Today in Your History — September
A look at the people, events and popular culture that shaped our lives
AARP Members Only Access, September 2022
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PHOTO BY: Bettmann Archive/Getty Images.
Sept. 30: James Dean dies in a car crash (1955)
Though he would go on to become one of the defining figures of Hollywood’s Golden Age, James Dean starred in only three feature films before his untimely death at the age of 24. Dean had reportedly wanted to compete in the Indianapolis 500 one day, and he used his earnings from East of Eden to buy a Porsche 550 Spyder convertible. On Sept. 30, 1955, his mechanic, Rolf Wütherich, drove with him from Los Angeles to Salinas, so Dean could get comfortable with his new purchase before competing in a sports car rally, and at 3:30 p.m. he got a speeding ticket. Later that afternoon, as he sped down Route 466, his Porsche collided with a Ford Tudor sedan driven by a 23-year-old Cal Poly student. Dean, who died almost instantly, was officially declared dead at 6:20 p.m. upon his arrival at Paso Robles War Memorial Hospital. While it was originally reported that Dean had been driving 90 mph and was found to be at fault in the crash, a 2005 Los Angeles Times article cited evidence that he may have been driving only 55 mph at the time. After his tragic death, Dean received the first posthumous Oscar nomination, in 1956 for East of Eden. He received another the next year, for Giant. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Mark E. Gibson/CORBIS via Getty Images
Sept. 29: Wash. National Cathedral complete (1990)
In 1893, the U.S. Congress chartered the construction of a national cathedral, and President Theodore Roosevelt laid the cornerstone at Mount St. Alban, the capital’s highest point, on Sept. 29, 1907. “God speed the work begun this noon!” Roosevelt said at the time. Over the decades, the grand Episcopal church would be built in fits and starts, even ceasing construction altogether from 1977 through 1980. And then, on Sept. 19, 1990, exactly 83 years after the project began, mason foreman Joe Alonso set the final finial stone on the cathedral’s southwest tower, officially bringing construction to a close. Mimicking Roosevelt’s words, President George H.W. Bush said, “God speed the work completed this noon and the new work yet to begin.” When all was said and done, the cathedral cost $65 million to build, though it received no federal funding. As the church neared completion, Richard T. Feller, the “Canon Clerk of the Works” (a.k.a. the head of construction), told The New York Times, “This is the only great Gothic cathedral to be completed in the 20th century and also the last.” America’s other under-construction neo-Gothic cathedral, New York City’s St. John the Divine, had its cornerstone laid in 1892, and it’s still far from completion. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Win McNamee via Getty Images
Sept. 28: NASA says water flows on Mars (2015)
On this date in 2015, NASA confirmed findings that changed our view of the red planet. Using imaging instruments on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, they identified evidence of “hydrated minerals” — in other words, proof that liquid water flows, at least part of the year, on Mars! “Mars is not the dry, arid planet that we thought of in the past,” NASA’s Jim Green said. Scientists noticed that during the warmer summer months, the planet’s canyon walls would be marked by dark streaks that would lighten over time, akin perhaps to the way a hosed-down sidewalk gets lighter as it dries in the sun. At a press conference, NASA’s John Grunsfield answered the question we were all thinking: “The most exciting thing about the announcement today is that it would be possible to have life on Mars.” Researchers didn’t know immediately where the water came from. Some suggested that porous rocks under the planet’s surface could hold ice that melts in the hotter months and seeps upward. Another idea was that salts on the planet absorb water from the atmosphere until they become wet enough to flow, a process called deliquescence. When this process occurs in Chile’s super-arid Atacama Desert, those damp spots are the only places where microbes can live. Could teeny-tiny Martians be thriving in just such an environment? —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: AP Photo
Sept. 27: Report shows Oswald acted alone (1964)
Following the November 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, appointed a commission headed by Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren to investigate the murder, as well as Jack Ruby’s shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald two days later. After speaking with more than 550 witnesses and receiving more than 3,100 reports from the FBI and the Secret Service, the Warren Commission delivered its findings to the president on Sept. 24, 1964. Three days later, the 888-page report was released to the public. Despite plenty of conspiracy theories, the commission concluded that Oswald had worked alone, without any foreign or domestic influences. As The New York Times put it that day, “No Soviet, Cuban or other official or agent gave Lee Harvey Oswald any help, advice or encouragement in the assassination of President Kennedy, the Warren Commission has concluded.” It added that the killing “frightened rather than pleased the government of Premier Fidel Castro.” —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Andy Rain/EPA/Shutterstock
