September 22
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Events on This Day
1776 - At the request of General George Washington (for a volunteer), Nathan Hale crossed enemy lines (from Norwalk, CT to Long Island Sound) to gather information as to the strength and plans of the British Army. Hale was caught while returning, and was hanged as a spy on this day, without the benefit of a trial. Hale’s famous last words were, “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.”1780 - William Lynch and his Virginia neighbors drew up a compact to deal with criminal elements in the neighborhood. Since the local courts were quite a distance away, the agreement cleared the way for Lynch and company to punish criminals locally, without due process of law. Although ‘lynch law’ and ‘lynching’ are mainly associated with hanging, other, less severe punishments were also meted out.
1927 - Referee Dave Barry stopped the count. Boxer Gene Tunney was down; but the champion, Jack Dempsey, hadn’t returned to his corner. By the time the ref was able to resume counting, Tunney was able to get to his feet. He got an extra 2 to 5 seconds. And those seconds counted. Tunney won the fight and took the world championship away from Dempsey.
1937 - Red Norvo and his orchestra recorded the Russian Lullaby on the Brunswick label. Norvo did more famous work at a later date, recording with a singer named Dinah Shore.
1943 - Singer Kate Smith finished her War Bond radio appeal. For 18 hours Smith had stayed on the air, collecting a whopping $39 million dollars in bond pledges.
1950 - The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Ralph (Johnson) Bunche for his successful negotiation of the 1949 Arab-Israeli truce in Palestine. Bunch was the first black winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace.
1950 - Omar N. Bradley was promoted to the rank of five-star general, joining an elite group that included Dwight D. Eisenhower, Douglas MacArthur, George C. Marshall and Henry H. ‘Hap’ Arnold.
1955 - Commercial television was beamed to homes in Great Britain. The rules said that only six minutes of ads were allowed each hour and there was no Sunday morning TV permitted.
1957 - The CBS Radio Workshop was silenced after 18 months of what the critics said was “ingenious radio programming.”
1961 - The U.S. Congress authorized the Peace Corps, which had been created by an executive order of President John F. Kennedy.
1962 - It was a hootenanny of a good time in, of all places, New York’s famed Carnegie Hall. The cast included newcomer Bob Dylan making his first appearance at Carnegie Hall.
1964 - Robert Vaughn starred as Napoleon Solo when The Man From U.N.C.L.E. debuted on NBC-TV this night. Solo’s trusty side-kick in this James Bond spoof was Illya Kuryakin, played by David McCallum. The show was a hit for 3½ seasons.
1964 - The lights lowered, the curtain rose and Zero Mostel stepped into the spotlight as the fiddler played. “Tra-a--a-dition,” he sang, as he began the first of 3,242 performances and Fiddler on the Roof opened on Broadway.
1969 - San Francisco Giants outfielder Willie Mays hit his 600th career home run -- at Jack Murphy Stadium, San Diego.
1973 - Henry Kissinger took the oath as U.S. Secretary of State. This was the first time a naturalized citizen had held this office. Only in America...
1973 - Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport was dedicated.
1975 - Sara Jane Moore attempted to assassinate POTUS Gerald R. Ford. Moore shot at Ford outside a San Francisco hotel, but missed. The bullet slightly wounded a man in the crowd. (Seventeen days earlier Lynnette ‘Squeaky’ Fromme had also made an assassination attempt against President Ford.)
1980 - John Lennon signed with Geffen Records. The Lennon LP, Double Fantasy, was released on Geffen. (Lennon was assassinated on December 8, 1980.)
1980 - A simmering border war between Iran and Iraq flared into full-scale hostilities when Iraqi troops crossed the border and encircled Abadan. The Iraqis set fire to the world’s biggest oil refinery.
1985 - The poor of America’s Heartland ... the financially troubled farmers of Middle America ... got help from their friends in the music biz. Singing stars Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Cougar Mellencamp held a benefit concert to raise funds. The stars came out and so did the money. That first Farm Aid concert raised ten million dollars.
1987 - Actor Dan Rowan (Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In), died at age 65.
