Those were the days....

1773 - The first public museum was organized -- in Charleston, South Carolina.

1928 - Vladimir Horowitz debuted as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall in New York City. It was the very same night that Sir Thomas Beecham gave his first public performance in the United States.

1932 - Ed Sullivan joined CBS radio in a program of gossip and interviews.

1939 - The Ink Spots gained national attention after five years together as they recorded, If I Didn’t Care, Decca record number 2286. Many other standards by the group soon followed.

1943 - Oh my gosh! It’s frankfurter day! The Office of Price Administration announced that the standard frankfurter/hot dog/wiener would be replaced by ‘Victory Sausage’; made of meat and soybean meal. Yum! Yum!

1949 - Arthur Godfrey and His Friends was first seen on CBS-TV this day. The program stayed on the network for seven years.

1949 - The Chicago-based children’s show, Kukla, Fran and Ollie, made its national debut on NBC-TV. Fran Allison was hostess. The show was phenomenally successful.

1955 - The beginning of Rod Serling’s stellar career began with the TV production of Patterns, an original, hour-long drama. Within two weeks, the then struggling author had 23 other TV assignments.

1960 - Dolph Schayes of the Syracuse Nationals became the first pro basketball player in the NBA to score more than 15,000 points in his career.

1963 - Songwriter Bob Dylan sang Blowin’ in the Wind on the BBC radio presentation of The Madhouse on Castle Street. The song soon became one of the classics of the 1960s protest movement.

1965 - The NBC-TV pop-music show Hullabaloo made its debut. A competitor of ABC’s successful Shindig show, Hullabaloo tried to attract a wider audience by featuring both rock music and Las Vegas-type acts. Guests on the first show included the New Christy Minstrels, Gerry and the Pacemakers, the Zombies and Woody Allen. Hullabaloo lasted on the air through Aug 29, 1966.

1966 - Batman debuted -- on ABC-TV. Adam West starred as Batman and Burt Ward was the Bat-Boy, Robin. Pow! Zork! Crunch! Holy hot cakes, Batman!

1967 - “This is the city...” One of broadcasting’s greatest hits, Dragnet, returned to NBC-TV after being off the network schedule for eight years. Harry Morgan was Jack Webb’s sidekick in the renewed series. “Just the facts, ma’am.”

1969 - Super Bowl III (at Miami): NY Jets 16, Baltimore Colts 7. Joe Namath and his Cinderella Jets snuck up on the heavily-favored Colts. MVP: Jets’ QB Namath. Tickets: $12.00.

1971 - All In the Family debuted on CBS-TV. Carroll O’Connor starred as Archie Bunker, Rob Reiner as Meathead, Sally Struthers as Gloria and Jean Stapleton as Edith, ‘The Dingbat’. “Stifle yourself!” Originally, ABC had plans to broadcast the series under the title, Those Were the Days.

1975 - Super Bowl IX (at New Orleans): Pittsburgh Steelers 16, Minnesota Vikings 6. The Steelers draft picks (spring, 1974) were Lynn Swann, Jack Lambert, John Stallworth and free agent Donnie Shell. Between them, 28 Pro Bowl appearances, 20 Super Bowl rings, and probably five Pro Football Hall of Fame selections. MVP: Steelers’ RB Franco Harris. Tickets: $20.00.

1985 - After a record 24 weeks as the #1 album in the nation, Prince slipped to the #2 spot with Purple Rain. Replacing Prince at the top spot: ‘The Boss’ Bruce Springsteen’s Born In the USA, which had spent 24 weeks waiting for Purple Rain to fall.

1987 - Europe was snowed-in with a pounding of white stuff and frigid temperatures as a ‘Siberian Express’ spread across the continent.

1991 - Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814 became the first album to generate seven top-five singles on the Billboard Hot 100 (four went to number one). Love Will Never Do (Without You) reached #4 this day and it hit #1 the following week.

1996 - These films debuted in U.S. theatres: Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace (“God made him simple. Science made him a god. Now, he wants revenge.”), with Patrick Bergin and Matt Frewer; and Two If By Sea (“A new comedy about love, laughter, and larceny.”), starring Sandra Bullock and Denis Leary.

1999 - Mark McGwire’s 70th home run ball was sold at auction in New York for $3 million to an anonymous bidder. It was the most money ever paid for a sports artifact. McGwire's ball was retrieved Sep 27, 1998 by 26-year-old research scientist Philip Ozersky, who had been attending the game with a group of office friends from Washington University in St. Louis when the ball came flying at him.

2001 - Movies premiering in the U.S.: Antitrust, with Ryan Phillippe and Rachael Leigh Cook; Before Night Falls, starring Javier Bardem, Olivier Martinez, Andrea Di Stefano and Johnny Depp; Double Take, with Eddie Griffin and Orlando Jones; Finding Forrester, starring Sean Connery, Rob Brown, F. Murray Abraham and Anna Paquin; O Brother, Where Art Thou?, featuring George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson, Charles Durning and John Goodman; and Thirteen Days, starring Kevin Costner, Bruce Greenwood and Steven Culp.

....and what did you do today?