Historical Tidbits of the Week of September 26

I fell in love with history in the ninth grade in a World History class when the teacher taught Egyptian history (thank you, Miss Fischer!). I have been collecting historical bits of information for years. A year ago, I began tweeting historical facts every day. This blog entry is like the “best of” the events, births, and deaths that occurred during this week. Just think, you'll be able to impress your friends with "Did you know . . . " days in advance of the event, birthday, or death day.

 If you want to read even more of these events on a daily basis. Follow me on Twitter at @kay_bigelow

September 26

• September 26 is the 269th day of the year. There are 96 days remaining until the end of the year. 
• September 26, 1865 – Mary Russell, Duchess of Bedford, English pilot & ornithologist, was born. She died in 1937.
• September 26, 1872 – The first Shriners Temple was established in New York City.
• September 26, 1876 – Edith Abbott, American economist, was born. She died in 1957.
• September 26, 1888 – T. S. Eliot, American-born British author, poet & Nobel laureate, was born. He died in 1965
• September 26, 1902 – Levi Strauss, American clothing manufacturer, died. He was born in 1829.
• September 26, 1937 – Bessie Smith, American blues singer, died. She was born in 1894. 
• September 26, 1946 – Andrea Dworkin, American feminist, was born. She died in 2005. 
• September 26, 1954 – Ellen Roosevelt, American tennis player, died. She was born in 1868.
• September 26, 1981 – Nolan Ryan set a Major League record by throwing his 5th no-hitter. 
• September 26, 1984 – The UK agreed to the handover of Hong Kong to China.
• September 26, 2005 – Helen Cresswell, British children’s author of 100+ books, died. She was born in 1934.

September 27

• September 27 is the 270th day of the year. There are 95 days remaining until the end of the year. 
• September 27, 1389 – Cosimo de' Medici, Italian art patron, was born. He died in 1464.
• September 27, 1540 – The Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) received its charter from Pope Paul III. 
• September 27, 1722 – Samuel Adams, American revolutionary leader, was born. He died in 1803.
• September 27, 1777 – Lancaster, PA  is the US capital for one day. 
• September 27, 1840 – Thomas Nast, German-born American political cartoonist, was born. He died in 1902.
• September 27, 1871 – Grazia Deledda, Italian author of 17 novels & Nobel laureate, was born. She died in 1936.
• September 27, 1906 – Jim Thompson, American author of 28 crime novels, was born. He died in 1977.
• September 27, 1908 – The first production of the Ford Model T automobile was built in Detroit, MI.
• September 27, 1911 – Marcey Jacobson, American photographer, was born. She died in 2009.
• September 27, 1917 – Edgar Degas, French painter, died. He was born in 1834.
• September 27, 1928 – The Republic of China was recognized by the US. 
• September 27, 1937 – The Balinese Tiger was declared extinct. 
• September 27, 1954 – The “Tonight Show” debuted on NBC.
• September 27, 1956 – Babe Didrikson Zaharias, American athlete, died. She was born in 1911. 
• September 27, 1995 – The US unveiled the first of its redesigned bank notes, the $100 bill. 
• September 27, 2009 – William Safire, American columnist, died. He was born in 1929. 

September 28

• September 28 is the 271st day of the year. There are 94 days remaining until the end of the year.
• September 28 is World Rabies Day. 
• September 28, 1791 – France became the first European country to emancipate its Jewish population. 
• September 28, 1928 – Sir Alexander Fleming noticed a bacteria-killing mold growing in his laboratory.
• September 28, 1953 – Edwin Hubble, American astronomer, died. He was born in 1889. 
• September 28, 2003 – Althea Gibson, American tennis player, died. She was born in 1927. 

September 29

• September 29 is the 272nd day of the year. There are 93 days remaining until the end of the year.
• September 29, 1547 – Miguel de Cervantes, Spanish author of “Don Quixote,” was born. He died in 1616. 
• September 29, 1571 – Caravaggio, Italian artist, was born. He died in 1610. #art #painting #painters #artists
• September 29, 1789 – The United States Department of War first established a regular army with a strength of several hundred men.
• September 29, 1901 – Enrico Fermi, Italian physicist and Nobel laureate, was born. He developed the first nuclear reactor. He died in 1954.
• September 29, 1907 – The cornerstone was laid at Washington National Cathedral in the U.S. capital.
• September 29, 1913 – Stanley Kramer, American film director, who directed “The Defiant Ones” (1958) and “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” (1967), among many others. He died in 2001.
• September 29, 1923 – Stan Berenstain, American children's author and co-author of the series “Berenstain Bears,” was born. He died in 2005.
• September 29, 1943 – Lech Wałęsa, President of Poland & Nobel Peace Prize recipient in 1983, was born.
• September 29, 1951 – The first live sporting event seen coast-to-coast in the US, a college football game between Duke and the University of Pittsburgh, was televised on NBC.
• September 29, 1973 – W. H. Auden, British born American poet, died. He was born in 1907.
• September 29, 1990 – Construction of the Washington National Cathedral was completed.
• September 29, 2008 – Following the bankruptcies of Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual, the stock market falls 777.68 points, the largest single-day point loss in its history (to date).

