Today in History

[yelladawg]

September 16
1908 - General Motors was founded on this day. The man responsible for the beginning of the huge auto-manufacturing company (maker of Cadillac, Buick, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Chevrolet) was William Crapo ‘Billy’ Durant.
1920 - Enrico Caruso made his last recording for Victor Records in Camden, NJ.

1924 - Jim Bottomley of the St. Louis Cardinals set a major-league baseball record by knocking in 12 runs in a single game.

1938 - Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra recorded the swing classic Boogie Woogie for Victor Records.

1940 - Sam Rayburn of Texas became Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. Rayburn served as Speaker for 17 years.

1941 - CBS radio debuted The Arkansas Traveler. The program was later renamed The Bob Burns Show. Burns played a very strange musical instrument called the ‘bazooka’. The U.S. Army chose the name to identify its rocket launcher, because it looked so much like Burns’ bazooka, believe it or not...

1953 - The St. Louis Browns of the American League were given the OK to move to Baltimore, MD, where they became the Baltimore Orioles.

1960 - Amos Alonzo Stagg announced his retirement from football coaching. He was 98 years old at the time!

1963 - She Loves You was recorded by The Beatles the Swan label. It was the first record recorded by The Beatles; but the second single by the ‘Fab Four’ to hit #1. I Want to Hold Your Hand, was the group’s first #1 song and million seller (on Capitol). It beat She Loves You to the top spot by just a few weeks. Other Beatles hits were also recorded on Capitol (Capitol had rejected She Loves You) and Swan labels; but the Beatles liked variety -- so add these record companies to the Beatles list of recording labels: Vee-Jay, MGM, Tollie, United Artists, Atco, E.M.I., Parlaphone and Apple.

1964 - Shindig premiered on ABC-TV. The program had go-go girls and the biggest rock bands of the day in a dance party environment. Regulars were Jimmie O’Neill and the Shindig Dancers. The first show featured Sam Cooke, The Everly Brothers, The Righteous Brothers, The Wellingtons, Bobby Sherman and comic Alan Sues.

1965 - San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral became the site of the first concert of sacred music presented by Duke Ellington.

1965 - The Dean Martin Show debuted on NBC-TV. It was a weekly variety show that continued on the network for nine years. Regulars over the years were The Goldiggers, Ken Lane, The Ding-a-Ling Sisters, Tom Bosley, Dom DeLuise, Nipsey Russell, Rodney Dangerfield and Les Brown and His Band. The theme song? Everybody Loves Somebody.

1968 - The Andy Griffith Show was seen for the final time on CBS-TV. Sheriff Andy Taylor (Griffith), Opie (Ron Howard), Aunt Bee (Frances Bavier), Barney Fife (Don Knotts), Goober Pyle (George Lindsey), Floyd Lawson (Howard McNear), and the rest of the gang from Mayberry, NC, are still seen regularly on TV through syndication.

1978 - Boston’s album Don’t Look Back ascended to number one on U.S. charts. Other LPs in the top five that week: 2. Some Girls (The Rolling Stones); 3. Double Vision (Foreigner); 4. Grease (Soundtrack); 5. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Soundtrack).

1981 - Boxer ‘Sugar’ Ray Leonard, at age 25, knocked out Thomas ‘The Hit Man’ Hearns. Leonard won the welterweight boxing championship -- and the richest payday in boxing history.

1988 - Tom Browning made it into the history books of major league baseball when he pitched a perfect game. The 12th perfect game in history was a National League match between Cincinnati and Los Angeles with a score of 1-0.

1999 - Hurricane Floyd stormed ashore, pounding North Carolina with 110 mph winds, dumping more than a foot of rain, damaging 12,000 homes and claiming more than 50 lives. Floyd also caused the largest peacetime evacuation in U.S. history, with 2.6 million people ordered away from the shores in the hurricane’s path.



Birthdays
September 16
1823 - Francis Parkman
author: The Oregon Trail; died in 1893
1875 - J.C. (James Cash) Penney
merchant: founder: J.C. Penney Co.; died Feb 12, 1971

1890 - George Whitney Calhoun
sportswriter: Green Bay Press Gazette; cofounder of Green Bay Packers

1908 - (Colonel) Buster ‘Bus’ Mills
baseball: SL Cardinals, Brooklyn Dodgers, Boston Red Sox, SL Browns, NY Yankees, Cleveland Indians; died Dec 1, 1991

1914 - Allen Funt
radio/TV producer, host: Candid Microphone, Candid Camera; films: What Do You Say to a Naked Lady?, Money Talks; died Sep 5, 1999

1919 - Marvin Middlemark
inventor: rabbit ears TV antenna; died in 1989

1922 - Janis Paige (Donna Mae Tjaden)
actress: The Pajama Game, Silk Stockings, Please Don’t Eat the Daisies, Hero

1924 - Lauren Bacall (Betty Perske)
actress: Key Largo, Applause, Woman of the Year, How to Marry a Millionaire, To Have and Have Not; married actor Humphrey Bogart

