China’s first space station. After launching on June 17, the three astronauts went on two spacewalks, deployed a 10-meter (33-foot) mechanical arm, and took part in a video call with Communist Party leader Xi Jinping.
2021 - France embroiled itself in an unprecedented diplomatic crisis with the United States and Australia after it recalled its ambassadors from both countries. The recalls came as retrobution for a U.S./Australia security deal which had cancelled a French-designed submarine contract with Australia.
2022 - President Biden arrived in London for Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral. The U.S. president was one of roughly 500 heads of state and foreign dignitaries arriving for the services, including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and French President Emmanuel Macron. Following the queen’s death on September 8th, Biden had directed all American flags to be flown at half-staff until sunset on the day of her burial (Sep 19).
2022 - A busload of migrants sent from Texas showed up outside Vice President Kamala Harris’ Washington, DC home. This, as Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) continued his protest of Biden administration immigration policies. Abbott had been busing migrants to DC (and other northern cities) since the spring, but began picking on Harris specifically after she described the southern border as secure during an appearance on Meet the Press. “Our supposed Border Czar, Vice President Kamala Harris, has yet to even visit the border to see firsthand the impact of the open border policies she has helped implement, even going so far as to claim the border is secure,” Abbott said.
and more...
Birthdays on This Day September 17
1854 - David Buick
founded the Buick Auto Company [1902]; died Mar 5, 19291900 - J.W. (John Willard) Marriott
hotel magnate; died Aug 13, 19851902 - Esther Ralston
actress: Tin Pan Alley, We’re in the Legion Now, Oliver Twist, Shadows of the Orient, To the Last Man; died Jan 14, 19941903 - Dolores Costello
actress: The Magnificent Ambersons; died Mar 1, 19791904 - Sir Frederick Ashton
dancer, choreographer, founder of The Royal Ballet in London; he developed the English style of classical dancing; died Oct 18, 19881904 - Jerry Colonna
comedian, actor: Meet Me in Las Vegas, Kentucky Jubilee, The Road to Singapore; TV host: The Jerry Colonna Show; died Nov 21, 19861907 - Warren (Earl) Burger
Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court; died June 25, 19951922 - Ursula Howells
actress: Girly, The Gilded Cage; died Oct 16, 20051923 - Hank (Hiram) Williams Sr.
musician, songwriter, singer: I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive, I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry, Cold, Cold Heart, Take These Chains from My Heart, Honky Tonkin’, Jambalaya, Kaw-Liga, Your Cheatin’ Heart, Lovesick Blues; 1st country musician whose music crossed over into pop; wrote 125 compositions; died Jan 1, 19531926 - Bill Black
musician: bass: group: Bill Black Combo: White Silver Sands, Smokie Pt. 2; played in Elvis Presley band, backup for Elvis; died Oct 21, 19651927 - George Blanda
Pro Football Hall of Famer: Chicago Bears QB, Houston Oilers QB: AFL MVP [1961], LA Raiders kicker and quarterback: AFC Player of the Year, AP Male Athlete of the Year [1970]; holds NFL individual record for points scored in career [2002, 1949-75] and points scored after touchdowns [943]; died Sep 27, 20101928 - Roddy McDowall
Tony Award-winning actor: The Fighting Cock [1960]; Planet of the Apes series, The Poseidon Adventure , The Longest Day, How Green was My Valley, My Friend Flicka, Lassie Come Home; died Oct 3, 19981929 - Sil Austin
musician, tenor saxophone: Slow Walk; composer: Ping-Pong; died Sep 1, 20011930 - David Huddleston
actor: The Big Lebowski, Blazing Saddles, Santa Claus: The Movie, Rio Lobo, Fools’ Parade, Family Reunion, Billy Two Hats, Brian’s Song, Breakheart Pass, Smokey and the Bandit II, Crime Busters, Petrocelli, How the West Was Won; died Aug 2, 20161931 - Anne Bancroft (Anna Maria Louisa Italiano)
Oscar and Tony Award-winning actress: The Miracle Worker [1962]; The Graduate, The Turning Point, Agnes of God, Malice, Point of No Return, The Elephant Man, Silent Movie; married to Mel Brooks; died June 6, 20051933 - Pat Crowley
actress: Please Don’t Eat the Daisies, 61*, Police Story: Confessions of a Lady Cop, Return to Fantasy Island, Columbo: Death Lends a Hand, The Scarface Mob1933 - Dorothy Loudon
comedienne, actress: Midnig Children; Broadway: Nowhere to Go But Up, The West Side Waltz, Jerry’s Girls, Annie, Dinner at Eight [Revival: 2002]; died Nov 15, 20031935 - Ken Kesey
author: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest; died Nov 10, 20011937 - Orlando (Manuel) Cepeda
‘Baby Bull’, ‘Cha Cha’: Baseball Hall of Famer: SF Giants [Rookie of the Year: 1958/all-star: 1959-1964, 1967/World Series: 1962, 1967, 1968], SL Cardinals [Baseball Writers’ Award: 1967], Atlanta Braves, Oakland Athletics, Boston Red Sox, Kansas City Royals1938 - Paul Benedict
