September 6 In Pop Culture History

September 6th Fun Facts, Trivia and History

September 6th History Highlights

  • 1628 – Puritans settled in Salem which became part of Massachusetts Bay Colony.
  • 1916 – The first self-service grocery store Piggly Wiggly was opened in Memphis, Tennessee by Clarence Saunders.
  • 1991 – The Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, were recognized as independent by the Soviet government.
    Other countries recognized them on September 2.
  • 1995 – Cal Ripken, Jr. of the Baltimore Orioles played in his 2,131st consecutive game, breaking a record that had stood for 56 years.
    The final record was set in 1998 by him, with 2,632 games.
  • If you were born on September 6th,
    You were likely conceived the week of… December 14th (prior year)

September 6th

Coffee Ice Cream Day
Fight Procrastination Day
Read a Book Day

Piggly Wiggly – The First Self-Service Grocery Store

Based in the south and the midwest USA, Piggly Wiggly may just be your contemporary neighborhood store for all your essential supplies, but over a century ago, it was an idea the world wasn’t ready to adopt. It’s often credited for transforming the grocery shopping enterprise in the whole world, and rightfully so.

In 1916, when the store first opened in Memphis, Tennessee, it took almost the entire country by storm. Its modern appeal made it all the more interesting for locals and defined the future of grocery shopping in America and also the rest of the world.

However, before the owner opened it, people who needed grocery supplies would often hire a clerk to get it for them. When Piggly Wiggly came about, it changed the entire model and invited shoppers to the store and handed them an individual basket for shopping.

This self-service model may not seem like a big deal now, but the idea of carts, employees wearing uniforms, and prices marked on the items are all concepts that originated with Piggly Wiggly.

The beggir mystery, however, remains how the owner came up with the name “Piggly Wiggly.” While Saunders never confirmed it himself, there have been many stories that linked it to one thing or the other. For example, according to a famous theory, Saunders came up with the name on a train ride when he saw many pigs outside trying to find shelter. He also randomly came up with the rhyming word “Wiggly” to make it more interesting. 

Regardless of how the name came about, it has definitely kept people at bay for a hundred years. A simple idea that occurred to a shop owner over a hundred years ago still seems to be relevant today. Many stores all over the world have and will continue to adopt the self-service model until another shop owner is able to come up with another transformational idea.

September 6th Birthday Quotes

“I’m an ambitious person. I never consider myself in competition with anyone, and I’m not saying that from an arrogant standpoint, it’s just that my journey started so, so long ago, and I’m still on it and I won’t stand still.”
– Idris Elba

“My purpose is far greater than my pain.”
– Foxy Brown

“I’m in competition with myself and I’m losing.”
– Roger Waters

“I keep very weird hours. I never know when I’m going to get an idea.”
– Sergio Aragones

“The care of a house, the conduct of a home, the management of children, the instruction and government of servants, are as deserving of scientific treatment and scientific professors and lectureships as are the care of farms, the management of manure and crops, and the raising and care of stock.”
– Catharine Beecher

“I live as I choose or I will not live at all.”
– Dolores O’Riordan

September 6th Birthdays

1800 – Catharine Beecher, American educator, and activist (died in 1878)
1860 – Jane Addams, American sociologist and author, Nobel Prize laureate (died in 1935)
1879 – Max Schreck, German actor (died in 1936)
1888 – Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., American businessman, and diplomat (died in 1969)
1913 – Julie Gibson, American actress (died in 2019)
1920 – Elvira Pagã, Brazilian actress, singer, and author (died in 2003)
1925 – Jimmy Reed, American singer-songwriter (died in 1976)
1937 – Sergio Aragonés, Spanish-Mexican comic book author and illustrator
1937 – Jo Anne Worley, American comedic actress
1943 – Roger Waters, English singer-songwriter, Pink Floyd
1944 – Swoosie Kurtz, American actress
1947 – Jane Curtin, American comedic actress
1947 – Sylvester, American singer-songwriter (died in 1988)
1958 – Jeff Foxworthy, American comedian
1962 – Chris Christie, American politician
1964 – Rosie Perez, American actress
1967 – Macy Gray, American singer-songwriter
1969 – CeCe Peniston, American singer-songwriter
1971 – Dolores O’Riordan, Irish singer-songwriter, Cranberries (died in 2018)
1972 – Idris Elba, English actor
1979 – Foxy Brown, American rapper

September 6th History

1620 – The Pilgrims sailed from Plymouth, England, on the Mayflower to settle in North America.

1837 – Oberlin Collegiate Institute became the first college to grant women equal status.

1866 – Frederick Douglass was the first US black delegate to a national political convention.

1901 – Leon Czolgosz shot and killed US President William McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York.

1943 – A Pennsylvania Railroad train derailed at Frankford Junction in Philadelphia, killing 79 people and injuring 117 others.

1954 – WINS (New York City) began playing rock and roll music with the Alan Freed Show.

1955 – Wyatt Earp, starring Hugh O’Brian debuted on ABC.

1963 – Baseball Historian Lee Allen says Indians-Senators game is 100,000th in professional baseball history.

1972 – September 5/6;  Israeli athletes were taken hostage and killed at the Munich Olympic Games by the Palestinian “Black September” terrorist group.

1975 – #1 Hit September 6, 1975 – September 19, 1975: Glen Campbell – Rhinestone Cowboy

1976 – Dean Martin appeared on Jerry Lewis’ 11th Muscular Dystrophy telethon. The pair had not spoken since the 1950s.

1979 – National Grandparents Day was proclaimed by President Jimmy Carter to be celebrated on the Sunday following Labor Day.

1980 – #1 Hit September 6, 1980 – October 3, 1980: Diana Ross – Upside Down

1983 – The Soviet Union admitted to shooting down Korean Air Lines Flight 007, claiming that it did not know it was a civilian aircraft when it violated Soviet airspace.

1986 – #1 Hit September 6, 1986 – September 12, 1986: Bananarama – Venus

1991 – The Soviet Union recognized the independence of the Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

1991 – The name Saint Petersburg was restored to Russia’s second-largest city, which had been known as Leningrad since 1924.

1995 – Cal Ripken, Jr. of the Baltimore Orioles played in his 2,131st consecutive game, breaking a record that stood for 56 years.

1997 – The funeral for Princess Diana was broadcast across several networks and around the world. An estimated 2 billion people watched all or part of the funeral on television.

2003 – #1 Hit September 6, 2003 – October 3, 2003: Nelly, P. Diddy and Murphy Lee – Shake Ya Tailfeather

2008 – #1 Hit September 6, 2008 – September 26, 2008: T.I. – Whatever You Like

2014 – #1 Hit September 6, 2014 – September 19, 2014: Taylor Swift – Shake It Off

Today’s Random Trivia and Shower Thoughts

Whole and hole are pronounced identically but mean the opposite.

A nanosecond is how long it takes light to travel 0.98357106 feet

The Beatles helped end racially segregated concerts by refusing to play at segregated events.

Voltaire – Real Name: Francois-Marie Arouret

If the question is why the answer is usually money.

Confetti is the arch-enemy of bubbles.

After I drink a glass of water, I use more water to wash it than the original amount I drank from it

Orson Welles’ last film role was the voice of Unicron in Transformers: The Movie.

“Read my lips: No new taxes!” – George H.W. Bush

“Take the car. Go to Mum’s. Kill Phil. Grab Liz. Go to the Winchester. Have a nice cold pint, and wait for all of this to blow over” – Shaun

“Fuller! Go easy on the Pepsi!” – Leslie McCallister in Home Alone #moviequotes

More Pop Culture History Resources