440 International Those Were the Days
October 17
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Events on This Day   

1845 - According to a Boston newspaper, the entire audience walked out of a reading that included The Raven. The audience walked out, not because of the material, but because of their objection to Edgar Allan Poe, the reader and author of the macabre poem.

1888 - The first issue of National Geographic Magazine was on newsstands this day. The highly acclaimed magazine was published on a somewhat irregular basis at first. Material was hard to come by in the early years, so the publisher just waited to publish the next issue until enough material accumulated to fill it. The science and travel magazine, the official journal of the National Geographic Society (incorporated January 27, 1888), soon became a monthly and it wasn’t long before it was famous for its maps and photographic essays of exotic locales and peoples. Features Spotlight

1904 - The Bank of Italy in San Francisco opened its doors. Banker A. P. Giannini opened the bank’s first headquarters at Columbus and Washington in a building that formerly housed a saloon.

1919 - The Radio Corporation of America (RCA) was formed. The company became a giant in electronics, especially radios and TVs. It would later own its own TV network (NBC) and other broadcast interests.

1933 - Dr. Albert Einstein moved to Princeton, NJ, after arriving in the United States from his troubled homeland of Germany.

1938 - This was a big day in Tinseltown. NBC moved to the corner of Sunset and Vine, the ‘Crossroads of the World’. The new Radio City Hollywood drew thousands of visitors ready to fill studio-audience seats for popular radio programs.

1940 - One year before recording that memorable song, Fry Me Cookie, with a Can of Lard, Will Bradley’s orchestra recorded Five O’Clock Whistle, also on Columbia Records

1943 - Chicago’s first subway was formally opened. Work on the subway had begun on December 17, 1938. Mining through the soft, watery clay underlying the city was a difficult engineering task but subway construction was accomplished without a single cave-in.

1945 - Actress Ava Gardner made news. She married bandleader Artie Shaw.

1953 - The first concert of contemporary Canadian music presented in the U.S. was performed by conductor Leopold Stokowski at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

1956 - Queen Elizabeth opened the world’s first full-scale nuclear power plant -- in Calder Hall, Sellafield (Cumbria), England.

1957 - French author Albert Camus was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

1962 - Though the ‘Fab Four’ would appear on both radio and television, on what they would call ‘Auntie Beeb’ (the BBC), The Beatles made their first appearance this day on Great Britain’s Granada TV Network. The show from Manchester, England was People and Places.

1967 - “Gimme a head with hair. Long, beautiful hair...” The rock musical HAIR opened at the New York Shakespeare Festival Public Theater for a limited run. After much trial and error, involving several openings and closings, HAIR eventually opened on Broadway at the Biltmore Theater on April 29, 1968. It closed on July 1, 1972 after 1,742 performances.

1971 - Roberto Clemente’s bat, Steve Blass’ pitching, and the leadership of Willie Stargell made the Pittsburgh Pirates World Series winners. After losing the first two games, the Bucs came back to win three consecutive -- and eventually their fourth world championship. Steve Blass hurled a four-hitter and Roberto Clemente homered as the Pirates won Game 7, 2-1.

1974 - The Oakland A’s beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 4 games to 1, to win the World Series. In Game 5, played this day, Joe Rudi connected with a homer off Dodger reliever Mike Marshall to break a 2-2 tie. Oakland's bullpen ace, Rollie Fingers preserved the one run lead and the A’s were world champions for the third consecutive year. The A’s were the only team other than the Yankees to win 3 straight series.

1978 - The New York Yankees were pounded 11-to-5 in the opening game of the World Series. The Los Angeles Dodgers also took game two 4-to-3. No American League team had ever recovered from an 0-2 deficit in the World Series -- until then. The Yankees won the next four games to clinch their 22nd world championship.

1979 - After being down three games to one, Willie ‘Pops’ Stargell’s third World Series homer gave the Pittsburgh Pirates their third straight win, 4-1, and the world championship, four games to three. Stargell was Series MVP.

