September 18
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Events on This Day
1763 - An instrument named the spinet was mentioned in The Boston Gazette newspaper on this day. John Harris made the spinet, a small upright piano with a three to four octave range. We could find no verifiable evidence to support the rumor that a man named Spinetti made the first spinet.1830 - A race was held between a horse and an iron horse. Tom Thumb, the first locomotive built in America, was pitted against a real horse in a nine-mile course between Riley’s Tavern and Baltimore. Tom Thumb suffered mechanical difficulties including a leaky boiler. If you had your money on the horse, you won! Tom Thumb lost by more than a nose.
1851 - The New York Daily Times began publishing “All the News That’s Fit to Print.” The New York Times is now a media conglomerate involving radio, TV, cable and the Internet.
1891 - Harriet Maxwell Converse (her Indian name was Ga-is-wa-noh: the Watcher) became the first white woman to be named chief of an Indian tribe. Converse became chief of the Six Nations tribe at Tonawanda reservation in New York. She had been adopted by the Seneca tribe 7 years earlier because of her efforts on behalf of the tribe.
1895 - If you’ve ever had a chiropractic adjustment you owe it to not only your chiropractor, but to Daniel David Palmer. He gave the first chiropractic adjustment to Harvey Lillard in Davenport, Iowa (now the home of Palmer Chiropractic College).
1927 - The Columbia Broadcasting System was born, although its rival, NBC, had been on the air for some time. “The Tiffany Network,” as CBS was later to be called, broadcast an opera, The King’s Henchman, as its first program. William S. Paley put the network together, purchasing a chain of 16 failing radio stations. The controlling interest cost between $250,000 and $450,000. The following year, the 27-year-old Paley became President of CBS. It only took one more year for him to profit 2.35 million dollars as the network grew to over 70 stations.
1932 - Peg Entwistle, formerly a successful Broadway actress, had made only one film in Hollywood, and could not land another movie job. She was broke, depressed and didn’t even have train fare back to New York. But Entwistle became a Hollywood legend when she leaped into history. She climbed to the top of Mount Lee to the huge ‘HOLLYWOODLAND’ (as it read at the time) sign and up the ladder to the top of the 50-foot high letter ‘H’, from which she leaped to her death. There are still some who believe the sign is haunted by her ghost.
1947 - Country singers Ernest Tubb, Minnie Pearl and other stars from the Grand Ole Opry performed at Carnegie Hall. It was the first country show for the New York City venue.
1947 - The U.S. Air Force, an independent military service, was established by the National Security Act. Originally, U.S. military aviation began as part of the U.S. Army in 1907.
1955 - The last The Toast of the Town aired on CBS Television. The show had run under that name since 1948, but was to become The Ed Sullivan Show the following week. This “rilly big shew” remained a mainstay of Sunday night television until Mar 28, 1971. Sullivan was a newspaper columnist/critic before and during the early years of this pioneering TV show.
1957 - The Big Record, hosted by ‘the singing rage’, Miss Patti Page, debuted on CBS-TV. The Big Record was a live musical showcase featuring established artists singing their big songs. The Big Record lasted one big season.
1961 - United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold was killed in a plane crash in northern Rhodesia (now Zambia).
1965 - Larry Hagman (Captain Tony Nelson) and Barbara Eden (Jeannie) starred in the first episode of I Dream of Jeannie on NBC-TV. Capt. Nelson had been forced to make a parachute landing on a desert island. He happened upon an old bottle that had washed up on the shore. He popped the top and - bingo! Out popped Jeannie, a 2000-year-old, very pretty genie. Jeannie took to Tony and started making weekly magic that lasted until September 1, 1970.
1970 - Rock radio mourned the loss of rock music legend, Jimi Hendrix. He died at age 27 of an overdose of sleeping pills. His Purple Haze and Foxy Lady became anthems for a generation at war in Vietnam.