September 30

• September 30 is the 273rd day of the year. There are 92 days remaining until the end of the year. 
• September 30, 1791 – “The Magic Flute,” the last opera composed by Mozart, premiered in Vienna, Austria.
• September 30, 1882 – The world's first commercial hydroelectric power plant began operating in WI.
• September 30, 1927 – Babe Ruth became the first baseball player to hit 60 home runs in a season.
• September 30, 1928 – Elie Wiesel, Romanian Holocaust survivor & Nobel laureate, was born.
• September 30, 1935 – The Hoover Dam, astride the border between the U.S. states of Arizona and Nevada, is dedicated.
• September 30, 1938 – At 2:00 am, Britain, France, Germany and Italy sign the Munich Agreement, allowing Germany to occupy the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia.
• September 30, 1938 – The League of Nations unanimously outlaws "intentional bombings of civilian populations.”
• September 30, 1947 – The World Series, featuring the Yankees and Dodgers, was first televised.
• September 30, 1955 – Film star James Dean dies in a car crash at age 24.
• September 30, 1962 – Labor leader César Chávez founded the United Farm Workers.
• September 30, 1962 – In defiance of segregation laws, James Meredith enters the University of Mississippi.
• September 30, 1985 – Charles Richter, American seismologist, died. He was born in 1900.
• September 30, 1990 – Patrick White, Australian author and Nobel Prize in Literature winner (1973), died. He was born in 1912.
• September 30, 2004 – The first images of a live giant squid in its natural habitat were taken 600 miles south of Tokyo by the National Science Museum of Japan and the Ogasawara Whale Watching Association. 

October 1

• October 1 is the 274th day of the year. There are 91 days remaining until the end of the year.
• October 1 is the International Day of Older Persons.
• October 1, 1843 – The “News of the World” newspaper began publication in London. It ceased publication on July 10, 2011 after 168 years.
• October 1, 1880 – The first electric lamp factory was opened by Thomas Edison.
• October 1, 1890 – The Yosemite National Park was established by the U.S. Congress.
• October 1, 1890 – The Yellowstone National Park was established by the U.S. Congress.
• October 1, 1891 – Stanford University opened with 559 students
• October 1, 1903 – The first game of the modern World Series was played between The Boston Americans and the Pittsburgh Pirates.
• October 1, 1908 – Ford put the Model T on the market at a price of US $825.
• October 1, 1910 – A bomb destroyed the Los Angeles Times building in Los Angeles, CA killing 21. Two union organizers plead guilty to the crime.
• October 1, 1912 – Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw, British mathematician, was born. #math #politics #astronomy
• October 1, 1914 – Daniel J. Boorstin, American historian and Librarian of Congress, was born. He died in 2004.
• October 1, 1949 – The People's Republic of China was established by Mao Zedong.
• October 1, 1957 – “In God We Trust” first appears on U.S. paper currency.
• October 1, 1964 – Japanese Shinkansen ("bullet trains") began high-speed rail service from Tokyo to Osaka.
• October 1, 1971 – The first brain-scan (CT or CAT scan) was performed at Atkinson Morley Hospital in Wimbledon, London.
• October 1, 1982 – Sony launched the first consumer compact disc player.
• October 1, 1985 – E. B. White, American author of “Stuart Little” (1945) and “Charlotte’s Web” (1952),  died. He was born in 1899.
• October 1, 1989 – The first legal modern same-sex civil union was performed in Denmark.
• October 1, 1992 – Petra Kelly, German politician and a founder of the German Green Party, was killed. She was born in 1947.

October 2

• October 2 is the 275th day of the year. There are 90 days remaining until the end of the year. 
• October 2 is International Day of Non-Violence.
• October 2, 1535 – Jacques Cartier discovered Montreal, Quebec.
• October 2, 1775 – Fukuda Chiyo-ni, Japanese haiku poet, was born. She was born in 1703.
• October 2, 1800 – Nat Turner, American slave and slave rebellion leader, was born. He died in 1831.
• October 2, 1879 – Wallace Stevens, American poet, was born. He died in 1955.
• October 2, 1904 – Graham Greene, British author of 33 novels, was born. He died in 1991.
• October 2, 1950 – “Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz was first published. Good grief, Charlie Brown!
• October 2, 1967 – Thurgood Marshall was sworn in as the first African-American justice of the US Supreme Court.
• October 2, 1996 – The Freedom of Information Act was signed by U.S. President Bill Clinton.

Happy Birthday, Dad

Had he lived, my father would have been 95 years old today.

When I think of him, as I often do even though it has been 16 years since he died, I don’t see the old man he was when he died. I don’t see the old man shuffling along the sidewalk. I don’t see the old man defeated by a botched reconstructive surgery that turned his handsome face into something people stared at in horror. I don’t see the old man no longer interested in life. I don’t see the old man’s eyes which no longer sparkled with mischief, intelligence, and a love of life. I don’t see the old man waiting for death to stop by and take him.

I see the vibrant younger man. I see the younger man who loved connecting with people, especially complete strangers. I see the younger man striding along the sidewalk. I see the confident younger man. I see the younger man with the laughing eyes who loved puns. I see the younger man standing at the kitchen counter happily preparing his secret barbecue sauce, which changed each time he prepared it, and which remains the best damned barbecue sauce in the world.

My Dad wasn’t college educated like his children. He was, however, knowledgeable on a wide range of subjects that always fascinated me. He was a kind man. He was a man who never swore, even when he hit his thumb with a hammer. He was a patient man even while teaching his daughter to drive his car or to change the oil in her ancient VW bug. He was a supportive father who taught his daughter how to throw a ball and ride a horse. He wanted his daughter to be well-rounded so we went to baseball games and to the ballet. He was a betting man, betting his daughter $1.00 on the outcome of the Super Bowl, the World Series, and the U.S. Open Tennis championship matches, even when neither of us was interested in who was playing.

My Dad was only 78 when he died. I spoke to him on the phone two days before he died. He was in the hospital, but looking forward to going home on Monday. He died on Monday. My last words to him were, “I love you, Dad.” His last words to me were, “I love you, too, Honey.”