This Day In History
- 1797 Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, author of ''Frankenstein,'' was born in London.
- 1862 Union forces were defeated by the Confederates at the Second Battle of Bull Run in Manassas, Va.
- 1893 Huey P. Long, ''The Kingfish'' of Louisiana politics, was born in Winn Parish, La.
- 1905 Ty Cobb made his major league debut.
- 1941 The World War II siege of Leningrad began as Nazi forces took Mga.
- 1945 Gen. Douglas MacArthur arrived in Japan and set up Allied occupation headquarters.
- 1965 The album ''Highway 61 Revisited'' by Bob Dylan was released.
- 1967 The Senate confirmed the appointment of Thurgood Marshall as the first black justice on the Supreme Court.
- 1979 Hurricane David devastated the tiny island of Dominica as it began a rampage through the Caribbean and up the eastern seaboard of the United States that claimed some 1,100 lives.
- 1983 Guion S. Bluford Jr. became the first black American astronaut to travel in space, blasting off aboard the space shuttle Challenger.
- 1989 A federal jury in New York found ''hotel queen'' Leona Helmsley guilty of income tax evasion but acquitted her of extortion.
- 1990 President George H.W. Bush told a news conference that a ''new world order'' could emerge from the Gulf crisis.
- 1993 ''The Late Show with David Letterman'' premiered on CBS.
- 1999 Residents of East Timor voted for independence from Indonesia in a U.N.-sponsored ballot.
- 1682 William Penn sailed from England. He later established the colony of Pennsylvania (which, as some of you may know, is now one of the United States) and now stands on top of City Hall in Philadelphia, PA. Not him, really, but a famous statue of him...
- 1806 The last issue of the "Daily Advertiser" was published. It was known as New York City’s second daily newspaper.
- 1905 Ty Cobb appeared in his first major-league baseball game. He played for the Detroit Tigers.
- 1922 The New Orleans Rhythm Kings recorded "Tiger Rag", one of the most familiar ragtime jazz tunes ever. It was released on the General record label.
- 1926 The first running of the Hambletonian happened in Syracuse, New York. Guy McKinney was the first horse to win first place in the famous race.
- 1951 "Screen Directors’ Playhouse" was heard for the final time on NBC. The radio program had featured some of the biggest stars in Hollywood.
- 1965 After 40 years in baseball, Casey Stengel announced his retirement.
- 1968 The Beatles recorded their first songs for their own Apple label. The initial session included the big hits "Revolution" and "Hey Jude".
- 1968 The stars came out for charity as John and Yoko Lennon hosted the "One on One" concert in New York’s Madison Square Garden. Among the music greats appearing were Stevie Wonder and Roberta Flack. Over $250,000 was raised to aid mentally retarded children.
- 1972 President Nixon announced that John Dean completed his investigation into the Watergate wiretapping debacle. And he added that no one from the White House was involved. Well, good. That takes care of that...
- 1974 "The Brady Bunch", a typical 1970s scrubbed-face American family sitcom which first aired on TV Sept. 26, 1969, came to an end on this day. This original series starred Robert Reed as the architect-widower with three sons (played by Barry Williams as Greg, Christopher Knight as Peter and Mike Lookinland as Bobby), who married a widow (Florence Henderson). The new Mrs. Brady had three daughters (played by Maureen McCormick as Marcia, Eve Plumb as Jan and Susan Olsen as Cindy). Add a nutsy housekeeper, Alice (Ann B. Davis), a family dog and cat and ABC-TV ended up with one giant TV success viewed weekly by millions of youngsters ... and their loving parents. Don’t you miss those Friday night family gatherings in front of the TV?
- 1974 The largest fountain in America, the visual symbol of the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was dedicated by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania this day. The fountain takes up one-fifth of 36-acre Point State Park at the convergence of the Monongahela, Allegheny and Ohio Rivers. 90 percent of the fountain is unseen. That’s the part that pumps water from an underground river (a fourth, unnamed river that runs under the city and flows south, unlike the other three rivers), stores it and feeds it into the fountain. Designed by Charles Stotz and Louis Fosner and built by Robert R. Busse, the fountain is controlled by computers and operates automatically. Wind velocity specifies the height of the water column (2 feet in diameter by up to 200 ft. high. 24 white and gold quartz-iodine lights present a dramatic display of shifting colors by night. That’s how you can see the fountain in all its glory whenever the Pittsburgh Steelers play on "Monday Night Football". The most interesting structural fact and a very complicated procedure -- this fountain was built to withstand water pressure from beneath, so the pressure would not push it up and cause it to float.
- 1984 President Ronald Reagan, along with Red Barber, Bill Stern, Graham McNamee, Don Dunphy and Ted Husing were inducted into the Sportscasters Hall of Fame, in ceremonies at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.
- 1986 Roger Clemens of the Boston Red Sox became the first 20-game winner of the year. Clemens was the first Red Sox pitcher to achieve that feat since 1978.
- 1993 "Late Show with David Letterman" debuted on CBS-TV. CBS remodeled the Ed Sullivan Theater (on 54th Street in New York City) for Letterman, who had just spent over a decade on NBC ("Late Night with David Letterman"). The first musical guest to appear on the new show was Billy Joel.
- 1995 James Taylor and former wife Carly Simon got back together for their first concert together in 16 years. "Livestock ’95" was a benefit performance on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusettes to raise funds for a new barn for the island’s agricultural society.
- 1997 "Mo Money Mo Problems", by The Notorious B.I.G. featuring Puff Daddy & Mase, hit #1 (for two weeks) on U.S. singles charts. An entire generation fell in love to: “You tell me who flopped who copped the blue drop; Who jewels got robbed who’s mostly Goldie down to the tube sock...” and so much more.
- 1797 Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (author: Frankenstein; wife of poet Percy Bysshe Shelley; died Feb 1, 1851)
- 1896 Raymond (Hart) Massey (actor)
- 1898 Shirley Booth (Thelma Booth Ford) (Academy Award-winning actress)
- 1901 Roy Wilkins (civil rights leader: Executive Director of NAACP; died Sep 8, 1981)
- 1943 Jean-Claude Killy (Olympic Gold Medal skier)
- 1951 Timothy Bottoms (actor: The Paper Chase)
- 1972 Cameron Diaz (model; actress)
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