1975 - Publishing heiress Patricia Hearst was rescued/captured by the FBI in San Francisco, CA. She had been kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army on Feb 4, 1974, but had apparently fallen in with her captors and had participated in a bank holdup. Hearst was convicted of bank robbery on Mar 20, 1976. On Feb 1, 1979, her sentence was commuted to time served by President Jimmy Carter, but her conviction stood. On Jan 20, 2001, outgoing President Bill Clinton granted Patricia Hearst a full pardon.
1977 - The Voyager I spacecraft (launched on Sep 5, 1977 from cape Canaveral, FL) snapped the first photograph showing the earth and moon together. (Voyager I is further away from Earth than any other man-made object.)
1981 - A museum honoring former U.S. President Gerald R. Ford was dedicated in Grand Rapids, MI.
1985 - Song and Dance opened at the Royale Theatre on Broadway. The musical was comprised of two acts, one told entirely in song and one entirely in dance, tied together by a unifying love story. Bernadette Peters starred in Song for nearly thirteen months; she was succeeded by Betty Buckley for the final four weeks. Dance featured Christopher d’Amboise and Gregg Burge. The singing and dancing went on for 474 performances, closing on Nov 8, 1986.
1988 - The Seoul Summer Olympics were the first since Munich in 1972, to have no organized boycotts going on. On this first day of competition, the Soviet Union was first to claim a gold medal -- in the women's air rifle event. U.S. swimmers won silver and bronze in women’s platform diving.
1990 - Former savings-and-loan chief executive Charles H. Keating was jailed in Los Angeles in lieu of $5 million dollars bail after he was indicted on criminal fraud charges.
1993 - Garth Brooks’ In Pieces debuted at #1 in the U.S. on both the Billboard Hot 200 and Country LP charts. The album has sold over 8 million copies.
1993 - Kimberly Clarice Aiken of South Carolina was crowned Miss America at the pageant in Atlantic City, NJ.
1994 - 40-year-old tennis star Vitas Gerulaitis was found dead in the guest cottage of a friend’s home in Southampton, NY. Gerulaitis was the accidental victim of carbon monoxide poisoning.
1996 - The space shuttle Atlantis docked with the Mir space station to pick up a U.S. astronaut. Dr. Shannon Lucid had set a U.S. record for time spent in space. When she arrived back on Earth Sep 26, Lucid had spent a record 188 days in orbit.
1996 - Boston Red Sox pitcher Roger Clemens matched his own record for strikeouts in a single game. He fanned 20 batters, ten years (Apr 29, 1986) after accomplishing the feat the first time.
1997 - Time Warner vice-chairman Ted Turner pledged one billion dollars for United Nations programs over ten years. The money came from Time Warner shares Turner acquired in the Time Warner-Turner Broadcasting merger.
1997 - Coopers & Lybrand and Price Waterhouse agreed to merge, creating the world’s biggest accounting firm.
1998 - These movies opened in the U.S.: One True Thing, with Meryl Streep, Renee Zellweger, William Hurt, Tom Everett Scott, Lauren Graham and Nicky Katt; and Rush Hour, starring Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker, Tom Wilkinson, Elizabeth Pena, Tzi Ma and Julia Hsu.
1999 - The 79th annual Miss America Pageant was held in Atlantic City. Heather Renee French (24), a graduated design student from Myasville, KY, was the winner.
1999 - Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs hit his 60th home run of the season. Sosa was the first major leaguer to hit 60 homers in two different seasons.
2000 - The first working day of a transit strike that began over the weekend forced nearly a half-million Southern California commuters to find other rides.
2001 - Letters postmarked in Trenton, NJ, that later tested positive for anthrax, were sent to the New York Post and NBC anchorman Tom Brokaw.
2002 - Sprinter and football star Bob Hayes died at 59 years of age. Hayes was an Olympic gold medal sprinter (1964) and played for the Dallas Cowboys.
2003 - A law against ‘promotion’ of homosexuality in schools was lifted in Great Britain -- after more than a decade of gay-rights protests.