1988 - Canada’s government apologized for the internment of Japanese-Canadians during World War II. They also promised compensation.
1989 - Russian-born American songwriter Irving Berlin died. He was 101 years old. Berlin wrote some 1,500 songs.
1993 - 47 people were killed when an Amtrak passenger train derailed and crashed into Big Bayou Canot near Mobile, Alabama.
1994 - In Tolunda, Angola, faulty brakes caused a train to plunge into a ravine. Some 300 people were killed.
1995 - The Turner Broadcasting System agreed to be gobbled up by, er, merge with, the Time Warner media conglomerate for $7.5 billion.
1995 - Movies debuting in U.S. theatres: The Run of the Country, with Albert Finney, Matt Keeslar, Victoria Smurfit and Anthony Brophy; Se7en, starring Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt, Gwyneth Paltrow, Richard Roundtree and John C. Mcginley; Showgirls, with Elizabeth Berkley, Kyle Maclachlan, Gina Gershon, Glenn Plummer, Robert Davi and Alan Rachins; and To Die For, starring Nicole Kidman, Matt Dillon, Joaquin Phoenix, Casey Affleck and Illeana Douglas.
1996 - Actress Dorothy Lamour died at her North Hollywood home. She was 81 years old. Lamour was probably best known for playing the female lead in the Bob Hope-Bing Crosby Road to ... series of films.
1997 - The Atlanta Braves won an unprecedented sixth straight division title. The record eclipsed the old mark of five straight set by the New Ycrk Yankees (1949-1953) and the Oakland A’s (1971-1975). The Braves failed to reach the World Series, however, for the first time since 1993.
1997 - U.S. President Bill Clinton, addressing the United Nations, told world leaders to “end all nuclear tests for all time” as he sent the long-delayed global test-ban treaty to the U.S. Senate.
1999 - Singer Shania Twain was Entertainer of the Year, and The Dixie Chicks picked up three awards, including Vocal Group of the Year, at the 33rd Annual Country Music Association Awards show.
2000 - These films opened in the U.S.: Urban Legends: Final Cut, starring Jennifer Morrison, Matt Davis, Joseph Lawrence, Anson Mount, Eva Mendes and Jessica Cauffiel; and Woman on Top, with Penelope Cruz, Murilo Benicio, Harold Perrineau Jr., Mark Feuerstein and John De Lancie.
2001 - U.S. President George Bush (II) signed a $15-billion aid package for the airline industry.
2001 - Miss Oregon, Katie Harman, was crowned Miss America for 2002 in Atlantic City, NJ.
2001 - Legendary violinist Isaac Stern died. He was 81 years old. The Ukraine-born Jewish immigrant saved Carnegie Hall from the wrecking ball in 1960. The building had been slated for demolition, but under pressure from a group led by Stern, legislation was passed that led to the designation of Carnegie Hall as a National Historic Landmark in 1964.
2002 - The White House drama The West Wing won its third consecutive Emmy as Outstanding Drama Series; Jennifer Aniston won for Outstanding Lead Actress - Comedy Series in Friends, which won for the Outstanding Comedy Series.
2003 - Actor Gordon Jump died at age 71. Jump is probably best remembered as the befuddled radio station manager on the sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati; but also as the lonely Maytag repairman in their TV commercials.
2004 - The FCC fined CBS-TV $550,000 for airing Janet Jackson’s Feb 1 breast exposure during the Super Bowl halftime show. (In July 2008 the fine was overturned by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.)
2005 - The U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary voted for the nomination of John G. Roberts to be Chief Justice of the United States.
2006 - New motion pictures in the U.S.: All the King’s Men, starring Sean Penn, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, James Gandolfini, Mark Ruffalo, Patricia Clarkson and Anthony Hopkins; Flyboys, with James Franco, Martin Henderson, Jennifer Decker, Jean Reno, David Ellison, Mac McDonald, Tchéky Karyo and Ian Rose; Jackass Number Two, starring Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Ryan Dunn, Steve-O, Jason ‘Wee Man’ Acuña, Chris Pontius, Preston Lacy, Dave England and Ehren McGhehey; and Fearless, with Jet Li, Betty Sun, Dong Yong and Nakamura Shidou.
