Seventy years ago, Elvis Presley returned to one of America’s biggest television shows. Before the singing began, he faced the cameras for a very different reason.

The screaming could wait. Backstage at CBS Studio 50 in New York, Elvis Presley was getting his polio vaccination.

It was October 28, 1956, and health officials had enlisted the singer to help promote vaccination. A photograph preserved by New York’s Municipal Archives shows health commissioner Dr Leona Baumgartner holding his elbow as he received the injection. The young star was lending his fame to a campaign against a disease that frightened families worldwide.

Then came his second appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, with performances including Don’t Be Cruel, Love Me Tender and Hound Dog.

This time, Ed Sullivan was back hosting after a car accident had kept him away from the September debut. And despite the familiar story about television hiding those scandalous hips, viewers could still see Elvis from head to toe.

The famous restriction to filming him from the waist up came with his third appearance, in January 1957.

Australia votes no

Forty years earlier, on October 28, 1916, Australians voted on whether men could be compelled to serve overseas during World War I.

Prime Minister Billy Hughes backed conscription, but 51.61 per cent voted against his proposal. Although commonly called a referendum, the vote did not seek constitutional change. The bitter campaign divided communities and helped fracture the Labor Party. A second proposal was rejected in 1917.

A launch from Woomera

On October 28, 1971, a British Black Arrow rocket launched the Prospero satellite from Woomera in South Australia.

The spacecraft tested technology including solar cells, and became the only satellite placed in orbit by a British launch vehicle. Remarkably, the British government had already cancelled the rocket programme that July. Fifty-five years later, the launch remains a distinctive chapter in Australia’s space history.

Born on this day

Julia Roberts turns 59, familiar from Pretty Woman and Notting Hill. Dennis Franz, who played Detective Andy Sipowicz in NYPD Blue, turns 82. Annie Potts, remembered as the receptionist in Ghostbusters and the voice of Bo Peep in Toy Story, turns 74.

Do you remember?

Which Elvis record was played most often in your house, and who was his biggest fan?