Dear Tuck,
Happy 53rd Birthday, Big Guy. September 21st is the 264th day of the year. This leaves only 101 days left to celebrate your birthday. As Jim Byrd said to Chuck Barris, “Jesus Christ was dead and alive again by 33. You better get crackin’.”
Just so you know you aren’t celebrating alone, September 21st is also:
• Independence Day, Malta
• Independence Day, Belize
• The Nativity of the Theotokos in Russia
• Mabon Neopagan festival of Mabon
• In ancient Greece, it’s the eighth day of the Eleusinian Mysteries, when the secret rites in the Telesterion finish and the feast, Pannychis, begins
• National Pecan Cookie Day
• Biosphere Day
• Idaho Spud Day
• International Flower Day
• National Rich Villain Day (Celebrated on Larry Hagman’s birthday. He played the role of J. R. Ewing on the TV series ‘Dallas.’)
• Saint Matthew Feast Day – A tax collector before he became a disciple of Jesus, Saint Matthew is patron saint of accountants, bankers, bookkeepers, tax collectors, custom officers, and security guards.
• Watticism Day (In 1983, Secretary of the Interior, James Watt slandered minorities in a speech before the U.S. Chamber of Commerce when he said that his committee had “a black, a woman, 2 Jews, and a cripple.”)
• World Gratitude Day
On This Day In History 21 September:
• 0019 Death of Vergil
• 0454 Roman Emperor Valentinian III assassinates Aëtius, the supreme army commander, in his own throne room.
• 0687 Conon, Sicilian Pope (686-87), dies
• 1066 Battle at Fulford: Norway king Harald III Hardrada beats British militia
• 1192 English King Richard I the Lion hearted, captured
• 1217 Livonian Crusade: The Estonian tribal leader Lembitu and Livonian leader Kaupo are killed in Battle of St. Matthew’s Day.
• 1327 Edward II, King of England, 43, is murdered by order of his wife.
• 1348 Jews in Zurich Switzerland are accused of poisoning wells
• 1397 Beheading of Richard, Earl of Arundel and Surrey
• 1435 An agreement between Charles VII of France and Philip the Good ends the partnership between the England and Burgundy in Hundred Years’ War.
• 1435 Treaty of Atrecht: Philip of Bourgondy vs French king Charles II
• 1451 Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa orders Jews of Holland to wear a badge
• 1520 Death of Selim, Sultan of Turkey
• 1520 Suliman “the Lawgiver” (“the Magnificent”) becomes Sultan
• 1522 Martin Luther first published his German translation of the New Testament. His translation of the entire Bible was completed in 1534.
• 1529 Turks under Suleiman I lay siege to Vienna
• 1589 The Duke of Mayenne of France is defeated by Henry IV of England at the Battle of Arques.
• 1591 French bishops recognize Henri IV as king of France
• 1621 King James of England gives Canada to Sir Alexander Sterling (it’s nice to be king)
• 1648 Battle at Pilawce: Bohdan Chmielricki’s beats John Casimir
• 1673 James Needham returns to Virginia after exploring the land to the west, which would become Tennessee.
• 1676 Benedetto Odescalchi elected as Pope Innocent XI
• 1677 John and Nicolaas van der Heyden patent the fire extinguisher
• 1745 A Scottish Jacobite army of the Pretender Prince Charles Edward Stuart commanded by Lord George Murray routs the Royalist army of General Sir John Cope at Prestonpans.
• 1756 John Loudon McAdam was born. He invented macadam pavement for roads. The Macadamia Nut was named for him.
• 1765 Antoine de Beauterne announced he had killed the Beast of Gévaudan.
• 1776 5 days after British take NY, 1/4 of city burns down
• 1776 Nathan Hale, spied on British for American rebels, arrested
• 1780 American Revolutionary War: Benedict Arnold gives British Major Andre plans to West Point
• 1784 America’s first daily newspaper, The Pennsylvania Packet and Daily Advertiser was first published. The paper will be the continent’s first daily news source.
• 1792 France’s National Convention, via a proposal by Collot D’Herbois, abolishes the monarchy and declares France a republic. Its 1st Republic is celebrated widely by the beheading of a few thousand random French. France is up to Republic #5. They switch on occasion of installing dictators, monarchs or getting invaded by Germany, or, hey, it’s time to do something different.
• 1798 George Read, US judge/signer (Decl of Independence), dies at 65
• 1814 “Star Spangled Banner” published as a poem
• 1827 Joseph Smith, Jr. is reportedly visited by the angel Moroni, who gave him a record of gold plates, one-third of which Smith has translated into The Book of Mormon.
• 1837 Charles Tiffany founded his jewelry and china stores
• 1860 In the Second Opium War, an Anglo-French force defeats Chinese troops at the Battle of Baliqiao.