Sept. 26: The Beatles release ‘Abbey Road’ (1969)
On this day in 1969, the Beatles released their album Abbey Road in the United Kingdom, and it featured instantly iconic cover art: no words, just the Fab Four walking across the zebra crosswalk on the namesake thoroughfare, as captured by photographer Iain Macmillan. The album includes such classic singles as “Come Together,” “Because,” “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” and two of George Harrison’s finest tracks, “Something” and “Here Comes the Sun.” Nevertheless, critics at the time were surprisingly unmoved. Albert Goldman wrote in Life that it was “not one of the Beatles’ great albums,” while Nik Cohn of The New York Times wrote, “Individually, the numbers are nothing special. … There was a time when the Beatles’ lyrics were one of their greatest attractions. Not anymore. On Abbey Road, you get only marshmallow.” Over the years, opinion has shifted dramatically. The record eventually went 12-times platinum, and Rolling Stone included Abbey Road at number 5 on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, writing, “Lennon, McCartney and Harrison reputedly sang more three-part harmonies here than on any other Beatles album. That warm feeling — a sense of an increasingly divided band warmly coming together as friends — may be one reason Abbey Road has become the most beloved Beatles album of all time.” —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Los Angeles Public Library
Sept. 25: Tommy John surgery performed (1974)
It was 1974, and L.A. Dodgers pitcher Tommy John faced what looked like the end of his career: He had ruptured his medial collateral ligament, an injury that had doomed many pitchers before him. On Sept. 25, orthopedist Frank Jobe invented a new surgery in which he removed a tendon from John’s forearm and used it to repair his elbow, though the doctor was cautious with his optimism, telling John he had less than a 5 percent chance of ever pitching again. The procedure turned out to be revolutionary and career-saving, and after a year of recovery, John would go on to pitch professionally for another 14 years. He also would lend his name to a procedure that’s more properly known as an ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction, and the number of players whose careers were saved by Tommy John surgeries is ever-growing, and includes Jacob deGrom, who even won a Cy Young Award after undergoing the procedure. “Fortunately for me, I was at the right place at the right time,” John told NPR upon Jobe’s death at the age of 88 in 2014. “I happened to have one of the greatest surgeons of all time being the surgeon for the Los Angeles Dodgers.” —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Ed Sirrs/Camera Press/Redux
Sept. 24: Nirvana releases 'Nevermind' album (1991)
On this date in 1991, Seattle grunge band Nirvana released its generation-redefining sophomore album, Nevermind, which became one of the greatest critical and commercial successes of the decade — if not of all time. In his “A” review, notoriously tough rock critic Robert Christgau wrote of the album: “After years of hair-flailing sludge that achieved occasional songform on singles no normal person ever heard, Seattle finally produces some proper postpunk, aptly described by resident genius Kurt Cobain: ‘Verse, chorus, verse, chorus, solo, bad solo.’ This is hard rock as the term was understood before metal moved in — the kind of loud, slovenly, tuneful music you think no one will ever work a change on again until the next time it happens, whereupon you wonder why there isn't loads more. It seems so simple.” Buoyed by the success of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and “Come as You Are,” Nevermind topped the charts in January 1992 for one week, though it would remain on the Billboard 200 for a total of 589 weeks, eventually earning diamond status from the Recording Industry Association of America. The album yielded three Grammy nominations, including one for best alternative music album, and Rolling Stone listed Nevermind at number 6 on its ranking of the 500 greatest albums of all time. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Mike Prior/Redferns via Getty Images
Sept. 23: Marley performs his last concert (1980)
On this date in 1980, Jamaican reggae legend Bob Marley played his final live concert at the Stanley Theater in Pittsburgh. He had been diagnosed with a rare form of skin cancer, acral lentiginous melanoma, which originated in his toe before spreading to his brain. Doctors had suggested toe amputation when he was initially diagnosed, but he refused due to religious objections. Two days before that final show, he collapsed while jogging in New York City, but he and the Wailers still managed to play a rousing, emotionally resonant 20-song set. He finished out his second encore with a 6½-minute version of “Get Up, Stand Up,” before collapsing backstage and being rushed to the hospital. Marley would die the following May at the age of 36 in Miami, and the set was later released as a two-disc live album called Live Forever in 2011. In his review for Rolling Stone, David Fricke wrote, “His performance does not have the conqueror’s fire of 1975’s Live! or the arena-star confidence of ’78’s Babylon by Bus. But there is an eerie valedictory defiance in Marley’s singing, matched by the Wailers’ heavy, impatient swagger in ‘Them Belly Full’ and ‘Jamming’ and the surging trance of ‘Exodus.’ The result is a final fierce account, onstage, of an honorable revolutionary life.” —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images
