May 17
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Events on This Day
1792 - Twenty-four brokers sat down to fix rates on commissions on stocks and bonds. From that agreement came what has been known since as the New York Stock Exchange. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is located in the financial district, an area in lower Manhattan, on a street named after a defensive wall built around 1650. Wall Street became interchangeable with the Stock Exchange. The original brokers’ meeting place was quite different from today’s noisy, crowded, high-energy floor. In bad weather, they met at a coffee house and when the day was sunny, the brokers sat under a buttonwood tree on Wall Street to conduct their business.
1875 - Oliver Lewis rode Aristides winning a purse of $2,850 in the first running of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville, KY. Aristides won the one and a half mile Run for the Roses in a time of 2 minutes, 37-3/4 seconds.
1877 - The first commercial telephone switchboard was installed in Boston, MA. The new gizmo was set up in the Boston office of the Holmes Burglar Alarm Service (named for Edwin T. Holmes, proprietor).
1923 - Actress Marlene Dietrich and Rudolf Sieber were married. The marriage lasted for more than 50 years.
1932 - The U.S. Congress changed the name ‘Porto Rico’ to ‘Puerto Rico’.
1933 - Country singer Jimmie Rodgers began to record a series of 24 songs for RCA Victor Records on this day. Rodgers was in failing health at the beginning of the session, but persevered to complete the job at hand. The singing star died nine days later (he was 35). Jimmie Rodgers was born in 1897 and was known as the Blue Yodeler and the Singing Brakeman. Rodgers was the first member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, elected in 1961 (along with Fred Rose and Hank Williams). His recording career began in 1927. His yodel became a trademark of his music. Jimmie Rodgers recorded over 100 songs and sold millions of 78 RPM records. His songs were about the Depression and many were about trains. Brakeman’s Blues, Blue Yodel, Tuck Away My Lonesome Blues and his famous ‘T’ for Texas are all classics. He died of tuberculosis.
1938 - The NBC Blue network presented Information Please for the first time. The radio quiz show was moderated by Clifton Fadiman.
1939 - The Glen Island Casino in New Rochelle, NY was the scene of a memorable dual-network radio broadcast of Glenn Miller and his orchestra. Both NBC and Mutual carried the event, which was attended by 1,800 people in the casino ballroom.
1940 - The Nazis occupied (and/or infested) Brussels, Belgium.
1943 - This was the day the famous Dambusters Raid was carried out. British aircraft succeeded in bombing the Mohne and Eder dams in Germany’s industrial Ruhr basin using a bouncing bomb. The dams were breached by mines dropped from specially modified Lancasters. An estimated 1,294 people were killed by floodwaters.
1947 - The great thoroughbred race horse Seabiscuit died at the age of 14.
1954 - The U.S. Supreme Court overturned an 1896 ruling that education should be “separate but equal,” thus outlawing racial segregation in several state school systems.
1960 - Connecticut executed Joseph ‘Mad Dog’ Taborsky in the electric chair for a series of murders.
1961 - Cuban dictator Fidel Castro offered to exchange 1,179 prisoners captured in the abortive Bay of Pigs invasion for 500 American heavy tractors. Eventually, the U.S. agreed to deliver $53 million in food, medicines, and medical equipment, in exchange for the prisoners.
1963 - The first Monterey Folk Festival was staged in Monterey, California. Highlights of the three-day festival included performances by Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Peter, Paul and Mary, Pete Seeger, Bill Monroe and Doc Watson.
1970 - Norwegian anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl left Morocco aboard Ra II, a papyrus reed boat. Heyerdahl sailed 3,270 nautical miles across the Atlantic to Barbados in 57 days.
1971 - The musical, Godspell, opened this night at the Cherry Lane Theatre (off Broadway) in New York City. Godspell featured the song Day by Day (a top-15 hit in 1972). The rock musical that featured Robin Lamont played for 2,651 performances and was the third longest-running off-Broadway production at the time.
1974 - Six heavily armed members of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), including leader Donald DeFreeze, died in a shootout with police and subsequent fire that consumed their Los Angeles hideout.