2003 - 44-year-old Genshin Fujinami, a Japanese Buddhist monk, completed a seven-year, 24,800-mile spiritual journey to the Hiei mountains. 46 other monks have completed the journey since 1885. The ritual, believed to be a path to enlightenment, dates to the 8th century.
2004 - Deidre Downs, Miss Alabama, won the Miss America contest.
2004 - Louisiana voters overwhelmingly approved a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages and civil unions. (On June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down all state bans on same-sex marriage, legalized it in all fifty states, and required states to honor out-of-state same-sex marriage licenses [in the case Obergefell v. Hodges].)
2004 - Film producer, director Russ Meyer died. He was 82 years old. Meyer helped spawn the ‘skin flick’ with The Immoral Mr. Teas (1959), Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1966) and Vixen! (1968).
2005 - It was election day in Germany: The CDU/CSU received 35.2% of the vote and 225 seats, the SPD 34.3% and 222 seats, FDP 9.8% and 61 seats, the Left Party 8.7% and 54 seats, and the Green party 8.1% and 51 seats.
2005 - The 57th annual Primetime Emmy Awards were celebrated at the Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, California, and hosted by comedian Ellen DeGeneres. And the winners were: Everybody Loves Raymond [Comedy Series], Lost [Drama Series], The Lost Prince [Mini-Series]. James Spader [Alan Shore on Boston Legal] won the Emmy for Lead Actor in a Drama Series; Tony Shalhoub [Adrian Monk on Monk] got the prize for Lead Actor in a Comedy Series; Patricia Arquette [Allison DuBois on Medium] was Lead Actress in a Drama Series; Felicity Huffman [Lynette Scavo on Desperate Housewives] won Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. Among the other winners were S. Epatha Merkerson, William Shatner, Brad Garrett, Blythe Danner and Doris Roberts.
2006 - Researchers at Intel and U.C. Santa Barbara announced the first silicon-base chip capable of transferring data using a laser. The breakthrough could eventually be used to create systems that speed delivery of video to home computers and make search and other Internet activities much more powerful.
2007 - The U.S. Federal Reserve lowered interest rates by half a point triggering a rise in the DJIA of 336 points. The Dow closed at 13,739.39.
2008 - The Panic of 2008 had begun. Central banks around the world poured in $180 billion in extra liquidity to calm markets made jittery by the mayhem on Wall Street. An S.E.C. measure took effect making short sellers and their broker dealers deliver securities by the close of business on the settlement date, three days after the sale. And the George Bush (II) administration asked U.S. lawmakers for the power to rescue banks by buying distressed assets.
2008 - Russia ordered its main stock exchanges closed for a second day as President Dmitry Medvedev unveiled an expanded $120 billion rescue package and called for pouring 500 billion rubles ($20 billion) into blue-chip shares in an effort to stabilize them.
2008 - The Bank of China announced that it was taking a 20% stake in the French arm of LCF Rothschild, marking China’s first investment in a eurozone bank.
2008 - The new Interstate 35W bridge opened at Minneapolis, Minnesota. The old span over the Mississippi River had collapsed on August 1, 2007.
2009 - Movies opening in U.S. theatres: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, starring Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan, Andy Samberg, Bruce Campbell and Tracy Morgan; Dil Bole Hadippa, with Rani Mukherjee and Anupam Kher; Jennifer’s Body, with Megan Fox, Amanda Seyfried, Adam Brody, J.K. Simmons, Johnny Simmons, Kyle Gallner, Josh Emerson, Lance Henriksen and Diablo Cody; Love Happens, starring Jennifer Aniston, Aaron Eckhart, Dan Fogler, Judy Greer, Martin Sheen, Joe Anderson and John Carroll Lynch; and The Informant!, starring Matt Damon, Joel McHale, Scott Bakula, Mike O'Malley, Andrew Daly, Adam Paul, Melanie Lynskey, Tom Wilson, Rick Overton, Tom Papa and Candy Clark.
