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.
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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.
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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).
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.)
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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.
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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.
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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.
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On 18 September 1889 Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starz open a settlement house for immigrants in Chicago, Illinois. Read more at http://www.uic.edu/jaddams/hull/.
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Sept 18, 1830. In a widely celebrated race, the first locomotive built in America, the Tom Thumb, lost to a horse. Mechanical difficulties plagued the steam engine over the nine-mile course between Rileys Tavern and Baltimore, MD, and a boiler leak prevented the locomotive from finishing the race. In the early days of trains, engines were nicknamed Iron Horses.
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Image Public Domain, available from U.S. Library of Congress
Sept 18, 1947. Although its heritage dates back to 1907 when the army first established military aviation, the US Air Force became a separate military service on this date. Responsible for providing an air force that is capable, in conjunction with the other armed forces, of preserving the peace and security of the US, the department is separately organized under the secretary of the air force and operates under the authority, direction and control of the secretary of defense. Read more at http://www.airforce.com/learn-about/history/.
Image: Public Domain, USAF via Wikipedia.org
Sept 18, 1793. President George Washington laid the Capitol cornerstone at Washington, DC, in a Masonic ceremony. That event was the first and last recorded occasion at which the stone with its engraved silver plate was seen. In 1958, during the extension of the east front of the Capitol, an unsuccessful effort was made to find it.
Image: Public Domain, Washington laying cornerstone at U.S. Capitol by Allyn Cox
Sept 19, 1970. This show one of the most popular sitcoms of the 70s combined good writing, an effective supporting cast and contemporary attitudes. The show centered around the two most important places in Mary Richardss (Mary Tyler Moore) life the WJM-TV newsroom and her apartment at Minneapolis. At home she shared the ups and downs of life with her friend Rhoda Morgenstern (Valerie Harper) and the manager of her apartment building, Phyllis Lindstrom (Cloris Leachman). At work, as the associate producer (later producer) of The Six OClock News, Mary struggled to function in a mans world. Figuring in her professional life were her irascible boss Lou Grant (Ed Asner), levelheaded and softhearted news writer Murray Slaughter (Gavin MacLeod) and narcissistic anchorman Ted Baxter (Ted Knight). In the last of 168 episodes (Mar 19, 1977), the unthinkable happened: everyone in the WJM newsroom except the inept Ted was fired.
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