Sept. 22: 2nd assassination attempt on Ford (1975)
Just 17 days after Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme tried to assassinate President Gerald R. Ford in Sacramento, he faced another unstable would-be assassin during a visit to San Francisco: On Sept. 22, as Ford was leaving the Saint Francis Hotel, former FBI informant and accountant Sara Jane Moore raised her gun to kill him, when a bystander, ex-Marine Oliver Sipple, grabbed her arm. She was able to fire one shot, but no one was harmed, and the Secret Service whisked the president to safety. In December of that year, she pleaded guilty to trying to assassinate Ford, and she was sentenced to life in prison. Moore escaped from her minimum-security federal prison in West Virginia in 1979, and she was ultimately released after 32 years — though she ended up back in jail for violating her parole. Broadway lovers might know Moore’s story from the Stephen Sondheim musical Assassins, in which she appears as a somewhat frazzled mom who uses a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken for target practice. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images
Sept. 21: ‘Monday Night Football’ debuts (1970)
On this date in 1970, American professional football was forever changed with the introduction of Monday Night Football, in a matchup between the Cleveland Browns and the New York Jets. For those early games, ABC charged advertisers $65,000 per minute. (For reference, 30-second spots for this year’s Super Bowl went for about $6.5 million!) But despite the steep-for-the-time rate, it proved to be a worthwhile investment: About one-third of the American viewing audience tuned in for the game. Thanks to the efforts of Roone Arledge, president of ABC Sports, the Monday evening games proved to be much more of a spectacle than the usual weekend football fare. For starters, he employed a winning broadcast trio in Howard Cosell, Keith Jackson and Don Meredith, with Frank Gifford taking over the play-by-play the second season after Jackson decamped to cover college football. Monday Night Football also doubled the number of cameras used to capture the game, from the usual four or five to nine, including one on the sidelines and two handheld cameras that made viewers feel like they were right in the middle of the action. Because of the league’s blackout rules, Cleveland fans couldn’t watch their team’s 31-21 win. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Bettmann via Getty Images
Sept. 20: Billie Jean King beats Bobby Riggs (1973)
In what was perhaps the most memorable tennis match in the history of the game, 55-year-old Bobby Riggs faced off against 29-year-old Billie Jean King in an event that would be publicized as the “Battle of the Sexes.” Riggs, a proud male chauvinist, had boasted that he could beat any female player and, wearing a “Sugar Daddy” warm-up jacket, he entered the court at the Houston Astrodome in a rickshaw pulled by models. King, for her part, wowed the crowd of more than 30,000 spectators when she emerged like Cleopatra, carried on a gaudy litter by shirtless men. An audience of 90 million viewers worldwide tuned in to watch King beat Riggs in straight sets (6–4, 6–3, 6–3) and take home the $100,000 prize. “I thought it would set us back 50 years if I didn’t win that match,” King said. “It would ruin the women’s tour and affect all women’s self-esteem. To beat a 55-year-old guy was no thrill for me. The thrill was exposing a lot of new people to tennis.” That fateful match later inspired the movie Battle of the Sexes, which starred Emma Stone as King and Steve Carell as Riggs. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Paul HANNY/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
Sept. 19: Ötzi the Iceman found in the Alps (1991)
On this date in 1991, German hikers exploring the Ötztal Alps on the border between Austria and Italy stumbled upon a mummified corpse lying face-down in a glacier. Later nicknamed Ötzi, the Copper Age man was one of the most significant archaeological discoveries of all time: Researchers later learned that he lived about 5,300 years ago, before both the Egyptian pyramids and Stonehenge, and that he was murdered and preserved in the ice, where millennia of wind, sun and ice-cold temperatures turned his flesh tough and leathery. Over the years, we’ve learned a surprising number of details about Ötzi and the way he lived. We now know he was about 46 years old, lactose intolerant, and left-handed; he suffered from Lyme disease and intestinal parasites; he was part of the migration of Neolithic farmers who traveled through Anatolia; he wore the hides of local sheep and goats, leather shoes with laces from an aurochs (extinct wild ox) and a brown-bear fur hat; and he carried a copper axe, a flint dagger and a deerskin quiver with 20 arrow shafts. Since 1998, Ötzi has “lived” at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, Italy, where he’s kept behind glass in a cold chamber at -21.2 degrees Fahrenheit, and he regularly attracts 300,000 visitors a year. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images