• 1864 Confederates claim victory at Rossville Gap (although they lose the war) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Chickamauga
• 1872 John Henry Conyers of South Carolina becomes 1st black student at Annapolis
• 1883 First direct U.S. to Brazil telegraph connection
• 1885 Dutch demonstrate for general voting right
• 1893 The first successful American-made, gasoline-operated motor car appeared on the streets of Springfield, Mass. It was designed and built by Charles and Frank Duryea.
• 1895 First auto manufacturer opens-Duryea Motor Wagon Company
• 1897 8-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon had written a letter to “The New York Sun”: “I am eight years old. Some of my friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, ‘If you see it in “The Sun”, it’s so.’ Please tell me the truth. Is there a Santa Claus?” Editor Frank Church wrote the response that was printed for the first time on this day: “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist. No Santa Claus? Thank God he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay ten times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.”
• 1898 Empress Dowager Cixi seizes power and ends the Hundred Days’ Reform in China.
• 1899 A painting of a dog listening to a record player was purchased by the Gramophone Company, parent of RCA Victor, for use as a trademark.
• 1903 1st cowboy film “Kit Carson,” premieres in U.S.
• 1904 Chief Joseph, the Nez Perce Native American chief who led his people on a 1,600 km (1,000 mi) journey to escape the U.S. Army, dies of a “broken heart” on the Colville Reservation in Washington at about the age of 64.
• 1906 Yankee 1st baseman Hal Chase’s 22 put-outs ties record
• 1913 1st aerobatic maneuver, sustained inverted flight, performed in France
• 1913 Turkey and Bulgaria sign peace treaty in Constantinople
• 1915 Stonehenge is sold by auction for 6,600 pounds sterling ($11,500) to a Mr. Chubb, who buys it as a present for his wife. He presents it to the nation three years later.
• 1917 Variety reports that producer George Tyler has found the new star for his upcoming production of Pollyanna in Rochester, New York. It is Helen Hayes.
• 1919 33rd U.S. Womens Tennis: Hazel H Wightman beats M Zinderstein (61 62)
• 1921 Pope Benedictus XV donates 1 million lire to feed Russians
• 1922 President Warren G Harding signs a joint resolution of approval to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine
• 1928 “My Weekly Reader” magazine made its debut
• 1929 1st legal pass in Canada was thrown by Gerry Seiberling and 1st reception by Ralph Losie of Calgary Altomah-Tigers against Edmonton
• 1929 Fighting between China and the Soviet Union breaks out along the Manchurian border.
• 1930 Johann Ostermeyer patents flashbulb
• 1931 Britain abandons gold standard; pound devalues 20%
• 1933 Trial against Marinus der Lubbe opens
• 1934 A large typhoon hits western Honshū, Japan, killing 3,036 people.
• 1934 St. Louis Card Paul Dean no-hits Brooklyn Dodgers, 3-0
• 1936 Spanish fascist junta names Franco to generalissimo/supreme commander
• 1937 “The Hobbit,” Oxford University professor J. R. R. (John Ronald Reuel) Tolkien’s tale of Middle Earth, is published by Allen and Unwin at London. Hobbits were well known as both gourmets and gourmands.
• 1937 Women’s airspeed record set at 292 mph by American pilot Jacqueline Cochran.
• 1938 A category 3 hurricane, “The Long Island Express” aka The Great Hurricane of 1938, struck Long Island, New York, with steady winds to 121 mph, gusts to 186 mph, and a storm surge 17 feet above normal high tide. There were 600 fatalities, 63,000 homeless after 8,900 buildings were destroyed, and damages of $306 millions, the equivalent of $15 billions in 1998.
• 1938 Winston Churchill condemns Hitler’s annexation of Czechoslovakia
• 1939 Reinhard Heydrich meets in Berlin to discuss final solution of Jews
• 1939 Romanian Prime Minister Armand Calinescu is assassinated by pro-Nazi members of the Iron Guard.
• 1941 The German Army cuts off the Crimean Peninsula from the rest of the
Soviet Union.
• 1941 U.S. launches its 1st Liberty-ship, “Patrick Henry”
• 1942 116 hostages executed by Nazis in Paris
• 1942 British forces attack the Japanese in Burma. Detachment 101 harried the Japanese in Burma and provided close support for regular Allied forces
• 1942 In Dunaivtsi, Ukraine, Nazis murder 2,588 Jews.
• 1942 On Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, Nazis sent over 1.000 Jews of Pidhaytsi (west Ukraine) to Belzec extermination camp. They also ordered Konstantynów Jews (Poland) to permanently evacuate Konstantynów and move to the Ghetto established in Biala Podlaska, meant to assemble Jews from nearby 7 towns among them: Konstantynów, Janów Podlaski, Rossosz, Terespol, and 3 more.