1975 - NBC-TV paid a whopping $5,000,000 for the rights to show Gone with the Wind just one time. It was the top price paid for a single opportunity to show a film on television.
1975 - Elton John’s Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy album was released and certified a platinum record on the very same day. It was the first album to be certified a million seller (in this case, a two-million seller) on the first day of release.
1976 - Race jockey Steve Cauthen began an enviable win streak. Cauthen, age 16, rode his first winner at River Downs, KY. He went on to win 94 races, becoming horse racing’s most-watched jockey.
1979 - It was 12 degrees F (-11 degrees C) on the 4,200 meter-high summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii. The low is a state record.
1980 - Rioting erupted in Miami’s Liberty City neighborhood after an all-white jury in Tampa acquitted four former Miami police officers of fatally beating black insurance executive Arthur McDuffie. The unrest claimed 18 lives.
1984 - Mario Soto of the Cincinnati Reds threw four strikeouts in one inning. Soto was only pitcher number 15 since 1900 to do so. How? The hit catcher dropped the ball on the third strikeout of a game against the Chicago Cubs. The runner took off to first base and was safe. The rules state that the catcher must hold on to the ball for a third strike call to take effect. This was the first four-strikeout inning since 1978. Soto joined the company of Mike Paxton, Phil Niekro, Bill Bonham and Mike Cuellar -- all pitchers in the 1970s -- who had the same thing happen to them.
1985 - Bobby Ewing died on the season finale of Dallas on CBS-TV. “Grief gushed faster than oil,” said the critics on this five-hanky episode. Bobby, played by actor Patrick Duffy, died in a violent car explosion, but came back to life the following season (he was seen taking a shower, of all things, just as Victoria Principal, his TV wife, was about to step into the shower stall).
1986 - Whitney Houston became the first female singer to hit the top of the Billboard Hot 100 with three consecutive singles as Greatest Love of All reached #1. The other two were Saving All My Love For You and How Will I Know.
1987 - Eric ‘Sleepy’ Floyd of the Golden State Warriors set a playoff record for points in a single quarter. He poured in 29 points in the fourth period in a game against Pat Riley’s Los Angeles Lakers.
1987 - 37 American sailors were killed when an Iraqi warplane attacked the U.S. Navy frigate USS Stark in the Persian Gulf. Iraq and the United States characterized the attack as a mistake.
1989 - More than a million people swarmed into Tiananmen Square in central Beijing to express support for Chinese students fasting for democracy.
1992 - Lawrence Welk died at his home in Santa Monica, California at age 89. The Lawrence Welk Show was a hit on TV for 30 years because of Welk’s bubbly dance music (called champagne music) and wholesome formula. His hits began in the 1930s (Bubbles in the Wine, his theme song) and continued through the mid-1960s (Calcutta).
1995 - Jacques Chirac was sworn in as president of France, ending the 14-year tenure of Socialist Francois Mitterrand.
1996 - These films opened in the U.S.: Flipper, with Paul Hogan, Elijah Wood, Chelsea Field and Isaac Hayes; and Heaven’s Prisoners, starring Alec Baldwin, Mary Stuart Masterson, Kelly Lynch, Teri Hatcher and Eric Roberts.
1998 - New York Yankees pitcher David Wells pitched a perfect game against the Minnesota Twins. The American League game had a final score of 4-0. And David Wells was a hero, having pitched only the 15th perfect game in the 118 years of major-league baseball.
1999 - Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, lost his bid for re-election. Israeli voters elected Ehud Barak, head of the center-left Israel One coalition, as their new prime minister.
2000 - Two Ku Klux Klansmen were arrested on murder charges in the 1963 church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, that killed four black girls. (Thomas Blanton Junior was convicted and sentenced to life in prison May 1, 2001; and Bobby Frank Cherry was indicted in 2000 and later convicted and sentenced to life in prison.)
2002 - About a Boy opened in U.S. theatres. The comedy/drama stars Hugh Grant, Toni Collette, Rachel Weisz, Isabel Brook and Sharon Small.
