ON THIS DAY AUGUST 19 2023

This Day in History: August 19

Featured Event

1812




The USS Constitution, commanded by Captain Isaac Hull, won a brilliant victory over the British frigate HMS Guerriere in the War of 1812.

Featured Biography

Gene Roddenberry
American writer and producer




Gene Roddenberry, byname of Eugene Wesley Roddenberry, (born August 19, 1921, El Paso, Texas, U.S.—died October 24, 1991, Santa Monica, California), American writer and television and film producer who created and served as executive producer of the popular science-fiction television series Star Trek (1966–69), which spawned other television series and a string of motion pictures.
Roddenberry briefly attended Los Angeles City College, flew B-17 bombers during World War II, and was an airline pilot (1945–49) and a sergeant on the Los Angeles police force (1949–53). He then became a freelance television writer and contributed scripts through 1962 to several network programs, including Dragnet, Highway Patrol, Dr. Kildare, and Have Gun—Will Travel. In 1964 he began trying to sell the idea of Star Trek to producers, but not until September 8, 1966, did the first episode debut on the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) network. The series was repeatedly threatened with cancellation, but the program’s ardent followers, known as “Trekkies,” formed fan clubs and initiated letter-writing campaigns to keep the series alive until September 2, 1969.


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