April 1, 1963: "General Hospital" Premieres

April 1, 1963: General Hospital premieres on ABC. It becomes the longest-running, and perhaps greatest, soap opera in American history. It is easily the longest-running show, in any genre, ever to air on "The Alphabet Network."

The series takes place in Port Charles, New York, a fictional city located roughly where the real-life city of Rochester is, and it has all the adventure and difficulties of any port city. From 1997 to 2003, ABC aired a spinoff series titled Port Charles.

One of the original characters was Dr. Steve Hardy, played by John Beradino. As "Johnny Berardino," he was an infielder in Major League Baseball, mostly for the St. Louis Browns, missing their 1944 American League Pennant season while serving in World War II. But he was a member of the 1948 World Series-winning Cleveland Indians.

The Los Angeles native closed his playing career with one of the worst teams of all time, the 1952 Pittsburgh Pirates, returned to his hometown, and went to Hollywood. In a 1959 episode of Rescue 8, he played a ballplayer who was hit in the head with a pitch and suffered amnesia. For 33 years, he was on the other side of medicine, on GH, and remained on the show until his death in 1996.

John Beradino and Emily McLaughlin,

cutting a cake celebrating the show's 10th Anniversary, 1973.

McLauglin played nurse Jessie Brewer

from the debut in 1963 until her death in 1991.

It's worth noting that, when Luke Spencer (played by Anthony Geary) married Laura Webber (Genie Francis) in 1981, 30 million Americans watched it, more Americans than have watched of any episode of any soap opera ever -- and more Americans watched that wedding than any other in that year, including that of Charles and Diana, the Prince and Princess of Wales.

In real life, Geary has never been married. Francis has: Since 1988, the native of Englewood, Bergen County, New Jersey has been married to Star Trek actor and director Jonathan Frakes.

As of April 1, 2022, the series is still on the air, one of the last surviving classic soap operas. Every weekday at 3:00 PM Eastern Time, viewers still tune in to the goings-on at the hospital, and in the Cassadine, Corinthos, Jerome, Quartermaine, Scorpio/Jones and Spencer families.

UPDATE: Geary died in 2025. With some irony, it was revealed after his death that he was gay.

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April 1, 1963 was a Monday. Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. And the NBA and the NHL were both between rounds of the Playoffs. So there were no scores on this historic day.