September 17 Birthday

Famous Birthdays on September 17

• Anne Bancroft (1931)

  American actress and Academy Award winner known for The Graduate and The Miracle Worker.

• John Ritter (1948)

  American actor known for the sitcom Three's Company and later 8 Simple Rules.

• Rasheeda (1978)

  American rapper and reality television personality known for Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta.

• Anastacia (1968)

  American singer known for the single I'm Outta Love and a strong following across Europe.

This Day in History

• 1787 — Delegates at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia signed the United States Constitution, sending it to the states for ratification.

• 1976 — NASA publicly unveiled the Space Shuttle Enterprise, the first orbiter built for the shuttle program, though it was never intended to fly in space.

• 1978 — The Camp David Accords were signed by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, laying the groundwork for the Egypt-Israel peace treaty.

What September 17 Says About You

Three of September 17's defining events all involve people signing their names to something built to outlast them, which pairs unusually well with a numerology day number of 8, traditionally tied to lasting achievement and structures meant to endure. In 1787, delegates at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia signed the United States Constitution after months of closed-door argument, sending a document to the states for ratification that would go on to become the world's oldest written national constitution still in force. Nearly two centuries later, in 1978, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin signed the Camp David Accords after thirteen days of intensive negotiation brokered by President Jimmy Carter, laying the groundwork for the first peace treaty between Israel and an Arab nation. Between those two dates, in 1976, NASA publicly unveiled the Space Shuttle Enterprise, the first orbiter built for the shuttle program — a vehicle that, despite the fanfare of its rollout, was never actually intended to fly in space, built instead for atmospheric glide tests that helped validate the design before the shuttle fleet that did reach orbit. Four performers born on September 17 have each built work around sustained, structural craft rather than single flash moments. Anne Bancroft, born in 1931, won an Academy Award for The Miracle Worker and remained a defining screen presence for decades afterward. John Ritter, born in 1948, spent years perfecting physical comedy on Three's Company before a second sitcom success later in his career. Anastacia, born in 1968, built a sustained international following, especially in Europe, that outlasted the peak of her American chart success. And Rasheeda, born in 1978, built a music and business career alongside a long-running reality television presence. As a Virgo date, September 17 carries the sign's patient, structural instincts, well matched to a birthday whose real history keeps returning to documents and vehicles built for durability rather than spectacle. Only 39 of the 55 delegates who attended the Constitutional Convention actually signed the finished document on September 17, 1787, and even among those present, several, including George Mason and Elbridge Gerry, refused to add their names because the draft lacked a bill of rights, an objection that helped drive the amendments added just two years later, and Rhode Island, which hadn't even sent delegates to the convention, was the last of the original thirteen states to ratify the finished document, holding out until 1790, largely over lingering objections to a strong central government and the document's initial silence on individual liberties. The stone and flowers assigned to September, sapphire alongside the aster and morning glory, cover the whole month rather than the 17th in isolation, but sapphire's old reputation for steadfastness suits a date defined by things signed, built, and negotiated to last. Anne Bancroft was married to filmmaker Mel Brooks for more than four decades, a partnership that lasted from 1964 until her death in 2005, even as the two worked largely in different corners of the entertainment industry. John Ritter died suddenly in 2003 of an undiagnosed aortic dissection while on set filming his sitcom 8 Simple Rules, a shock that led his family to found a foundation raising awareness of the condition.