2009 - Four former members of a disbanded Chicago police unit admitted that they had barged into people’s homes and stole money from them. The cops were sentenced to 6 months in jail after promising to cooperate in the investigation.
2010 - Pope Benedict XVI said he was ashamed of the “unspeakable” crimes of sexual abuse of children committed by priests. The Pope issued the apology to the British faithful even as thousands of people opposed to his visit marched in central London in the biggest protest of his five-year papacy.
2011 - A magnitude 6.9 earthquake hit Sikkim state in northeast Indea near the border with Nepal. Some buildings collapsed in Sikkim’s state capital of Gangtok. At least 108 people were killed with more than 100,000 homes damaged.
2012 - At a conference in Rome, Karen King of Harvard University presented a translation of recently-discovered text of the early Christian era that seemed to quote Jesus speaking of, “my wife.”
2013 - China announced a crack down on penalties assesed on families who violated the country’s family planning rules. This, after a National Audit Office probe found $260 million in fines had been levied illegally. There had been growing public anger at Chinese authorities’ refusal to disclose information on the management of penalties that had been collected.
2014 - Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said Western sanctions against Russia violated principles of the World Trade Organization and the only way to combat the sanctions was by developing the domestic market.
2015 - Movies opening in the U.S. included: Black Mass, starring Johnny Depp, Benedict Cumberbatch and, Dakota Johnson; Captive, with Kate Mara, Michael Kenneth Williams and Mimi Rogers; The Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, starring Dylan O’Brien, Kaya Scodelario and Thomas Brodie-Sangster; About Ray, with Naomi Watts, Elle Fanning and Susan Sarandon; Cooties, starring Elijah Wood, Rainn Wilson and Alison Pill; The New Girlfriend, with Romain Duris, Anaïs Demoustier and Raphaël Personnaz; Prophet’s Prey, starring Sam Brower, Nick Cave and Andrew Chatwin; Some Kind of Hate, with Maestro Harrell, Grace Phipps and Spencer Breslin; and the documentary, Songs from the North.
2015 - The Obama administration eased restrictions on American companies seeking to do business in Cuba. The U.S. also opened up travel to the Communist country. In a rare phone call between the two leaders, Cuban President Raul Castro told POTUS Barack Obama that Washington should go even further and lift its economic embargo on the island.
2016 - Russia held elections for a new national parliament. Vladimir Putin won even greater supremacy over Russia’s political system after the ruling United Russia party took three quarters of the seats in parliament, paving the way for him to run for a fourth term as president. The official turnout was 48%. Are Russian elections honest? Not at all.
2016 - The 68th Emmy Awards show was held at the Microsoft Theater in Downtown Los Angeles, California. Hosted by late-night talker Jimmy Kimmel, the show honored the best in U.S. prime time TV programming from 6/1/2015-5/31/2016. Crime anthology The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story won five awards, the most of the night, while fantasy drama Game of Thrones won three, including Outstanding Drama Series. With 38 wins in six seasons, Game of Thrones surpassed Frasier (37) as the fictional TV program with the most Primetime Emmy Awards.
2017 - The U.S. Navy fired Rear Admiral Charles Williams, commander of Task Force 70, and Captain Jeffrey Bennett, commander of Destroyer Squadron 15, after a series of collisions involving Seventh Fleet warships in Asia. They were both relieved by newly installed 7th Fleet commanding officer, Vice Admiral Phil Sawyer.
2017 - New Jersey-based Toys "R" Us, the toy retailer struggling with $5 billion in debt and intense online competition, announced that it was filing for bankruptcy protection. The chain was saddled with debt from a $6.6-billion buyout in 2005.
2018 - The internet watchdog Citizen Lab said it used an internet survey technique to identify spyware infections linked to the Israeli company NSO Group. The NSO Pegasus (spyware) infections covered 45 countries, including the United States, Britain, France, India and Turkey.