1979 - Mother Teresa of India was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her 30 years of work on behalf of the destitute in Calcutta.

1985 - Intel introduced the 32-bit 80386 microcomputer chip. It was the first Intel/*86 chip to handle 32-bit data sets. It ran at ‘clock speeds’ of up to 33 MHz -- blazingly fast in 1985.

1985 - French author Claude Simon won the Nobel Prize in Literature.

1989 - Millions were watching the third game of the World Series between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics, when much to their horror, the seats at Candlestick Park began to rock, light towers swayed, and 58,000 fans became eerily quiet. An earthquake, measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale, had hit the San Francisco Bay area at 5:04 p.m. Homes crumbled, gas lines ruptured, ‘earthquake-safe’ structures fell and the upper section of a two-tiered freeway collapsed onto the lower level at the height of rush hour -- trapping commuters in flattened cars. The tremor and its aftershocks reached north to Sacramento and south to Los Angeles, causing an estimated 270 deaths, 3,000 injuries, and damages up to $3 billion. TV audiences stayed glued to their sets as fires burned, rescue workers went about their jobs and real stories unfolded. At the World Series game (postponed because of earth shaking), the fans cheered when the tremor stopped. They were the victors of nature’s game.

1991 - Country, gospel, pop singer Tennessee Ernie Ford died of liver disease. He was 72 years old. The Capitol Records recording star’s early hits included Mule Train and The Shot Gun Boogie. It was Sixteen Tons (1955) however, that proved to be Ford’s career record. He was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1990.

1994 - Israel and Jordan initialed drafts of the Jordan-Israel Peace Treaty.

1996 - The Atlanta Braves won the National League Championship Series, beating the St. Louis Cardinals 15-0 in game 7.

1997 - “Ever have a body that just won’t stay dead?” The creepy I Know What You Did Last Summer opened in the U.S. Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe and Freddie Prinze Jr. play high-school kids who run over a mysterious person on the road. They decide to dump the ‘body’ and forgetta bout it. Hah! As you might guess, that’s easier said than done. At last check (Oct 2001), I Know What You Did Last Summer had scared up $72,219,000 at the box office.

1997 - Also opening: The Devil’s Advocate, starring Keanu Reeves, Al Pacino, Charlize Theron, Jeffrey Jones, Judith Ivey and Craig T. Nelson; and Playing God, starring David Duchovny, Timothy Hutton, Angelina Jolie, Michael Massee, Peter Stormare and Gary Dourdan.

1998 - The single, One Week, by Barenaked Ladies, was number one -- for one week.

2000 - Al Gore and George W. Bush held their third and last TV debate from St. Louis with a town hall format.

2000 - Patrick Roy (Colorado Avalanche) achieved his 448th victory as a goalie in the NHL. Roy passed Terry Sawchuck to set the record for career victories.

2001 - As the threat of anthrax hovered over Capitol Hill, congressional leaders closed six House and Senate office buildings for decontamination. The U.S. House of Representatives was shut down for several days also.

2002 - Ira Einhorn, the 1970s hippie guru who had fled to Europe after being charged with murder, was convicted in Philadelphia of killing his girlfriend, Holly Maddux, and stuffing her corpse in his closet a quarter-century earlier. He was later sentenced to life without parole.

2003 - These films debuted in the U.S.: Runaway Jury, with John Cusack, Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, Rachel Weisz, Bruce Davison, Bruce McGill, Jeremy Piven, Nick Searcy, Stanley Anderson, Cliff Curtis, Nestor Serrano, Leland Orser, Jennifer Beals, Gerry Bamman and Joanna Going; and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Jessica Biel, Jonathan Tucker, Erica Leerhsen, Mike Vogel, Eric Balfour, Andrew Bryniarski, R. Lee Ermey, David Dorfman, Lauren German, Terrence Evans, Marietta Marich, Heather Kafka, Kathy Lamkin, Brad Leland and John Larroquette.