2006 - Actor Edward Albert died in Malibu, California at 55 years of age. He was the only son of Green Acres star Eddie Albert and Mexican actress and dancer Margo (Maria Marguerita Guadelupe Boldao y Castilla). Edward Albert enjoyed roles in hundreds of films and TV shows, such as Butterflies Are Free, 40 Carats, The Ice Runner, and Guarding Tess.
2007 - The world-famous mime artist, Marcel Marceau, died at his home in Cahors, France. He was 84 years old.
2008 - The price of oil jumped $16.37 to $120.92 per barrel, its biggest single-day gain ever. The dollar posted its worst single-day percentage drop, with the 15-nation euro fetching $1.4770 and Great Britain’s pound jumping to to $1.8572.
2008 - 16 gold miners were trapped by Typhoon Hagupit that rapidly flooded the tunnels in Benguet province in the Philippines.
2009 - New motion pictures in the U.S.: Book of Blood, with Jonas Armstrong, Sophie Ward, Doug Bradley, Simon Bamford and Paul Blair; and The Haunted World of El Superbeasto, starring Tom Papa, Sheri Moon Zombie, Rosario Dawson, Paul Giamatti, Bill Moseley, Sid Haig, Daniel Roebuck, Harland Williams, Cassandra Peterson, Clint Howard, Dee Wallace, Rob Paulsen, Tura Satana and Danny Trejo.
2009 - Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned that his country was stronger than ever and said its military would “cut the hand of anyone” who dared to attack. But a military parade where he spoke was marred when an air force plane crashed, killing seven people.
2010 - Woody Allen’s romantic comedy You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger opened in the U.S The film stars Naomi Watts, Josh Brolin, Anthony Hopkins, Antonio Banderas, Freida Pinto and Lucy Punch.
2010 - New York City officials reported the arrests of 59 taxi drivers for manipulating their meters to double the legal fare rate. 45 of the 59 drivers faced felony charges, including one driver who allegedly overcharged his passengers 5,127 times to rake in more than $11,000 in fraudulent profits.
2010 - 1950’s pop crooner Eddie Fisher died in Berkeley, CA at 82 years of age. Fisher’s 32 hit songs included these chart toppers: Oh My Papa, Wish You Were Here, I’m Walking Behind You and I Need You Now. He was married five times -- to Debbie Reynolds, Elizabeth Taylor, Connie Stevens, Terry Richard and Betty Lin.
2011 - Facebook CEO Zuckerberg introduced the Facebook timeline in San Francisco at the company’s f8 conference for some 2,000 entrepreneurs, developers and journalists. The timeline was designed to help people share their life stories with friends online.
2011 - Finance ministers from the G20 countries meeting in Washington DC pledged to “take all necessary actions to preserve the stability of the banking systems and financial markets” and to make sure banks have the cash they need to pay their day-to-day expenses. The finance ministers and central bankers were in Washington for meetings of the Group of 20 and the semiannual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
2012 - Demonstrators in the U.S. and other countries took part in the Global Frackdown, protesting the natural gas drilling process known as fracking.
2013 - German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives won the general election, sharply increasing their share of the vote by 7.7 points to 41.5 percent, putting her on track for a third term (which she won in December).
2014 - Apple reported sales of 10 million iPhones in the first weekend after its iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus models went on sale on Sep 19. The sales figures underscored the pent-up demand for mobile phones with larger displays.
2015 - Martin Shkreli, the CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, announced that he would lower the price of Daraprim, a 62-year-old drug used to treat a parasitic infection. The company had raised the cost from $13.50 to $750 -- per pill. But wait. There’s more: On Nov 23, 2015, Turing announced that the company would not reduce the list price of Daraprim, but said it planned instead to negotiate volume discounts of up to 50% for hospitals. And in Dec 2015 Shkreli was arrested by the FBI after a federal indictment charged him with securities fraud -- an indictment Shkreli said was made at least partially in retaliation for his price hikes of Daraprim. In August 2017 Shkreli was convicted of two counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiring to commit securities fraud.