2018 - French President Emmanuel Macron unveiled plans to make France’s health care system, considered one of the best in the world, more efficient and sustainable for another 50 years. Macron promised extra money and more doctors in rural areas to ease pressure on France’s hospitals, which were facing budget constraints and closures of clinics outside towns and cities.
2019 - New Mexico unveiled a plan to make tuition free at its public colleges and universities for all state residents. Twenty other states have tuition-free education initiatives for two-year community colleges. And New York created a scholarship program to allow students to go to public colleges and universities without paying tuition. But there were household income requirements and other rules, including that recipients live and work in New York for several years after graduating. The New Mexico proposal had no such restrictions.
2019 - Guatemala’s interior minister said his country must consider itself a cocaine producing nation and not just a transit country for the powerful narcotic. This, after authorities discovered new coca processing laboratories. Guatemala had imposed a state of emergency after three soldiers were killed in an ambush by drug traffickers. The emergency measure gave the military extra powers to fight the drug pushers.
2019 - Israel’s two main political parties were deadlocked after an unprecedented repeat election, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu facing an uphill battle to hold on to his job. Exit polls showed Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party with a slight lead over Netanyahu’s Likud. (The deadlock was real and continued through the 2020 Israeli legislative election, which saw Likud and Blue & White reacing a coalition agreement where the premiership would rotate between Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz, with Gantz given the new position of Alternate Prime Minister until November 2021, when he will become the PM.)
2019 - POTUS Trump ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to revoke California’s waiver that allowed it to require automakers to build cleaner vehicles than federal requirements demanded. (On March 14, 2022 the Biden EPA reinstated California’s Clean Air Act waiver.)
2020 - Movies scheduled to open on this day (many theatres were still closed by the Covid-19 crisis) included: Infidel, starring Jim Caviezel, Claudia Karvan and Hal Ozsan; Alone, with Jules Willcox, Marc Menchaca and Anthony Heald; Kajillionaire, starring Evan Rachel Wood, Debra Winger and Gina Rodriguez; The Nest, with Fiona Bell, Christine Bottomley and Martin Compston; No Escape, starring Holland Roden, Keegan Allen and Pasha D. Lychnikoff; and A Chef’s Voyage, with David Kinch, Jean-André Charial and Glenn Viel.
2020 - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (87) died at 87 years of age of metastatic pancreatic cancer at her home in Washington DC. She was well known for championing gender equality, abortion rights, affirmative action, and other progressive causes.
2020 - Total COVID-19 cases nationwide reached 6,641,341 with the U.S. death toll at 189,665.
2020 - A federal judge in Nevada dismissed a lawsuit by POTUS Trump that sought to block the state from sending mail-in ballots to every registered voter (because of what Trump called the potential for widespread voter fraud). In his order, District Court Judge James C. Mahan said Trump’s arguments were “too speculative” and did not show there was a “substantial risk” of putting the election in jeopardy.
2021 - Hundreds of police patrolled around the U.S. Capitol, ahead of an announced rally by people trying to overturn former POTUS Trump’s election defeat. Fewer than 100 right-wing demonstrators actually showed up and were heavily outnumbered by police -- and reporters.
2021 - Australia’s police arrested 235 people in Melbourne and 32 in Sydney at unsanctioned anti-COVID-lockdown rallies and several police officers were injured in clashes with protesters.
2021 - India’s antitrust authority reported its two-year antitrust probe had found Google abused the dominant position of its Android operating system in that country, using its “huge financial muscle” to illegally hurt competitors.
2022 - The Las Vegas Aces won their first WNBA title, beating the Connecticut Sun 78-71 in Game 4 at Mohegan Sun Arena in Montville, CT. Chelsea Gray scored 20 points, and was named Finals MVP. Riquna Williams scored 17 points for the Aces, followed by Kelsey Plum with 16, Jackie Young with 13, and A’ja Wilson with 11 points. Courtney Williams led Sun scorers with 17 points, Jonquel Jones had 13, and DeWanna Bonner notched 12. “They're unbelievable on the court, but they're unbelievable humans, first and foremost,” Aces coach Becky Hammon said of her team. “They care about each other. They invest in each other. It’s been an absolute honor to be their coach.”