• 1942 The U.S. B-29 Superfortress, the largest bomber used during World War II, made its debut flight in Seattle, WA.
• 1942 Transport nr 35 departs with French Jews to nazi-Germany
• 1943 Arundel (Solomon Island) in U.S. hands
• 1943 Soviet forces reach Dnjepr
• 1944 General Douglas MacArthur returned to the Philippines as promised during World War II
• 1944 Last British paratroopers at bridge of Arnhem surrenders
• 1944 U.S. troops of the 7th Army, invading Southern France, cross the Meuse River.
• 1946 After being tested on a regional basis, “The Second Mrs. Burton” was heard for the first time on the entire CBS radio network. “The Second Mrs. Burton” fared very well, having a relationship with the network for 14 years.
• 1946 Indians play their final game in League Park, ending a 55-year stay
• 1947 Chart Toppers: Peg o’ My Heart – The Harmonicats | That’s My Desire – The Sammy Kaye Orchestra (vocal: Don Cornell) | I Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now – Perry Como | Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette) – Tex Williams
• 1948 “The Texaco Star Theater” on NBC-TV chose this night to make one of its oft-appearing hosts the permanent host. Milton Berle stayed on as the regular host until 1967. He was so much a part of “The Texaco Star Theater” that it became known as “The Milton Berle Show”.
• 1948 The serial “Life With Luigi” debuted on CBS radio. Luigi Basko was played by J. Carroll Naish. Naish, an Irish-American, became typecast as an Italian immigrant, and went on to play the same role in the TV version in 1952.
• 1949 Chinese Communist leaders proclaims People’s Republic of China
• 1949 Federal Republic of [West] Germany created under 3-power occupation
• 1950 George Marshall sworn in as the 3rd Secretary of Defense of United States.
• 1951 U.S. performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
• 1951 Emil Zatopek runs 15,000m in record 44 min, 54.6 sec
• 1951 US Marine Corps mounted the first combat use of helicopters as troop transports in Operation Summit. The 224 Marines were landed at two sites on Hill 884 within mortar range of Communist defenses. From the staging area to the landing was eight minutes, compared to nine hours for a ground march.
• 1953 Allied forces form West Germany
• 1954 1st nuclear submarine, USS Nautilus, commissioned. Later becomes the first submarine to get to the North Pole and cross the Arctic Ocean submerged.
• 1954 Kleffens appointed chairman of General Meeting U.N.
• 1955 Boxing fans all over the world held their collective breaths as Archie Moore, the light heavyweight champion, knocked the heavyweight champion, Rocky Marciano, to the floor on this night. But the champ got up … just as he had done in every fight before this … and went on to defeat Moore. Rocky Marciano was the only world champion at any weight to have won every fight of his professional career (1947 to 1956). 43 of his 49 fights were won either by KO’s or because the fight had to be stopped.
• 1955 Chart Toppers: The Yellow Rose of Texas – Mitch Miller | Maybellene – Chuck Berry | Love is a Many-Splendored Thing – The Four Aces | I Don’t Care – Webb Pierce
• 1955 Last allied occupying troops leave Austria. War’s been over for ten years. They clearly needed an exit strategy.
• 1955 U.S.S.R. performs nuclear test
• 1956 Randolph Tucker Richardson enters the world of the living. His mother begins monumental, at times revolting, life-long celebration that continues to this very day.
• 1956 Yankees set dubious record, stranding 20 men on base Mantle hits a 500′ plus homer but Red Sox win 13-9 in Fenway
• 1957 Famed trial lawyer “Perry Mason” came to TV. The creation of attorney/novelist Erle Stanley Gardner, “Perry Mason” found fame first as a series of novels, then as a CBS radio series (1943-1955). TV’s “Perry Mason”, which continued for 9 seasons (TV’s longest-running lawyer series) on CBS, starred Raymond Burr in the lead role. Della Street was played by Barbara Hale.
• 1957 German sailing school ship Pamir sails Atlantic Ocean
• 1957 Pote Sarasin forms government in Thailand
• 1958 U.S. performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
• 1958 1st airplane flight exceeding 1200 hours, lands, Dallas, Texas
• 1959 Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, continuing his U.S. visit, reaffirmed his country’s desire for friendship with the United States in a speech during a dinner at San Francisco’s Palace Hotel.
• 1961 Earle Dickson died. He invented Band-Aids for his wife, who had frequent kitchen accidents, cutting or burning herself. He worked for Johnson & Johnson, who soon began manufacturing Band-Aids.
• 1961 For some reason, folks want to swim the English Channel. However, Antonio Abertondo swam the channel both ways. He did it nonstop in 24 hours and 25 minutes.
• 1961 Maiden flight of the CH-47 Chinook transportation helicopter.
