Sept 13, 1977. Soap was a prime-time comedy that parodied soap operas. It had plots that were funny (e.g., Corinnes baby is possessedby the devil), controversial (e.g., Billy joins a cult) and downright bizarre (e.g., Burt is abducted by aliens). The show focused on two families, the wealthy Tates and the middle-class Campbells. It starred Katherine Helmond, Robert Mandan, Jennifer Salt, Diana Canova, Jimmy Baio, RobertGuillaume, Cathryn Damon, Richard Mulligan, Ted Wass, Billy Crystal, Richard Libertini, Kathryn Reynolds, Robert Urich, Arthur Peterson, Roscoe Lee Browne and Jay Johnson. Rod Roddy was the announcer who recapped what had happened on the previous episode.
Sept 13, 1976. This comedy-variety show was hosted by Kermit the Frog of Sesame Street. The new Jim Henson puppet characters included Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear and The Great Gonzo. Many celebrities appeared as guests on the show, which was broadcast in more than 100 countries. The show ran until 1981. The Muppet Movie (1979) was the first of many films basedon The Muppet Show.
Sept 13 14, 1814. On the night of Sept 13, Francis Scott Key was aboard a ship that was delayed in Baltimore harbor by the British attack there on Fort McHenry. Key had no choice but to anxiously watch the battle. That experience and seeing the American flag still flying over the fort the next morning inspired him to pen the verses that, coupled with the tune of a popular drinking song, became our official national anthem in 1931, 117 years after the words were written. Read more at http://amhistory.si.edu/starspangledbanner/.
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Sept 13, 1788. Congress picked New York, NY, as the location of the new US government in place of Philadelphia, which had served as the capital up until this time. In 1790 the capital moved back to Philadelphia for 10 years, before moving permanently to Washington, DC.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
Sept 13, 1851. American army physician, especially known for his yellow fever research. Born at Gloucester County, VA, he served as an army surgeon for more than 20 years and as a professor at the Army Medical College. He died at Washington, DC, Nov 22, 1902. The US Army’s general hospital at Washington, DC, is named in his honor.
Sept 14, 1985. This comedy starred Bea Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty as four divorced/ widowed women sharing a house in Florida during their golden years. The last episode aired Sept 14, 1992, but the show remains popular in syndication.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
William McKinley, 25th President of the United States
On 14 September 1901, at Buffalo, New York, President William McKinley was shot by Leon Czolgosz. Read more at the U.S. Library of Congress.
Image: Public Domain, U.S. Library of Congress via Wikipedia.org
Sept 14, 1972. This epitome of the family drama spawned nearly a dozen knock-offs during its nine-year run on CBS. The drama was based on creator/ writer Earl Hamner Jr’s experiences growing up during the Depression in rural Virginia. It began as the TV movie The Homecoming, which was turned into a weekly series covering the years 1933 43. The cast went through numerous changes through the years; the principals were Michael Learned and Ralph Waite as the parents of seven children living on the mountainside, and Richard Thomas, who portrayed John-Boy, the eldest son and narrator. The Walton grandparents were played by Ellen Corby and Will Geer. The last telecast aired Aug 20, 1981.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
Sept 15, 1963. In a horrific episode of the civil rights struggle, a bomb blast in the basement of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, AL, killed four girls preparing for church: Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley and Addie Mae Collins. Previously, the church had been the center for marches led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Three suspects were brought to trial in 1977, 2001 and 2002 and found guilty. Read more at http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/civilrights/al11.htm.
Image: US Library of Congress
Sept 15, 1890. English author of nearly a hundred books (mysteries, drama, poetry and nonfiction), born at Torquay, England. Died at Wallingford, England, Jan 12, 1976. Every murderer, she wrote in The Mysterious Affair at Styles, is probably somebody’s old friend.
Image: Wikipedia Commons
The Battle of Britain took place on 15 September 1940 when the Germans conducted the largest daylight bombing of Britain during World War II. Read more at http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/battle_of_britain.
Image: Public Domain from the collections of the Imperial War Museums (collection no. 4700-05)
Sept 15, 1789. American novelist, historian and social critic, born at Burlington, NJ, James Fenimore Cooper was one of the earliest American writers to develop a native American literary tradition. His most popular works are the five novels comprising The Leatherstocking Tales, featuring the exploits of one of the truly unique American fictional characters, Natty Bumppo. These novels, The Deerslayer, The Last of the Mohicans, The Pathfinder, The Pioneers and The Prairie, chronicle Natty Bumppos continuing flight away from the rapid settlement of America. Other works,including The Monikins and Satanstoe, reveal Cooper as an astute critic of American life. He died Sept 14, 1851, at Cooperstown, NY, the town founded by his father.
Image: Public Domain, Photograph by Mathew Brady, 1850
Sept 15 – Oct 15. Presidential Proclamation. Beginning in 1989,always issued for Sept 15 Oct 15 of each year (PL 100 402 of Aug 17, 1988).
Image courtesy of USAF
Sept 16, 1914. Creator, producer and host of the first reality television show, Funt orchestrated elaborate hoaxes played on unsuspecting passersby and filmed by a hidden camera. With the catchphrase, Smile,youre on Candid Camera, Funt would reveal he had captured the subjects in the art of being themselves. Born at New York, NY, Funt worked with concealed wire recorders in the US Army Signal Corps during WWII. Premiering on radio as Candid Microphone in 1948, the show quickly moved to TV asCandid Camera and aired (later, hosted by Funts son Peter) until 2004.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
So called because the full moon nearest the autumnal equinox extends the hours of light into the evening and helps the harvester with the long days work.
