This date was a day for states either coming to be or joining the Union. In 1820 Congress passed the Missouri Compromise – admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state. In 1845 Florida was admitted as the 27th state. And in 1849 the Territory of Minnesota was created – the first step to becoming a state.
In international news in 1857 the Second Opium War started with the UK and France declaring war on China – an attempt to force wider trade of opium on the Chinese – such “civilized” behavior 🙁 In 1861 on the other hand Russian Tsar Alexander II signed the Emancipation Manifesto, freeing the serfs – those forced to work the land but never owning it. And in 1938 oil was discovered in Saudi Arabia, and haven’t we been having plenty of international conflict over it ever since?
Back at home starting this Women’s Month thousands of women marched in the Women’s Suffrage Procession in Washington DC in 1913. in 1891 the Shoshone National Forest was established as the first national forest in the world, not just in the US. And in 1931 the Star Spangled Banner was adopted as the US National Anthem.
A quartet of American notables shares this date as their birthday. Inventor Alexander Graham Bell (1874), Star Trek actor James Doohan (Scotty, 19220), Mad Max director, producer, and screenwriter George Miller (1945), and American historian, journalist, and author Ron Chernow (1949, Jackson, Hamilton, etc).
A couple of comedians went off the stage and out of the picture on this date -Lou Costello (1959, of the Abbott and Costello duo), and Danny Kaye (1987). Arthur Murray made his last dance move in 1991 and Carlos Montoya played his last guitar note in 1993. Roger Bannister, remembered as the first man to break 4 mins in running a mile, ran his last in 2018, and Fred W Friendly – long time broadcasting cohort of Edward R Murrow, signed off for the last time in 1998 – after doing his best to boost public broadcasting.
Today is World Hearing Day and World Wildlife Day.
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