2022 - President Biden said, “We still have a problem with COVID... but the pandemic is over."
2022 - Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) unveiled new guidelines restricting the rights of transgender students in public schools. The rules restricted what bathrooms transgender students could use, and required teachers to use the pronouns associated with the sex students were assigned at birth. Students also were barred from changing their legal name and sex without an official legal document or court order, “even upon written instruction of a parent or eligible student.”
2023 - Five Americans, wrongfully imprisoned in Iran for years, were released as part of a prisoner exchange agreement that gave Tehran access to $6 billion in oil revenues frozen under U.S. sanctions. As part of the deal, five Iranian nationals held in U.S. custody were also released.
2023 - El Paso was on the “cusp of a third wave” of migrant arrivals and local shelters were over capacity. The region had seen a spike in migrants at the Texas-Mexico border, averaging 1,200 encounters per day.
and more...
Birthdays on This Day September 18
1709 - Samuel Johnson
writer: created the first true dictionary of the English language in 1755; poet; essayist; novelist: Rasselas: Prince of Abyssinia; died Dec 13, 17841779 - Joseph Story
associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court [1811-1845]; died Sep 10, 18451895 - John (George) Diefenbaker
Canadian Prime Minister [1957-1963]; died Aug 16, 19791898 - George (Ernest) Uhle
‘The Bull’: baseball: Cleveland Indians [World Series: 1920], Detroit Tigers, NY Giants, NY Yankees; died Feb 26, 19851903 - Bun (Frederick) Cook
Hockey Hall of Famer: NHL: NY Rangers [Stanley Cup: 1928, 1933], Boston Bruins; coach: Providence Reds [Calder Cup: 1938, 1940], Cleveland Barons [five Championships 1945-1954]; died Mar 19, 19881905 - Greta (Lovisa) Garbo (Gustafsson)
actress: Camille, Grand Hotel, Ninotchka, Mata Hari, The Painted Veil, Anna Christie; died Apr 15, 19901905 - Eddie ‘Rochester’ Anderson
actor: Jack Benny Show, Birth of the Blues, Gone with the Wind, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World; died Feb 28, 1977; more1910 - Ray Geiger
editor: The Farmer’s Almanac [1934-1993]; the longest-held position of any almanac editor in America; died Apr 1, 19941911 - Syd (Sydney) Howe
hockey: NHL: Ottawa Senators, Toronto Maple Leafs, Ottawa Senators, St. Louis Eagles, Detroit Red Wings [1943-1944 record: scored six goals in game]; died May 20, 19761916 - Rossano Brazzi
actor: South Pacific, Three Coins in the Fountain, The Barefoot Contessa, Formula for a Murder; died Dec 24, 19941917 - June Foray
voice actress: known as the voice of many popular animated characters: Rocky the Flying Squirrel, Cindy Lou Who, Granny, Cinderella; many Warner Bros. cartoons; founding member of ASIFA-Hollywood (Association Internationale du Film d’Animation), devoted to promoting and encouraging animation; died Jul 26, 20171920 - Jack Warden
Emmy Award-winning actor: Brian’s Song [1971-72]; N.Y.P.D., Bad News Bears, Crazy like a Fox, Shampoo, From Here to Eternity, All the President’s Men, Problem Child, Used Cars; died Jul 19, 20061925 - Harvey Haddix
‘The Kitten’: baseball: pitcher: SL Cardinals [all-star: 1953, 1954, 1955], Philadelphia Phillies, Cincinnati Redlegs, Pittsburgh Pirates [World Series: 1960/lost 12-inning perfect game to Milwaukee Braves in 13th inning: 5-26-1959], Baltimore Orioles; died Jan 8, 19941926 - Bob Toski
