She was a 30-year old single working woman who’d never been married and was more concerned with her professional life than her personal life. And it was 1970.

The Mary Tyler Moore show premiered on September 19, 1970, and it followed the ups and downs and comic folly of a young woman working in a local television news department in Minneapolis. What Seinfeld was to the 90’s and Cheers was to the 80’s, The Mary Tyler Moore show can stake a claim to being the top sit-com of the 70’s, winning three straight Emmys for Outstanding Comedy Series (1975-1977). In a 1997 list of the top television episodes of all-time, TV Guide ranked the MTM episode, “Chuckles Bites the Dust” at number one.

In 1981 Simon and Garfunkel reunited for a free concert in Central Park that drew over 500,000 people. The pair hadn’t performed a concert together since 1970.

Today in 1995, both the Washington Post and the New York Times published the Unabomber’s Manifesto, “Industrial Society and It’s Future.” Ted Kaczynski was holed up in Montana and didn’t like where the world was heading. He’d promised more bombings if some reputable outlets didn’t publish his essay.

I’d like to see a duet from two people celebrating birthdays today: Jimmy Fallon turns 38 and Lita Ford turns 54. Ford, the lead guitarist for the groundbreaking girl group The Runaways, had her highest charting hit with the very non-rocking, “Close My Eyes Forever,” which was an even bigger departure for her song-mate, Ozzy Osbourne. It might not have been her biggest hit, but her best song is clearly this one.

Ford is definitely a head banger and it was today at Seoul Olympics in 1988 that Greg Louganis banged his head on the springboard, before going on to win the gold medal a few days later.

— Bill Hubbell