2005 - Tropical Storm Wilma formed in the Atlantic. As it did, the 2005 season tied a record dating back to 1933 for the most named storms in a season. It was only the second time in recorded history that 21 tropical storms had formed in the north Atlantic basin in a single hurricane season. (Wilma was upgraded to hurricane status on Oct 18.)

2006 - Actor Wesley Snipes was indicted for cheating the U.S. government out of nearly $12 million in false refund claims in 1996 and 1997 and for not filing a return from 1999 through 2004.

2006 - The 300-millionth U.S. resident was born at 7:46 a.m. EDT according to a Census Bureau estimate. The 200 million mark was reached in 1967. The 400 million mark is expected around 2043.

2007 - Hundreds of police raided drug gangs in two Rio de Janeiro shantytowns, setting off gun battles that killed 12 people, including an officer and a four-year-old boy.

2007 - Singer Teresa Brewer (age 76) died at her home in New Rochelle, NY. Among her big hits were Music, Music, Music, Sweet Old-Fashioned Girl, Empty Arms, and Ricochet.

2007 - Actor, commedian Joey Bishop died at 89 years of age. Bishop was the last member of Frank Sinatra’s legendary Rat Pack (the others were Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr, and Peter Lawford). Bishop appeared on TV as early as 1948 and guest-hosted on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson more times than anyone else. Bishop frequently appeared on Steve Allen and Jack Paar’s previous versions of the show, and he had his own TV talk show, The Joey Bishop Show from 1967-1969. His film appearances include Ocean’s Eleven, Sergeants 3, The Naked and the Dead and The Delta Force.

2008 - Movies opening in the U.S.: Max Payne, starring Mark Wahlberg, Chris O'Donnell, Beau Bridges, Ludacris, Mila Kunis, Donal Logue and Amaury Nolasco; The Secret Life of Bees, starring Queen Latifah, Dakota Fanning, Jennifer Hudson, Sophie Okonedo, Alicia Keys, Paul Bettany, Hilarie Burton and Nate Parker; Sex Drive, with James Marsden, Josh Zuckerman, Amanda Crew, Katrina Bowde, Seth Green and Clark Duke; and W., starring Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Banks, James Cromwell, Ellen Burstyn, Thandie Newton, Jeffrey Wright, Scott Glenn, Ioan Gruffudd, Richard Dreyfus and Jesse Bradford.

2008 - Four Tops lead vocalist Levi Stubbs died at 72 years of age. Stubbs’ dynamic and emotive voice drove such Motown classics as Reach Out (I’ll Be There) and Baby I Need Your Loving.

2008 - U.S. drug czar John Walters said Mexico’s drug cartels were crossing the border to kidnap and kill inside the United States. Walters promised an anti-drug aid package to help Mexico fight the gangs.

2009 - A big crowd rallied in Madrid, Spain against a bill to ease restrictions on abortion. It was a vivid and emotional show of how the issue remained sensitive two decades after abortion was legalized in the traditionally Roman Catholic country.

2010 - Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed Australia’s first saint, canonizing 19th-century nun Mary MacKillop. The Vatican also declared five other saints in an open-air Mass attended by tens of thousands. Brother Andre, a Canadian, Italian nuns Giulia Salzano and Battista Camilla da Varano, and Spanish nun Candida Maria de Jesus Cipitria y Barriola were canonized.

2011 - Libyan fighters raised the new government’s flag over the desert oasis of Bani Walid and hailed an exodus of Kadhafi regime families from his hometown of Sirte.

2012 - Scotland Yard confirmed that the Metropolitan Police banned ‘thuggish’ visible tattoos, saying they damage the professional image of Britain’s top police force. Tats would no longer be permitted on the face, hands or above the collar line. And all officers and police staff with existing tattoos defined as ‘visible’ were required to register them.

