“ER” went live tonight in 1997. NBC’s huge hit took advantage of its popularity and started its fourth season with a live episode. The cast and crew performed the show twice, one for the eastern, central and mountain time zones and then another one for the west coast. The first bit of medical jargon mumbo jumbo uttered on the show was delivered by non-other than my brother, J.P. Hubbell, playing EMT Lars Audia. Not given a face by tv.com, we’ll give him one here:

The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism was founded 100 years ago today. The school was started by Joseph Pulitzer and it administers the Pulitzer Prizes each year. (Does that make the six Pulitzer winner’s who graduated from Columbia’s awards suspect? We should get another alum, Geraldo Rivera on that).

Two acts about as far apart musically as possible made news on September 25, 1970. ABC debuted “The Partridge Family” and Janis Joplin recorded this song.

It was on this day in 1974 that Dr. Frank Jobe took a tendon from Tommy John’s right forearm and inserted it into his left elbow. John would go on to get over half of his 288 career wins after an elbow surgery that would have ended his career before the development of ligament reconstructive surgery.

Barbara Walters turns 83 years old today, Heather Locklear 51, Bill Simmons 43 and in sickeningly cute couple news, both Michael Douglas (68) and his wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones (43) celebrate today.

We’ll save the birthday picture for this woman, who was born today in 1947. She was 31 when this photo ran in Sports Illustrated. I was 13 and, um… captivated:

— Bill Hubbell

“60 Minutes” debuted on September 24, 1968. In it’s opening, Harry Reasoner said that the show would be a “kind of magazine for television.” The first episode included segments that took a look at the headquarter suites of presidential candidates Richard Nixon and Hubert Humphrey at their conventions from that summer, a political commentary from Art Buchwald and an interview with then Attorney General Ramsey Clark on police brutality. The show enters its 44th season this fall.

It was 122 years ago today that the LDS Church officially renounced polygamy. Mormons had made a public practice of plural wives for forty years before distancing itself from the practice.

In a bit of cosmic synchronicity, on the morning of September 24, 1977, “Come Sail Away” was released as the first song off of the Styx album, “The Grand Illusion”. As if on cue that night, CBS debuted its new hour-long rom-com “The Love Boat”. 

“The Love Boat” had a decade long run on CBS, but it never once had a scene nearly as good as this one from “Freaks and Geeks” where Lindsay watches her little brother Sam at his first high school dance. She’s bored and disillusioned with the high school experience, but seeing her little bro enter the gym where everything is new and magic makes her realize she might be taking it all a little too seriously. It’s still one of the best scenes Judd Apatow has ever done. Come sail away indeed.

Some would argue that I’ve buried the pop culture lede for this day in history: It was today in 2005 that Ashton Kutcher married Demi Moore. Ok, just kidding, but today in 1991, this dropped:

Arguably no band had changed the game to the degree that Nirvana did since the Beatles performed on Ed Sullivan. The face of the Seattle grunge scene (sorry Kurt, but you were the face of something), Nirvana hit at a time when Michael Jackson and Prince were past their peaks, pop-metal had gotten ridiculous seemingly overnight and Garth Brooks was the world’s most popular musician. Nirvana were the paddles and shock to the system that rock n’ roll needed.

Happy birthday to F. Scott Fitzgerald, who was born this day in 1896. “The Great Gatsby” has been done in some form or another dozens of time on film, but never by Baz Luhrmann and never starring Leo DiCaprio, like 2013’s movie will.

— Bill Hubbell

“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.”

So begins “The Hobbit,” which was published 75 years ago today. J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy tale of a place called middle earth, was full of wizards, rings and hairy little people with big feet. The book set the stage for Tolkien’s later work, “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy. Tolkien could have said of The Hobbit, “You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet” (which, incidentally, was released by Bachman Turner Overdrive today in 1974). The Hobbit gets its movie treatment this December.

In other brilliant debuts, (okay, The Hobbit was Tolkien’s second published work, but his first real book), Monday Night Football raised the curtain for the first time tonight in 1970, with the Cleveland Browns defeating the New York Jets 31-21. On the very same night out in Oakland one of the most spectacular starts to a career in baseball history continued when 21-year old September call up Vida Blue fired a no hitter against the Minnesota Twins. Blue’s first start had been 10 days earlier when he threw a 1 hit shutout against the Kansas City Royals. A flame-throwing lefty, Blue would win the MVP and Cy Young awards in 1971 at just 22 years old. And he had a really sweet name.

Sandra Day O’Connor was unanimously approved by the Senate to become the first female member of the United States Supreme Court on this day in 1981.

In a move that probably would have caused even more media today than the Saints and bounty-gate, it was today in 1780 that Benedict Arnold gave the British the plans to the U.S. Fort at West Point and planned on surrendering it over to the Brits. Born in Connecticut, Arnold had become upset that he had been passed over for promotion by the Continental Congress.

September 21, 1990, saw the release of the last album by The Replacements, “All Shook Down.” The song, “Someone Take the Wheel” might have been a sign that the heroes of the musical underground were calling it quits. The band’s entire run is summed up by another song title of the album, “Sadly Beautiful.”

Sadly beautiful might be a way to describe Florence Griffith Joyner, who passed away today in 1998 at just 38 years old. Rumors of steroids dogged Flo-Jo after her body went through a complete makeover in a short period time and she set world records in the 100 and 200 meters that haven’t even been approached since. Fl0-Jo never tested positive for any illegal substances and she died in her sleep from an epileptic seizure.

