THIS DAY IN HISTORY

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honorable mention



1972
Bobby Fischer defeated Boris Spassky to become the first native-born American to hold the title of world chess champion.



1914
The last known passenger pigeon died in the Cincinnati (Ohio) Zoo.

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This Day in History September 2



1945
World War II came to an end as Japanese Foreign Minister Shigemitsu Mamoru and General Umezu Yoshijiro signed Japan's formal surrender aboard the USS Missouri.

Birthdays
1966
Salma Hayek
Mexican American actress, director, and producer
1965
Lennox Lewis
British boxer
1960
Eric Dickerson
American football player
1948
Terry Bradshaw
American football player
1948
Christa Corrigan McAuliffe
American educator

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This Day in History September 3



1976
Viking 2's Mars landing
After a nearly yearlong journey, NASA's robotic spacecraft Viking 2 landed on Mars this day in 1976 and began relaying information about the planet's atmosphere and soil as well as colour photographs of the rocky surface.

Birthdays
1929
Whitey Bulger
American crime boss
1913
Alan Ladd
American actor
1875
Ferdinand Porsche
Austrian engineer

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This Day in History September 4



2006
Australian wildlife conservationist and television personality Steve Irwin, who achieved worldwide fame as the exuberant and risk-taking host of The Crocodile Hunter (1992–2006) TV series and related documentaries, was killed by a venomous bull stingray.

Birthdays
1981
Beyoncé
American singer
1917
Henry Ford II
American industrialist
1908
Richard Wright
American writer

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This Day in History September 5



1972
Palestinian terrorists attacked the Olympic Village in Munich, West Germany, during the Summer Olympic Games, taking hostages and eventually killing 11 members of the Israeli team.

the duane bobick, u.s. basketball team, mark spitz olympics. i remember this-including jim mckay being the guy in charge on tv. eventually he said "they're all gone". i don't remember hearing that quote in real time-but i saw it more than a couple times later.

Birthdays
1946
Freddie Mercury
British singer and songwriter
1942
Werner Herzog
German director
1929
Bob Newhart
American actor and comedian
1912
John Cage
American composer

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This Day in History September 6



1995
American professional baseball player Cal Ripken, Jr., played in his 2,131st consecutive game, surpassing Lou Gehrig's record, which had stood for more than 56 years.

Birthdays
1962
Chris Christie
American politician
1954
Carly Fiorina
American business executive and politician
1888
Joseph P. Kennedy
American businessman
1860
Jane Addams
American social reformer

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This Day in History September 7



1979
ESPN, a cable network dedicated to sports, debuted on American television.

Birthdays
1963
Eazy-E
American musician
1936
Buddy Holly
American musician
1924
Daniel Inouye
United States senator
1922
David Croft
British television writer and producer
1909
Elia Kazan
American director and author

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This Day in History September 8



1504
Michelangelo's the David was unveiled in the Piazza della Signoria in Florence; considered a masterpiece, the sculpture is one of the defining works of the Renaissance.

Birthdays
1941
Bernie Sanders
United States senator
1932
Patsy Cline
American singer
1925
Peter Sellers
British actor

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This Day in History September 9



1976
Death of Mao
Marxist revolutionary Mao Zedong, who died this day in 1976, emerged as the undisputed Chinese Communist Party leader following the Long March (1934–35) and dominated China in the period after the communist takeover in 1949.

Birthdays
1980
Michelle Williams
American actress
1975
Michael Bublé
Canadian singer
1967
Akshay Kumar
Indian actor
1966
Adam Sandler
American comedian
1960
Hugh Grant
British actor

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This Day in History September 10



1608
John Smith chosen president of Jamestown
Having survived capture by Indians (reputedly through the efforts of Pocahontas, a chief's daughter), John Smith became president of Jamestown colony, the first permanent English settlement in North America, this day in 1608.

Birthdays
1964
Jack Ma
Chinese entrepreneur
1949
Bill O'Reilly
American television and radio personality
1941
Stephen Jay Gould
American paleontologist
1939
Cynthia Lennon
British personality
1929
Arnold Palmer
American golfer

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This Day in History September 11



American professional baseball player Pete Rose registered his 4,192nd career hit, breaking the record set by Ty Cobb.