2013 - Some 1.4 million Muslim pilgrims from 188 countries started to leave Mecca (Saudi Arabia) at the end of what authorities hailed as a successful and incident-free hajj. The hajj now brings in $16.5 billion, about 3% of Saudi GDP.

2014 - Movies opening in U.S. theatres included: The Best of Me, with James Marsden, Michelle Monaghan and Liana Liberato; the animated, The Book of Life, featuring the voices of Zoe Saldan, Channing Tatum, Ron Perlman, Christina Applegate, Danny Trejo, Kate del Castillo, Ice Cube and Cheech Marin; The Culture High, starring Snoop Dogg, Ronald Reagan and Joe Rogan; Felony, with Joel Edgerton, Jai Courtney and Tom Wilkinson; Fury, starring Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf and Logan Lerman; Housebound, with Morgana O’Reilly, Rima Te Wiata and Glen-Paul Waru; and Rudderless, starring Selena Gomez, Jamie Chung and Anton Yelchin.

2014 - Sixteen people were killed at an open-air pop concert in South Korea. The K-pop group 4Minute was performing when the cover of a ventilation shaft the people were standing on gave way. The man involved in planning the pop concert was found dead the next day in an apparent suicide.

2014 - Hong Kong riot police battled with thousands of pro-democracy protesters for control of the city’s streets.

2015 - Australia announced its plan to legalize the growing of cannabis for medicinal purposes, saying those suffering debilitating illnesses deserved access to the most effective treatments.

2016 - The editor-in-chief of Kremlin-funded television network RT reported that all its bank accounts in Britain had been closed down. RT had been frequently described as a propaganda outlet for the Russian government and its foreign policy. RT was accused of spreading disinformation by news reporters, including some former RT reporters. The United Kingdom media regulator, Ofcom, has repeatedly found RT to have breached rules on impartiality, and of broadcasting “materially misleading” content. RT America has been required to register as a foreign agent in the U.S.

2016 - The long-awaited offensive to seize back Mosul after two years of Isis control began with columns of armour and military starting to move on the northern Iraqi city. Haider al-Abadi, Iraq’s prime minister, said, “We have been battling Isis for more than two years. We started fighting Isis in the outskirts of Baghdad, and thank God we are now fighting them in the outskirts of Mosul, and God willing the decisive battle will be soon.”

2017 - The Indian government ordered diesel generators and a power plant in Delhi to be shut down as air quality in the capital deteriorated. The precautions were taken just ahead of the Hindu festival of lights, when a night of firecrackers usually sent pollution levels soaring. The ban was among several measures triggered by Delhi’s air quality index falling to the “very poor” category, and was to remain in peffect untill March 15, 2018.

2018 - Canada became the second nation to legalize recreational marijuana. Uruguay was the first, in 2013. The use of medical marijuana had been legal in Canada since 2001 and Justin Trudeau’s government spent two years working toward expanding that to include recreational use. The goal was to better reflect society’s changing opinion about marijuana and bring black market operators into a regulated system.

2018 - Interpol (France-based police organization) said coordinated police raids in 93 countries had netted more than 55 tons of drugs including cocaine, heroin and millions of synthetic drug pills. 1,300 people were arrested in what was called “Operation Lionfish between Sep 17 and Oct 8.

2019 - Cartel gunmen surrounded security forces in the northwestern Mexican city of Culiacan, Sinaloa state. The outlaw gang forced the troops to free Ovidio Guzman, the son of jailed kingpin Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman. The decision to withdraw was made to protect the lives of the National Guard and restore calm in the city, where gangsters had set up roadblocks and were unleashing heavy automatic gunfire.

2019 - Scientists from France, Switzerland and Morocco reported fossils found in Morocco suggest the practice of forming orderly lines may date back 480 million years and could have had evolutionary advantages. The study described groups of blind trilobites — known as Ampyx — all facing in the same direction, apparently maintaining contact via their long rearward spines.