Sept. 18: Scots vote against independence (2014)
In 2011, Nicola Sturgeon’s pro-independence Scottish National Party won 69 seats in the Scottish parliament, giving them the opportunity to set a referendum vote to ask Scots if they wanted to remain part of the United Kingdom, as they had been since 1707, or become an independent nation — with all the pros and cons that newborn nationhood would entail. Outside of the world of politics, many celebrities took sides, with Sean Connery, Gerard Butler, Alan Cumming and Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh supporting “yes” on independence. Welsh has joked that “the Union is nature’s way of stopping the Scots ruling the world.” Among those campaigning for “no” were Britain’s Got Talent breakout Susan Boyle and author J.K. Rowling, who said that independence could be “a historically bad mistake” and donated 1 million pounds to the cause. On Sept. 18, the referendum attracted a record turnout of 84.6 percent, the highest since 1910, and the results were clear: 2,001,926 Scots (55.3 percent) voted to remain part of the UK, while 1,617,989 (44.7 percent) voted to become independent. The area with the most vocal support for “no” was Orkney, with 67.2 percent opposing independence. Dundee had the largest proportion of pro-yes voters, at 57.4 percent. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Andrew Burton/Getty Images
Sept. 17: Occupy Wall Street begins in NYC (2011)
It was on this date in 2011 when hundreds of protesters descended upon Zuccotti Park in Manhattan’s Financial District to begin the weeks-long sit-in that would become known as Occupy Wall Street. The Canadian anti-consumerist, pro-environment publication Adbusters organized the peaceful occupation as a way to protest the outsized influence of corporate money on politics. Before the protests began, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced in a press conference, “People have a right to protest, and if they want to protest, we’ll be happy to make sure they have locations to do it.” Inspired by the Arab Spring that swept through Tunisia, Egypt and other countries, the “leaderless resistance movement” had no official hierarchy and was orchestrated through social media; the protesters chose Zuccotti Park after police barricaded Wall Street and its iconic bull statue. Occupy Wall Street came to an end on Nov. 15 at 1 a.m., when police raided Zuccotti Park and demanded that protesters leave the area or face arrest, but its impact has been far-reaching. Among the movement’s achievements was popularizing the terms “1 percenter” and “99 percenter” — which had first been used by the Hells Angels — while its novel use of Twitter and Facebook went on to influence #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Everett Collection
Sept. 16: ‘Frasier’ premieres on NBC (1993)
On this date in 1993, Cheers standout Dr. Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) relocated from Boston to Seattle for the premiere of his critically acclaimed NBC spinoff Frasier. The erudite sitcom follows his career as a talk-radio psychiatrist and his relationship with his ex-cop father, Martin (John Mahoney), and his brother, Niles (David Hyde Pierce). “Smartly written, witty and absurdly human, Frasier looks to have an extended, successful practice,” Tony Scott wrote in Variety. “The premise is a wonder of economy. The scripters have packed humor and exposition into the pilot without crowding.” From the premiere, the show was already incorporating some of its long-running gags, including having celebrities voice the folks calling into Dr. Crane’s show; in that first episode, you can hear Griffin Dunne and Linda Hamilton. If you happen to rewatch the episode, there’s another celebrity voice you should listen out for, though she doesn’t have a speaking part: Jane Leeves’ good friend Valerie Bertinelli was in the studio audience, and her laughter can be heard in the background of many scenes. During its first season, Frasier won five Emmys, including outstanding comedy series, and the pilot itself earned awards for writing, directing and lead actor for Grammer. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: R Wells, J Fraser, P Brooks/Mirrorpix/Getty Images
Sept. 15: Prince Harry is born (1984)
On this date in 1984, Princess Diana gave birth to her second son at St. Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, after nine hours of labor. The 6-pound, 14-ounce baby would become fifth in line to the British throne after his father, King Charles, and his older brother, Prince William and William’s children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte. After phoning up his mother, who was on her annual visit to Balmoral Castle in Scotland, Charles left the hospital to address the crowd outside, telling them that his son had pale blue eyes and hair of “an indeterminate color,” and giddily adding, “We have nearly got a full polo team now.” Less than 24 hours after the birth, the royal couple announced that they would be christening their son Henry Charles Albert David, though they’d be calling him Harry at home. Buckingham Palace officials explained that Charles was both a royal name and had connections with the Spencer family; Albert was the first name of Queen Elizabeth II’s father, King George VI, and Queen Victoria’s husband; and David was in honor of Queen Mother Elizabeth’s late brother, David Bowes Lyon. Before his name was officially announced, British bookmakers had George as the odds-on favorite at 6-to-4; Henry was a relative longshot at 50-to-1. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Herbert Dorfman/Corbis via Getty Images