Image: Pixabay.com
The official celebration begins at 11 PM, Sept 15 and continues through Sept 16. On the night of the 15th, the president of Mexico steps onto the balcony of the National Palace at Mexico City and voices the same El Grito (Cry for Freedom) that Father Hidalgo gave on the night of Sept15, 1810, that began Mexico’s rebellion from Spain. Read more at http://www.presidiolabahia.org/mex_ind.htm.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
Sept 16, 1620. Anniversary of the departure of the Mayflower from Plymouth, England, with 102 passengers and a small crew. Vicious storms were encountered en route, which caused serious doubt about the wisdom of continuing, but the ship reached Provincetown, MA, Nov 21, and discharged the Pilgrims at Plymouth, MA, Dec 26, 1620.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
Sept 16, 1830. Alarmed by a newspaper report that Congress wasto have the USS Constitution (popularly known as Old Ironsides) sent to a scrap yard, law student Oliver Wendell Holmes dashed off a poem in protest. The poem began Ay, tear her tattered ensign down!/ Long has it waved on high,/ And many an eye has danced to see/ That banner in the sky. Old Ironsides, published anonymously this day in the Boston Daily Advertisor, was to stir up national outrage as newspaper after newspaper reprinted it. Congress instead appropriated money for the frigates reconstruction, and Old Ironsides still floats today. (Some historians think that Holmes never actually saw the ship he saved.)
Image: Wikipedia Commons
Sept 17, 1964. This sitcom centered around blonde-haired witch Samantha Stephens (Elizabeth Montgomery). Although she promises not to use her witchcraft in her daily life, Samantha finds herself twitching her nose in many situations. Her husband, Darrin Stephens, was played by Dick York and later Dick Sargent, and her daughter, Tabitha Stephens, was played by Erin and Diane Murphy. The last episode aired July 1, 1972. Other cast members included Agnes Moorehead, David White, Alice Ghostley, Bernard Fox and Paul Lynde.
Image Wikipedia Commons
Sept 17, 1972. This popular award-winning CBS series was based on the 1970 Robert Altman movie and a book by Richard Hooker. Set during the Korean War, the show aired for 11 years (lasting longer than the war). It followed the lives of doctors and nurses on the war front with both humor and pathos. The cast included Wayne Rogers, McLean Stevenson, Loretta Swit, Larry Linville, Gary Burghoff, William Christopher, Jamie Farr, Harry Morgan, Mike Farrell, David Ogden Stiers and Alan Alda as Captain Hawkeye Pierce. The final episode, Goodbye, Farewell and Amen was the highest-rated program of all time, topping the Who Shot J.R.? revelation on Dallas. The show generated two spin-offs: Trapper John, MD and After M* A* S* H.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
Sept 17, 1963. A nail-biting adventure series on ABC. Dr. Richard Kimble (David Janssen) was wrongly convicted and sentenced to death for his wife’s murder but escaped from his captors in a train wreck. This popular program aired for four years detailing Kimble’s search for the one-armed man (Bill Raisch) who had killed his wife, Helen (Diane Brewster). In the meantime Kimble himself was being pursued by Lieutenant Philip Gerard (Barry Morse). The final episode aired Aug 29, 1967, and featured Kimble extracting a confession from the one-armed man as they struggled from the heights of a water tower in a deserted amusement park. That single episode was the highest-rated show ever broadcast until 1976. The TV series generated a hit movie in 1993 with Harrison Ford as Kimble and Oscar-winner Tommy Lee Jones as Gerard.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
Sept 17, 1862. This date has been called Americas bloodiest day in recognition of the high casualties suffered in the Civil War battle between General Robert E. Lees Confederate forces and General George McClellan’s Union army. Estimates vary, but more than 25,000 Union and Confederate soldiers were killed or wounded in this battle on the banks of the Potomac River in Maryland.
Image: Wikimedia Commons, by Thure de Thulstrup, published 1887 by Louis Prang and Company
Sept 17, 1787. Delegations from 12 states (Rhode Island did not send a delegate) at the Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia, PA, voted unanimously to approve the proposed document. Thirty-nine of the 42 delegates present signed it, and the Convention adjourned, after drafting a letter of transmittal to the Congress. The proposed constitution stipulated that it would take effect when ratified by nine states. Read more at http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/constitution-day/.
Image: Public Domain
Sept 18, 1964. Charles Addams’s quirky New Yorker cartoon creations were brought to life in this ABC sitcom about a family full of oddballs. John Astin played lawyer Gomez Addams; with Carolyn Jones as his morbid wife, Morticia; Ken Weatherwax as son Pugsley; Lisa Loring as daughter Wednesday; Jackie Coogan as Uncle Fester; Ted Cassidy as both Lurch, the butler, and Thing, a disembodied hand; Blossom Rock as Grandmama; and Felix Silla as Cousin Itt. The last episode aired Sept 2, 1966. In 1991,The Addams Family movie was released, followed by a sequel. Both starred Anjelica Huston as Morticia, Raul Julia as Gomez, Christopher Lloyd as Uncle Fester, Jimmy Workman as Pugsley and Christina Ricci as Wednesday.
Image: WIkimedia Commons