2002 - Former President Jimmy Carter ended his historic visit to Cuba sharply at odds with the Bush administration over how to deal with Fidel Castro, saying limits on tourism and trade often hurt Americans more than Cubans.
2003 - Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re acknowledged that Pope John Paul II was suffering from Parkinson’s disease.
2003 - Funny Cide ran away from the field in the Preakness, two weeks after winning the Kentucky Derby.
2004 - In Massachusetts gay couples began exchanging vows, marking the first time a state has granted gays and lesbians the right to marry.
2004 - Actor Tony Randall, who served as a fussy foil for Rock Hudson and Doris Day, David Letterman and Johnny Carson and, most famously, Jack Klugman on The Odd Couple, died in New York City. He was 84 years old.
2005 - Los Angeles Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa beat Mayor James Hahn in a run-off election. Villaraigosa became the city’s first Hispanic mayor in more than a century as voters appeared to embrace his promises of change in a metropolis troubled by gridlock, gangs and failing schools.
2005 - Actor, impersonator Frank Gorshin died in Burbank, CA. He was 72 years old. Gorshin played the Riddler on the Batman TV series [1966-1969] and appeared in well over one hundred films and TV shows.
2006 - Some 620,000 people were evacuated from southern China as Typhoon Chanchu, the strongest storm to hit the region at this time of year, churned towards the coastal province of Guangdong.
2006 - Romano Prodi became prime minister of Italy, forming that country’s 61st government since World War II.
2007 - The journal Science reported that Antarctica’s Southern Ocean, a crucial ‘carbon sink’ into which 15 percent of the world’s excess carbon dioxide flows, is reaching its maximum saturation point.
2008 - Tropical Storm Halong made landfall in Pangasinan province, northwest of Manila in the Philippines. The storm eventually killed 66 people.
2009 - U.S. President Barack Obama addressed a graduation ceremony at Notre Dame University near South Bend, Indiana. Obama called for “open hearts, open minds and fair-minded words” in the pursuit of “common ground” regarding the issue of abortion rights.
2009 - Sammy Kitwara (22) of Kenya won San Francisco’s 98th Bay to Breakers race with a time of 33 minutes, 31 seconds. Teyba Erkesso (26) of Ethiopia was the fastest woman at 38:29. An estimated 62,000 ran while revelers swilled beer despite rules banning alcohol in the 7.5-mile race. Street cleaners gathered up some 13 tons of garbage.
2010 - An analysis of U.S. health data and published in Pediatrics magazine linked children’s attention-deficit disorder (ADHD) with exposure to common pesticides, including malathion, that had been used on fruits and vegetables.
2012 - Disco singer Donna Summer died in Florida following a battle with lung cancer -- not related to smoking. She was 63 years old. She released her first single, "Sally Go ’Round the Roses," under her birth name, Donna Gaines, in 1971. Summer co-wrote the song "Love to Love You Baby" with Pete Bellotte. Music producer, Giorgio Moroder, convinced her to sing it herself, and it was released in 1975 to great commercial success, particularly on the disco scene. A string of disco hits followed, such as "I Feel Love", "MacArthur Park", "Hot Stuff", "Bad Girls" and "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)". Donna Summer believed she developed lung cancer by inhaling toxic particles following the Sep 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York.
2012 - Japan and Australia signed an agreement in Tokyo that allowed them to share intelligence. This, as the Asia-Pacific region reacted to the rising power of China.
2013 - New movies in U.S. theatres: Star Trek Into Darkness, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Chris Pine, Zoe Saldana, Alice Eve, Karl Urban, Zachary Quinto, Simon Peg, Anton Yelchin, John Cho and Felicity Wren; Augustine, with Vincent Lindon, Soko, Chiara Mastroianni, Olivier Rabourdin, Roxane Duran, Lise Lamétrie, Sophie Cattani, Grégoire Colin; Black Rock, starring Katie Aselton, Lake Bell, Kate Bosworth, Will Bouvier, Jay Paulson, Anslem Richardson and Carl K. Aselton III; and The English Teacher, with Lily Collins, Julianne Moore, Michael Angarano, Nikki Blonsky, Greg Kinnear, Nathan Lane and Jessica Hecht.