• 1963 Chart Toppers: Blue Velvet – Bobby Vinton | Heat Wave – Martha & The Vandellas | Sally, Go ’Round the Roses – The Jaynetts | Abilene – George Hamilton IV
• 1964 Constellation (U.S.) beats Sovereign (England) in 20th America’s Cup
• 1964 Malta becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
• 1964 Reds Chico Ruiz steals home, beats Phillies 1-0. Phillies start a 10 game losing streak that gives Cards the pennant
• 1964 The North American XB-70 Valkyrie, the world’s first Mach 3 bomber, made its maiden flight from Palmdale, California.
• 1965 O Kommissarova (U.S.S.R.) sets women’s longest parachute jump (46,250′)
• 1965 Singapore admitted as a part of the United Nations.
• 1966 Jimmy Hendrix changes spelling of his name to Jimi
• 1967 U.S. performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
• 1968 R.T. Richardson III becomes the smallest player on the GRC Varsity football team. Every week, he courageously shouts, “Put me in, coach, put me in!” Thirty minutes later, every week, under the tearful eyes of his adoring mother, he is carried off the field.
• 1969 Donna Caponi Young wins LPGA Lincoln-Mercury Golf Open
• 1969 New York Jet Steve O’Neal punts 98 yards against Denver Broncos
• 1970 “Monday Night Football” made its debut on ABC as the
• 1970 ABC-TV debuted “Monday Night Football”, with Howard Cosell, ‘Dandy’ Don Meredith and Keith Jackson. The Browns defeated the New York Jets 31-21 in Cleveland.
• 1970 Luna 16 leaves Moon
• 1970 New York Times starts first modern op-ed page. They choose Benedict Arnold as their patron saint.
• 1970 Oakland A’s Vida Blue no-hits Minnesota Twins, 6-0
• 1970 Tuck signs up for karate lessons. When asked why, he says, “So I can kill Earl (his older brother).” Everyone laughs.
• 1971 Tuck breaks 15 boards with his knuckles in the backyard. We are all impressed. The next day, Earl signs up for karate lessons.
• 1971 Chart Toppers: Go Away Little Girl – Donny Osmond | Spanish Harlem – Aretha Franklin | Ain’t No Sunshine – Bill Withers | The Year That
Clayton Delaney Died – Tom T. Hall
• 1971 Coca Cola introduced the plastic bottle.
• 1971 John Lennon and Yoko Ono are Dick Cavett’s only guest
• 1972 Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos issues Proclamation No. 1081 placing the entire country under martial law.
• 1972 TI 2500Semiconductor developer Texas Instruments released its first three calculators, the TI-2500, the TI-3000, and the TI-3500. The TI-2500 (the “Datamath”), which is a four-function, full-floating decimal point system with an eight-digit LED display, would become a break-out success. They were the first patented calculators to be released. Price: $119.95 (TI-2500), $85 (TI-3000), $100 (TI-3500)
• 1972 U.S.S.R. performs underground nuclear test
• 1973 Jackson Pollocks painting “Blue Poles” sold for $2,000,000
• 1973 Nate Archibald signs 7 yr contract with NBA Kansas City Kings for $450,000
• 1973 New York Mets go into 1st place (at .500) after trailing 12 games
• 1974 U.S. Mariner 10 makes 2nd fly-by of Mercury
• 1975 Jo Ann Washam wins LPGA Portland Ladies Golf Classic
• 1976 In an assassination widely credited to the secret police of Chile, Chilean opposition leader Orlando Letelier and his American secretary are killed by a car bomb in Washington, D.C. He is a member of the Chilean socialist government of Salvador Allende, overthrown in 1973 by Augusto Pinochet.
• 1977 President Carter defended budget director Bert Lance as he announced Lance’s resignation. Lance had been accused of a series of illegal acts in banking.
• 1978 Falcon Almahurst, driven by Bill Haughton, sets the all-age world record for pacing on a half-mile track by winning in 1:55.2 at the Delaware County Fairgrounds in Ohio.
• 1978 Two Soviet astronauts set a space endurance record after 96 days in space.
• 1979 Chart Toppers: My Sharona – The Knack | After the Love Has Gone – Earth, Wind & Fire | The Devil Went Down to Georgia – The Charlie Daniels Band | You’re My Jamaica – Charley Pride
• 1980 Donna Caponi Young wins LPGA ERA Real Estate Golf Classic
• 1980 LA Ram Johnnie Johnson scores a 99 yard interception
• 1980 Richard Todd of New York Jets completes 42 passes in a game (NFL record)
• 1981 Belize (British Honduras) gains independence from U.K.
• 1981 For 191 years, the U.S. Supreme Court had existed without a woman sitting on the bench. That changed as Sandra Day O’Connor was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in a 99-0 vote.