2016 - Yahoo reported that at least 500 million customer accounts had been stolen by what it believed to be a “state-sponsored actor.” The data, stolen in late 2014, may have included names, email addresses, phone numbers, birthdays, hashed passwords and, in some cases, encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers.
2016 - Syria warplanes mounted the heavy air strikes against rebel-held districts of the city of Aleppo. Russia and the Syrian government spurned a U.S. plea to halt flights, killing any hope for the revival of a ceasefire.
2017 - New movies playing in the U.S. included: Friend Request, starring Alycia Debnam-Carey, William Moseley and Connor Paolo; Kingsman: The Golden Circle, with Taron Egerton, Colin Firth and Mark Strong; the animated The Lego Ninjago Movie, featuring the voices of Justin Theroux, Olivia Munn, Jackie Chan, Dave Franco, Kumail Nanjiani, Michael Peña, Zach Woods, Fred Armisen, Abbi Jacobson and Kaan Guldur; Stronger, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Tatiana Maslany and Clancy Brown; Battle of the Sexes, with Emma Stone, Elisabeth Shue and Bill Pullman; Big Bear, starring Pablo Schreiber, Adam Brody and Tyler Labine; The Tiger Hunter, with Danny Pudi, Rizwan Manji and Jon Heder; Victoria and Abdul, starring Olivia Williams, Michael Gambon and Judi Dench; and Woodshock, starring Pilou Asbæk, Kirsten Dunst and Joe Cole.
2017 - Prime Minister Theresa May offered substantial payment to the European Union during a two-year transition period immediately after the Britain’s exit. As part of the PM’s vision for a future relationship deal, she also proposed a “special partnership” in the key areas of defense and security – where the U.K. is a world leader and its military and intelligence help are highly prized.
2017 - Hurricane Maria lashed the Turks and Caicos Islands after destroying homes, causing widespread flooding, crippling economies and killing over 3,000 people on Puerto Rico and other Caribbean islands.
2018 - Hong Kong opened a new high-speed rail link to inland China that vastly decreased travel times. But the new line raised concerns about Beijing’s increasing influence over the semi-autonomous Chinese region.
2018 - Nine men convicted of raping a woman were hanged in Iran. The woman had withdrawn her charges but authorities carried out the punishment anyway.
2019 - Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani of denounced the presence foreign forces in the Gulf of Iran/Persian Gulf and said his country will put forward a peace plan. This, after the U.S. ordered reinforcements to the region. “Foreign forces can cause problems and insecurity for our people and for our region,” Rouhani said in a televised speech at an annual military parade. “Your presence has always brought pain and misery for the region. The farther you keep yourselves from our region and our nations, the more security there will be for our region.”
2020 - Billionaire Mike Bloomberg raised $16 billion to help Florida felons pay off fines, restitution, and court fees to help them regain their voting rights in time for the November election. Just days earlier, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis had won a court victory preventing felons from voting until they pay off their debts.
2020 - Luxury apparel maker Ralph Lauren Corp said it will cut 15% of its global workforce by the end of its fiscal year in a company-wide restructuring to lower costs and move more of its business online.
2020 - Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned that a return to a normal social or work life would take at least another six months. This, as he ordered new restrictions to try to suppress a dramatic surge in confirmed coronavirus cases.
2021 - California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill limiting warehouse employers like Amazon.com from setting productivity quotas, the first legislation of its kind in the U.S. The new rules required all companies using warehouse labor to disclose productivity quotas to employees and government agencies and bar use of algorithms that prevent employees from taking rests and bathroom breaks, thereby endangering their health and safety, the governor’s office said.
2021 - India’s Supreme Court opened the door for women to pursue military careers at the highest levels. Previously, women had been allowed to serve as officers and could attend other military schools -- but they had long been blocked from the NDA (National Defence Academy). The prestigious academy produced many of the country’s top military leaders, including all the current chiefs of staff in the army, navy and air force.
and more...