2020 - China’s congress passed amendments to a law that criminalized the intentional insulting of the national flag and emblem.

2020 - Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Germans to cooperate like they did in the spring to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The country’s disease control center, the Robert Koch Institute, reported 7,830 cases overnight, a new record.

2020 - New Zealand held elections. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern won a second term in an election landslide of historic proportions. With most votes counted, Ardern’s liberal Labour Party was winning 49% of the vote compared to 27% for its main challenger, the conservative National Party.

2021 - People’s Bank of China Governor Yi Gang said China’s economy faced challenges -- such as default risks for certain firms -- due to “mismanagement.”

2021 - The Organization for Security and Cooperation on Europe (OSCE) said it had suspended its monitoring mission in eastern Ukraine. The shutdown followed pro-Russian protests near OSCE headquarters in separatist-controlled Donetsk.

2022 - K-pop band BTS announced that all seven members would be serving in the South Korean military for the required 18 month minimum stint. The band’s label and management company, Big Hit, said BTS plans to come back together as a group “around 2025,” after all seven members have completed their service.

2022 - Appointees of then-POTUS Donald Trump pressured officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to show off a more optimistic outlook early in the coronavirus crisis, believing dire assessments reflected poorly on Trump. Former CDC director Robert Redfield, former top deputy Anne Schuchat, and other health officials said Trump allies bullied staff, threatened their jobs, and lobbied to rewrite CDC publications to bring them more in line with the story Trump wanted the public to hear. The report described clashes over issues like a CDC-backed summer 2020 plan to require masks on public and commercial transportation. CDC officials said their policy could have helped curb infections ahead of a winter surge, but Trump officials blocked it.

2023 - Representative Jim Jordan failed in his bid to win the U.S. House speakership after 20 of his fellow Republicans voted against him on its first ballot. A speaker needs a majority of the full House to be elected. GOP sources said the opposition could grow because some members only committed to backing him on the first ballot. Representative Mike Johnson was elected speaker about a week later.

and more...
HistoryOrb, On-This-Day, TODAYINSCI,
The day’s front pages

Jump to Top Birthdays on This Day    October 17

1711 - Jupiter Hammon
poet: An Evening Thought; died in 1806

1780 - Richard Johnson
9th U.S. Vice President [1837-1841]: under President Martin Van Buren]; died Nov 19, 1850

1886 - Spring Byington
actress: Please Don’t Eat the Daisies, Angels in the Outfield, In the Good Old Summertime, Jezebel, Little Women, Laramie, December Bride; died Sep 7, 1971

1900 - Jean Arthur (Gladys Georgianna Greene)
actress: Shane, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Devil and Miss Jones, The Jean Arthur Show; died June 19, 1991

1902 - Irene Ryan (Noblette)
actress: The Beverly Hillbillies, Heading for Heaven; died Apr 26, 1973

1907 - John Marley
actor: The Godfather On the Edge, Mother Lode, Utilities, It Lives Again, The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover, Greatest Heroes of the Bible, Cat Ballou; died May 22, 1984

1909 - Cozy (William Randolph) Cole
musician: drums: played w/Cab Calloway, Louie Armstrong; solo: Topsy; in films: Make Mine Music, The Glen Miller Story; developed a drummers’ school w/Gene Krupa; died Jan 31, 1981

1912 - Albino Luciani
Pope John Paul I: 263rd pope of the Roman Catholic Church [Aug 26, 1978 to Sep 28, 1978]; died Sep 28, 1978

1913 - Robert Lowery
actor: The Ballad of Josie, Johnny Reno, Young Guns of Texas, The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond, McLintock!, Lay That Rifle Down; died Dec 26, 1971

1914 - Jerry (Jerome) Siegel
cartoonist: Superman [w/Joe Shuster]; died Jan 28, 1999

