If you’re a tennis fan, you’ve probably heard of tennis champion Jimmy Connors.

Connors was born on September 2, 1952 in East Saint Louis. He was introduced to tennis at a young age by his mother, who was a former professional tennis player. Connors claim to fame was his two-handed backhand stroke, which was also taught to him by his mother.

Connors trained with tennis champion Pancho Segura when he was 16, eventually attending school at the University of California Los Angeles. He only attended college for a year, however, because he wanted to fulfill his dream of becoming a full-time professional tennis player.

It wasn’t a difficult beginning to Connor’s professional career. He started out by winning three Grand Slam tournaments and became the sport’s number one ranked male player, which he held for 159 consecutive weeks. Over the next 10 years, he won four more U.S. Open Singles titles, along with the 1982 Wimbledon Men’s Championship.   

Connors competed in his last match in 1996 and finished with a men’s open-era record of 109 singles titles, 1,337 victories, eight Grand Slam Singles and two doubles championships. He was also ranked in the top 10 in the world for 16 consecutive years.

Learn more:
Visit Jimmy Connor’s official website

Author Edgar Rice Burroughs was born in Chicago on September 1, 1875, spending the first years of his life in the Windy City before moving to Idaho on his brother’s ranch in 1891. Although he enlisted in the Army upon graduation, he was discharged after Army physicians discovered a heart problem in 1887. Burroughs returned to Chicago in 1904.

Edgar first began having his works of fiction published in 1912 while working as a pencil sharpener wholesaler. It was during this time that he began to really delve into his writing and developed one of his most beloved characters, Tarzan. A few years later, after achieving much success, he purchased a large ranch in California, which he named “Tarzana.”

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Read more about Edgar Rice Burroughs life

The man responsible for many of our nightmares, Wes Craven, earned a degree in English and psychology from Wheaton College in Illinois. He then went on to obtain a master’s degree and pursue a career in the film industry.

Craven created the iconic Freddy Kruger character that terrified viewers for years.

Known for the “Nightmare on Elm Street” and “Scream” franchises, Craven went on to win a number of awards throughout his career.

Learn more:
Official Wes Craven website

On Sunday April 15, 1956, WMAQ-TV became the first television station to broadcast exclusively in color.

At 4:15 p.m., Channel 5 became the world's first all-color TV station after then-President Robert W. Smarnoff pressed a button switching from black and white.

The transformation to all-color cost NBC more than $1.25 million, with an advertising budget of $175,000.

Learn more:
Check out the official NBC website
This site has even more details about the conversion project!

Yvonne Craig, who played Batgirl in the 1960s Batman TV series, was born in Taylorville in 1937. Craig joined the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo as its youngest ballet member in the 1950s. She moved to Los Angeles in 1957 in hopes of continuing her ballet career but instead began a long and successful career in film and television.

One of Craig’s first television roles came in 1958, playing a lead character in the series Perry Mason. Craig would go on to star in High Time (1960) and with Elvis Presley in It Happened at the World’s Fair (1963) and Kissin’ Cousins (1964). Craig began her role as Batgirl in 1967 after the character was introduced in comic books in 1961.

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Read more about the life of actress Yvonne Craig