The King of Rock and Roll teamed up with TV’s reigning variety
program, as Elvis Presley appears on “The Ed Sullivan Show”
for the first time on September 9, 1956.

After Presley earned big ratings for “The Steve Allen Show,”
the Dorsey Brothers “Stage Show” and “The Milton Berle
Show,” Sullivan finally reneged on his Presley ban, signing
the controversial singing star to an unprecedented $50,000
contract for three appearances.

With 60 million viewers—or 82.6 percent of TV viewers at the time—tuning in, the appearance garnered the show’s best
ratings in two years and became the most-watched TV
broadcast of the 1950s.

Senator Huey Long was shot and killed at the Louisiana State
Capitol in 1935 by Carl Weiss. Long’s bodyguards, nicknamed
the "Cossacks" or "skullcrushers", responded by firing at
Weiss with their own pistols, killing him; an autopsy found
that Weiss had been shot more than 60 times. 

Long, who was a prominent and controversial political figure,
was in the process of preparing a presidential bid when he
was assassinated.

Long  gave himself the nickname “Kingfish,” saying “I’m a
small fish here in Washington. But I’m the Kingfish to the
folks down in Louisiana.”

Carl Austin Weiss Sr.
(December 6, 1906 – September 8, 1935)

                                          
TIM MAGUIRE                     

Grandparents’ Day or National Grandparents’ Day is a secular
holiday celebrated in various countries; it is celebrated to show
the bond between grandparents and grandchildren.

On September 7, 1813, according to the most cited—and
Congressionally approved—account, the United States
got its nickname, Uncle Sam.

The name is linked to Samuel Wilson, a meat packer from
Troy, New York, who supplied barrels of beef to the United
States Army during the War of 1812.

The local newspaper, the Troy Post, picked up on the story
and Uncle Sam eventually gained widespread acceptance
as the nickname for—and personification of—the U.S.
federal government.

Scholars have uncovered a handful of earlier references
linking the U.S. to the nickname Uncle Sam, but the Troy
Post origin story has stuck as the official one.