Good morning.

There are years that announce themselves loudly.

Others seem to change one small habit at a time.

In 1980, music was becoming something you could carry in your pocket. A maddening little colored cube was beginning to appear in people's hands. Television still gathered families around the same screen.

And one of the most famous figures of the American counterculture was about to step out of hiding.

We'll get there in a moment.

First, let's see what September 4 has left behind.

1781 — Los Angeles was founded. A group of settlers established the pueblo that would grow into Los Angeles, beginning with just 44 settlers — 11 men, 11 women and 22 children.

1882 — Edison’s Pearl Street generating station began service. Thomas Edison’s central generating station in lower Manhattan started supplying electric power, an important early step toward the electrical systems that would transform everyday life.

1886 — Geronimo formally surrendered. After years of conflict between the U.S. government and Apache people, Geronimo and his followers formally surrendered to Brig. Gen. Nelson Miles. The surrender was followed by imprisonment and removal from their homeland for Geronimo and other Chiricahua Apache.

1949 — Paul Robeson performed at Peekskill. The singer, actor and activist appeared before a large interracial audience in New York after an earlier concert had been disrupted. Violence followed the September 4 concert as departing attendees were attacked amid intense racism, antisemitism and anti-Communist hostility.

1957 — The Little Rock Nine tried to enter Central High School. Nine Black students attempting to integrate the Arkansas school were blocked by National Guard troops under orders from Gov. Orval Faubus. Elizabeth Eckford, separated from the other students that morning, faced a hostile crowd outside the school.

September 4 is also informally celebrated as Eat an Extra Dessert Day.

Its origins aren't especially clear, and it isn't an official observance.

But as excuses for a second helping go, it gets right to the point.

Now let's turn the dial back to a Thursday in 1980.

Summer is winding down.

The 1970s aren't very far behind, and much of everyday life still looks familiar.

But some decidedly new habits are beginning to appear.

Sony's Walkman had arrived in the United States that summer, putting cassette music and lightweight headphones into a package you could carry with you.

Music didn't have to stay in the family room or the car anymore.

It could become private.

Personal.

Portable.

And another small object was starting to make its way into people's hands:

the Rubik's Cube.

The colorful puzzle reached the international market in 1980 and was on its way to becoming a phenomenon.

Back at home, television was still a shared experience. The family-room set remained a centerpiece of the evening, while video games and other electronics were becoming increasingly familiar parts of home entertainment.

September 1980 sits in an interesting place.

The world still looks recognizably like the late 1970s.

But some of the habits we associate with the decade ahead are already arriving.

On September 4, 1980, Abbie Hoffman surrendered to authorities in New York.

For more than six years, the counterculture activist and co-founder of the Youth International Party — the Yippies — had been living underground.

Hoffman had gone underground in 1974 after jumping bail while facing charges stemming from an alleged cocaine sale to undercover agents.

During his years as a fugitive, he lived under an assumed identity and became involved in environmental organizing in upstate New York.

Then, in September 1980, he decided to come back.

His surrender didn't erase the charges waiting for him.

But culturally, the moment carried a symbolism larger than the legal proceeding itself.

One of the most recognizable activists of the 1960s had spent much of the 1970s underground.

Now he was stepping back into public view at the beginning of a very different decade.

Smokey and the Bandit II was one of the major movies of late summer 1980.

Burt Reynolds had returned as the Bandit only a few weeks earlier, joined again by Sally Field, Jerry Reed and Jackie Gleason.

The sequel opened in mid-August and brought audiences back to the fast cars, lawmen and road-comedy formula that had made the original such a hit.

By the beginning of September, the Bandit was back in theaters after a strong opening.

The biggest song on the Billboard Hot 100 was:

Diana Ross — “Upside Down.”

For the chart dated September 6, 1980, Ross moved into the No. 1 position with the Chic-produced hit.

It was another milestone in a career that had already stretched from the Supremes through a decade of solo success.

And now, as a new decade began finding its sound, Diana Ross was sitting at the top of the chart again.

One of baseball's biggest stories wasn't a single game on September 4.

It was a number:

.400.

Kansas City Royals star George Brett was deep into one of the most closely watched batting pursuits in decades.

He had pushed his batting average above .400 in August, turning every trip to the plate into part of a larger question:

Could he become the first major leaguer since Ted Williams in 1941 to finish a season batting .400?

By early September, the chase was still alive.

Every hit mattered.

Every hitless game mattered.

Baseball fans were watching the average rise and fall almost as closely as the Royals' place in the standings.

The answer was still weeks away.

On September 4, 1980, .400 was still something Brett could chase.

Where you lived still mattered. Local affiliates could delay, preempt or substitute network programming.

But the September 4 schedules give us a snapshot of what viewers could find across the three major networks.

ABC — Mork & Mindy brought Robin Williams' alien from Ork back to prime time.

CBS — Barnaby Jones offered detective drama, while Knots Landing continued the network's evening lineup.

NBC — Games People Play mixed sports and human-interest competition, while the network also aired the conclusion of the war film Midway.

No streaming menu.

No endless scroll.

Three networks, a television set and whatever happened to be on when you sat down.

If you visited Walt Disney World in early September 1980, the Magic Kingdom had something new on the horizon.

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was nearing its September opening.

The runaway-mine-train attraction would carry guests through a highly themed landscape of desert rock, tunnels and an abandoned mining settlement.

For visitors walking through Frontierland on September 4, Disney World's newest mountain was not yet an old favorite.

It was something to anticipate.

Later that month, Disney would mark Big Thunder's arrival, adding a new runaway-mine-train adventure to the Magic Kingdom.

Portable headphones make it easy to take music almost anywhere.

They also make it easy to forget how long you've been listening.

When it comes to protecting your hearing, both volume and time matter.

The louder the sound, the less time it takes for it to potentially damage your hearing.

A few simple habits can help:

Turn the volume down.

Take breaks from prolonged loud sound.

Move farther away from loud speakers or other noise when you can.

And use hearing protection when you're around sound loud enough to put your hearing at risk.

You don't have to give up the music.

Just give your ears a little room to recover.

Take the free health assessment →

Health Snap provides general wellness information, not individualized medical advice.

You're sharing your date with writers, entertainers and sports legends.

🎂 Richard Wright — 1908 — Author of Native Son and Black Boy

🎂 Damon Wayans — 1960 — Comedian and actor known for In Living Color

🎂 Mike Piazza — 1968 — Hall of Fame Major League Baseball catcher

🎂 Beyoncé — 1981 — Grammy-winning singer and performer

Is September 4 your birthday?

Tell us — we'd love to hear from you.

And if someone you know was born today, send them this issue and show them what was happening on their day.

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