2013 - California Attorney General Kamala Harris announced that a requirement for every new semiautomatic handgun to contain microstamping technology would be effective immediately. The gun control law was originally passed -- and signed into law -- in 2007.
2014 - 3-year-old California Chrome won the 139th Preakness at Pimlico Race Course and, because he had won the Kentucky Derby, hopes were high that a Triple Crown victory was just over the horizon. (Alas, a Belmont Stakes starting gate injury to California Chrome slowed the horse enough to prevent his victory on June 7.)
2015 - Two U.S. Marines were killed and 20 were injured when the MV-22 Osprey they were in endured a “hard-landing mishap” at Bellows Air Force Base in Honolulu, Hawaii. A Marine Corps crash investigation later blamed “pilot performance and an improper site survey of the landing zone” for the crash.
2015 - A shootout between rival motorcycle gangs at Twin Peaks restaurant in Waco, Texas left 9 bikers dead and 18 injured. Five rival gangs had gathered at Twin Peaks for a meeting about turf and recruitment. The following day some 170 gang members were charged with engaging in organized crime.
2016 - South Carolina lawmakers passed a bill to restrict abortions beyond 20 weeks. Republican Governor Nikki Haley signed the bill on May 25 making South Carolina the 17th state with such a ban.
2016 - Berlin, Germany’s police reported seven complaints alleging sexual harassment or assault at the Carnival of Cultures weekend, an annual street festival in Berlin. Police spokesman Thomas Neuendorf said, “The women were touched on the private parts by the perpetrators, or surrounded by a group and touched in that way.”
2017 - The U.S. Justice Department appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller to lead the Russia investigation -- into allegations that the Donald Trump campaign collaborated with Russia to sway the 2016 election in favor of Trump and against Democrat Hillary Clinton. Mueller had sweeping powers and the authority to prosecute any crimes uncovered. The appointment followed a week in which the White House was thrown into uproar after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey.
2018 - The U.S. Senate voted 54-45 to confirm Gina Haspel as the first woman to lead the Central Intelligence Agency. Haspel had attracted controversy for her role as chief of a CIA black site in Thailand in 2002 in which prisoners were tortured with so-called ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’, including waterboarding.
2018 - The British firm Cambridge Analytica filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in New York. The company was partly owned by the family of Robert Mercer, an American hedge-fund manager and supporter of many politically conservative causes. The company had acquired and used personal data about Facebook users from an external researcher who had told Facebook he was collecting it for “academic purposes.” Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix had boasted about using prostitutes, bribery sting operations, and honey traps to discredit politicians on whom it conducted opposition research, and said that the company “ran all of Donald Trump’s digital campaign.” Facebook banned Cambridge Analytica from advertising on its platform, saying that it had been deceived.
2019 - Movies starting runs in the U.S. on this day included: A Dog’s Journey, with Dennis Quaid, Betty Gilpin and Abby Ryder Fortson; John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum, starring Keanu Reeves, Asia Kate Dillon and Jerome Flynn; The Sun Is Also a Star, with Yara Shahidi, Charles Melton and Faith Logan; Aniara, with Emelie Jonsson, Bianca Cruzeiro and Arvin Kananian; the biographical crime drama Charlie Says, with Hannah Murray, Suki Waterhouse, Grace Van Dien and Matt Smith as infamous killer Charles Manson; Perfect, with Abbie Cornish, Courtney Eaton and Martin Sensmeier; The Professor, starring Johnny Depp, Zoey Deutch and Rosemarie DeWitt; The Souvenir, with Honor Swinton Byrne, Neil Young and Tom Burke; A Violent Separation, with Alycia Debnam-Carey, Brenton Thwaites and Claire Holt; and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, starring Patrick Joseph Byrnes, Una Carroll and Peter Coonan.