1915 - Arthur Miller
Tony Award-winning playwright: Death of a Salesman [1949]; Emmy Award-winning playwright: Playing for Time [1980-81], Death of a Salesman [1966-67]; It Takes a Thief, Rhinoceros, The Misfits; died Feb 10, 2004

1917 - Sumner Locke Elliott
author: Careful, He Might Hear You, Edens Lost, Water Under the Bridge, About Tilly Beamis, Fairyland; died Jun 24, 1991

1917 - Marsha Hunt
actress: Chloe’s Prayer, Terror Among Us, Johnny Got His Gun, Fear No Evil, The Plunderers, Blue Denim, Bombers B-52; died Sep 7, 2022

1918 - Rita Hayworth (Margarita Carmen Cansino)
actress: Miss Sadie Thompson, Pal Joey, Separate Tables, They Came to Cordura, You’ll Never Get Rich; died May 14, 1987

1920 - Elie Abel
journalist: NBC News; writer: What’s News : the Media in American Society, The Missile Crisis; dean of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism; died Jul 22, 2004

1920 - (Edward) Montgomery Clift
actor: From Here to Eternity, Suddenly Last Summer, Judgment at Nuremberg, The Misfits, A Place in the Sun, Raintree County; died July 23, 1966

1921 - Tom Poston
Emmy Award-winning comedian, actor: The Steve Allen Show [1958-59]; On the Rocks, Bob, Mork & Mindy, Newhart; TV panelist: To Tell the Truth, A Perfect Little Murder, Up the Academy; died Apr 30, 2007

1924 - Don Coryell
football coach: NFL: San Diego Chargers, St. Louis Cardinals; Coryell’s offense was commonly known as ‘Air Coryell’; first coach to win more than 100 games at both the collegiate and professional level; died Jul 1, 2002

1926 - Julie Adams
actress: Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Conviction of Kitty Dodds, Black Roses, The Killer Inside Me, The Wild McCullochs, The Last Movie; died Feb 3, 2019; more

1926 - Beverly Garland (Fessenden)
actress: My Three Sons, Scarecrow and Mrs. King, The Bing Crosby Show, DOA, The Desperate Hours; died Dec 5, 2008.

1927 - Johnny (John Calvin) Klippstein
baseball: pitcher: Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Redlegs, LA Dodgers [World Series: 1959], Cleveland Indians, Washington Senators, Cincinnati Reds, Philadelphia Phillies, Minnesota Twins [World Series: 1965], Detroit Tigers; son-in-law of former pitcher Emil ‘Dutch’ Leonard; died Oct 10, 2003

1928 - Jimmy Breslin
newspaper columnist; author: Table Money; died Mar 19, 2017

1930 - Dr. Robert C. Atkins
physician, dietician: founder of the Atkins low carb/high protein diet; died April 17, 2003

1938 - Evel Knievel (Robert Craig)
motorcycle daredevil; died Nov 30, 2007

1941 - Earl Thomas Conley
composer, singer: Dreamin’s All I Do, Holdin’ Her and Lovin’ You, You Must Not Be Drinking Enough, Who’s Gonna Tell Her Goodbye, Shadow of a Doubt, Hard Days and Honky Tonk Nights, Honor Bound, Angel in Disguise; died Apr 10, 2019

1941 - Alan Howard
musician: bass: Brian Poole & The Tremeloes: Twist and Shout, Do You Love Me, Someone, Someone

1941 - Jimmy Seals
singer, musician: guitar, saxophone, fiddle: group: Seals and Crofts: Summer Breeze, Diamond Girl, Hummingbird, We May Never Pass this Way Again, Get Closer, You’re the Love, I’ll Play for You

1942 - Gary Puckett
singer: group: The Union Gap: Young Girl, Woman, Woman, This Girl is a Woman Now, Over You, Lady Willpower

1946 - Bob Seagren
National Track & Field Hall of Famer: Olympic gold medalist: pole vault [1968], silver [1972]; first American to clear 18 feet; winner of World Superstars competition [1976]