• 1981 Steve Carlton strikes out NL record 3,118th (Andre Dawson)
• 1982 2,251 turn out to see Expos play New York Mets at Shea Stadium
• 1982 Amin Gemayel, brother of Lebanon’s assassinated president-elect, Bashir Gemayel, was himself elected president.
• 1982 Devils beat Rangers 3-2 in exhibition; 1st hockey in Meadowlands (NJ)
• 1982 National Football League players began a 57-day strike, their first regular-season walkout ever.
• 1982 STS-5 vehicle moves to launch pad
• 1983 11 killed in anti Marcos demonstrations in Manila
• 1983 David Mamet’s “Glengarry Glen Ross,” premieres in London
• 1983 U.S. performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
• 1984 NASA launches Galaxy-C
• 1985 Michael Spinks defeats Larry Holmes and becomes first light heavyweight to defeat the reigning heavyweight champion
• 1986 38th Emmy Awards: Golden Girls, Cagney and Lacey and Michael J Fox win
• 1986 Delegates to the 35-nation East-West security conference in Stockholm, Sweden, agreed on information-sharing measures designed to reduce the risk of accidental war in Europe.
• 1986 Miami Dan Marino passes for 6 touchdowns vs New York Jets (51-45)
• 1986 New Orleans Saints Mel Gray returns kickoff 101 yards for a touchdown
• 1986 New York Jets beat Miami Dolphins 51-45 in OT; record 884 passing yards
• 1986 Patty Sheehan wins LPGA Konica San Jose Golf Classic
• 1986 San Diego Padre Jimmy Jones pitchs 1-hitter in his major league debut
• 1987 3 Belgian minesweepers depart to Persians Gulf
• 1987 A US helicopter gunship disabled an Iranian vessel, the “Iran Ajr,” that was caught laying mines in the Persian Gulf; four Iranian crewmen were killed, 26 wounded and detained.
• 1987 Chart Toppers: I Just Can’t Stop Loving You – Michael Jackson with Siedah Garrett | Didn’t We Almost Have It All – Whitney Houston | Here I Go Again – Whitesnake | This Crazy Love – The Oak Ridge Boys
• 1987 NFL players called a strike, mainly over the issue of free agency. (The 24-day walkout prompted football owners to hire replacement players.)
• 1988 Mike Tyson smashes TV camera outside his Bernardsville New Jersey home
• 1988 The Soviet women’s gymnastics team won the gold medal at the Seoul Summer Olympics, with Romania placing second and East Germany, third.
• 1989 General Colin Powell was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
• 1989 Hurricane “Hugo,” packing winds of up to 135 miles-an-hour, crashed into Charleston, South Carolina leaving a trail of destruction calculated at over eight billion dollars.
• 1989 Poland’s Sejm (National Assembly) approves prime minister Mazowiecki
• 1990 During a meeting of the Supreme Soviet, President Mikhail S. Gorbachev scolded legislators for dragging its feet on an economic rescue plan, and asked for sweeping new emergency powers to stabilize the economy.
• 1990 Faye Vincent turns down White Sox bid to reinstate Minnie Minoso, 68,
• 1990 Oakland A’s Bob Welch becomes 1st 25 game winner in 10 years
• 1990 Pirate Bobby Bond is 2nd to hit 30 home runs and steal 50 bases in a season (so he can play in 6 decades) because it is a publicity stunt
• 1991 “I Adore Me Amore”, by Color Me Badd, rose to #1 on U.S. singles charts. The hit, from their “The Best of Color Me Badd” LP, was number one for two weeks.
• 1991 An 18-hour hostage drama ended in Sandy, Utah, as Richard L. Worthington, who had killed a nurse and seized control of a hospital maternity ward, finally freed his nine captives, including a baby who was born during the hostage situation.
• 1991 Armenia is granted independence from Soviet Union.
• 1991 USA Basketball announces “Dream Team” for the 1992 Olympics
• 1992 Former defense secretaries Melvin Laird and James R. Schlesinger told a congressional committee the Pentagon had known American airmen were alive in Laos at the end of the Vietnam War and were not returned.
• 1992 President Bush addressed the UN General Assembly, offering US support to strengthen international peacekeeping.
• 1993 Klamath Falls, Oregon earthquake 6.0 caused two deaths and approximately 7.5 million U.S. dollars in damage.
• 1993 The police drama “NYPD Blue” premiered on ABC TV.
• 1993 Russian President Boris Yeltsin suspends parliament and scraps the then-functioning constitution, thus triggering the Russian constitutional crisis of 1993.
• 1993 Ukraine government of Kutshma resigns
• 1994 Howard Stern Radio Show premieres in Ft. Lauderdale / Miami, Florida on WBGG 105.9 FM
• 1994 Prosecutors from Los Angeles and Santa Barbara counties announced that child molestation charges would not be filed against singer Michael Jackson; however, the case would remain open until 1999.