Sept. 14: Grace Kelly dies in a car accident (1982)
Forty years ago today, the world lost one of its most glamorous leading ladies with the shocking death of Grace Kelly, Princess of Monaco, at the age of 52. The day before, she had been driving with her 17-year-old daughter Stéphanie in their British Rover 3500 on the winding roads of the Côte d’Azur in the south of France when she suffered a stroke. She lost control of the car, which careened off a cliff and plunged 45 feet down an embankment, before bursting into flames. Kelly suffered multiple fractures to her thighbone, collarbone and ribs, and she spent 24 hours in a coma before doctors took her off life support; Stéphanie suffered only a hairline fracture of a vertebra. Upon hearing the news, President Reagan called Kelly “a compassionate and gentle lady.” “Whether playing the heiress in To Catch a Thief or the Quaker pacifist in High Noon or the amusedly detached career girl — a term still in vogue when Rear Window was made — Grace Kelly carried herself with straight back and clipped-voice self-assurance,” Clyde Haberman wrote in The New York Times upon her death. “Yet just beneath the frosty exterior lay a sensuality and warmth that cracked the formidable reserve. It was this delicate balance of contrasts that helped give her legendary status — a remarkable achievement for an actress whose career encompassed only 11 films. She made more of that small portfolio than actors who lasted in Hollywood many more decades.” —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Photofest/NBC
Sept. 13: ‘Law & Order’ debuts on NBC (1990)
Before it became a spinoff-spawning juggernaut that ran for 21 seasons (and counting, thanks to a reboot), Law & Order premiered on NBC on Sept. 13, 1990. In that inaugural outing, “Prescription for Death,” Detectives Max Greevey (George Dzundza) and Mike Logan (Chris Noth) investigate the death of a teenage girl in a hospital emergency room, and they later learn that the esteemed chief of medicine may have been drunk at the time. Though the episode aired first, this was actually the second to be produced; the original pilot, “Everybody’s Favorite Bagman,” ran sixth. Critics weren’t immediately smitten. In The Hollywood Reporter, Miles Beller wrote, “NBC’s Law & Order is a cop show. No, Law & Order is a law show. You’re both right! It’s two, two, two shows in one. Unfortunately, though the idea seems novel and innovative, it works only fitfully, despite the presence of such name actors as Michael Moriarty and George Dzundza.” Ken Tucker, of Entertainment Weekly, called it “a little gimmicky,” but gave it high marks on the strength of its cast: “It’s rare enough for a series to have one character as good as either Dzundza’s or Moriarty’s. Having two in the same show is a prime-time gift.” —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Courtesy of NASA
Sept. 12: Jemison 1st Black woman in space (1992)
Thirty years ago today, Mae Jemison made history as the first Black woman to go to space, when she blasted off from Kennedy Center aboard the Endeavour on mission STS-47. During her eight days in orbit, she served as a science mission specialist and oversaw some 44 life science and materials processing experiments. Jemison’s résumé was, to put it mildly, impressive: Before she became an astronaut, she double-majored in chemical engineering and African and Afro-American Studies at Stanford University, and she later received a doctoral degree in medicine from Cornell, before spending time in the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Oh yes, and she was also an accomplished dancer. “It’s important not only for a little Black girl growing up to know, yeah, you can become an astronaut because here’s Mae Jemison,” she told The Associated Press. “But it’s important for older white males who sometimes make decisions on those careers of those little Black girls.” Jemison followed in the footsteps of Guion S. Bluford Jr., the first Black man to go to space nine years earlier, and she broke new ground in 1993 when she became the first real astronaut to appear on Star Trek, guest-starring as Lieutenant Palmer on The Next Generation episode “Second Chances.” —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Allen Einstein/Einstein/NBAE via Getty Images
Sept. 11: Jordan is inducted into Hall of Fame (2009)
