5 Years Ago (2009)

Pulitzer Prize— and Academy Award—winning Southern writer Horton Foote dies at age 92. The native Texan authored more than 50 plays, including Orphans’ Home Cycle and The Young Man from Atlanta. Foote wrote several screenplays, including his award-winning adaptation of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird.

45 Years Ago (1969)

The National Theatre of the Deaf ends its first Broadway engagement at the Longacre Theatre. The company produced six one-act plays, which were performed in sign language and pantomime for the deaf with reading accompaniment. Originally a program of the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center, the NTD would become an independent company in 1983.

50 Years Ago (1964)

Barbra Streisand’s star is born with the opening of Bob Merrill, Jule Styne and Isobel Lennart’s Funny Girl at the Winter Garden Theatre. Nominated for eight Tony Awards, the show will go on to play 1,348 performances. The cast recording would go on to peak at #2 on the Billboard charts.

125 years ago (1889)

Tony-winning librettist, playwright and actor Howard Lindsay is born in Waterford, N.Y. Along with his collaborator Russel Crouse, Lindsay goes on to write the book for The Sound of Music and the Pulitzer-winning play State of the Union.