2019 - Hewlett Packard announced its purchase of suprercomputer pioneer Cray for $1.3 billion. The deal was intended to help HP strengthen its position against IBM.
2019 - The European Union said it would directly penalize computer hackers after governments agreed to a new mechanism to target individuals anywhere in the world, freezing their assets in the bloc and banning them from entry.
2020 - Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and political rival Abdullah Abdullah signed a power-sharing agreement, two months after both declared themselves the winner of the September 2019 presidential election. The deal ended a stalemate that had plunged the country into a political crisis. The breakthrough, which saw Abdullah heading peace talks with the Taliban.
2020 - The mysterious solar-powered X-37B space plane rocketed into orbit from a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at Cape Canaveral. The Space Force had disclosed a number of the experiments that were conducted on board, most notably one that would deliver solar power to the ground from space via radio frequency microwave energy. Additionally, the spacecraft deployed the small satellite "FalconSat-8", which was developed by the Air Force Academy and carried five experimental payloads. The X-37B also hosted two NASA experiments to study how seeds used for food products are affected by radiation and the space environment.
2020 - COVID-19 news:
1)The coronavirus case number in Texas jumped by 1,801, the highest daily rate since the state started tracking data. Texas reported 1,305 total fatalities, an increase of 33.
2)A Canadian aerobatic jet crashed into a British Columbia neighborhood during a flyover intended to boost morale during the pandemic. The crash killed one crew member of the CF Snowbirds and seriously injured another, while setting a house on fire.
3)India’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) requested that the nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of novel coronavirus be extended. India reported a record jump of nearly 5,000 cases in 24 hours.
4)The daily death toll in Italy fell to 145, the lowest since March 9. This, as Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte outlined a further loosening of movement restrictions, including opening borders to travelers from Europe from next month.
5)U.S. cases reached 1,478,241 with the death toll at 89,207.2021 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that police cannot enter someone’s home without a warrant except in an emergency. (In June 2021 the Court ruled that police cannot always enter a home without a warrant even when pursuing someone for a minor crime.)
2021 - Darwin’s Arch, a famous, photo-friendly rock formation in the remote Galápagos Islands, collapsed because of natural erosion.
2021 - Vaccinated Saudis were allowed to leave the kingdom for the first time in more than a year as the country eased a ban on international travel aimed at containing he spread of the coronavirus and its known variants.
2022 - President Biden traveled to Buffalo, New York to comfort the families of the 10 people whose lives were taken in the mass shooting at a grocery store. Police are calling the attack a racist hate crime by an 18-year-old self-described white supremacist who was targeting the Black community. Biden said “white supremacy is a poison” and vowed “hate will not prevail...”
2022 - Some 260 Ukrainian troops were evacuated from the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, ending a week-long standoff. With the plant evacuated, Russia controlled all of Mariupol, which was left in ruins after months of fighting.
2023 - Montana banned TikTok. Governor Greg Gianforte signed legislation to ban the Chinese-owned social media network -- to protect against alleged intelligence gathering.
2023 - The oldest (nearly-complete) Hebrew Bible, The Codex Sassoon, from late 9th or early 10th century, sold for $38.1 million at Sotheby’s in New York. It was one of the highest prices ever for a book at auction.
2024 - Movies opening in the U.S, included: Back to Black, based on the life of British singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse; the live-action/animated IF, with Cailey Fleming, Ryan Reynolds, Krasinski and Fiona Shaw; and The Strangers: Chapter 1, with Madelaine Petsch, Froy Gutierrez and Rachel Shenton.
and more...
