Sonny’s Memory Returned in Nixon Falls on General Hospital and Other Big Soap Moments from September 17

In 1987, General Hospital's Duke Lavery (Ian Buchanan) proposed to Anna Devane (Finola Hughes). "This time it's forever," Duke whispered to Anna (with whom he had recently reconciled after a bad breakup) as he slipped a beautiful diamond ring on the finger. The supercouple's wedding took place the following month.

In 1999, Young and Restless's Jack Abbott (Peter Bergman, r.) proudly revealed to his father, John Abbott (Jerry Douglas), that he had struck a deal with Victor and regained control of the family company, Jabot. John got choked up upon hearing the incredible news. Jack then asked his father to move back to Genoa City, come out of retirement and run the business alongside him and Ashley. "What do you say, Boss?" Jack grinned. An emotional John accepted the offer.

In 2010, As The World Turns aired its final episode. The beloved soap had been on the CBS airwaves since April 2, 1956. In the last show, Bob Hughes (Don Hastings) retired as chief of staff at Oakdale's Memorial hospital. As he entered his office for the last time, other characters were shown enjoying happily-ever-afters of sorts: John and Lucinda were back together, Jack and Carly were married and expecting a new baby, Katie and Chris got engaged. At the end of the episode, Kim left Bob's office to wait for her husband in the car. He took one last look around. "Good night," he said, then turned off the light and walked out. In the darkness, the globe on Bob’s desk began to spin on its own before the series faded to black.

In 2015, Lexi Ainsworth returned to General Hospital in the role of Kristina Corinthos-Davis, which she had originally played from 2009-11. In a candid interview with Soap Opera Digest, the actress admitted, "I was pretty shocked when I got the call, to be honest. Initially, when I left the show, I thought maybe there would be a chance of me coming back, but once there was another Kristina [Lindsey Morgan, who held the part from 2012-13], I thought, ‘Oh, there’s no way they’re gonna bring me back.’ " Ainsworth said she harbored no bad feelings about being let go four years prior. “I started the show when I was 16,” she noted. “I was pretty young, and there were a lot of other things that I wanted to do that I might not have necessarily gotten to do if I had stayed on the show. There’s no bad blood there at all. I feel like everything happens for a reason, and especially in this industry, things change overnight. You have to take what comes, and I’m just riding the wave.”

In 2021 on General Hospital, Sonny Corinthos's time as amnesiac "Mike" came to an end in Nixon Falls. After Peter set the Tan-O on fire, "Mike" tried to fight off the blaze and got trapped underneath a falling beam. He lost consciousness, but came to and called out for Carly, the wife he had previously been unable to remember (the very one who was, at that precise moment, immersed in her wedding to Sonny's best friend, Jason Morgan)! He managed to pull himself to his feet and to stumble out of the burning building, whereupon he was rushed to the hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation. Nina Reeves, who was concealing his identity and had fallen in love with the "new" version of Sonny, was relieved when she got word that he was asking to see her. She rushed to his side, and her relief quickly faded when "Mike" pulled down his oxygen mask and told her to call him by his real name — Sonny! He made it clear to Nina that he now remembered everything about his true identity. She told him that she loved him and he snapped at her not to say that.