An earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter Scale hit the San
Francisco Bay  area in California. The quake caused about 67
deaths, 3,000 injuries, and damages up to $7 billion.     


     

Saturday Night Live (SNL), a topical comedy sketch show featuring Chevy
Chase, John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Gilda Radner, Garrett Morris, Jane
Curtin and Laraine Newman, makes its debut on NBC; it will go on to
become the longest-running, highest-rated show on late-night television.

The 90-minute program, which from its inception has been broadcast live
from Studio 8H in the GE Building at Rockefeller Center, includes a
different guest host and musical act each week. The opening sketch of
each show ends with one actor saying, “Live from New York, it’s Saturday
Night!”

Greyhound Lines, Inc., usually shortened to Greyhound, is an
intercity bus common carrier serving over 3,800 destinations
across North America. The company’s first route began in
Hibbing, Minnesota in 1914, and the company adopted the
Greyhound name in 1929.

  
Under federal troop escort, the Little Rock Nine were escorted back
into Central High School for their first full day of classes. 
 

Under escort from the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division, nine black
students entered an all-white High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Three
weeks earlier, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus had surrounded the
school with National Guard troops to prevent its federal court-ordered
racial integration. After a tense standoff, President Dwight Eisenhower
federalized the Arkansas National Guard and sent 1,000 army troops
to Little Rock to enforce the court order.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivering a special broadcast on
the Little Rock situation.

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

After earning 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.