On this date in 2009, Michael Jordan was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., in a ceremony that also saw the induction of his Dream Teammates David Robinson and John Stockton. Amazingly, His Airness wasn’t particularly pleased with the honor, explaining, “I don’t like being up here for the Hall of Fame because, at that time, your basketball career is completely over. I was hoping this day would be 20 more years or actually go in when I’m dead and gone.” Before his official induction, Jordan got rather emotional, and the image of his tear-streaked face has become something of a viral meme over the years. “The game of basketball has been everything to me,” he said during his speech, which also included hilarious digs at the coach who cut him from the varsity team when he was a schoolboy. “I wanted to make sure you understood: You made a mistake, dude,” he joked. Though he has been known over the years for his outsize ego, Number 23 took the opportunity to credit his University of North Carolina coach, Dean Smith, with his success: “There’s no way you guys would have got a chance to see Michael Jordan play without Dean Smith.” Only a year later, Jordan was enshrined in the Hall of Fame for a second time, alongside the entire 1992 United States Olympic team (aka the Dream Team), which has been called the greatest team ever assembled in the sport. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Photo courtesy of the New York Public Library digital collection
Sept. 10: 'Cats' closes on Broadway (2000)
In February 2000, producers announced that the longest-running production in Broadway history, Cats, would be lowering its curtain for the final time that June. The Andrew Lloyd Webber show, based on T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, had premiered in 1982 and picked up seven Tony Awards, including best musical. Following the closing announcement, ticket sales skyrocketed, with weekly grosses regularly surpassing $500,000, and producers decided to keep the Cats party running just a little longer. But on Sept. 10 the show finally closed, after an astounding 7,485 performances, having been seen by some 10 million people. The final night included a commemorative Playbill with a teardrop falling from the iconic cat-eyes logo and a list of every cast member that had ever appeared in the show. “Obviously, I am sad that Cats has to close on Broadway, but it is also a day of great celebration,” Andrew Lloyd Webber told The New York Times at the time the closing was announced. “Eighteen is a great age for a cat.” The production currently ranks fourth on the list of the longest-running Broadway shows, trailing The Phantom of the Opera, Chicago and The Lion King. But Wicked, with 7,203 performances as of Aug. 7, is nipping at the musical’s, uh, kitten heels. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Ian Rutherford/PA Wire URN:24041293 (Press Association via AP Images
Sept. 9: Elizabeth II reign surpasses Victoria (2015)
Queen Elizabeth II began her decades-long reign on Feb. 6, 1952, upon the death of her father, King George VI. In the fall of 2015, she set an impressive record as the longest-reigning monarch in British history, when she passed the milestone of 63 years and 217 days; the previous record holder had been her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria, who died in 1901. On that date in 2015, Elizabeth II traveled from Edinburgh to Tweedbank to formally open the new £294 million Scottish Borders Railway, and during the ceremony, she said, “Inevitably a long life can pass by many milestones — my own is no exception — but I thank you all and the many others at home and overseas for your touching messages of great kindness.” This year, Elizabeth II became the first British monarch to surpass 70 years, celebrating her Platinum Jubilee with a days-long celebration and public appearances, and in June, she surpassed Thailand’s King Bhuimbol Adulyadej as the second-longest-serving monarch in any country’s history. At this point, the only person who has sat on the throne longer is Louis XIV of France, who became king at age 4 and reigned for 72 years and 110 days. To put Elizabeth’s reign in perspective, there have been 11 American presidents and 12 British prime ministers elected since she was crowned. Queen Elizabeth II died Sept. 8, 2022. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images
Sept. 8: The first episode of ‘Star Trek’ airs (1966)
On this day in 1966, Gene Roddenberry’s science fiction television series Star Trek aired on NBC. Starring William Shatner as Capt. James T. Kirk, Leonard Nimoy as First Officer Mr. Spock and DeForest Kelley as Chief Medical Officer Leonard McCoy, the show followed the crew of the USS Starship Enterprise as they explored life and other planets in the 23rd century, using tricorders, transporters and other futuristic devices. Although the show, which is now known as Star Trek: The Original Series, became a beloved cult classic, it wasn’t an immediate hit. Due to low ratings, NBC considered canceling after two seasons, but fans saved it with a letter-writing campaign, extending it another year. The last episode aired Sept. 2, 1969. Despite its short run, Star Trek went into syndication throughout the 1970s and undoubtedly left an indelible mark on sci-fi television and film, creating a loyal fan base of Trekkies and leading to a vast and popular Star Trek franchise. Sept. 8 is still celebrated as Star Trek Day. — Sara Schwartz
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PHOTO BY: Courtesy AP Photo/ESPN
Sept. 7: ESPN hits the American airwaves (1979)
