ED DANAHUE

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.

   
  
TIM MAGUIRE

On this day in 1901, U.S. President William McKinley was shot and mortally wounded by Leon Czolgosz, an American anarchist . McKinley succumbed
to his wounds on September 14, 1901. Vice President Theodore Roosevelt
was sworn into office on the same day, succeeding McKinley, who had
been reelected in 1900. Gzolgosz was executed on October 29, 1901.
    
   

Leon Frank Czolgosz  (May 5, 1873 – October 29, 1901)

The site of William McKinley’s tragic assassination in Buffalo, New
York is only marked by a plaque on a large boulder.        

SANDY KOZEL

Retired Scottish actor Sir Thomas Sean Connery
is 89 today.

James Bond: 1962-1969 and 1983

1989

On August 24, 1981, Mark David Chapman was sentenced to 20 years to
life for the murder of John Lennon, a founding member of The Beatles.

On December 8, 1980, Chapman shot and killed the 40-year-old singer,
songwriter, outside Lennon’s New York City apartment building, the
Dakota, where he lived with his wife Yoko Ono and their young son
Sean.

John Lennon signs an autograph for Mark Chapman (right) – his murderer. December 8, 1980.

Mark David Chapman turned 64 in May.

Chapman’s requests for parole have all been
denied and he continues to serve time in a 
New York prison.