Birthdays on This Day September 22
1791 - Michael Faraday
chemist/physicist: early experiments w/electricity; died Aug 25, 18671895 - Paul Muni (Frederich Weisenfreund)
Academy Award-winning actor: The Story of Louis Pasteur [1936]; The Last Angry Man, Stage Door Canteen, The Good Earth, Angel on My Shoulder; died Aug 25, 19671902 - John Houseman (Jacques Haussmann)
Academy Award-winning actor: The Paper Chase [1973]; Seven Days in May, Three Days of the Condor, The Winds of War, The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad; died Oct 31, 19881909 - Allan ‘Rocky’ Lane (Harry Albershart)
voice: Mister Ed; actor: Red Ryder, El Paso Stampede, Night Nurse; died Oct 27, 19731914 - Martha Scott
actress: Ben-Hur, The Ten Commandments, Desperate Hours, Our Town, Sayonara, The Turning Point; died May 28, 20031917 - Richard C. Hottelet
journalist: CBS News: last of the World War II-era group, ‘Murrow Boys’; died Dec 17, 20141920 - Bob Lemon
Baseball Hall of Famer: Cleveland Indians pitcher: World Series [1948, 1954]; manager: Kansas City Royals, Chicago White Sox, NY Yankees [World Series 1978]; died Jan 11, 20001925 - Abe Gibron
football: Purdue Univ., Buffalo Bills, Cleveland Browns, Philadelphia Eagles, Chicago Bears; head coach: Chicago Bears; died Sep 22, 19971927 - Tom (Thomas Charles) Lasorda
baseball: pitcher: Brooklyn Dodgers, KC Athletics; Baseball Hall of Fame manager: LA Dodgers [World Series: 1977, 1978, 1981, 1988], won 1,599 games, 8 National League West titles, 4 N.L. pennants, 2 World Series championships, managed in 61 post-season games [second only to Casey Stengel’s 63], and managed 4 N.L. all-star teams; died Jan 7, 20211928 - Eugene Roche
actor: Soap, Webster, Perfect Strangers, Lenny, Good Time Harry, The Corner Bar; writer: Captain Kangaroo; died July 28, 20041930 - Joni James (Joan Carmello Babbo)
singer: How Important Can It Be?, You Are My Love, Why Don’t You Believe Me; died Feb 20, 20221931 - Ken (Kenneth Joseph) Aspromonte
baseball: Boston Red Sox, Washington Senators, Cleveland Indians, LA Angels, Milwaukee Braves, Chicago Cubs1932 - Ingemar Johansson
boxer: world heavyweight champion [1959]; died Jan 30, 20091935 - Harriet King
fencing: U.S. Olympic Team: 1960, 1964, 1968, 19721937 - Ray Norton
track: AAU Outdoor 100 and 200-meter champion [1959, 1960]: world record holder in both events [9.3, 20.5 respectively]1943 - Toni Basil
singer: Mickey, Over My Head; actress: Pacific Palisades, Easy Rider, Pajama Party1946 - Larry (Lawrence Edward) Dierker
baseball: pitcher: Houston Colt .45’s, Houston Astros [all-star: 1969, 1971], SL Cardinals1946 - Paul Le Mat
actor: Sensation, Children of Fury, Woman with a Past, On Wings of Eagles, The Burning Bed, Strange Invaders, Melvin and Howard, American Graffiti, Firehouse1949 - Harold Carmichael
football: Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver: Super Bowl XV1951 - David Coverdale
singer: groups: Deep Purple, Whitesnake: Fool for Your Loving, Don’t Break My Heart Again; solo: In the Heat of the Night1953 - Richard Fairbrass
singer: founding member [with his brother, Fred] of the group: Right Said Fred: I’m Too Sexy, Wonderman, Don’t Talk Just Kiss, Deeply Dippy, Those Simple Things, Daydream, Stick It Out1954 - Shari Belafonte
actress: Hotel; TV cohost: Lifestyles with Robin Leach and Shari Belafonte; singer Harry Belafonte’s daughter1955 - Jeffrey Leonard
baseball: LA Dodgers, Houston Astros, SF Giants [all-star: 1987], Milwaukee Brewers, Seattle Mariners [all-star: 1989]1956 - Debby Boone
