On January 11, 1973, Major League Baseball owners voted to allow the designated hitter position in the American League. The first designated hitter in baseball history was Ron Blomberg of the New York Yankees.
Valerie Harper played the role of Rhoda Morgenstern on the 1970s television series The Mary Tyler Moore Show. The show was groundbreaking in that it was the first with a central female character who was a never-married career woman. In this video, Harper recalls what it was like to work … Continue reading
In 1972, Sammy Davis Jr. made a guest appearance as himself on an episode of All In The Family. In the episode, Davis leaves a briefcase in Archie Bunker’s taxi and goes to the Bunker home to retrieve it. When he hears Archie’s racist remarks, Davis asks to take a … Continue reading
Smallpox was an infectious disease that caused fluid-filled blisters all over the body and had a mortality rate of 30-35%. Thanks to effective vaccination campaigns, smallpox became the first disease to be declared eradicated by the WHO on December 9, 1979. In this video, D.A. Henderson, an epidemiologist and physician … Continue reading
The Heisman Trophy is awarded annually to the best player in college football whose performance best exhibits the pursuit of excellence with integrity. The award was created in 1935, and was first awarded on December 9, 1935 to Jay Berwanger of the University of Chicago. Archie Griffin, who played running … Continue reading
Jonestown, the informal name for the Peoples Temple Agricultural Project, was the home of an American religious organization lead by Jim Jones. On November 18, 1978, 918 people died in the settlement, at the nearby airstrip, and in Georgetown, the capital of Guyana. Of the 909 who died in the … Continue reading
In July of 1974, the White House released subpoenaed tapes of White House conversations. One of these tapes became known as the “smoking gun”, a tape recorded on June 23, 1972, just six days after the Watergate break-in. On the tape, Nixon can be heard agreeing that the Director and … Continue reading
Car Talk is an award-winning radio talk show that was was produced from 1977 until October of 2012. The show was broadcast on NPR stations and its hosts, brothers Tom and Ray Magliozzi, tackled the subject of automobiles and auto repair with humor. In this video, producers of Car Talk, … Continue reading
Witnesses, friends of finalists Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky, along with industry experts comment on the 1972 World Chess Championship, the “Match of the Century.” Spassky of the USSR, the reigning World Chess Champion at the time, was up two when he granted Fischer’s request for the games to be … Continue reading
Saturday Night Live, originally called simply “Saturday Night” premiered on October 11, 1975. Prior to the debut, original cast members John Belushi, Jane Curtin, Gilda Radner, Dan Akroyd, Chevy Chase, Laraine Newman and Garrett Morris joined SNL’s creator Lorne Michaels for an interview with Tom Snyder.