At 7 p.m. on Sept. 7, 1979, the world’s first all-sports cable network hit the airwaves with the premiere of SportsCenter. Beamed from a 10-meter earth station in Bristol, Connecticut, up to RCA’s SATCOM 1, the broadcast started with host Lee Leonard welcoming audiences: “If you love sports, if you really love sports, you’ll think you’ve died and gone to heaven.” He soon handed off to the show’s first anchor, George Grande, who, dressed in a yellow shirt and jacket, announced the network’s first game results: Chris Evert had beaten Billie Jean King in the U.S. Open semifinals. The show mainly consisted of videotaped highlights from the big networks, and it attracted an estimated 30,000 viewers out of a possible 1.4 million homes that could access the channel. After SportsCenter, the network cut to its first live telecast, and you may be surprised to hear what sport got pride of place. Not football, not baseball, not basketball, but Game 1 of the American Slowpitch Softball League World Series, between the Milwaukee Schlitz and the Kentucky Bourbons, broadcast live from Joecks Field in Lannon, Wisconsin. “We all play it on Sunday when we drink a little beer,” Leonard said about the sport by way of introduction. ESPN then aired a live interview with University of Colorado football coach Chuck Fairbanks. The only problem? There was no audio, and it ran in complete silence. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Robert Wallis/Corbis via Getty Images
Sept. 6: The funeral of Princess Diana is held (1997)
A week after she died in a devastating car wreck in Paris on Aug. 31, Princess Diana was honored with a funeral befitting royalty at Westminster Abbey. At 9:08 a.m., her coffin left Kensington Palace on a gun carriage and traveled on a 4-mile procession through the streets of London, with more than a million mourners lining up to pay their respects. Princes William and Harry walked behind the coffin with their father and grandfather. At the Abbey, Elton John memorably performed a reworked version of his song “Candle in the Wind,” which had originally been written for Marilyn Monroe, with the new lyrics: “Goodbye England’s rose / May you ever grow in our hearts / You were the grace that placed itself / Where lives were torn apart / You called out to our country / And you whispered to those in pain / Now you belong to heaven / And the stars spell out your name.” Diana’s brother, Lord Spencer, delivered a eulogy in which he called her “the very essence of compassion, of duty, of style, of beauty” and blamed the media for her death, calling her “the most hunted person of the modern age.” Around the globe, an estimated 2.5 billion people tuned in to watch the funeral. Diana was later laid to rest on the grounds of her family’s home, Althorp Park, in the Northamptonshire countryside. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: The Jim Henson Company /Courtesy Everett Collection
Sept. 5: First episode of 'The Muppet Show' (1976)
Although you may think of the Muppets as one of America’s greatest exports of the 20th century, Jim Henson’s groundbreaking 1970s variety show actually got its start across the pond. The Muppet Show was filmed at ATV studios in Elstree, England, and it aired its premiere episode in the UK. on Sept. 5, 1976. The Glasgow Herald described it as such the day before it aired: “High-speed puppet programme, a spin-off from educational show Sesame Street. It also has human guests. First Joel Grey of Cabaret fame.” “Welcome!” Kermit the Frog said at the start of that first episode. “And what a show we have for you tonight. How would you like to see 4,000 woodpeckers performing an aerial ballet while 87 gorillas and two dozen elephants do the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy? Well, forget it, because instead we’ve got Joel Grey as a guest star, which, in a way, is like having all the excitement of everything I mentioned without having to clean up afterwards.” The show later premiered stateside at the end of September, with the Rita Moreno episode airing first; it led to her winning the Emmy — the final award she needed to complete the coveted EGOT. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Kevin Winter/ImageDirect/Getty Images
Sept. 4: Kelly Clarkson wins 'American Idol' (2002)
Twenty years ago today, the first season of American Idol came to a close, with Kelly Clarkson being crowned the show’s inaugural winner in front of a TV audience of 22.8 million viewers. Ten thousand aspiring pop stars had auditioned for the reality competition, but the 20-year-old Texan, who had previously worked as a cocktail waitress, dominated the latter half of the season, with her fierce and pitch-perfect covers of songs such as “Walk On By,” “Stuff Like That There” and “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman.” In the finals, Clarkson faced off against Justin Guarini, a 23-year-old from Doylestown, Pennsylvania, who had worked for a children’s entertainment company. An astonishing number of votes — nearly 16 million — were cast over the phone, with Kelly earning 58 percent of them. All three judges — Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul — had predicted a Clarkson victory, and she went on to win a million-dollar recording contract from RCA Records. Her debut single, “A Moment Like This,” which she sang on the finale, topped the Billboard Hot 100 charts, and her debut studio album, Thankful, earned her a Grammy nomination for best female pop vocal performance for “Miss Independent.” Less successful was her first film, From Justin to Kelly, which she starred in alongside Guarini and which earned nine Razzie Award nominations, including worst picture and worst actress. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: James D. Wilson / Liaison Agency