• 1995 House Republicans unveiled partial details of their plan for Medicare aimed at achieving $270 billion in savings over seven years.
• 1996 Christie Brinkey gets married for 4th time
• 1996 John F. Kennedy Junior married Carolyn Bessette in a secret ceremony on Cumberland Island, Georgia.
• 1996 President Clinton and Republican rival Bob Dole agreed to face off in two debates without Ross Perot.
• 1996 The board of all-male Virginia Military Institute voted to admit women.
• 1996 The New York
Times reveals that the December 1995 crash of American Airlines Flight 965 in Colombia may have been the result of a programming error. Pilots of the plane evidently selected the first beacon option on the plane’s autopilot system to guide the plane to its landing site without manually checking that the option given was the correct destination. As a result, the plane ended up one hundred miles off of its intended course, and it subsequently crashed in a disaster that resulted in 159 deaths.
• 1997 Liselotte Neumann wins LPGA PING Welch’s Championship
• 1997 Mike Piazza is 2nd to hit a home run out of Dodger Stadium
• 1997 New York Yankee Cecil Fielder hits his 300th home run
• 1997 Saying their persistent demands for a special investigation had been vindicated, senior Republicans insisted Attorney General Janet Reno seek appointment of an independent counsel to look into White House fund-raising activities, a day after the Justice Department revealed it had begun a preliminary review
• 1997 Tim Herron wins Texas Golf Open shooting a 271
• 1998 Hurricane Georges roared through Puerto Rico and the northeast Caribbean.
• 1998 Olympic gold medal track star Florence Griffith Joyner was found dead at her home in Mission Viejo, California; she was 38.
• 1998 President Clinton’s videotaped grand jury testimony was publicly broadcast; in it, Clinton tussled with prosecutors over “the truth of my relationship” with Monica Lewinsky.
• 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake, a 7.6 magnitude, rocks Taiwan, kills 2,295
• 1999 The House Banking Committee opened an inquiry into allegations of a huge money-laundering scheme involving the Russian mob and the Bank of New York.
• 1999 The United States Postal Service honors nine Broadway composers and/or lyricists by unveiling the Broadway Songwriters postage stamp series today at New York City’s Broadhurst Theatre. The six stamp designs include composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II (pictured together), lyricist Alan Jay Lerner and composer Frederick Loewe (together), composer George Gershwin and lyricist Ira Gershwin (together), lyricist Lorenz Hart, composer-lyricist Meredith Willson and composer-lyricist Frank Loesser.
• 2000 David Ingraham notches win No. 4,000 by driving Juststeponthegas to victory at the Farmington Fair in Maine.
• 2000 Federal prosecutors announced that Jason Diekman, age 20, was charged with hacking into the NASA systems at Stanford University and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. Diekman was also charged with the theft of over 500 credit card numbers and using them to make more than six thousand dollars of purchases.
• 2001 AZF chemical plant explodes in Toulouse, France, killing 31 people
• 2001 Deep Space 1 flies within 2,200 km of Comet Borrelly.
• 2002 International Day of Peace recognized by the United Nations as a full day of ceasefire and nonviolence.
• 2003 Galileo mission terminated by sending the probe into Jupiter’s atmosphere, where it is crushed by the pressure at the lower altitudes.
• 2004 Construction of the Burj Dubai starts.
• 2004 President George W. Bush, defending his decision to invade Iraq, urged the U.N. General Assembly to stand united with the country’s struggling government.
• 2004 Punk rock band Green Day releases its critically acclaimed album American Idiot.
• 2004 The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) People’s War and the Maoist Communist Centre of India merge to form the Communist Party of India (Maoist).
• 2004 The death toll in Haiti from deluges caused by Tropical Storm Jeanne topped 700.
• 2004 Yusuf Islam, formerly known as singer Cat Stevens, was taken off a London-to-Washington United Airlines flight because his name had shown up on a government “no-fly” list.
• 2007 The Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) announced that the day prior, it had filed the first copyright infringement lawsuit in U.S. history to be based on a violation of the GNU General Public License (GPL). The suit, filed on behalf of two principal developers of the BusyBox, Erik Andersen and Rob Landley, alleges that Monsoon Multimedia failed to provide recipients of its firmware with access to its underlying source code as stipulated in the GPL governing BusyBox, which the company implements in its firmware. BusyBox is an application that provides a set of Unix tools popular among Linux distributions.
• 2008 “Mad Men” became the first basic-cable show to win the top series Emmy; “30 Rock” and its stars Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin won comedy awards.
• 2008 Baseball said farewell to the original Yankee Stadium as New York defeated Baltimore 7-3.
• 2008 Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the two last remaining independent investment banks on Wall Street, become bank holding companies as a result of the subprime mortgage crisis.