Birthday wishes go out to many who’ve entertained us over the years: Jerry Bruckheimer turns 67, Stephen King is 65, Bill Murray 62, Faith Hill is 45 and Liam Gallagher turns 40. A special birthday shout out to Dave Coulier who turns 53 today. Coulier was “the other guy” on Full House, but is most remembered for the rage he inspired from Alanis Morissette in the song “You Oughta Know.” The guy had the stones to dump the only woman to play God in a movie (to my knowledge– and I’m not counting Madonna in “Truth or Dare”). The truth is, I just heard that song on the radio and thought it was ironic that his birthday was today (you know, like raaaaaaain on your wedding day)… damn, she was pissed off.

— Bill Hubbell

Dan was a good looking, successful New York lawyer. Alex was a good looking, successful worker at a publishing house in New York. They meet in a bar and start flirting big time. They go back to Alex’s apartment and have sex. Alex is very, very happy and thinks she’s found someone special.

The problem is, Dan’s married. Alex isn’t very happy that Dan plans on staying married. It’s the classic American love story.

“Fatal Attraction” came out 25 years ago today, the last great sex-thriller before AIDS changed the screenplay. It was a fascinating story of a guy who thinks he’s having a casual affair while his wife is out of town, but gets a whole helluva lot more than he bargained for.

Dan might have had to go to Tiffany and Co. to appease his wife after the Alex affair. Tiffany and Co. opened today in 1837 in New York City. The store presented itself as a “Stationary and Fancy Goods Emporium.”

Also on this day in NYC, 14 years later in 1851, the first edition of “The New York Daily Times” was published, it later became the New York Times.

On this day in 1927, CBS launched on the radio airwaves, 14 years later they would start in television. One of CBS’s better television shows made it’s debut today in 1978. WKRP in Cincinnati was a hit for CBS for it’s four year run, and it got nominated for the best comedy Emmy it’s first three years. CBS, in example 1 zillion of network meddling, began moving the show around to different days in it’s fourth season and the viewers couldn’t keep up. Three Emmy nominations and gone a year later.

Talk about the New Normal, The Addams Family premiered on ABC on September 18, 1964.

Jimi Hendrix was found dead in a London apartment today in 1970. The 27-year old had died on his own vomit while sleeping. Called the greatest guitar player ever by Rolling Stone, Hendrix was the first Seattle rock ‘n roll legend to die at 27, but he wouldn’t be the last.

Viewers of MTV were shocked when members of KISS appeared on their air today in 1983 sans makeup.

Happy birthday to Lance Armstrong, who was allegedly born on this day in 1971.

— Bill Hubbell

In the argument for most anticipated albums of all time, Guns N’ Roses released Use Your Illusion I and II today in 1991. The follow ups to 1987’s Appetite For Destruction had the music world on pins and needles to see what they would deliver as an encore to what many felt was one of the best rock ‘n roll albums ever made.

So did they deliver? Yes and no. The albums did become the first by any act to debut at #’s 1 and 2 on the charts. They spent 108 weeks on those charts and both ended up selling around 7 million copies, far short of Appetite’s 28 million, but a huge success nonetheless. As history goes, the albums end up being pretty unremarkable. “November Rain” became the only iconic song off the two albums, it set a little history itself, becoming the longest song to ever crack the top ten on the singles chart at 8:57.

One of the better songs off of the two records is “Civil War,” and this day was the bloodiest in U.S. history in 1862, when over 23,000 Americans were killed at the Battle of Antietam.

One of the better songs off of any record was recorded on September 17, 1973. Billy Joel, a New Yorker through and through, wrote Piano Man about his time playing local bars in Los Angeles. Released to moderate success later that year, the tune didn’t find any legs until 1977 when Joel finally found stardom with his album, “The Stranger.” “Piano Man” went on to become Joel’s signature song and he closes most of his shows with it.

The Doors performed on the Ed Sullivan show today in 1967. Jim Morrison had agreed not to sing the words, “girl we couldn’t get much higher,” but in true rock ‘n roll fashion, he sang them anyway at showtime and got himself banned from the Sullivan show. He probably cared about the ban about as much as Sullivan cared that the Doors were playing his show.

Something everyone cared about happened in 1983 when Vanessa Williams became the first black woman to be named Miss America. Williams would give up the crown after Penthouse magazine published nude pictures of her soon after she won. Suzette Charles, who is also black, took over the crown, but the controversy didn’t keep Williams from a hugely successful career as a singer/actress.

September 17 was a big day for Mr. October, Reggie Jackson, who hit his first career home run today in 1967 and then hit his 500th round-tripper today in 1984.

Continuing in the “baseball can throw some strange stuff at you” vein, Stan Musial was a 20-year old September call up and got two hits in his major league debut today in 1941. Musial would amass more hits in his career (3,630) than there were fans in attendance that night in St. Louis (3,585). It’s not strange that Musial would end up 4th on the all-time hits list, but what is strange is that “The Man” would end up with 1,815 hits at home and 1,815 hits on the road in his 22-year career.

Happy 67th birthday to Phil Jackson, he of 11 NBA championships. He doesn’t get our vote for best coach born on September 17th, though. That would go to this guy, who turns 47 today:

— Bill Hubbell