A quick look at Today in History, check out some Celebrity Birthdays, and find out what Days of the Year to celebrate.
TODAY IN HISTORY:
1830 – Stephen Simmons was the last person to be executed in Michigan. He was hung for killing his wife.
1869 – Thousands of businessmen were financially ruined after a panic on Wall Street. The panic was caused by an attempt to corner the gold market by Jay Gould and James Fisk.
1906 – President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed Devils Tower in Wyoming as the nation’s first National Monument.
1914 – The Grand Rapids Press set up an electronic scoreboard to show play by play action of the 1914 World Series.
1929 – The first all-instrument flight took place in New York, NY when Lt. James H. Doolittle guided a Consolidated NY2 Biplane over Mitchell Field.
1934 – Babe Ruth played his last game as a New York Yankee player.
1948 – The Honda Motor Company was founded.
1955 – President Dwight Eisenhower suffered a heart attack while on vacation in Denver, CO.
1957 – President Dwight Eisenhower sent federal troops to Little Rock, AR, to enforce school integration.
1960 – The first nuclear powered aircraft carrier was launched. The USS Enterprise set out from Newport News, VA.
1961 – The animated TV show “The Bullwinkle Show” premiered in prime time on NBC. The show was originally on ABC in the afternoon as “Rocky and His Friends.”
1964 – The TV show “The Munsters” started haunting CBS.
1968 – The TV News Magazine “60 Minutes” debuted on CBS.
1968 – “The Mod Squad” premiered on ABC-TV.
1976 – Newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst was sentenced to seven years in prison for her role in a 1974 bank robbery. An executive clemency order from President Jimmy Carter sets her free after 22 months.
1977 – The TV show “The Love Boat” debuted on ABC. The theme song was sung by Jack Jones and was written by Paul Williams and Charles Fox.
1979 – CompuServe launched the first consumer internet service, which features the first public electronic mail service (e-mail).
1988 – James Brown was arrested in Georgia after a two state car chase.
1988 – Bobby McFerrin’s song “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” became the first a cappella song to hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
1991 – The band Nirvana released their album “Nevermind”.
1992 – The Sci-Fi Channel (now just Syfy) was launched.
1993 – The movie “Dazed and Confused”, starring Ben Affleck and Matthew McConaughey, premiered in theaters.
1994 – The TV show “Boy Meets World” premiered.
1998 – The U.S. Federal Reserve released into circulation $2 billion in new harder-to-counterfeit $20 bills.
2003 – Anthony Hopkins received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
2005 – Hurricane Rita made landfall in the United States, devastating portions of southwestern Louisiana and extreme southeastern Texas.
2007 – The TV show “The Big Bang Theory” debuted.
2014 – The Mars Orbiter Mission made India the first Asian nation to reach Mars orbit, and the first nation in the world to do so in its first attempt.
2023 – NASA’s OSIRIS-REx capsule containing samples from the asteroid 101955 Bennu successfully landed back on Earth
BIRTHDAYS:
Jerry Donahue – 79 years old (1946) – Guitarist and producer
Joe Greene – 79 years old (1946) – Football player, coach, and actor
Gordon Clapp – 77 years old (1948) – Actor
John Kessel – 75 years old (1950) – Author, poet, and playwright
Douglas Kmiec – 74 years old (1951) – Scholar and diplomat, United States Ambassador to Malta
Hubie Brooks – 69 years old (1956) – Baseball player
Kevin Sorbo – 67 years old (1958) – Actor and producer
Steve Whitmire – 66 years old (1959) – Puppeteer
Christopher L. Eisgruber – 64 years old (1961) – Lawyer and academic
John Logan – 64 years old (1961) – Screenwriter and producer
Nia Vardalos – 63 years old (1962) – Canadian-American actress and screenwriter
Rafael Palmeiro – 61 years old (1964) – Cuban-American baseball player
Sean McNabb – 60 years old (1965) – Singer and bass player
Janet Weiss – 60 years old (1965) – Drummer
Bernard Gilkey – 59 years old (1966) – Baseball player
Michael O. Varhola – 59 years old (1966) – Journalist and author
Shawn Crahan – 56 years old (1969) – Drummer, songwriter, and producer
Megan Ward – 56 years old (1969) – Actress
Michael S. Engel – 54 years old (1971) – Paleontologist and entomologist
Mike Michalowicz – 54 years old (1971) – Businessman and author
Kevin Millar – 54 years old (1971) – Baseball player and sportscaster
Eddie George – 52 years old (1973) – Football player and sportscaster
Rodrick Rhodes – 52 years old (1973) – Basketball player and coach
John McDonald – 51 years old (1974) – Baseball player
Ian Bohen – 49 years old (1976) – Actor
Stephanie McMahon – 49 years old (1976) – Wrestler and businesswoman
Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila – 48 years old (1977) – Football player
Casey Rabach – 48 years old (1977) – Football player
Drew Gooden – 44 years old (1981) – Basketball player
Morgan Hamm – 43 years old (1982) – Gymnast
Paul Hamm – 43 years old (1982) – Gymnast
Jeff Karstens – 43 years old (1982) – Baseball player
Randy Foye – 42 years old (1983) – Basketball player
Bobby Brown – 41 years old (1984) – Basketball player
Eloise Mumford – 39 years old (1986) – Actress
Spencer Treat Clark – 38 years old (1987) – Actor
Grey Damon – 38 years old (1987) – Actor
Steven Kampfer – 37 years old (1988) – Ice hockey player
Kyle Sullivan – 37 years old (1988) – Actor
Vontaze Burfict – 35 years old (1990) – Football player
Perry Jones – 34 years old (1991) – Basketball player
Sonya Deville – 32 years old (1993) – Wrestler and mixed martial artist
Ben Platt – 32 years old (1993) – Actor, singer, and songwriter
Nikolas Cruz – 27 years old (1998) – Mass murderer
TODAY IS:
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For additional information check out websites like: www.on-this-day.com, www.born-today.com, www.famousbirthdays.com, www.daysoftheyear.com, and www.nationaldaycalendar.com.