• 2008 South African President Thabo Mbeki announced his resignation.
• 2008 The United States took back the Ryder Cup with a 16½-11½ victory over Europe.
• 2009 Randolph Tucker Richardson celebrates his 53rd birthday, making him the same age as his slightly older, wiser and noticeably better-looking sister for one week.
Other Famous People born September 21st:
• 1051 Bertha of Savoy, German queen and Holy Roman Empire Empress
• 1328 Hongwu Emperor of China
• 1372 Frederik I van Hohenzollern, monarch of Brandenburg
• 1411 Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, claimant to the English throne
• 1415 Frederick, III as Holy Roman Emperor, IV as King of Germany, V as ArchDuke of Austria
• 1428 Jingtai Emperor of China
• 1452 Girolamo Savonarola, Florentine monk, preacher, reformer. A Dominican from 1474, he was famous for his religious zeal. For 14 years he led in the reformation of Florence, before attacks on Alexander VI led to his excommunication. In 1498, he was convicted of heresy, hanged and burned.
• 1559 Cigoli, Florentine painter, architect, and sculptor
• 1645 Louis Joliet, French-Canadian explorer of the Mississippi River
• 1706 Polyxena Christina of Hesse-Rotenburg, queen of Sardinia
• 1756 John Loudon MacAdam, Scottish engineer and road-builder, created mcadam road surface (asphalt)
• 1758 Christopher Gore, 8th Governor of Massachusetts
• 1760 Ivan Dmitriev, Russian statesman
• 1788 First Lady Margaret Taylor (Smith) (wife of 12th U.S. President, Zachary Taylor)
• 1819 Princess Louise Marie Thérèse of France
• 1840 Murad V, Ottoman Sultan
• 1842 Abd-ul-Hamid II, Ottoman Sultan
• 1849 Maurice Barrymore, Indian-born patriarch of the Barrymore family
• 1853 Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1863 John Bunny, American film comedian
• 1866 Charles Jean Henri Nicolle, bacteriologist, discovered that typhus fever is transmitted by body louse, received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• 1866 Author and historian H.G. (Herbert George) Wells (The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, The War of the Worlds, The Outline of History)
• 1873 Papa Jack Laine, American musician
• 1874 Gustav Holst, composer, was born in Cheltenham, England. Holst’s instrument was the trombone, though he also played keyboards. One of his best works, a concerto for two violins, is seldom played because one of the parts was made simple enough for one his students to play.
• 1895 Juan de la Cierva, aeronautical engineer who invented the autogyro
• 1896 Walter Breuning, American supercentenarian
• 1899 Frederick Coutts, the 8th General of The Salvation Army
• 1902 British publisher Sir Allen Lane, founder of Penguin Books, the first low-priced paperback book
• 1912 Chuck Jones, cartoonist The Road Runner, Pepe Le Pew, Wiley Coyote
• 1912 György Sándor, Hungarian pianist
• 1916 Françoise Giro
ud, French journalist and politician
• 1918 John Gofman, American Manhattan Project scientist and advocate
• 1926 Donald A. Glaser, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1929 Sándor Kocsis, Hungarian footballer
• 1931 Larry Hagman (actor I Dream of Jeannie, Dallas, Staying Afloat, Ensign Pulver, In Harm’s Way, Fail-Safe; son of actress Mary Martin)
• 1933 Dick Simon, American racing driver
• 1934 Leonard Cohen (singer, songwriter group The Army, Famous Blue Raincoat, Joan of Arc, Avalanche)
• 1935 Henry Gibson (Bateman) (comedian Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In; Nashville)
• 1935 Jimmy Armfield, English footballer and manager
• 1936 Diane Rehm, American radio talk show host for National Public Radio
• 1936 Yuriy Luzhkov, Russian politician, mayor of Moscow
• 1941 Dickey Lee (Lipscomb), singer Patches, I Saw Linda Yesterday, Never Ending Songs of Love, Rocky; songwriter She Thinks I Still Care)
• 1941 Jack Brisco, American professional wrestler
• 1941 R. James Woolsey, Jr., Central Intelligence Agency director
• 1942 Sam (Samuel Edward Thomas) McDowell ‘Sudden Sam’ baseball pitcher Cleveland Indians [all-star 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971], SF Giants, NY Yankees, Pittsburgh Pirates; led American League in strikeouts five times in six years)
• 1944 Fannie Flagg, American actress and novelist
• 1944 Hamilton Jordan, U.S. President Jimmy Carter’s original chief of staff
• 1944 Steve Beshear, Democratic Governor of Kentucky.
