| On September 30, 1452, that the first book printed with moveable metal type came off the press invented by Johann Gutenberg in Mainz, Germany. It was a Latin Bible printed in 42-line pages. A hundred or so were printed on vellum, and of the 47 surviving copies, the finest known was acquired by the Library of Congress, in Washington, DC, in 1930. |
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| Crusoe joins an expedition to bring slaves from Africa, but he is shipwrecked in a storm about forty miles out to sea on an island near the mouth of the Orinoco river on September 30, 1659. His companions all die; he manages to fetch arms, tools and other supplies from the ship before it breaks apart and sinks. He proceeds to build a fenced-in habitation and cave, keeps a calendar by making marks in a piece of wood. He hunts, grows corn, learns to make pottery, raises goats, etc. He reads the Bible and slowly becomes religious, thanking God for his fate in which nothing is missing but society. |
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| On September 26, British troops occupied the erstwhile capital of the United States. When the Continental Congress convened on September 30, 1777, it did so in the county seat of York County, about 100 miles from its home in Philadelphia, then promptly adjourned. |
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| Mozart wrote on "The Magic Flute" from March until July and in September, 1791. September, 1791. The first performance of "The Magic Flute" took place on September 30, 1791 at the Theater auf de Wieden. |
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| On the evening of September 30, 1846, Mr. Eben Frost, suffering from a violent toothache, called upon Dr. William Thomas Green Morton. Dr. Morton administered ether and extracted the tooth. Less than three weeks later, the so-called "Death of Pain" took place on October 16, when Dr. Morton etherized a patient before Dr. John Collins Warren, senior surgeon at the Massachusetts General Hospital, removed a tumor from his neck. |
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| Henry Draper also had many firsts in his short life. He took the first photograph of an astronomical nebula, recording the Great Nebula of Orion on the night of September 30, 1880...the first stellar spectrum photograph, which he took of Vega in August 1872, the first wide-angle photograph of a comet's tail, and the first spectrum of a comet's head, both of these with Tebbutt's Comet in 1881. Draper also invented the slit spectrograph and pushed the state of the art in photography, instrumental optics, and telescope clock drives. |
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| New York became a consolidated city consisting of five boroughs in 1898. Manhattan and the Bronx, though still one county, were established as two separate boroughs and joined together with three other boroughs created from parts of adjacent counties to form the new municipal government originally called "Greater New York". The Borough of Brooklyn incorporated the independent City of Brooklyn, recently joined to Manhattan by the Brooklyn Bridge, and several municipalities in eastern Kings County, New York; the Borough of Queens was created from western Queens County (with the remnant established as Nassau County in 1899); and The Borough of Staten Island contained all of Richmond County. |
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| In the opener of a doubleheader, Giants pitcher Rube Benton takes a no hitter into the 8th inning before Braves 1B Ed Konetchy repeats his performance of two days ago by lacing a hit, the only Boston safety. Benton wins the one-hitter, 4-0 for New York's record 26th win in a row. Boston then wins the 2nd game, 8-3, behind Lefty Tyler to snap the historic streak. Jeff Tesreau, in relief of Slim Sallee, is ineffective. Despite the winning streak, and an earlier skein of 17 victories on the road, New York finishes in 4th place. |
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| Babe Ruth scaled the hitherto unattainable heights this day. Home run 60, a terrific smash off the southpaw pitching of Zachary, nestled in the Babe's favorite spot in the right-field bleachers, and before the roar had ceased it was found that this drive not only had made home run record history but also was the winning margin in a 4 to 2 victory over the Senators. |
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| In 1929, an early manned rocket-powered flight was made by German auto maker Fritz von Opel. His Sander RAK 1 was a glider powered by sixteen 50 pound thrust rockets. In it, Opel made a successful flight of 75 seconds, covering almost 2 miles near Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany. This was his final foray as a rocket pioneer, having begun by making several test runs (some in secret) of rocket propelled vehicles. He reached a speed of 238 km/h (148 mph) on the Avus track in Berlin on May 23, 1928, with the RAK 2. Subsequently, riding the RAK3 on rails, he pushed the world speed record up to 254 km/h (158 mph). |