Birthdays on This Day May 17
1903 - James Bell
‘Cool Papa’: Baseball Hall of Famer: Negro League [1922-1950]: St. Louis Stars, Pittsburgh Crawfords, Homestead Grays, Kansas City Stars; fastest man ever to play baseball: could round the bases in 13 seconds: “...so fast he could get out of bed, turn out the lights across the room, and be back under the covers before the lights went out...”; died Mar 7, 19911904 - Warren Duff
screenwriter: Three for Danger, The Last Command, Chicago Deadline, No Time for Love, The Oklahoma Kid, Back in Circulation, The Singing Kid; died Aug 5, 19731906 - Carl McIntire
clergyman, fire and brimstone fundamentalist minister; died Mar 19, 20021911 - Maureen (Paul) O’Sullivan
actress: Tarzan films: Jane; Hannah and Her Sisters, Peggy Sue Got Married, The River Pirates; died June 23, 19981912 - Grant Turner
Country Music Hall of Fame announcer at the Grand Ole Opry [1944-1991]; died Oct 19, 19911914 - Stewart Alsop
syndicated columnist [w/brother Joseph]: Matter of Fact; journalist: New York Herald Tribune, Newsweek, Washington Editor of Saturday Evening Post; writer: The Center: The Anatomy of Power in Washington, Stay of Execution : A Sort of Memoir; died May 26, 19741915 - Carl Liscombe
hockey: Detroit Red Wings [most points record: (7) vs. Chicago: 11/5/42]; died Feb 23, 20041921 - Bob Merrill
songwriter: If I Knew You Were Comin’ I’d’ve Baked a Cake, Doggie in the Window, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Funny Girl [w/Jules Styne]; died Feb 17, 19981924 - Dick Hixson
trombonist, studio musician; died Nov 25, 19821932 - Jackie (John) McLean
jazz musician: alto sax; composer, playwright; educator: University of Hartford, CT; died Mar 31, 20061932 - Ozzie (Osvaldo Jose Sr. Pichardo) Virgil
baseball: NY Giants, Detroit Tigers, KC Athletics, Baltimore Orioles, Pittsburgh Pirates, SF Giants1934 - Earl Morrall
football: backup quarterback: San Francisco 49ers; Pittsburgh Steelers; Detroit Lions; NY Giants; Baltimore Colts: NFL Player of the Year [1968], Super Bowl III, Super Bowl V; Miami Dolphins: AFC Player of the Year [1971], Super Bowls VII, VIII; died April 25, 20141936 - Dennis Hopper
actor: Easy Rider, Apocalypse Now, Rebel Without a Cause, Giant, Hoosiers, Flashback, Blue Velvet, Super Mario Brothers, True Romance, Speed, Waterworld, Space Truckers; director: Easy Rider, Colors, Chasers; died May 29, 20101938 - Pervis Jackson
singer: group: The Spinners: I’ll Be Around, Could It Be I’m Falling In Love; died Aug 18, 20081940 - Peter Gerety
actor: Homicide: Life on the Street, Brothers and Sisters, People I Know, The Curse of the Jade Scorpion, Hollywood Ending, Things That Hang from Trees, Public Enemies, How I Spent My Summer Vacation1942 - Taj Mahal (Henry St. Claire Fredericks)
entertainer, songwriter: for film, Sounder; singer: urban folk-blues1945 - Tony Roche
tennis champ: French Open [1966]1948 - Bill Bruford
musician: drums: LPs: Feels Good to Me, One of a Kind, The Bruford Tapes, Gradually Going Tornado, Masterstrokes; [w/Patrick Moraz: Music for Piano and Drums, Flags; groups: Earthworks, Gong, Genesis, Yes: Owner of a Lonely Heart, Roundabout; UK: Danger Money, Night after Night1948 - Carlos May
baseball: Chicago White Sox [all-star: 1969, 1972], NY Yankees [World Series: 1976], California Angels1948 - Pat Toomay
football [defensive end]: Dallas Cowboys: Super Bowl V, VI1952 - Roy Adams
musician: drums: group: Climax Blues Band: Couldn’t Get It Right, I Love You1953 - Kathleen Sullivan
TV news reporter: Good Morning America, CBS This Morning1955 - Bill Paxton
actor: Twister, True Lies, Aliens, Apollo 13, Future Shock, The Terminator, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Training Day; died Feb 25, 20171956 - Sugar Ray Leonard
