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
July 14 Parisian revolutionaries and mutinous troops storm and dismantle the Bastille, a royal fortress that had come to symbolize the tyranny of the Bourbon monarchs. This dramatic action signaled the beginning of the French Revolution, a decade of political turmoil and terror, in which King Louis XVI was overthrown
July 7 Mary Harris “Mother” Jones begins “The March of the Mill Children”, when, accompanied part of the way by children. She walked from Philadelphia to president Theodore Roosevelt’s home on Long Island, N.Y. to protest the plight of child laborers. One of her demands: Reduce the children’s work week
I recently went looking for a nugget and found a gold mine. Let me explain. I visited the website of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum a few weeks ago to track down information on a former Illinois lawmaker from its oral history collection. I emerged several hours later
June 30 Just three days after the United Nations Security Council voted to provide military assistance to South Korea, president Harry S Truman orders U.S. armed forces to assist in defending that nation from invading North Korean armies. Truman’s dramatic step marked the official entry of the United States into
June 23 U.S. president Richard Nixon signs into law the Higher Education Act, which includes the groundbreaking Title IX legislation. Title IX barred discrimination in higher education programs, including funds for sports, and other extracurricular activities. As a result, women’s participation in team sports, particularly in collegiate athletics, surged with
June 16 The first roller coaster in America opens at Coney Island, in Brooklyn, N.Y.. Its speed is approximately six miles per hour and cost a nickel to ride. – 1884. When daylight breaks, survivors of a tsunami in Japan find that more than 20,000 of their friends and family
June 9 With a spectacular victory at the Belmont Stakes, Secretariat becomes the first horse since Citation in 1948 to win America’s coveted Triple Crown (the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes). In one of the finest performances in racing history, Secretariat, ridden by Ron Turcotte, completed
June 2 Twenty-six journeymen printers in Philadelphia stage the trade’s first strike in America over wages: A cut in their $6. weekly pay. – 1786. In an event that is generally regarded as marking the end of the U.S. Civil War, Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith, commander of Confederate forces
May 26 The first copies of the classic vampire novel, Dracula, by Irish writer Bram Stoker, appear in London bookshops on this day. – 1897. One hundred thousand steel workers and miners in mines owned by steel companies strike in seven states. The Memorial Day Massacre, in which 10 strikers
May 19 Explosion in Coal Creek, Tenn. kills 184 miners. – 1902. Thirty-one dockworkers are killed, 350 workers and others are injured, when four barges carrying 467 tons of ammunition blow up at South Amboy, N.J.. They were transporting mines that had been deemed unsafe by the Army and were
May 12 The dead body of aviation hero Charles Lindbergh’s baby is found more than two months after he was kidnapped from his family’s Hopewell, N.J., mansion. Lindbergh, who became the first worldwide celebrity five years earlier when he flew The Spirit of St. Louis across the Atlantic Ocean, and
May 5 Lumber strike begins in Pacific Northwest, will involve 40,000 workers by the time victory is achieved after 13 weeks: Union recognition, a 50¢ per hour minimum wage and an eight-hour day. – 1937. In Lakeview, Ore., Mrs. Elsie Mitchell and five neighborhood children are killed while attempting to
April 28 Coal mine collapses at Eccles, W.Va., and kills 181 workers. – 1914. One-hundred nineteen die in Benwood, W.Va. coal mine disaster. – 1924. Boxing champion Muhammad Ali refuses to be inducted into the U.S. Army and is immediately stripped of his heavyweight title. Ali, a Muslim, cited religious