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| Aimed at listeners in rural America, it was known as "the farmer's bulletin board" and was produced by the United States Department of Agriculture with input from various farmer organizations (American Farm Bureau, 4-H Club, Farmers Union, Future Farmers of America, National Grange). With live coverage of livestock expositions, harvest festivals and "the most spectacular happenings in agricultural America," the program offered tips to farmers, music and news, plus advice from agencies and government officials. The series first aired on Pittsburgh's KDKA (1928-29), moving to the Blue Network/ABC from September 30, 1929 to March 17, 1945, usually heard at mid-day, six days a week at 12:30. Sponsored by Allis Chalmers, it continued on NBC as a 30-minute show on Saturdays from September 15, 1945 to January 25, 1958. |
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| Death Valley Days began its radio life on September 30, 1930, sponsored by 20 Mule Team Borax and heard over the NBC Blue Network. In 1941, the series transferred to CBS and continued until July of 1945 when it ended with the 724th broadcast. The prgram was renamed to Death Valley Sheriff and continued airing from August 10, 1944 until June 21, 1945. |
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| The theme song was Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here and it opened the National Barn Dance. The half-hour country music and comedy show, originally heard on WLS, Chicago since 1924, moved to the NBC Blue network this night. National Barn Dance was broadcast from the Eighth Street Theater in Chicago, where the stage was transformed into a hayloft every Saturday night. The host was Joe Kelly. Uncle Ezra was played by Pat Barrett who was known to say, "Give me a toot on the tooter, Tommy," as he started dancing. A few of the other Barn Dance characters were Arkie, the Arkansas Woodchopper; Pokey Martin; the Hoosier Hotshots; the Prairie Ramblers; cowgirl, Patsy Montana; Pat Buttram; Lulu Belle and the Cumberland Road Runners. Gene Autry and Red Foley were heard early in their careers on National Barn Dance. Although there were plenty of sponsors (Alka Seltzer, One-A-Day vitamins, Phillips Milk of Magnesia), the National Barn Dance was one of the few radio shows to charge admission! |
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| In 1935, the Boulder Dam, Boulder City, Nev. was dedicated. The concrete-arch dam, subsequently named Hoover Dam (1947), supplied the first U.S. hydroelectric plant to produce a million kilowatts. This production peak occurred in June 1943, though the first of its four generators was placed into operation on 26 Oct 1936. The power serves the Los Angeles area. |
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| There were tryouts in Boston before proceeding to New York, and here the first of a number of unfortunate cuts were made to trim "Porgy" down to Broadway size, including the opening "Jazzbo Brown" sequence, the "Buzzard Song" and the wrenching lament in the finale, "Oh Bess, Oh Where's My Bess?" The pared-down opera opened in Boston on September 30, 1935, to audience and critical acclaim. "Gershwin's most important contribution to music," said the Christian Science Monitor. "Gershwin must now be accepted as a serious composer," noted the Boston Transcript. The New York opening followed on Oct. 10. The Manhattan audience was just as enthusiastic, but the New York press was not. |
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| "Calling all cars..." The Adventures of Dick Tracy came to radio for the first time -- on the Mutual Radio Network. Based on the comic strip created by Chester Gould, the 15-minute adventure show was heard Monday thru Friday at 5:45 p.m. The sponsors were Quaker Puffed Wheat and Quaker Puffed Rice. |
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| Captain Midnight was heard on radio for the first time -- on Mutual. The Captain flew his single-engine plane all over the place fighting crime. Talk about a popular show: Ovaltine dropped its sponsorship of Little Orphan Annie to climb on board with Captain Midnight. The show was also sponsored by Skelly Oil. |
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| The first televised college football game occurred during the "experimental" era of television's broadcasting history, when a game between Fordham University and Waynesburg College was broadcast on September 30, 1939. One month later, on October 23, 1939, Kansas State's homecoming contest against the University of Nebraska was the second to be broadcast. The following season, on October 5, 1940, what is described as the "first commercially televised game" between the University of Maryland and the University of Pennsylvania was broadcast by Philco. Fairly sporadic broadcasts continued throughout World War II. |
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| "Look sharp ... feel sharp..." The World Series came to television for the first time. The New York Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers 5-3. The Gillette Safety Razor Company and Ford Motor Company were the sponsors. Together, they paid $65,000 for coverage of the entire series! Announcers: Bob Edge (who also did the razor commercials), Bob Stanton and Bill Slater. |
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| At the height of the operation, on April 16, 1949, an allied aircraft landed in Berlin every minute, with 1,398 flights in 24 hours carrying 12,940 tons of goods, coal and machinery, beating the record of 8,246 set only days earlier. The USSR lifted its blockade at midnight, on May 11, 1949. However, the airlift did not end until September 30, as the Western states wanted to build up sufficient amounts of supplies in West Berlin in case the Soviets blockaded it again. |
