Happy Birfday !

I hope you and Hersch have a rootin’-tootin’ good time today!

Other things that happened on this day –

1909 – Major League Baseball’s first unassisted triple play in was executed by Cleveland Indians’ shortstop Neal Ball in a game against Boston.

1914 – As the Braves went fro worst to first in the National League, Boston began what was called its miracle drive. They would go on to win the pennant and the World Series.

1926 – At the Eastern Open tournament, Walter Hagen scored a 132 for 36 holes of golf, setting a world’s record for a low tourney score.

1939 – The first surgeon to use fiberglass sutures was Dr. Roy P. Scholz of St. Louis, Missouri.

1939 – “Aunt Hagar’s Blues” was recorded by Jack Teagarden and his orchestra for Columbia Records. Vocals for the session recorded in Chicago, Illinois, were provide by Teagarden.

1942 – Shastakovich’s “The Seventh Symphony” was first performed in the United States by Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony Orchestra.

1946 – Marilyn Monroe did her first screen test. She passed and was signed to her first contract with Twentieth Century-Fox Studios. Of her 29 films, the first was “Scudda-Hoo! Scudda-Hay!”

1948 – On CBS radio, “Our Miss Brooks”, starring Eve Arden and Gale Gordon, debuted. Arden played Connie Brooks, the title character. The program was on the radio until 1957, running simultaneously on television as well from 1952 to 1956.

1949 – Singer Harry Belafonte began his recording career with Capitol Records. The first recorded sessions included: “They Didn’t Believe Me” and “Close Your Eyes.” Shortly there after, Capitol said Belafonte wasn’t “commercial enough,” and left him go. He went on to sign with RCA Victor for what would be a productive and very commercial career.

1950 – Walt Disney released the film, Treasure Island, to theaters. The film, filmed on location in England, starred child-actor Bobby Driscoll as Jim Hawkins and Robert Newton as Long John Silver.

1951 – Citation, the famous thoroughbred race horse retired from racing.

1951 – The screen version of the Kern-Hammerstein musical, Show Boat, starring Kathryn Grayson, Howard Keel, and Ava Gardner, premiered in New York.

1954 – Sun Records officially released Elvis Presley’s debut single, That’s All Right, backed with Blue Moon of Kentucky.

1960 – San Francisco Giant Juan Marichal became the first pitcher to get a one-hitter in his debut in the major leagues. As the Giants beat the Philadelphia Phillies, Marichal allowed just one hit, a double in the eighth inning.

1966 – At age 50, singer and actor Frank Sinatra married 20-year-old actress Mia Farrow at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas. The May-December marriage caused a stir in Hollywood circles. Two years later, while Farrow was filming Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby, Sinatra sent his lawyer to the movie set to inform his wife that he was filing for divorce.

1980 – Billy Joel was awarded his first ever gold record for “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me,” which hit the top of the “Billboard” pop music chart. He would see more million-sellers with “Just the Way You Are,” “My Life,” “Uptown Girl” written for girlfriend and later, wife, supermodel Christie Brinkley, and “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” In 1983, Joel would reach the #1 spot one last time, with “Tell Her About It.”

1984 – The Democratic Pary nominated Geraldine Ferraro to become the first woman from a major political party to run for the United States Vice-President office. At age 48, Ferraro campaigned with presidential hopeful Walter “Fritz” Mondale from Minnesota. They would loose the election by a landslide to Republicans Ronald Reagan and George Bush.

1985 – Durhame, North Carolina native George Bell of Durham, claimed the title “Big Foot” with his size 28-1/2 shoe. George was the first place winner in a biggest feet contest, when at the age of 26, he stood 7 feet 10 inches tall.

1985 – In the first 3 days of its re-release, two years after its initial release, “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial” grossed an additional $8.8 million. That weekend, the film would place second behind another Steven Spielberg film, “Back to the Future.”

1986 – The electro-pop trio Berlin’s recording of “Take My Breath Away” entered the pop record charts. It was used as the love theme in the Paramount hit film, “Top Gun.” It stayed on Billboard’s charts for 13 weeks, and was Number 1 for one week. It later received the Best Song Oscar.

1987 – New York Yankee, Don Mattingly, tied the major league record of set in 1956 by Dale Long when he failed to get a home run after 8 consecutive games of hitting round-trippers.

1989 – Of the 293 passengers and crew, 181 people survived the crash of an United Airline DC-10 airplane. The pilot of Flight 232, headed for Chicago, reported problems to the Sioux City, Iowa airport half an hour before it slammed into its runway. So many survived the fire-ridden crash thanks to the prepared emergency personnel.

1990 – Baseball great Pete Rose was sentenced to 18 months in prison, fined $50,000 and ordered to perform 1,000 hours of community service for filing false income tax returns.

1994 – Leesa Anne Roland filed a physical battery suit against actor James Caan. She contended Caan attacked her May 15 at Los Angeles’ Century City Inn after she wouldn’t say who she talking to on the phone. Her suit contended he “punched her several times, picked her up by the neck with both of his hands, choking her, and threw her into the hallway.” Reportedly, she and Caan had been dating and they checked into the hotel the night before the alleged attack. Caan’s lawyer said Roland’s allegations were not true

also born on this day –

1834
Edgar Degas
Impressionist artist d: 1917

1865
Charles Mayo
surgeon d: 1939

1896
A.J. [Archibald Joseph] Cronin
author d: 1981

1913
Charles Teagarden
trumpeter, bandleader d: 1964

1919
Eve Merriam
playwright, poet, author d: 1992

1921
Rosalyn Yalow
Nobel Prize-winner for Physiology/Medicine [1977]

1922
George McGovern
U.S. Senator and 1972 presidential contender

1926
Helen Gallagher
actress

1926
Pat Hingle
actor

1926
Sue Thompson [Eva McKee]
singer

1935
Philip Agee
CIA agent, author

1937
George Hamilton IV
singer

1938
Richard Jordan
actor

1941
Natalya Bessmertnova
prima ballerina

1941
Vikki Carr [Florencia Bisenta deCasilla Martinez Cardona]
singer

1943
Dennis Cole
actor

1945
Craig Cameron
hockey

1946
Alan Gorrie
musician, bassist, singer

1946
Ilie Nastase
tennis champion

1947
Bernie Leadon
musician, guitarist, singer

1947
Brian Harold May
musician, guitarist

1952
Allen Collins
musician, guitarist

1962
Anthony Edwards
actor

sometime a bit later…. Zoe! 🙂

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