• 1945 Jerry Bruckheimer, American film and television producer
• 1945 Richard Childress (auto racer; racing car team owner six Winston Cup championships, one NASCAR Truck Series championship, 79 victories)
• 1945 Shaw Clifton, the 18th General of The Salvation Army
• 1947 Don Felder (musician guitar, singer group The Eagles One of These Nights, Lyin’ Eyes, Best of My Love, New Kid in Town; solo LP Airborne)
• 1947 Marsha Norman, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright ’Night Mother [1983]
• 1947 Reggie Rucker (football Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Super Bowl V)
• 1947 Stephen King (author Pet Sematary, Christine, The Duel, Misery, The Stand, Carrie, The Shining)
• 1949 Artis Gilmore (basketball Chicago Bulls holds league record for career field goal percentage [.599], Kentucky Colonels Rookie and Player of the Year [1971])
• 1950 Bill Murray (Emmy Award-winning comedy writer Saturday Night Live; actor Stripes, Ghostbusters series, Groundhog Day, Mad Dog and Glory, What About Bob?, Scrooged, Rushmore, Cradle Will Rock, Scout’s Honor, Hamlet, Charlie’s Angels [2000], Speaking of Sex, Osmosis Jones, The Royal Tenenbaums, Lost in Translation)
• 1950 Brent McClanahan (football Minnesota Vikings running back Super Bowl IX, XI)
• 1951 Aslan Maskhadov, Chechen rebel leader
• 1952 Anneliese Michel, German exorcism victim
• 1953 Arie Luyendyk (racecar driver Indy 500 winner [1990, 1997]; People magazine’s 50 Most Beautiful People list [1992])
• 1953 Mike Collier (football Pittsburgh Steelers running back Super Bowl X)
• 1954 Phil “Philthy Animal” Taylor, British musician (Motorhead)
• 1954 Randolph Tucker Richardson, Attorney, Playboy (former), #1 Dad
• 1954 Shinzo Abe, Japanese politician
• 1954 Rock musician Philthy Animal (ex-Motorhead)
• 1955 Mika Kaurismäki, Finnish director
• 1955 Richard Hieb, American astronaut
• 1956 Jack Givens, American basketball player
• 1956 Ricky Morton, American professional wrestler
• 1957 Kevin Rudd, 26th Prime Minister of Australia
• 1958 Bruno Fitoussi, French poker player
• 1958 Movie producer-writer Ethan Coen (“Fargo”)
• 1959 Danny Cox, American baseball player
• 1960 David James Elliott (actor JAG, Police Academy 3 Back in Training, Knots Landing, Melrose Place, Clockwatchers, The Shrink is In)
• 1961 Nancy Travis (actress Fluke, Body Language, The Vanishing, Chaplin, Three Men and a Little Lady, Loose Cannons, Married to the Mob, Three Men and a Baby, Harem, Almost Perfect, Duckman)
• 1962 Rob Morrow (actor Numb3rs, Northern Exposure, Quiz Show, Tattingers)
• 1963 Angus Macfadyen, Scottish actor
• 1963 Cecil Grant Fielder (baseball Detroit Tigers 1st base; Toronto Blue Jays)
• 1963 Curtly Ambrose, Antiguan West Indies cricketer
• 1964 Jorge Drexler, Uruguayan singer and composer
• 1967 Faith Hill (singer LPs Take Me as I Am, It Matters to Me, Faith; sold eleven million records, eight #1 singles, ten #1 videos)
• 1967 Rock musician Tyler Stewart (Barenaked Ladies)
• 1968 Ricki Lake (TV talk show host; in films Serial Mom, Hairspray)
• 1971 David Joseph Vetter http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Vetter
• 1971 Luke Wilson, American actor
• 1972 Jon Kitna, American football player
• 1972 Scott Spiezio, American baseball player
• 1973 Vanessa Grigoriadis, American journalist
• 1974 Bryce Drew, American basketball player
• 1975 Doug Davis, baseball player
• 1981 Nicole Richie, American socialite
• 1982 Danny Kass, American snowboarder
• 1982 Eduardo Azevedo, Brazilian racing driver
• 1982 Parvati Shallow, American reality-show contestant
• 1983 Actor Joseph Mazzello (“Jurassic Park”)
• 1983 Anna Meares, Australian cyclist
• 1987 Ashley Paris, American basketball player
• 1987 Courtney Paris, American basketball player
• 1987 Jimmy Clausen, American football player
• 1988 Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Pakistani politician
• 1989 Lyn-Z Adams Hawkins, American skateboarder
And Famous Exits on this date 21 September:
• 1798 George Read, American lawyer and signer of the Declaration of Independence
• 1832 Sir Walter Scott, Scottish writer
• 1906 Samuel Arnold, Lincoln conspirator
• 1974 Walter Brennan, American actor
• 1974 Jacqueline Susann, American novelist
• 2000 Bryan Smith, the man who ran over Stephen King
But you and I are still kicking! Love you, bro. Have a great day!
P.S. I hope you read everything, because there is going to be a quiz.