golf: Graffis Award [1980]1927 - Phyllis Kirk (Kirkegaard)
actress: The Red Buttons Show, The Thin Man, House of Wax; died Oct 19, 20061929 - Teddi King
singer: Mr. Wonderful; died Nov 18, 19771933 - Robert Blake (Michael James Vijencio Gubitosi)
Emmy Award-winning actor: Baretta [1974-1975]; In Cold Blood, Pork Chop Hill, PT 109, Our Gang, Little Beaver & Red Ryder series; died Mar 9, 20231933 - Jimmie Rodgers
singer: Honeycomb, Kisses Sweeter than Wine, Oh-Oh, I’m Falling in Love Again, Secretly, Are You Really Mine; TV host: The Jimmie Rodgers Show; died Jan 18, 20211933 - Fred Willard
comedian, actor: Back to You, Fernwood 2 Night, King of the Hill, Best in Show, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, Mad About You, Roseanne, Waiting for Guffman, The History of White People in America, Fernwood 2 Night, The Burns and Schreiber Comedy Hour, Everybody Loves Raymond, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno; one-man show: Fred Willard: Alone At Last!; died May 15, 20201939 - Frankie (Frances) Avalon (Avellone)
singer: Venus, Bobby Sox to Stockings, A Boy Without a Girl, Just Ask Your Heart, Why, Dede Dinah; actor: Disc Jockey Jamboree, Guns of the Timberland, The Carpetbaggers, Beach Party series, Back to the Beach1941 - Priscilla Reed (Hubbard) aka Priscilla Mitchell
singer: Yes Mr. Peters [w/Roy Drusky], Together Again, Love’s Eternal Triangle; married to the late singer, actor Jerry Reed; died Sep 24, 20141944 - Michael Franks
songwriter, singer: Popsicle Toes, Lady Wants to Know, Art of Tea, Sleeping Gypsy, Tiger in the Rain, Baseball, When I Give My Love to You, Antonio’s Song [The Rainbow], Soul Mate1945 - John McAfee
computer programmer, founder of McAfee Associates computer anti-virus company; died Jun 23, 20211948 - Ken (Kenneth Alven) Brett
baseball: Boston Red Sox [World Series: 1967], Milwaukee Brewers, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates [all-star: 1974], Chicago White Sox, NY Yankees, California Angels, LA Dodgers, Minnesota Twins, KC Royals; broadcaster: California Angels; died Nov 18, 20031949 - Kerry Livgren
musician: guitar, keyboards: group: Kansas: Dust in the Wind1950 - Anna Deavere Smith
actress: The West Wing, The Practice, Nurse Jackie, Rent, Cry_Wolf, The Kingdom, Life Support, Rachel Getting Married1951 - Ben Carson
neurosurgeon, politician: U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development [2017-2021]1951 - Dee Dee Ramone (Douglas Colvin)
musician: guitar: group: The Ramones: Howling at the Moon, Do You Remember Rock ’n’ Roll Radio; died June 5, 20021951 - Darryl Stingley
football: Purdue Univ., NE Patriots; paralyzed in an on-field collision with Oakland Raiders’ Jack Tatum [1978]; founder: Daryl Stingley Youth Foundation; died Apr 5, 20071951 - Tony (Anthony) Scott
baseball: Montreal Expos, SL Cardinals, Houston Astros1952 - Rick Pitino
basketball coach: Boston University [1978–1983]; Providence College [1985–1987]; Univ of Kentucky [1989–1997]: 1996 NCAA Champs; Univ of Louisville [2001–2017]: 2013 NCAA Champs1954 - Dennis Johnson
basketball [guard]: Pepperdine Univ; NBA: Seattle SuperSonics, Phoenix Suns and Boston Celtics; coach: Los Angeles Clippers, Florida Flame [NBDL] and Austin Toros [NBDL]; died Feb 22, 20071956 - Peter Šťastný
hockey hall of famer [center]: Quebec Nordiques, New Jersey Devils, St. Louis Blues; career: 450 goals, 789 assists1959 - Ryne (Dee) Sandberg