Sept. 3: Pierre Omidyar founds eBay (1995)
On this date in 1995, French-born computer scientist Pierre Omidyar founded the fledgling internet’s first online auction site that allowed for person-to-person sales. In those early days, he called it AuctionWeb and hosted it on his personal website, though consumers may know it better by its rebranding name: eBay. Omidyar made his first sale when he listed a broken laser pointer for $1, and a man named Mark Fraser put in the winning bid of $14.83, knowing full well that it didn’t work. Omidyar knew he was on to something major. The service originally charged a fee to users, but the site soon attracted so much traffic that his internet service provider raised his monthly bill to $250. So he devised a small fee to pay for his costs: He would charge a dime upfront and then take a small cut of the final sale. He took in about $1,000 in the first month, though payments often came in the form of pocket change taped to index cards. His revenue kept doubling until he finally had a lightbulb moment: As he told Time in 1999, “I said OK, I’ve got a hobby that’s making me more money than my day job. So it might be time to quit the day job.” Almost since the website’s birth, there’s been a persistent rumor that Omidyar started the business to help his wife, Pamela Wesley, collect Pez dispensers — a story that’s been repeated everywhere from The Wall Street Journal to The New Yorker. In Adam Cohen’s 2003 book, The Perfect Store, eBay’s third employee, PR manager Mary Lou Song, confessed to inventing the Pez creation myth as a way of drumming up media attention. “No one wants to hear about a 30-year-old genius who wanted to create a perfect market,” Song said. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Bettmann Archive/Getty Images
Sept. 2: The first ATM debuts America (1969)
Sure, 1969 saw humans first step foot on the surface of the moon, but that year also marked another major technological advance that had a much bigger impact on the lives of average Americans. On this date in 1969, the Chemical Bank branch in Rockville Centre, New York, debuted America’s first automated teller machine, which was then called the Docuteller. The bank announced its new invention with an advertisement that read: “On Sept. 2, our bank will open at 9:00 and never close again!” Inventor Don Wetzel conceived the idea while waiting in a teller line to cash a check. “The line was long, it wasn’t moving, and I was getting more irritated by the minute,” he told CBS News in 1995. “And it dawned on me: There’s got to be a better way of doing this.” Cash dispensers had been slowly rolling out in the United Kingdom and Sweden in 1967, but this was the first time that Americans could use a magnetically coded card to withdraw money. ThoughWetzel’s invention has become a tool of convenience for millions nationwide, there’s one person who has never touched an ATM — his wife, Eleanor. As he joked to the New York Post, on the occasion of the ATM’s 50th birthday, “She’s afraid the machine will take her card and not give it back to her.” —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Jim MacMillian via AP photo
Sept. 1: Robert Ballard finds 'Titanic' wreck (1985)
In August 1985, 73 years after the sinking of the RMS Titanic, American oceanographer and former Navy officer Robert Ballard led an expedition in search of the ocean liner’s wreckage. Although he was unsuccessful in his previous attempt, in 1977, this time he came armed with an unmanned submersible called Argo. The 16-foot vessel was equipped with a remote-controlled camera that transmitted live images back to the American-French team who was on the surface, on the U.S. Navy research ship Knorr. On Sept. 1, Argo made a dazzling discovery when it passed over the immense boilers, at a depth of 13,000 feet below sea level, and it picked up the first images of the Titanic in more than seven decades. The following day, Ballard’s team found the body of the ship, which had split in two, though the icy waters of the North Atlantic had preserved many of the interiors remarkably well. “The Titanic lies now in 13,000 feet of water on a gently sloping Alpine-looking countryside overlooking a small canyon below,” Ballard said after returning from his expedition. “Its bow faces north. The ship sits upright on its bottom, with its mighty stacks pointed upward. There is no light at this great depth, and little life can be found. It is a quiet and peaceful place — and a fitting place for the remains of this greatest of sea tragedies to rest. Forever may it remain that way. And may God bless these now-found souls.” Ballard would return the following year, when he traveled down to the wreckage himself in the submersible Alvin. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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