Five Things That Happened On February 17 In Soap History

In 1986, Maggie (Suzanne Rogers, l.) and Mickey Horton (John Clarke, l.), and Pete Jannings (Michael Leon) and Melissa Horton (Lisa Trusel), tied the knot in a double wedding on Days of Our Lives in what, in Salem time, was a Valentine's Day ceremony. Melissa and Pete were already planning their big day when her adoptive parents reconciled and decided that the third time would be the matrimonial charm, so the duos decided to make it a family affair. The double ceremony at St. Luke’s went off without a hitch, even though Melissa-obsessed rapist Ian Griffith lurked in the back of the church. No one had a better time at the reception at Blondie’s than Pete’s best man, Chris Kositchek, who caught both garters! Sadly, illness kept Mickey (flu) and Maggie (hives) from a proper honeymoon.

In 1995, Gina Tognoni (pictured with Nathan Fillion as Joey Buchanan) made her daytime debut on One Life to Live as Kelly Cramer. Tognoni, who would go on to win Daytime Emmys for her work as Guiding Light's Dinah Marler and Young and Restless's Phyllis Summers, recalled to Soap Opera Digest in 2019, "I had been auditioning straight for about a year and a half and really wasn’t picking up anything, but learning quite a bit, but I was getting a little frustrated and I thought, “Well, maybe this isn’t for me.” ... I was at Santa Monica College and I had gotten a call from my agent at the time who said, 'There is this contract role for Kelly Cramer at ABC’s One Life to Live and it’s a great role. Why don’t you give it a shot?" After auditioning, she was asked to screen test. Then, "They said, 'You’re our Kelly Cramer,” and that was it. In an instant my life changed."

In 1995, One Life to Live's Todd Manning (Roger Howarth) and Blair Daimler (Kassie DePaiva) tied the knot in Key West, FL. Todd stepped up to marry Blair when she disclosed to him that she was pregnant as a result of their one-night stand on Christmas 1994. Little did Todd know that Blair was faking the pregnancy! She had uncovered that he was the heir to Victor Lord's fortune and stood to inherit $28 million.

In 2003, Jasper "Jax" Jacks (Ingo Rademacher) dumped Brenda Barrett (Vanessa Marcil) at the altar on General Hospital. The duo, who had one invalid wedding and a broken engagement under their belt, had reconciled upon Brenda's return from the dead and planned to finally make it official, but on the eve of the nuptials, Brenda shared what she considered to be a good-bye kiss with her ex, Sonny Corinthos — and their embrace was spied by Sonny's jealous wife, Carly Corinthos. Word of the buss got back to Jax, and he couldn't bring himself to say, "I do." He told Brenda, "I can't marry you. Not when your heart belongs to someone else." Brenda, who insisted the smooch meant nothing, told Jax she didn't want to marry him, either, after he'd humiliated her so publicly. "You could have ended this in a way that respected what we meant to each other, and you didn't," she alleged. "You made your choice. Bye."

In 2003 on Days of Our Lives, Jennifer Horton (Melissa Reeves) donned a Santa suit and proposed to her ex-husband, Jack Deveraux (Matthew Ashford), in a nod to the outfit he wore during a previous marriage proposal to her. "My whole life, I have only loved one man, and that love has been tested over and over and over," said Jennifer. "But I think it's the tests that have made us stronger. And you're the man that I love, and I want to be your wife again.... Jack Deveraux, will you marry me?"