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| The first result of their Decca contract was a collection of Christmas songs issued on a 10" LP, which didn't attract much attention. But their second session yielded a pair of songs, "Tzena Tzena Tzena," which got to number two, and "Goodnight Irene," which hit number one and stayed there for 13 weeks, and ended up selling two million copies as a double-sided hit single. Cut just before the group left the Vanguard in June of 1950, the two songs caught everyone by surprise with their sudden success. |
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| "Thank you and may God bless." The Red Skelton Show debuted on NBC-TV (almost 10 years to the day after Red made his radio debut). America's 'Clown Prince of Comedy' was a hit for years on radio and an even bigger one on TV with characters like The Mean Wittle Kid ("I dood it!"), Clem Kadiddlehopper, Sheriff Deadeye, Cauliflower McPugg, Willie Lump-Lump, San Fernando Red, Bolivar Shagnasty and Freddie the Freeloader. Later, he would move to CBS-TV. Overall, The Red Skelton Show remained a fixture on U.S. television for 20 years. |
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| In the first of two games, the Giants beat Robin Robers and the Phils, 8-3. Roberts serves up homers to pitcher Al Worthington, who hits his only ML homer, and a pair to Bill White and has now thrown 46 gophers, a new ML record. He also fails in his bid to win 20 for the 6th straight year. |
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| Premiering on ABC on 30 September 1960, it gained high ratings in its first season, thus establishing animation as a viable prime time format. Produced by Hanna-Barbera (Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera), The Flintstones was patterned after Jackie Gleason's "The Honeymooners." Fred and Wilma Flintstone and their best friends, Barney and Betty Rubble, lived in the prehistoric city of Bedrock but faced the problems of contemporary working-class life. After a day at the rock quarry, Fred and Barney arrived home in a vehicle with stone wheels and a fringe on top. Their lives revolved around their home, friends, and leisure activities: a world of drive-ins, bowling, and their "Water Buffalo" lodge. |
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| "The Howdy Doody Show," the first nationally aired children's program, debuted in 1947 on NBC with the marionette and Buffalo Bob Smith, his human companion, taking the stage. The residents of Doodyville, the imaginary western town, amused television viewers and an audience composed of 40 enthusiastic youngsters known as the "Peanut Gallery". With a combination of fantasy and slapstick, Howdy Doody and his companions charmed spectators with over 2,000 episodes until its final show on September 30, 1960. It was on this date that Clarabell the Clown, Lew Anderson, broke his silence to say good-bye to the kids. |
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| Vee's third single, "Devil or Angel," hit the Top Ten in mid-1960, followed by "Rubber Ball" later that year. One year later, Vee's biggest hit, "Take Good Care of My Baby," spent three weeks at number one, followed by the number two "Run to Him." His fame appeared to wane after the 1962 Top Ten single "The Night Has a Thousand Eyes," due in large part to the success of the Beatles and other English acts. |
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| P Bill Fischer of the Athletics concludes a major-league record string of 841/3 consecutive innings without allowing a base on balls, a record that tops Christy Mathewson's mark. Fischer walks Bubba Morton on four straight pitches and loses a 6-1 decision to Detroit. |
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| BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and is the most popular station in the UK. The station started at 7:00am on September 30, 1967, and succeeded the Light Programme, with some of the Light's music shows transferring to the newly-launched Radio 1. |
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| The Box Tops are remembered not only for their smashes "The Letter" and "Cry Like a Baby," but as the launching pad for singer Alex Chilton, who went on to become one of rock's most revered cult figures thanks to his groundbreaking power pop unit Big Star. The first single the group cut, "The Letter," rocketed to the top of the charts in 1967, not only spending four weeks at number one but ending up as Billboard magazine's number one single of the year. |
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| On September 30, 1968, Boeing rolls out the first 747 "Jumbo Jet" in Everett, Washington. The aircraft, originally designed to haul both cargo and passengers for PanAm Airways, was derived in part from Boeing's bid for the Air Force C-5A jet transport, which it lost to Lockheed on September 21, 1965. In order to assemble the flying behemoth, Boeing built the world's largest structure by volume, enclosing 291 million cubic feet, at Paine Field in Everett. |
