The Coffee Shop
1750 Carlo Goldoni's comedy "La Botega di Caffè" (The Coffee Shop) premieres in Mantua
Jack Benny's 1st Show
1932 American comedian Jack Benny's first radio show premieres on NBC Blue Network
- 1941 FCC approves regular scheduled commercial TV broadcasts to begin July 1
- 1944 WABD (WNEW, now WNYW) TV channel 5 in New York City (DUM/MET/FOX) begins broadcasting
The Postman Always Rings Twice
1946 "The Postman Always Rings Twice," a film based on the novel by James M. Cain, directed by Tay Garnett and starring Lana Turner and John Garfield, is released
- 1950 Carlo Terron's comedy "Giuditta" premieres in Milan
Water Music
1952 John Cage's "Water Music" - for a solo pianist, using a piano, a radio, whistles, water containers, and a deck of cards - premieres in New York City
- 1953 KYTL (now KPNX) TV channel 12 in Mesa/Phoenix, Arizona AZ (NBC) begins broadcasting with a telethon to benefit United Cerebral Palsy
- 1955 WGBH TV channel 2 in Boston, Massachusetts (PBS) begins broadcasting
The Curse of Frankenstein
1957 Hammer Film Productions releases its first color horror film, "The Curse of Frankenstein," starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee
- 1962 WMHT-TV channel 17 in Schenectady, Albany, and Troy, New York (PBS) begins broadcasting
- 1968 Israel Broadcasting Authority television Channel 1 begins broadcasting
- 1970 KOAI (now KNAZ) TV channel 2 in Flagstaff, Arizona (NBC) begins broadcasting
The King & I
1977 Revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical "The King and I," with Yul Brynner reprising the role he created in 1951, opens at the Uris Theater in NYC and runs for 695 performances
Sunday in the Park with George
1984 Stephen Sondheim's musical "Sunday in the Park with George," a fictionalized version of painter Georges Seurat's relationship with his grandson, starring Mandy Patinkin, opens at Booth Theater in NYC; runs for 604 performances and wins a Pulitzer Prize for Drama
- 1990 Richard Nelson's stage comedy "Some Americans Abroad" opens at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre in NYC and runs for 55 performances
Candida
1993 Revival of George Bernard Shaw's stage comedy "Candida" closes at the Criterion Theatre in NYC after 45 performances
Music History
1995 Revival of William Shakespeare's stage drama "Hamlet," starring Ralph Fiennes, opens at the Belasco Theater in NYC and runs for 91 performances
Film & TV History
1997 Police arrest transsexual prostitute Atisone Seiuli with Eddie Murphy
Flavor Flav Arrested
2011 Flavor Flav is arrested on four outstanding misdemeanor warrants for various driving offenses
Facebook Bans Hate Speech
2019 Facebook bans Alex Jones (InfoWars), Milo Yiannopoulos (ex-Breitbart), Louis Farrakhan (Nation of Islam), Paul Nehlen and Laura Loomer for hate speech
- 2019 For the first time, all major US pageants are won by Black women after Cheslie Kryst wins Miss USA, joining Nia Franklin, Miss America, and Kaliegh Garris, Miss Teen USA
Actors Immortalized in Cement
2019 The cast of "The Big Bang Theory" are the first TV actors to be immortalized in cement outside Hollywood's Chinese theater in Los Angeles
- 2020 Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, the Icelandic actor who played Ser Gregor "The Mountain" Clegane in Game of Thrones, sets a world deadlifting record by lifting 501kg (1,104lb)
- 2023 Writers Guild of America votes to strike over pay and industry changes, halting television production [1]