Spoiler:

who remembers the team he got it against? i think i do-no way on the pitcher though.

Birthdays
1977
Ludacris
American rapper
1970
Taraji P. Henson
American actress
1967
Harry Connick, Jr.
American musician and actor
1965
Bashar al-Assad
president of Syria
1917
Ferdinand Marcos
ruler of Philippines

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This Day in History September 12



1959
The TV series Bonanza premiered on NBC, and it became one of the longest-running westerns in broadcast history.

Birthdays
1981
Jennifer Hudson
American actress and singer
1980
Yao Ming
Chinese basketball player
1967
Louis C.K.
American comedian, writer, director, and producer
1913
Jesse Owens
American athlete
1880
H.L. Mencken
American writer

[The Lizard King]

[weimy froob]

good stuff.

[The Lizard King]

good stuff.

Spoiler:

Fight On!

Thanks.

[weimy froob]

This Day in History September 13



1857
Milton Snavely Hershey, founder of the Hershey Chocolate Company, was born in Pennsylvania.

How much do you know about Hershey's chocolate?

Spoiler:

Following an incomplete rural school education, Hershey was apprenticed at age 15 to a confectioner in Lancaster, Pa. After completing his apprenticeship in 1876 he set up his own candy shop in Philadelphia, but the venture failed six years later. After an attempt to manufacture candy in New York City also ended in failure, Hershey returned to Lancaster, where his innovative use of fresh milk in caramels proved enormously successful. He set up the Lancaster Caramel Company, which continued to make caramels in the 1890s while Hershey became increasingly interested in chocolate making. In 1900 Hershey sold his caramel company for $1,000,000, after which he concentrated on perfecting a formula for chocolate bars. In 1903 he began building at the site of what became Hershey, Pa., a factory that became the world’s largest chocolate manufacturing plant. Based on the popularity of its milk chocolate bars, his new company grew rapidly despite Hershey’s refusal to advertise its products. The company town of Hershey received many public amenities under his firm but benevolent control. In 1918 Hershey turned over the bulk of his fortune to the M.S. Hershey Foundation, which supports the Milton Hershey School, a vocational school founded by him.

Birthdays
1973
Fabio Cannavaro
Italian football player
1969
Tyler Perry
American playwright, actor, screenwriter, producer, and director
1969
Shane Warne
Australian cricketer
1916
Roald Dahl
British author

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This Day in History September 14



1847
Mexico City captured by U.S. forces
U.S. General Winfield Scott's advance on Mexico City was marked by an unbroken series of victories that culminated this day in 1847, when he entered Mexico City and ended the military phase of the Mexican-American War.

Birthdays
1983
Amy Winehouse
British singer-songwriter
1973
Nas
American rapper and songwriter
1965
Dmitry Medvedev
president of Russia
1940
Larry Brown
American basketball player and coach
1879
Margaret Sanger
American social reformer

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This Day in History September 15



1949
The Lone Ranger, originally a radio series, debuted on television, with Clayton Moore as the renegade lawman and Jay Silverheels as Tonto.

Birthdays
1984
Prince Harry, duke of Sussex
British prince
1961
Dan Marino
American athlete
1946
Oliver Stone
American director, producer, and screenwriter
1890
Agatha Christie
British author
1857
William Howard Taft
president and chief justice of United States

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This Day in History September 16



Mayflower's departure for America
On this date in 1620, English colonists aboard the Mayflower set sail for America, where they founded Plymouth, Massachusetts, after 41 men, including William Bradford and Myles Standish, signed the Mayflower Compact.

for those with shaky math skills that's four hundred years ago. a very historical anniversary too.

Birthdays
1927
Peter Falk
American actor
1925
B.B. King
American musician
1924
Lauren Bacall
American actress
1923
Lee Kuan Yew
prime minister of Singapore
1891
Karl Dönitz
German naval commander

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This Day in History September 17



1972
The American TV series M*A*S*H, based on the Robert Altman film (1970), debuted on CBS, and the show was hugely popular with both critics and viewers.