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| The Senators draw 14,000 for their final game in Washington, with another 4,000 crashing. Dick Bosman gives up homers to Bobby Murcer, Roy White, and Rusty Torres and the Nats are down 5-1 in the 6th. Mike Kekich then grooves a fastball for Frank Howard, who parks his 26th homer, and thanks ThurmanMunson as he crosses the plate. The Senators take a 7-5 lead, and after Murcer makes the 2nd out in the 9th, fans swarm onto the field, causing the game to be forfeited to the Yanks, 9-0. All records stand but reliever Paul Lindblad losses the W by not recording the 3rd out, batter Horace Clarke. Of the Senators, Jeff Burroughs will be the last to retire, finishing up in 1985. |
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| In 1972, Davis scored a number one pop hit with "Baby, Don't Get Hooked on Me," which also reached the country Top 20. His crossover success continued throughout the decade, with singles like 1974's "Stop and Smell the Roses," 1975's "Burnin' Thing," and the following year's "Forever Lovers" scoring with listeners in both camps. |
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| After their first pop-chart entry with the minor hit "Try It On," Exile switched to Warner Bros., with a lineup that now featured J.P. Pennington, Jimmy Stokley, Buzz Cornelison, second keyboardist Marlon Hargis, bassist Sonny LeMaire, and drummer Steve Goetzman. Their 1978 label debut, Mixed Emotions, produced an enormous hit in the disco-tinged pop number "Kiss You All Over," which topped the charts and also proved to be their only major success. |
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| The gang down at the Boston Beacon Street neighborhood bar called Cheers brought their antics into our homes beginning this night. Cheers was the place "Where Everyone Knows Your Name" as the theme song, written by Judy Hart Angelo and Gary Portnoy, told us. And we got to know everyone's name like they were family. The original cast included owner/bartender Sam Malone, played by Ted Danson, his helper Ernie 'Coach Pantusso' (Nicholas Colasanto), waitresses Diane Chambers (Shelley Long) and Carla Tortelli LeBec (Rhea Perlman), and the regulars -- Norm Peterson (George Wendt) and Cliff Clavin (John Ratzenberger). |
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| In 1982, H. Ross Perot and Jay Colburn completed the first circumnavigation of the world in a helicopter, the "Spirit of Texas." Their journey began 29 days, 3 hours, and 8 minutes earlier on September 1. For their trip around the world, which began and ended in Fort Worth, Texas, Perot and Coburn flew a Long Ranger with full navigation equipment, survival gear, and emergency items. Pop-out floats were added, and a 151-gallon auxiliary fuel tank in place of the rear seat was used to enable the Spirit of Texas to fly eight hours without refueling. An Allison 250-C28B turbine engine performed flawlessly for 246.5 hours of flight, flying more than 10 hours a day, over open ocean, barren desert, and tropical rain forest with an average ground speed of 117 mph. |
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| "Doonesbury" is a comic strip by Garry Trudeau, popular in the United States and other parts of the world. It chronicles the adventures and lives of a vast array of different characters, of different ages, professions, and backgrounds- from the President of the United States to the title character, Michael Doonesbury, a struggling middle aged single father. The strip underwent a significant change after Trudeau returned to it from a 22 month hiatus, during which he helped create a Doonesbury Broadway production. Prior to the hiatus, the strip's characters had aged at the tectonically slow rate that is standard for comic strips. But when Trudeau returned to "Doonesbury," the characters began to age in something close to real time, as in "Gasoline Alley" and "For Better or For Worse." |
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| On the final day of the regular season, California's Mike Witt fans 10 and needs just 97 pitches to complete a perfect game 1-0 over Texas. Witt's gem is the first 9-inning perfect game in Angels history and the first in the major leagues since Len Barker's in 1981. |
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| Mikhail S. Gorbachev forced retirement on President Andrei A. Gromyko and fired other old-guard leaders in a Kremlin shakeup. |
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| Nolan Ryan strikes out 13 Angels in a 2-0 three-hitter to raise his season total to 301. It is his 6th 300-strikeout season, but first since 1977. In 1989, he went 16-10 and led the league with 301 strikeouts. |
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| Milli Vanilli's first album, All or Nothing, was released in Europe in 1988 and was an instant success. Retitled Girl You Know It's True (after the lead single) and trimmed a bit, the record was issued in the U.S. in early 1989. Its catchy, lightweight pop-rap proved equally popular with American audiences; "Girl You Know It's True" raced up the pop charts to number two, and the next three Milli Vanilli singles -- "Baby Don't Forget My Number," the ballad "Girl I'm Gonna Miss You," and the Diane Warren-penned "Blame It on the Rain" -- all hit number one. |
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| George Brett of the Royals gets the 3,000th hit of his career, stroking four safeties in Kansas City's 4-0 win over California. Moments later, Brett is picked off base by Tim Fortugno. Rick Reed is the winner, firing the 2nd successive shutout for the Royals. |
