1931 The birth of Anthony Newley, actor, singer and songwriter. He won the 1963 Grammy Award for Song of the Year for 'What Kind of Fool Am I?' He also wrote songs that others made hits including the title song for the James Bond film 'Goldfinger'.

 

1991 - American alternative rock group Nirvana released its breakthrough album Nevermind, which helped make grunge an international phenomenon and gave voice to Generation X.

 

24th September

1941 - The Japanese consul in Hawaii was instructed to divide Pearl Harbor into five zones and calculate the number of battleships in each zone.

1942 - Glenn Miller ended his broadcasts for Chesterfield Cigarettes so he could go to World War II.

1948 - Mildred Gillars, known as "Axis Sally," pled innocent to charges of treason. She ended up serving 12 years for being a Nazi wartime radio propagandist.

 

On this day in history, September 24, 1934, Babe Ruth plays his last game for the New York Yankees
Across his career, Babe Ruth hit 714 home runs during 22 seasons in Major League Baseball.


While playing for the New York Yankees, Babe Ruth became baseball's most prominent player and set many records.

 

On Septemer 25, 1976 Bono, David Evans (The Edge), his brother Dik, and Adam Clayton (bass) respond to an advertisement on a bulletin board at Mount Temple which simply read 'Drummer seeks musicians to form band,' posted by fellow student, 14 year-old Larry Mullen Jr (drums), to form a rock band. Mullen had bveen urged to post the ad by his father.

The young men got together in a kitchen at Mullens' family home on the Northside of Dublin. There is no report of the songs they played, but the group did play together for the first time that day - mostly songs they were all familiar with and personal favourites. That group would go on to become The Hype, then changed their band name to Feedback, and finally settled on U2.




Their first album as U2, 'Boy', came out on October 20, 1980 and was well received, producing their first single that hit the charts, 'I Will Follow.'

 

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.

 

Sept. 25, 1957, nine Black students who’d been forced to withdraw from Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, because of unruly white crowds were escorted to class by members of the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division.

 

1789: Bill of Rights adopted. The US Congress passes 12 amendments to the nation's constitution, ensuring protections for individual liberties, including the freedom of speech and the press, the right to assembly, and the right to exercise religion. Ten of the amendments, comprising the Bill of Rights, will be ratified by the states.

 

25 Sept 1945

The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was shut down five days after President Truman signed Executive Order 9621, terminating the organization.

 

On Septemeber 26, 1960, CBS's WBBM-TV in Chicago was the first station to ever air a general election presidential debate, between Senator John F. Kennedy, and Eisenhower's Vice President Richard Nixon.

Television forever changed the way politics would be played. The visual of handsome JFK vs. a sweaty, oily-looking Nixon swayed public support. It was said at the time that if you heard the debate on the radio, you would say Nixon won, but if you saw it on TV, JFK won.

 

1969: Abbey Road released. Attempting to set aside personal and artistic tensions, the Beatles have returned to the studio for the last recording sessions in which all four members participate. On its release today in the UK, Abbey Road will see mixed critical reviews, but fans will make this swan song the Beatles' best-selling album.

 

1962 - The American TV series The Beverly Hillbillies debuted on CBS, becoming one of the most popular sitcoms of the 1960s.

 

26 Sept 1945

In direct defiance of President Truman's order to disband the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), Assistant Secretary of War John McCloy and Brigadier General John Magruder activated a new organization, the Strategic Services Unit, in which key operatives of the former OSS were placed.

 

Today Brooks Robinson passed away. The best third baseman ever. I am a lifelong Yankee fan but I am rooting for the Orioles.

 

On September 27, 1964, The Beach Boys made their TV debut on 'The Ed Sullivan Show' where they performed their first US #1 hit single 'I Get Around' and 'Wendy'.

Apparently, Ed's staff had forgotten to designate spaces in the Ed Sullivan Theater's parking structure for the band's automobiles...

 

1777 - During the American Revolution, the Continental Congress, having fled Philadelphia, held a session in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, making the city the capital of the American colonies for one day.

 

1964: Warren report is published.
The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy release their final conclusions to the public. The Associated Press publishes the book containing the Warren Commission's conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone when he killed President John F. Kennedy.

 

On September 28, 1781, the American and French forces under the leadership of General George Washington and Lieutenant General Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, respectively, arrived near Yorktown and immediately began the hard work of laying siege to General Lord Charles Cornwallis and his men.

Cornwallis had thrown up a series of fortifications on the outskirts of Yorktown while the majority of his men took defensive positions in the town itself.

Meanwhile, the American and French troops began to dig a series of parallel trenches, which brought troops and artillery close enough to inflict damage on the British. By creating a perimeter line of trenches they encircled and trapped the British in the town. As the work on the parallels continued, the British attempted to disrupt the American and French operations by using what little artillery they had left. Their attempts proved futile.

Meanwhile, Rochambeau's navy successfully blocked the Royal Navy in Yorktown's harbor, cutting off the possibility of Cornwallis' ability to reinforce his troops, re-supply, or flee.

The seige would lead to the British surrender on October 19, effectively bringing the Revolutionary War to a close and ending the era of British rule in America.

 

1920 - In what became known as the Black Sox Scandal, eight members of the Chicago White Sox baseball team were indicted by a grand jury on charges that they had thrown the 1919 World Series to the Cincinnati Reds in return for a bribe.

 

1928: Penicillin is discovered.
On his return from vacation, Scottish biologist Alexander Fleming finds a staphylococci culture has been sullied by a mold that is destroying the bacteria. With this accidental discovery, Fleming has found penicillin, an antibiotic that will change the world and save countless lives.