Boxing Hall of Famer: Olympic gold medalist: Junior Welterweight [1976]; World Welterweight [1979] and World Junior Middleweight Champion [1981], WBC Heavyweight and Super Middleweight [1988]1956 - Bob Saget
actor: Full House, Fuller House; TV host: America’s Funniest Home Videos; died Jan 9, 20221958 - Paul Whitehouse
writer, comedian, actor: Alice in Wonderland [2010], Finding Neverland, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, We Know Where You Live, Ted & Ralph, Smashey and Nicey, the End of an Era1959 - Jim Nantz
multi-Emmy Award-winning CBS-TV sportscaster: lead play-by-play voice for the NFL on CBS, NCAA Division I men’s basketball, PGA Tour1960 - Fiona Hutchison
actress: One Life to Live, The Guiding Light, Something to Believe In, Rage, American Gothic, Biggles, As the World Turns1962 - Craig Ferguson
actor: The Drew Carey Show, The Hero of Color City, Niagara Motel, Trust Me, Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Big Tease; TV talk host: The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson; game show host: The Hustler1964 - David Eigenberg
actor: Sex and the City, Sex and the City 2, See You in September, Let’s Do This!, Five, Liz & Dick, Chicago Fire1965 - Trent Reznor
Grammy Award-winning singer, musician: Wish [1992]; LP: Pretty Hate Machine; band: Nine Inch Nails1965 - Paige Turco
actress: Rhinoceros Eyes, Dead Dog, R2PC: Road to Park City, Claire Makes It Big, Vibrations, Dead Funny, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series1966 - Hill Harper
actor: CSI: NY, Married... with Children, Get on the Bus, Hav Plenty, He Got Game, Beloved, Loving Jezebel, The Skulls, The Visit, Stonehenge Apocalypse, Covert Affairs1966 - Danny Manning
basketball [forward]: Univ of Kansas; LA Clippers, Atlanta Hawks, Phoenix Suns, Milwaukee Bucks, Utah Jazz, Dallas Mavericks, Detroit Pistons1970 - Jordan (Nathaniel Marcel) Knight
singer: group: New Kids on the Block [1984-1994]1973 - Sasha Alexander
actress: NCIS, Rizzoli & Isles, Dawson’s Creek, Yes Man, He’s Just Not That Into You1976 - Rochelle Aytes
actress: White Chicks, Desperate Housewives, The Forgotten, Trick ’r Treat, Drive, Dark Blue, Detroit 1-8-7, Mistresses1978 - Carlos Pena
baseball [first base]: Northeastern Univ; Texas Rangers, Detroit Tigers, Oakland Athletics, Boston Red Sox, Tampa Bay Devil Rays1982 - Tony Parker
basketball: Paris Basket Racing [France, 1999–2001]; NBA: San Antonio Spurs [2001–2018]: 2014 NBA champs; Charlotte Hornets [2018–2019]1985 - Derek Hough
dance pro, choreographer: muti-season champ of TV’s Dancing With the Stars; TV dance judge: World of Dance1985 - Matt Ryan
football [quarterback]: Boston College; NFL: Atlanta Falcons [2008- ]: 2017 Super Bowl LI; only Falcons QB to lead the team to an 8-0 start [2012]1988 - Nikki Reed
actress: The Twilight Saga film series, Last Day of Summer, Thirteen, Lords of Dogtown, Mini’s First Time, Privileged, Catch .44, Pawn, Snap, Empire State1990 - Ross Butler
actor: K.C. Undercover, Teen Beach 2, Perfect High, 13 Reasons Why, Hacker’s Game1990 - Leven Rambin
actress: Chasing Mavericks, Hunger Games, Grey’s Anatomy, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, One Tree Hill, Wizards of Waverly Place, CSI: Miami, Glimmer, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters
and still more...
Hit Music on This Day May 17
1945Candy (facts) - Johnny Mercer & Jo Stafford
I’m Beginning to See the Light (facts) - The Harry James Orchestra (vocal: Kitty Kallen)
1954
1963
1972
1981
1990
1999
2008
2017
and even more...
Those were the days, my friend. We thought they’d never end...
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