Five Things That Happened On January 20 In Soap History

In 1995, Amber Tamblyn made her General Hospital debut as Emily Bowen. The youngster was the daughter of Paige Bowen, who Monica Quartermaine (Leslie Charleson) met during her own battle with breast cancer. Paige ultimately succumbed to the disease, and Monica and her husband, Alan (Stuart Damon), adopted Emily. Tamblyn was 11 years old when she landed the role. She exited GH in 2001 and went on to a successful career climb in projects like House, Joan of Ardcadia and Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.

In 2006, Lucas Jones (Ben Hogestyn) came out to his mother, Bobbie Spencer, as gay on General Hospital. Lucas had just been arrested after getting into a fight at Jake's, and Bobbie paid his bail. Bobbie implored her son to open up to her about what had happened. Lucas snapped, "I'm not your baby boy. You know, there's a whole life you don't know about me or want to know!" Bobbie insisted there was nothing the two of them couldn't talk about, but an upset Lucas blurted out, "How about the fact that I'm gay?" Bobbie was startled, which Lucas interpreted as disappointment. "That's why I didn't come out sooner!" he lamented.

In 2011, Stefano DiMera (Joseph Mascolo) set a dangerous plan in motion on Days of Our Lives to replace Rafe with a look-alike, Arnold Feniger (Galen Gering), who underwent facial reconstruction to look like the upstanding cop. Stefano and EJ were eager to rip apart the happy marriage of Rafe and Sami, so EJ gave the go-ahead to his father's wild scheme. Arnold proved to be quite the menace, and ultimately killed Nicole's mother, Fay, to stop Fay from busting him as an impostor.

In 2014, Dr. Liesl Obrecht (Kathleen Gati) burst into a hospital board meeting on General Hospital and announced that she was the new chief of staff. Given her criminal history and that she was fresh off a prison stint, the news was hardly met with delight by the hospital staff, including those who had been vying for the top job (Robin Scorpio, Monica Quartermaine and Silas Clay). It was eventually revealed that Liesl's ex-lover, Victor Cassadine, had arranged for her to be released from prison and pulled strings to land her the coveted chief of staff position.

In 2020 on General Hospital, Nicolas Bechtel made a one-day reprisal of the role of Spencer Cassadine in what would ultimately prove to be his final appearance in the role. In the episode, Spencer was reunited with his father, Nikolas Cassadine, who had been presumed dead since 2016. It was not a happy one, however, as Spencer was furious with his father for putting him through the hell of believing he had died. Nikolas attempted to explain his actions by noting that he had been trying to regain control of the family fortune, but Spencer angrily lashed out at him. "I just needed my father. I needed you to be alive. What could have mattered more than that?" Spencer fumed.