Chris Linden will explore the legendary hideouts, real-life haunts, and the lingering connections with Prohibition in our region Tuesday Oct. 13 at 2 p.m. at 113 South Third Street, Geneva. Please register at https://tinyurl.com/2ruejvj9 —Geneva History Museum
October 8 Flames spark in the Chicago barn of Patrick and Catherine O’Leary and ignite a two-day blaze that kills between 200 and 300 residents, destroys 17,450 buildings, leaves 100,000 homeless, and causes an estimated $200 million, equivalent of $3.8 billion in today’s dollars, in damages. – 1871. The U.S.
October 1 An act of Congress creates Yosemite National Park. U.S. president Benjamin Harrison paved the way for generations of hikers, campers, and nature lovers, along with countless “Don’t Feed the Bears” signs. – 1890. T.E. Lawrence, a legendary British soldier known as Lawrence of Arabia and instrumental commander in
September 24 The prophet Muhammad completes his Hegira, or flight, from Mecca to Medina to escape persecution. In Medina, Muhammad set about building the followers of his religion, Islam, into an organized community and Arabian power. The Hegira later would mark the beginning (year 1) of the Muslim calendar. –
September 17 At a New York convention of the National Labor Congress, Susan B. Anthony calls for the formation of a Working Women’s Association. As a delegate to the Congress, she persuades the committee on female labor to call for votes for women and equal pay for equal work. But
September 10 U.S. president Andrew Jackson announces that the government no longer will use the Second Bank of the United States, the country’s national bank. – 1833. September 11 Approximately 75,000 coal miners in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia, end a 10-week strike after winning an eight-hour day, semi-monthly pay,
A Santori Aurora Public Library program looked back in time August 25, with a presentation on prohibition in Aurora. Ethan Mikolay, staff librarian, chronicled “Aurora’s Temperance Movement,” recounting local initiatives from their earliest days in 1837 through the end of prohibition in 1933. Visitors gathered before 7 p.m. in a
September 3 The American Revolution officially comes to an end when representatives of the United States, Great Britain, Spain, and France sign the Treaty of Paris. – 1783. A three-day hostage crisis at a Russian school comes to a violent conclusion after a gun battle erupts between the 32 hostage-takers
A vintage bible, photos, newspaper clippings, and other historic items were recovered from a 100-year-old Aurora Masonic lodge time capsule, which was unsealed Saturday, Aug. 22. Approximately 50 people attended the two-hour evening event on the lawn at the Grand Army of the Republic Hall and Military Museum, 23 E.
August 27 The most powerful volcanic eruption in recorded history occurs on Krakatau, called Krakatoa, a small, uninhabited volcanic island west of Sumatra in Indonesia. Heard 3,000 miles away, the explosions throw five cubic miles of earth 50 miles into the air, create 120-foot tsunamis, and kill 36,000 humans. Fine
The City of Aurora’s Grand Army of the Republic Military Museum, 23 E Downer Pl., Aurora, in partnership with the Aurora Historical Society, will host an event to unseal a 100-plus-year-old time capsule Saturday, Aug. 22 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.. The Masonic Temple Time Capsule was found just
August 20 A dispatcher in the New York Times office sends the first telegram around the world by way of commercial service. After it goes more than 28,000 miles and relayed by 16 operators, the reply was received by the same operator 16.5 minutes later. – 1911. A NASA rocket
August 13 After a three-month siege, Spanish forces under Hernán Cortés capture Tenochtitlán, the capital of the Aztec empire. Cortés’ men leveled the city. – 1521. In an effort to stem the tide of refugees attempting to leave East Berlin, the communist government representatives of East Germany begin building the
August 6 At Auburn Prison in New York, the first execution by electrocution in history is carried out against William Kemmler, who had been convicted of murdering his lover, Matilda Ziegler, with an axe. – 1890. At 8:16 a.m. Japanese time, an American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, drops the
July 30 Two years after inserting “under God” into the pledge of allegiance, president Dwight D. Eisenhower signs a law officially declaring “In God We Trust” to be the Nation’s official motto, to replace E pluribus unum “Out of many, one,” used by the founding fathers – 1956. President Lyndon
July 23 In the early-morning hours of July 23, 1967, one of the worst riots in U.S. history breaks out on 12th Street in the heart of Detroit’s predominantly African-American inner city. By the time it was quelled four days later by 7,000 National Guard and U.S. Army troops, 43
July 16 The young American Congress declares the site on the Potomac River between Maryland and Virginia will be the nation’s permanent capital. “Washington,” in the newly-designated federal “District of Columbia,” was named after the leader of the American Revolution and the country’s first president: George Washington. – 1790. Apollo
July 9 Two trains collide outside of Nashville, Tenn. and kill 101 and injure more than 100. Despite the high death toll, the story was mainly ignored by the national press most likely because the vast majority of the casualties were African Americans. – 1918. July 10 A powerful explosion
July 2 Africans on the Cuban schooner Amistad rise up against their captors, kill two crew members, and seize control of the ship, which had been transporting them to a life of slavery on a sugar plantation in Puerto Principe, Cuba. – 1839. U.S. president James A. Garfield, who had
June 25 Virginia becomes the 10th U.S. state. – 1788. Native American forces, led by Chiefs Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, defeat the U.S. Army troops of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer in a bloody battle near southern Montana’s Little Bighorn River. – 1876. Fair Labor Standards Act passes Congress