actor: The Jeffersons, The Freshman; died Dec 1, 20081938 - Bobby (Robert Paul Sr.) Wine
baseball: Philadelphia Phillies Philadelphia Phillies, Montreal Expos1938 - LeeRoy Yarborough
race car driver: Daytona 500 winner [1969]; died Dec 7, 19841939 - LaMont McLemore
singer: group: The 5th Dimension: Up Up and Away, Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In, [Last Night] I Didn’t Get to Sleep at All, Wedding Bell Blues, Stoned Soul Picnic1939 - David H. Souter
attorney: Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court1942 - Lupe Ontiveros
actress: Desperate Housewives, Chuck and Buck, El Norte, Selena, As Good as It Gets, Real Women Have Curves, Zoot Suit; died Jul 26, 20121945 - Phil Jackson
basketball: NBA: New York Knicks [1967-1978]; New Jersey Nets [1978-1980]; head coach: NBA: Chicago Bulls [1989-1998: six NBA titles]; Los Angeles Lakers [2000-2010: five NBA titles]; highest winning percentage of any NBA coach [.704]; most championships in NBA history [11])1947 - Jeff MacNelly
cartoonist: Shoe; died June 8, 2000 [lymphoma]1948 - John Ritter
Emmy Award winning actor: Three’s Company [1983-1984]; Problem Child I & II, Hooperman, Stay Tuned; son of Tex Ritter; died Sep 11, 20031950 - Fee Waybill (John Waldo)
singer: group: The Tubes1951 - Cassandra Peterson
TV host: Elvira’s Movie Macabre; actress: 13 Nights of Elvira, Bruno & Earlene Go to Vegas; voice actress: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles1951 - Kermit Washington
basketball: American Univ., LA Lakers, Portland Trailblazers [suspended 26 games for punching Rockets’ Rudy Tomjanovich: 1977]1952 - Harold Solomon
tennis: player, coach1953 - Rita Rudner
comedienne, actress: Rita Rudner TV series, Hollywood Squares1954 - Wayne (Richard) Krenchicki
baseball: Baltimore Orioles, Cincinnati Reds, Detroit Tigers, Montreal Expos1954 - Wendy Worthington
actress: Ghost Whisperer, Desperate Housewives, Ally McBeal, Rock Bottom, Man Maid, Connecting Dots, Cast Away, Every Night and Twice on Sundays, Norma Jean & Marilyn1962 - Baz Luhrmann
film director: Strictly Ballroom, Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge!, Australia, The Great Gatsby [2013]1965 - Kyle Chandler
actor: Friday Night Lights, The Lyon’s Den, Angel’s Dance, Mulholland Falls, Heaven and Hell: North and South, Book III, Home Fires Burning, Quiet Victory: The Charlie Wedemeyer Story1965 - Bryan Singer
film director: The Usual Suspects, X-Men film series, Superman Returns, Apt Pupil, Valkyrie, Jack the Giant Slayer1967 - Malik Yoba
actor: New York Undercover, Alphas, Revolution, Cool Runnings, Criminal, Girlfriends, Thief, Raines, Why Did I Get Married?, Why Did I Get Married Too?, Defying Gravity1968 - Joe Bastianich
restaurateur, TV chef/judge: MasterChef, MasterChef Junior, MasterChef Italia1968 - Carolyn Monroe
actress [1990-2008]: X-rated films: Buns and Roses, Wild Goose Chase, Sun Bunnies, Debbie Does Wall Street, The Adventures of Seymore Butts, Adventures in Paradise, Impulse: Memories of an Italian Slut, Analyze These; died Apr 13, 20221968 - Valeri Zelepukin
hockey [left wing]: New Jersey Devils, Edmonton Oilers, Philadelphia Flyers, Chicago Blackhawks1969 - Matthew Settle
actor: Band of Brothers, Gossip Girl, ExTerminators, A Sister’s Nightmare; TV host: Decisive Battles1970 - Mark Brunell
football [quarterback]: Univ of Washington; NFL: Green Bay Packers, Jacksonville Jaguars, Washington Redskins1970 - Traci Dali
actress: Beach Movie, The Expiration Date, The Scorpion King, The Hunted, American Streetfighter, Encino Man, Click: The Calendar Girl Killer, Back to the Future Part II1974 - Rasheed Wallace
basketball [center]: Univ of North Carolina; NBA: Washington Wizards, Portland Trail Blazers, Atlanta Hawks and Detroit Pistons1975 - Jimmie Johnson
NASCAR race car driver: ASA ACDelco Challenge Series Rookie of the Year Award [1998]; one of People magazine’s Sexiest Men In The Fast Lane [2000]1985 - Alexander Ovechkin
hockey [winger]: Washington Capitals [2005- ]: NHL 2018 Stanley Cup champs1985 - Jon Walker
musician: bass: group: Panic! At the Disco: Pretty. Odd., Live in Chicago; solo: Home Recordings, New Songs1989 - Danielle Brooks
actress: Orange Is the New Black, Master of None, Elena of Avalor; Broadway: The Color Purple1995 - Patrick Mahomes
football [quarterback]: NFL: Kansas City Chiefs: 2020 Super Bowl LIV [54] MVP; 2021 Super Bowl LV [55]; 2023 Super Bowl LVII [57] MVP1996 - Ella Purnell
actress: Maleficent, Never Let Me Go, The Legend of Tarzan
and still more...
Hit Music on This Day September 17
1951Because of You (facts) - Tony Bennett
The Loveliest Night of the Year (facts) - Mario Lanza
1960
1969
1978
1987
1996
2005
2014
and even more...
Those were the days, my friend. We thought they’d never end...
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