January 12 There were unseasonably-warm-weather days prior to January 12, but over the course of 24 hours the temperature plunged to 40 below zero, almost a 100 degree difference from the previous day, in much of North Dakota. The so-called “Schoolchildren’s Blizzard” kills 235 persons, many of whom were children
January 5 Ford Motor Company, led by Henry Ford, raises wages from $2.40 for a nine-hour day to $5 for an eight-hour day in effort to keep the unions out and give workers money to buy Ford products. – 1914. U.S. president Richard Nixon signs a bill authorizing $5.5 million
December 29 Six months after the Congress of the Republic of Texas accepts U.S. annexation of the territory, Texas is admitted into the United States as the 28th state. – 1845. In the final chapter of America’s long Indian wars, the U.S. Cavalry kills 146 Sioux at Wounded Knee on
December 15 The Kansas National Guard is called out to subdue 2,000 to 6,000 protesting women who were going from mine to mine attacking non-striking miners in the Pittsburg coal fields. The women made headlines across the State and the Nation: They were christened the “Amazon Army” by The New
December 8 A fire at the Ring Theater in Vienna, Austria, kills between 620 and 850 individuals and injures hundreds more when a stagehand lighted a row of gas lights, but inadvertently ignited some prop clouds over the stage. The stage managers panicked and shut off the gas which turned
December 1 The Ford Motor Company introduces the continuous moving assembly line which could produce a complete car every two-and-a-half minutes. – 1913. African American Rosa Parks refuses to go to the back of a Montgomery, Ala. bus, to add fuel to the growing civil rights movement’s campaign to win
November 24 On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, a groundbreaking scientific work by British naturalist Charles Darwin, is published in England. Darwin’s theory argued that organisms gradually evolve through a process he called natural selection. In natural selection, organisms with genetic variations that suit their environment
November 17 The Suez Canal, connecting the Mediterranean and the Red Seas, is inaugurated in an elaborate ceremony attended by French Empress Eugénie, wife of Napoleon III. – 1869. November 18 At exactly noon on this day, American and Canadian railroads begin using four continental time zones to end the
November 3 The Soviet Union launches the first animal into space, a dog name Laika, aboard the Sputnik 2 spacecraft. – 1957. The Lebanese magazine Ash Shiraa reports that the United States has been secretly selling arms to Iran in an effort to secure the release of seven American hostages
October 27 The New York City subway opens to the general public, and more than 100,000 individuals pay a nickel each to take their first ride under Manhattan that day. More than 100 workers died during the construction of the first 13 miles of tunnels and track. – 1904. October
October 6 The surprise attack by Egyptian and Syrian forces on Israel in October 1973, called the Yom Kippur War, throws the Middle East into turmoil and threatens to bring the United States and the Soviet Union into direct conflict for the first time since the Cuban Missile Crisis in
September 29 On the outskirts of Kiev in the Nazi-occupied Ukraine, Jews are marched in small groups to the Babi Yar ravine north of the city, ordered to strip naked, and were machine-gunned into the ravine. The massacre ended September 30 and the approximate 34,000 Jewish dead and wounded were
September 15 The Battle of Britain reaches its climax when the Royal Air Force (RAF) shoots down 56 invading German aircraft in two dogfights lasting less than an hour. The costly raid convinced the German high command that the Luftwaffe could not achieve air supremacy over Britain. – 1940. During
September 8 One of the deadliest hurricanes in U.S. history hits Galveston, Texas and kills more than 6,000 persons. The storm caused so much destruction on the Texas coast that reliable estimates of the number of victims are difficult to make. Some think that as many as 12,000 perished, which
September 1 At 4:45 a.m., 1.5 million German troops invade Poland all along its 1,750-mile border with German-controlled territory. Simultaneously, the German Luftwaffe bombs Polish airfields, and German warships and U-boats attack Polish naval forces. – 1939. The federal minimum wage is increased to $5.15 per hour. – 1997. September
August 18 The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to guarantee women the right to vote, is ratified by Tennessee, for a two-thirds majority of state ratification necessary to make it the law of the land. – 1920. The Yangtze River in China peaks during a horrible flood that kills
August 11 One hundred platform men employed by the privately owned United Railroads streetcar service in San Francisco abandon their streetcars which ties up many of the main lines in and out of the city center. – 1917. A group of federal prisoners classified as “most dangerous” arrives at Alcatraz
First of three parts The following interesting article makes me agree that we do need to rewrite history. The United States is often referred to as the melting pot of the world, but not for our black culture. Because of the result of unfair treatment. We have protests all over
July 28 Following its ratification by the necessary three-quarters of U.S. states, the 14th Amendment, guaranteeing to African Americans citizenship and all its privileges, is officially adopted into the U.S. Constitution. – 1868. A United States military plane crashes into the Empire State Building and kills 14. The freak accident
July 21 In the first major land battle of the Civil War, a large Union force of 34,000 soldiers under General Irvin McDowell is routed by a Confederate army of approximately 29,000 men under General Pierre G.T. Beauregard. – 1861. A die-cast operator in Jackson, Mich. is pinned by a