Grammy Award-winning singer: Best New Artist [1977], You Light Up My Life [1977], With My Song I Will Praise Him [1980], Keep the Flame Burning [w/Phil Driscoll - 1984]; group: The Boone Family; daughter of singers Pat and Shirley Boone1957 - Mark Johnson
hockey [forward]: won a gold medal in 1981 for the U.S. Olympic hockey team; NHL: Pittsburgh Penguins, Minnesota North Stars, Hartford Whalers, St. Louis Blues, New Jersey Devils; coach: Univ of Wisconsin–Madison women’s hockey team1958 - Andrea Bocelli
Italian tenor, multi-instrumentalist [blind since age 12]: recorded thirteen solo studio albums (pop and classical), two greatest hits albums, eight complete operas, selling over 75 million records worldwide1958 - Lynn Herring
actress: General Hospital1958 - Joan Jett
singer: group: The Blackhearts: I Love Rock ’n’ Roll, Crimson and Clover, I Hate Myself for Loving You; actress: Light of Day; group: Runaways1959 - Wally (Walter Wayne) Backman
baseball: NY Mets [World Series: 1986], Minnesota Twins, Pittsburgh Pirates, Philadelphia Phillies, Seattle Mariners1960 - Scott Baio
actor: Happy Days, Joanie Loves Chachi, Charles in Charge, Diagnosis Murder1961 - Vince Coleman
baseball [outfield]: St. Louis Cardinals, New York Mets, Kansas City Royals, Seattle Mariners, Cincinnati Reds, Detroit Tigers1961 - Bonnie Hunt
actress: The Green Mile, Beethoven, Beethoven’s 2nd, Jumanji, Jerry Maguire, Random Hearts1961 - Catherine Oxenberg
actress: Dynasty, Acapulco H.E.A.T., Rubdown, Sexual Response, Overexposed, Swimsuit: The Movie, K-9000, The Lair of the White Worm1965 - Mark Guthrie
baseball [pitcher]: Louisiana State Univ; NFL: Minnesota Twins, LA Dodgers, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Toronto Blue Jays, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Oakland Athletics and New York Mets1966 - Mike Richter
hockey: New York Rangers1970 - Mike Matheny
baseball [catcher, first base]: University of Michigan; Milwaukee Brewers, Toronto Blue Jays, St. Louis Cardinals, San Francisco Giants1970 - Rupert Penry-Jones
actor: Spooks [MI-5], Hilary and Jackie, Agatha Christie’s Poirot, The 39 Steps, Red Tails, Silk1971 - Christian Fauria
football: Univ of Colorado; NFL: Seattle Seahawks, New England Patriots, Seattle Seahawks1978 - Daniella Alonso
actress: Revolution, Wrong Turn 2: Dead End, The Hills Have Eyes 2, The Night Shift, Paul Blart: Mall Cop 21979 - MyAnna Buring
actress: The Descent, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1, 2, Downton Abbey1981 - Katie Lowes
actress: Scandal, The Sopranos, Super 8, As the World Turns, Easy Money1982 - Billie Piper
singer: Because We Want To, Honey to the B, Walk of Life; actress: Doctor Who [2005-2006, 2008, 2010, 2013], Secret Diary of a Call Girl, Penny Dreadful1984 - Laura Vandervoort
actress: Smallville, V, Desperately Seeking Santa, This Means War, Broken Trust, Ted, Finding Mrs. Claus, Cubicle Warriors, Life of the Party; more1987 - Tom Felton
actor: Harry Potter film series, Second Sight, Anna and the King, The Borrowers, Bugs1994 - Carlos Correa
baseball [shortstop]: Houston Astros [2015– ]: 2017 World Series champs
and still more...
Hit Music on This Day September 22
1947Peg o’ My Heart (facts) - The Harmonicats
That’s My Desire (facts) - The Sammy Kaye Orchestra (vocal: Don Cornell)
1956
1965
1974
1983
1992
2001
2010
2019
and even more...
Those were the days, my friend. We thought they’d never end...
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