Anna and Valentin Said Goodbye On General Hospital And Other Moments From July 17 In Soap History

In 1986, David Canary (ex-Adam/Stuart, All My Children) and Erika Slezak (ex-Viki, One Life To Live) nabbed Outstanding Lead Actor and Outstanding Lead Actress honors at the 13^th Annual Daytime Emmys. In the Supporting category, the winners were John Wesley Shipp as Douglas Cummings on As The World Turns and Leann Hunley as Anna DiMera on Days of Our Lives. Young and Restless took home the top prize of the night, Outstanding Daytime Drama Series. The awards also carried some controversy, as Y&R's writing team was named as the victor in the writing category that night, but the next day, it was revealed that they had been announced in error! The Emmy was revoked and given to its rightful winner, the team from Guiding Light.

In 1996, GH’s Lucky Spencer (Jonathan Jackson, l.) learned that Nikolas Cassadine (Tyler Christopher) was his half brother. Lucky was shaken to the core by the revelation that his mother, Laura, had sired a son with Stavros Cassadine, and though it took some time, the pair eventually forged a close sibling bond.

In 2000, Guiding Light’s Cassie Layne (Laura Wright) married Prince Richard Winslow (Bradley Cole). It took three months to complete the beading on the elaborate wedding gown, which was done by hand by an artisan who also did beadwork for Bob Mackie and Michael Jackson. In 2016, Wright recalled to Soap Opera Digest, “I was about two months pregnant with [son] Little John and I was growing so fast. We did a bunch of photo shoots after taping the wedding and by the end, that dress wasn’t closing in the back! Shawn [Reeves, then-costume designer] was clamping it together for photos. That wedding was amazing. We couldn’t afford to do something like that now. It was over-the-top and just a blast.”

In 1997, Adrienne Frantz (pictured with Jacob Young as Rick Forrester) made her Bold and Beautiful debut as Amber Moore. She played the role until 2005, then crossed Amber over to Y&R from 2006-10. Frantz later returned to B&B from 2010-12 and made a guest appearance on Y&R in 2013.

In 2024 on General Hospital, Valentin Cassadine (James Patrick Stuart) tried to convince Anna Devane (Finola Hughes) — who had just given evidence to FBI Agent John Cates of Valentin's involvement with the criminal Pikeman organization — to run away with him, telling her, "We belong together." An emotional Anna insisted that she could not join him, but that he and his daughter, Charlotte, needed to leave town immediately. After they kissed, Anna reiterated, "I'm sorry, I love you, but I can't go away with you." At her request, he explained how he had come to be linked to Pikeman in the first place. Then Charlotte returned home. Later, John and a team of agents burst into the house and scoured the premises, but there was no sign of Valentin. Anna, who was observing from her car outside, smiled to herself.