1946 - Jim Tucker
musician: guitar: group: The Turtles [until 1965]; died Nov 12, 2020

1947 - Michael McKean
actor: LaVerne & Shirley, Grand, The Brady Bunch Movie, Radioland Murders, Planes, Trains & Automobiles, This is Spinal Tap, Coneheads, The Big Picture, Used Cars

1948 - Margot (Ruth) Kidder
actress: Superman series, The Amityville Horror, Vanishing Act, Nichols; died May 13, 2018

1948 - George Wendt
actor: Cheers, Man of the House, Never Say Die, Fletch, No Small Affair

1949 - Bill Hudson
comedian, singer: group: The Hudson Brothers: So You are a Star, Rendezvous; TV: The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Comedy Show; was married to actress Goldie Hawn

1950 - Howard E. Rollins Jr.
actor: In the Heat of the Night, A Soldier’s Story, Ragtime, The Member of the Wedding; died Dec 8, 1996

1955 - Sam Bottoms
actor: The Witching of Ben Wagner, Project Shadowchaser 3000, Return to Eden, East of Eden, Bronco Billy, Apocalypse Now, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Class of ’44, The Last Picture Show; died Dec 16, 2008

1956 - Mae Jemison
U.S. astronaut: first African-American woman in space; was aboard Endeavour as part of the STS-47, 50th mission of the Space Shuttle program

1957 - Vincent Van Patten
tennis; actor: The Break, The Dirty Dozen: The Deadly Mission, Payback, Charley and the Angel, Apple’s Way; TV host: Winning Texas Hold ’Em; son of actor Dick Van Patten

1957 - Steve McMichael
football: NFL: New England Patriots [1980]; Chicago Bears [1981–1993]; Green Bay Packers [1994]

1958 - Alan Jackson
Grammy Award-winning singer: Where Were You [When the World Stopped Turning] [2002], As She’s Walking Away [2011]; I’d Love You All Over Again, Don’t Rock the Jukebox, Someday, Dallas, Love’s Got a Hold on You, She’s Got the Rhythm [And I Got the Blues], Chattahoochee, Summertime Blues, Livin’ on Love, Gone Country, Song for the Life, I Don’t Even Know Your Name, Tall, Tall Trees, I’ll Try, Little Bitty, There Goes, Right on the Money, It Must Be Love, Where I Come From, Drive [For Daddy Gene], It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere, Remember When, Small Town Southern Man, Good Time, Country Boy; 60 million+ records sold worldwide

1962 - Mike Judge
animator, writer, producer, director: creator of TV series Beavis and Butt-Head, co-creator of King of the Hill, The Goode Family, Silicon Valley; writer-director: Beavis and Butt-Head Do America, Office Space, Idiocracy, Extract

1963 - Norm Macdonald
actor, comedian, celebrity impersonator: Saturday Night Live, Billy Madison, The People vs. Larry Flynt, Doctor Dolittle, The Norm Show, Screwed; plays Colonel Sanders in Kentucky Fried Chicken TV spots [2015]; died Sep 14, 2021

1968 - Ziggy Marley
singer: Dragonfly, Looking, Rainbow in the Sky, Into the Groove, Beach in Hawaii, Love Is My Religion, Black Cat; oldest son of reggae legend Bob Marley

1969 - Ernie Els (Theodore Ernest Els)
golf champ: U.S. Open [1994, 1997]

1969 - Wyclef Jean
musician: guitar; record producer: Guantanamera, Gone Till November, We Trying to Stay Alive, It Doesn’t Matter, 911, Perfect Gentleman; Grammy Award-winning hip hopper: The Fugees album The Score [1997], Santana album Supernatural [featured artist: 2000]; LPs: Masquerade, The Ecleftic: 2 Sides II a Book, The Carnival, The Preacher’s Son, (Deluxe only); actor: Carmen: A Hip Hopera, One Last Thing..., Black November, Nashville