1924 - Nelson Benton
journalist: CBS News; died Feb 13, 1988

1925 - Charlie Byrd
musician: guitar: Meditation, Desafinado ; died Nov 30, 1999

1925 - B.B. (Riley B.) King
musician, singer: The Thrill Is Gone, I Like to Live the Love, Rock Me Baby; appeared in films: Into the Night, Amazon Women of the Moon; Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award <1987>

1925 - Morgan Woodward
actor: The Waltons, Dark Before Dawn, The Longest Drive

1926 - John Knowles
author: Backcasts: Memories & Recollections of Seventy Years as a Sportsman

1927 - Peter Falk
Emmy Award-winning actor: The Price of Tomatoes: The Dick Powell Show <1961-62>; Columbo <1971-72, 1974-75, 1975-76, 1989-90>; Murder by Death, Pocketful of Miracles , The Great Race, The In-Laws, The Princess Bride

1927 - Jack Kelly
actor: Maverick, Dr. Hudson’s Secret Journal, Get Christie Love, To Hell and Back; host: NBC Comedy Theater; mayor: Huntington Beach, California; died Nov 7, 1992

1930 - Anne Francis
actress: Funny Girl, Blackboard Jungle, Laguna Heat, Battle Cry, Bad Day at Black Rock, Born Again

1934 - Elgin Baylor
basketball: LA Lakers: holds NBA Playoff Record for points scored in a game <61>, and for points scored in a playoff series <284>

1934 - George Chakiris
Academy Award-winning actor, dancer: West Side Story <1961>; Is Paris Burning, Dallas

1938 - Larry Grantham
football: NY Jets linebacker: Super Bowl III

1943 - Bernie Calvert
musician: bass: group: The Hollies: The Air that I Breathe; group: The Dolphins

1944 - Linda Henning
actress: Petticoat Junction

1944 - Betty Kelly
singer: group: Martha and the Vandellas: Dancing in the Street

1948 - Kenny Jones
musician: drums: group: Small Faces, Faces: Stay with Me; group: The Who

1949 - Ed Begley Jr.
actor: St. Elsewhere, Parenthood, She-Devil, The Applegates, The Accidental Tourist, The In-Laws

1950 - David Bellamy
singer: duo: The Bellamy Brothers: Let Your Love Flow, If I Said You Had a Beautiful Body Would You Hold It Against Me; songwriter: Spiders and Snakes

1950 - Susan Ruttan
actress: L.A. Law, Sweet 15, A Perfect Little Murder, Funny About Love, Fire and Rain, Chances Are, Bad Dreams, Eye of the Demon, Bad Manners

1955 - Robin (R) Yount
Baseball Hall of Famer: Milwaukee Brewers outfielder

1956 - David Copperfield (Kotkin)
magician, illusionist

1956 - Mickey Rourke
actor: Body Heat, Diner, The Pope of Greenwich Village, Year of the Dragon, Nine Weeks, Barfly, Angel Heart, Johnny Handsome, Wild Orchid, Harley Davidson & The Marlboro Man

1958 - Orel (Leonard Quinton) Hershiser
baseball: pitcher: LA Dodgers , Cleveland Indians

1961 - Jennifer Tilly
actress: The Fabulous Baker Boys, The Webbers, The Getaway <1994>, Stuart Little, The Magnificent Ambersons

1963 - Richard Marx
singer, songwriter: Hazard, Children of the Night, Too Late to Say Goodbye, Keep Coming Back, Angelia , Take This Heart, Right Here Waiting, Satisfied , Hold on to the Nights, Endless Summer Nights, Should’ve Known Better, Don’t Mean Nothing

1964 - Molly Shannon
actress: Saturday Night Live

Chart Toppers
September 16
1950Mona Lisa - Nat King Cole
Goodnight Irene - The Weavers
Tzena, Tzena, Tzena - The Weavers
Goodnight Irene - Red Foley-Ernest Tubb

1958Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu (Volare) - Domenico Modugno
It’s All in the Game - Tommy Edwards
Rock-in Robin - Bobby Day
Bird Dog - The Everly Brothers

1966You Can’t Hurry Love - The Supremes
Yellow Submarine - The Beatles
Land of 1000 Dances - Wilson Pickett
Almost Persuaded - David Houston

1974I Shot the Sheriff - Eric Clapton
Rock Me Gently - Andy Kim
I’m Leavin It (All) Up to You - Donny & Marie Osmond
Please Don’t Tell Me How the Story Ends - Ronnie Milsap

1982Hard to Say I’m Sorry - Chicago
Jack & Diane - John Cougar
You Should Hear How She Talks About You - Melissa Manchester
She Got the Goldmine (I Got the Shaft) - Jerry Reed

1990Release Me - Wilson Phillips
Do Me! - Bell Biv DeVoe
Have You Seen Her - M.C. Hammer
Jukebox in My Mind - Alabama