September 17, 2023
QUOTE
Life is here only to be lived so that we can, through life, earn the right to death, which to me is paradise. Whatever it is that will bring me the reward of paradise, I’ll do the best I can.
--Anne Bancroft
BIRTHDAYS
1854 – David Dunbar Buick, Scottish-American businessman, founded Buick Motor Company
1859 – Billy the Kid, American gunman
1923 – Hank Williams, Singer-songwriter and guitarist
1931 – Anne Bancroft, Actress
1948 – John Ritter, Actor and producer
IN MEMORY
1858 – Dred Scott, American slave
2009 – Dick Durock, Stuntman and actor
2013 – Eiji Toyoda, Japanese businessman
2020 – Robert W. Gore, American engineer and businessman, co-inventor of Gore-Tex
IN ON THIS DAY
1776 – The Presidio of San Francisco is founded in New Spain.
1787 – The United States Constitution is signed in Philadelphia.
1908 – The Wright Flyer flown by Orville Wright, with Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge as passenger, crashes, killing Selfridge, who becomes the first airplane fatality.
1916 –Manfred von Richthofen (“The Red Baron”), wins his first aerial combat near Cambrai, France.
1928 – The Okeechobee hurricane strikes southeastern Florida, killing more than 2,500 people.
1976 – The Space Shuttle Enterprise is unveiled by NASA.
2001 – The New York Stock Exchange reopens for trading after the September 11 attacks, the longest closure since the Great Depression.