Sep. 17: Tomorrow in history

Tomorrow’s a big day (for me). Although nothing quite compares to September 18, 1968, these are some of the events that have occurred on September 18 in years past.

1502: Christopher Columbus lands at Costa Rica on his fourth, and final, voyage

1793: The first cornerstone of the Capitol building is laid by George Washington

1809: Royal Opera House in London opens

1837: Tiffany and Co. (first named Tiffany & Young) is founded by Charles Lewis Tiffany and John B. Young in New York City, New York. The store was called a “stationery and fancy goods emporium.”

1848: Baseball rules first baseman can tag base for out instead of runner

1850: The U.S. Congress passes the Fugitive Slave Act

1851: The New York Times began publishing “All the News That’s Fit to Print.” The Times is now a media conglomerate involving radio, TV, cable and the Internet.

1895: Daniel David Palmer gives the first chiropractic adjustment

1927: Columbia Broadcasting System goes on the air

1938: Despite losing a double header, Yanks clinch pennant #10

1947: The United States Air Force becomes an independent service. Originally, U.S. military aviation began as part of the U.S. Army in 1907.

1948: Margaret Chase Smith becomes the first woman elected to the US Senate without completing another senator’s term when she defeats Democratic opponent Adrian Scolten

1949: A baseball major league record four grand slams are hit

1955: What had been The Toast of the Town on CBS Television (since 1948) becomes The Ed Sullivan Show

1961: U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld dies in a plane crash while attempting to negotiate peace in the war-torn Katanga region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

1965: Larry Hagman (Captain Tony Nelson) and Barbara Eden (Jeannie) star in the first episode of I Dream of Jeannie on NBC-TV

1965: Mickey Mantle Day at Yankee Stadium: Mantle plays his 2,000^th game

1965: Get Smart premieres

1970: Rock radio mourns the loss of rock music legend, Jimi Hendrix, who dies of an overdose of sleeping pills at age 27

1975: Patty Hearst is arrested after a year on the FBI Most Wanted List

1977: U.S. Voyager I takes the first space photograph of Earth and the moon together

1989: Hurricane Hugo causes extensive damage in Puerto Rico

1994: Ken Burns’ Baseball premieres on PBS

1999: Sammy Sosa becomes the first player in major league baseball history to hit 60 homers in two seasons

Births

1733: George Read, signer of the United States Declaration of Independence (d. 1798)

1905: Greta Garbo, Swedish actress (d. 1990)

1920: Jack Warden, American actor (d. 2006)

1933: Robert Blake, American actor

1939: Frankie Avalon, American musician

1939: Fred Willard, American comedian

1950: Anna Deavere Smith, American actress and playwright

1951: Benjamin Carson, American neurosurgeon

1952: Dee Dee Ramone, American bassist (The Ramones) (d. 2002)

1959: Ryne Sandberg, American baseball player

1961: James Gandolfini, American actor

1964: Holly Robinson Peete, American actress

1967: Ricky Bell, American singer (New Edition, Bell Biv DeVoe)

1968: Toni Kukoč, Croatian basketball player

1970: Aisha Tyler, American actress and comedian

1971: Lance Armstrong, American cyclist

1971: Jada Pinkett Smith, American model and actress

1973: James Marsden, American actor

1975: Jason Sudeikis, American actor and comedian

September 18 is the 261^st day of the year (262^nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 104 days remaining until the end of the year.