1970 - John Mabry
baseball: St. Louis Cardinals, Seattle Mariners, San Diego Padres, Florida Marlins, Oakland Athletics, Philadelphia Phillies, Seattle Mariners

1971 - Chris Kirkpatrick
singer: group: *NSYNC: LPs: *NSYNC, Home For Christmas, No Strings Attached

1972 - Eminem (Marshall Bruce Mathers III)
rapper: LP: Slim Shady; film songwriter: Strangeland, Scary Movie, Down to Earth; more

1972 - Sharon Leal
actress: Boston Public, Legacy, The Guiding Light, Face the Music, Dreamgirls, Why Did I Get Married?, Why Did I Get Married Too?, Legacy, Guiding Light, LAX, Hellcats, Grimm

1979 - Kimi Räikkönen
Finnish Formula One race car driver: 2007 Formula One World Drivers’ Championship

1983 - Felicity Jones
actress: The Worst Witch, Weirdsister College, Salting the Battlefield, Northanger Abbey, The Tempest, Like Crazy, Brideshead Revisited, The Theory of Everything

1984 - Chris Lowell
actor: Up in the Air, Graduation, You Are There, Life As We Know It, Veronica Mars

1985 - Max Irons
actor: Red Riding Hood, Bitter Harvest, The White Queen, The Host, Woman in Gold, The Riot Club, The Wife; son of actor Jeremy Irons

1998 - Erin Kellyman
actress: The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Willow, Solo: A Star Wars Story, The Green Knight

and still more...
IMDb, iafd (adult), FAMOUS, NNDB,
BASEBALL, BASKETBALL, HOCKEY, PRO-FOOTBALL

Jump to Top Hit Music on This Day    October 17

1945Till the End of Time (facts) - Perry Como
If I Loved You (facts) - Perry Como
Along the Navajo Trail (facts) - Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters
You Two Timed Me One Time Too Often (facts) - Tex Ritter

1954Hey There (facts) - Rosemary Clooney
I Need You Now (facts) - Eddie Fisher
Papa Loves Mambo (facts) - Perry Como
I Don’t Hurt Anymore (facts) - Hank Snow

1963Sugar Shack (facts) - Jimmy Gilmer & The Fireballs
Be My Baby (facts) - The Ronettes
Cry Baby (facts) - Garnet Mimms & The Enchanters
Talk Back Trembling Lips (facts) - Ernest Ashworth

1972Ben (facts) - Michael Jackson
Use Me (facts) - Bill Withers
Everybody Plays the Fool (facts) - The Main Ingredient
Funny Face (facts) - Donna Fargo

1981Arthur’s Theme (Best that You Can Do) (facts) - Christopher Cross
Start Me Up (facts) - The Rolling Stones
For Your Eyes Only (facts) - Sheena Easton
Step by Step (facts) - Eddie Rabbitt

1990Praying for Time (facts) - George Michael
I Don’t Have the Heart (facts) - James Ingram
Ice Ice Baby (facts) - Vanilla Ice
Friends in Low Places (facts) - Garth Brooks

1999Smooth (facts) - Santana featuring Rob Thomas
I Do (Cherish You) (facts) - 98 Degrees
Mambo No. 5 (A Little Bit…) (facts) - Lou Bega
Something Like That (facts) - Tim McGraw

2008So What (facts) - P!nk
Disturbia (facts) - Rihanna
Hot N Cold (facts) - Katy Perry
Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven (facts) - Kenny Chesney with The Wailers

2017Bodak Yellow (Money Moves) (facts) - Cardi B
Rockstar (facts) - Post Malone featuring 21 Savage
Look What You Made Me Do (facts) - Taylor Swift
Body Like a Back Road (facts) - Sam Hunt
and even more...
Billboard, Pop/Rock Oldies, Songfacts, Country


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