Birthdays
1985
Alex Ovechkin
Russian hockey player
1950
Narendra Modi
prime minister of India
1945
Phil Jackson
American basketball player and coach
1944
Reinhold Messner
Italian explorer
1935
Ken Kesey
American author

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This Day in History September 18



1965
Japanese astronomers Ikeya Kaoru and Seki Tsutomu discovered Comet Ikeya-Seki.

Birthdays
1971
Lance Armstrong
American cyclist
1961
James Gandolfini
American actor
1954
Steven Pinker
Canadian-American psychologist
1951
Ben Carson
American neurosurgeon and politician
1905
Greta Garbo
Swedish American actress

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This Day in History September 19



1995
The Unabomber's manifesto—a 35,000-word antitechnology document written by Ted Kaczynski, who had launched a bombing campaign that killed 3 and wounded 23—was published in The New York Times and The Washington Post; the manifesto helped lead to his capture.

Birthdays
1974
Jimmy Fallon
American comedian and television host
1965
Sunita Williams
American astronaut
1949
Twiggy
British fashion model
1911
William Golding
British novelist
1551
Henry III
king of France and Poland

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This Day in History September 20



1973
In a much-publicized “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match, Billie Jean King defeated Bobby Riggs.

Birthdays
1954
Lloyd Blankfein
American executive
1948
George R.R. Martin
American writer
1934
Sophia Loren
Italian actress
1917
Red Auerbach
American coach
1899
Leo Strauss
American political philosopher

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This Day in History September 21



1937
English writer J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, a coming-of-age fantasy that became a classic, was published. I'm reading LOTR now and should finish it this week. I need to put in a request with the library for The Hobbit.

Birthdays
1967
Faith Hill
American singer
1954
Abe Shinzo
prime minister of Japan
1950
Bill Murray
American comedian and actor
1947
Stephen King
American novelist
1934
Leonard Cohen
Canadian musician and author

[ForCaleb]

Justice O'Connor was confirmed 39 years ago TODAY.... by a vote of 99-0

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This Day in History September 22



1980
Solidarity formed
Solidarity, the Polish trade union and political party that became a hotbed of resistance to Soviet control, was founded this day in 1980 when delegates of 36 unions met and united under the leadership of Lech Wałęsa.

Birthdays
1976
Ronaldo
Brazilian athlete
1958
Andrea Bocelli
Italian singer
1957
Nick Cave
Australian musician and author
1906
Ilse Koch
German war criminal
1791
Michael Faraday
British physicist and chemist

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This Day in History September 23



1969
The American film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid had its world premiere, and it became a western classic, especially noted for the pairing of Paul Newman and Robert Redford as the titular outlaws.

Birthdays
1949
Bruce Springsteen
American singer, songwriter, and bandleader
1943
Julio Iglesias
Spanish singer and songwriter
1930
Ray Charles
American musician
1926
John Coltrane
American musician
1920
Mickey Rooney
American actor

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This Day in History September 24



1968
The prime-time American television news show 60 Minutes debuted; created by Don S. Hewitt and featuring such reporters as Mike Wallace, it became one of the most successful programs in broadcast history.

Birthdays
1954
Ashton Carter
American physicist and government official
1936
Jim Henson
American puppeteer
1911
Konstantin Chernenko
president of Soviet Union
1902
Ruhollah Khomeini
Iranian religious leader
1896
F. Scott Fitzgerald
American writer

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This Day in History September 25



1513
Pacific Ocean sighted by Balboa
On this day (or two days later) in 1513, Spanish conquistador and explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa, standing “silent, upon a peak in Darién,” on the Isthmus of Panama, became the first European to sight the Pacific Ocean.

Birthdays
1969
Catherine Zeta-Jones
Welsh actress
1968
Will Smith
American actor and musician
1965
Scottie Pippen
American basketball player
1944
Michael Douglas
American actor and producer
1906
Dmitri Shostakovich
Russian composer

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This Day in History September 26



1960
First televised U.S. presidential debate
The first in a series of historic televised debates (seen by some 85 to 120 million viewers) between U.S. presidential candidates John F. Kennedy and Vice President Richard M. Nixon was broadcast this day in 1960.

Birthdays
1981
Serena Williams
American tennis player
1932
Manmohan Singh
prime minister of India
1898
George Gershwin
American composer
1889
Martin Heidegger
German philosopher
1888
T.S. Eliot
American-English poet, playwright, and literary critic