baseball: Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs [all-star: 1984-1993/Baseball Writers’ Award: 1984]1961 - James Gandolfini
Emmy Award-winning actor: The Sopranos [2000, 2001]; A Stranger Among Us, Terminal Velocity, Crimson Tide, Get Shorty, The Juror, 12 Angry Men [1997], A Civil Action, 8MM; died Jun 19, 20131962 - Joanne Catherall
singer: group: Human League: Don’t You Want Me, [Keep Feeling] Fascination, Mirror Man, The Lebanon, Life on Your Own, Louise1964 - Holly Robinson Peete
actress: 21 Jump Street, Hanging with Mr. Cooper, The Nanny1967 - Ricky Bell
singer: group: New Edition, Bell Biv DeVoe1970 - Mike Compton
football: Univ of West Virginia' NFL: Detroit Lions, New England Patriots, Jacksonville Jaguars1970 - Aisha Tyler
actress: Ghost Whisperer, Archer, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Talk Soup, Friends; TV host: The Talk
1971 - Lance Armstrong
world/Olympic cycling champ [U.S]: won the Tour de France seven straight times [1999-2005], but was stripped of his Tour de France victories in 2012 after a U.S. anti-doping agency investigation concluded that he had used performance-enhancing drugs over the course of his career1971 - Jada Pinkett Smith
actress: The Nutty Professor, A Different World, Menace II Society, If These Walls Could Talk, Scream 2, Woo, Bamboozled, Collateral; married to actor Will Smith1973 - Paul Brousseau
hockey [right wing]: Colorado Avalanche, Tampa Bay Lightning Florida Panthers1973 - James Marsden
actor: X-Men, In the Line of Duty: Ambush in Waco, Boogies Diner, On the Edge of Innocence, Disturbing Behavior, Ally McBeal, Westworld1974 - Fred Beasley
football [running back]: Univ of Auburn; NFL: San Francisco 49ers1974 - Xzibit (Alvin Nathaniel Joiner)
TV host: Pimp My Ride; rapper, hip hop artist: At the Speed of Life, Restless, Man vs. Machine, Weapons of Mass Destruction, Full Circle; actor: 8 Mile, xXx: State of the Union, Hoodwinked, Gridiron Gang, The X-Files: I Want to Believe, The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans1975 - Jason Sudeikis
sketch writer, actor: Ted Lasso, Saturday Night Live [2003-2013], 30 Rock, The Cleveland Show, Eastbound & Down, Hall Pass, Horrible Bosses, Epic, We’re the Millers1976 - Ronaldo (Luís Nazário de Lima)
Brazilian footballer; considered by experts and fans as one of the greatest football players of all time; co-owner of A1 Team Brazil1977 - Barrett Foa
actor: NCIS: Los Angeles, Entourage, NCIS, Submissions Only1979 - Alison Lohman
actress: Delirious, The Big White, Big Fish, White Oleander, Matchstick Men, Alex in Wonder, The Million Dollar Kid1981 - Jennifer Tisdale
actress: Bring It On: In It to Win It, The Hillside Strangler, Dark Ride, Undressed, The Suite Life on Deck, The Brazen Bull1989 - Serge Ibaka
basketball: NBA: Oklahoma City Thunder [2009–2016]: 2012 NBA Finals; Orlando Magic [2016–2017]; Toronto Raptors [2017–2020]: 2019 NBA champs; Los Angeles Clippers [2020–2022]; Milwaukee Bucks [2022-2023]2003 - Aidan Gallagher
actor: The Umbrella Academy, Nicky, Ricky, Dicky & Dawn, Ho Ho Holiday Special, Jacked Up, Modern Family
and still more...
Hit Music on This Day September 18
1952Wish You Were Here (facts) - Eddie Fisher
Auf Wiedersehn, Sweetheart (facts) - Vera Lynn
1961
1970
1979
1988
1997
2006
2015
and even more...
Those were the days, my friend. We thought they’d never end...
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