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| "Fantasy" samples "Genius Of Love," a 1981 hit by The Tom Tom Club. Mariah directed the video. There were no directors she wanted to work with at the time. This was Mariah's 9th #1 hit in the US. |
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1452 First book published, Johann
Guttenberg's Bible
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1659 Robinson Crusoe is shipwrecked (according
to Defoe)
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1777 Congress, flees to York PA, as British forces
advance
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1791 Mozart's opera "The Magic Flute"
premiers in Vienna
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1846 Anesthetic ether used for first time (Dr
Wm Morton extracts a tooth)
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1880 Henry Draper takes that first photograph
of the Orion Nebula
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1898 City of NY established
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1916 Giants lose to Braves 8-3, ends 26 consecutive
win streak
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1927 Babe Ruth hits record setting 60th HR (off
Tom Zachary)
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1929 First manned rocket plane flight (by auto
maker Fritz von Opel)
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1929 "The National Farm and Home Hour"
debuted on NBC radio
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1930 "Death Valley Days" premiered
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1933 "National Barn Dance" debuted
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1935 FDR dedicates Boulder Dam (Hoover Dam)
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1935 Gershwin's "Porgy & Bess" premiers
in Boston
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1935 "The Adventures of Dick Tracy" aired on the
Mutual Radio Network
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1939 "Captain Midnight" was heard on
radio for the first time -- on Mutual
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1939 First televised college football game (Fordham
vs Waynesburg at NYC)
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1947 Yanks beat Dodgers 5-3-largest WS crowd 73,365-first
WS televised
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1949 Berlin Airlift ends after 277,000 flights
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1950 "Goodnight Irene" by the Weavers
with Gordon Jenkins topped the charts
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1950 Radio's "Grand Ole Opry" was first
broadcast on television
1951 "The Red Skelton Show" debuted on NBC-TV
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1956 Phillies Robin Roberts gives up a major league
record 46th HR
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1960 Flintstones premiers (first prime time animation
show)
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1960 On Howdy Doody's last show Clarabelle finally
talks "Goodbye Kids"
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1961 "Take Good Care of My Baby" by
Bobby Vee topped the charts
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1962 James Meredith registers for classes at University
of Mississippi
1962 KC A's Bill Fischer sets record of 84 1/3
innings without a walk
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1967 The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
began its own Pop music radio station
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1967 "The Letter" by Box Tops topped
the charts
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1968 First Boeing 747 rolls out
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1971 Last Washington Senator home game
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1972 "Baby Don't Get Hooked on Me" by
Mac Davis topped the charts
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1978 "Kiss You All Over" by Exile topped
the charts
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1980 Iran rejects a truce call from Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein
1982 The gang down at the Boston Beacon Street
neighborhood bar called "Cheers" premiered
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1982 Helicopter circumnavates the world
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1984 "Doonesbury", Garry Trudeau’s
comic strip, returned after a 20-month hiatus
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1984 California Angel Michael Witt is 11th to
pitch a perfect baseball game
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1988 Andrei A Gromyko retires
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1988 IBM announces shipment of 3 millionth PS/2
personal computer
1989 Nolan Ryan's perfect game is broken with
1 out in the 8th
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1989 "Girl I'm Gonna Miss You" by Milli
Vanilli topped the charts
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1992 George Brett of the Kansas City Royals reached
3,000 career hits
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1995 "Fantasy" by Mariah Carey topped
the charts
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