I just tried this in Cisco VIRL and it is working here:
event manager applet shutdown_port
event timer cron cron-entry "57 12 * * *"
action 1.0 cli command "enable"
action 2.0 cli command "config t"
action 3.0 cli command "interface FastEthernet1/0/1"
action 4.0 cli command "shut"
action 5.0 cli command "end"
action 6.0 syslog msg "Interface FastEthernet1/0/1 has been shutdown"
A few minutes later:
R1#
*Jul 6 12:57:00.360: %SYS-5-CONFIG_I: Configured from console by on vty0 (EEM:shutdown_port)
*Jul 6 12:57:00.365: %HA_EM-6-LOG: shutdown_port: Interface FastEthernet1/0/1 has been shutdown