This date was a day of firsts: Elisabeth Thible became the first woman to fly in an untethered hot air balloon in 1784. Henry Ford completed his first gas-powered automobile, the Ford Quadricycle, with a successful test run in 1896. Massachusetts became the first state to pass a minimum wage law in 1912. And the first Pulitzer Prizes were awarded in 1917.
In other news, Captain George Vancouver claimed Puget Sound for the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1792. The US Congress approved the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution, extending suffrage to women, and sent it to the states for ratification (which was a battle in itself) in 1919. And in 1986 Johnathan Pollard pled guilty to a charge of espionage, for selling top-secret US military intelligence to Israel.
There were two British royalty births on this date King George III in 1738 and Princess Lilibet of Sussex, to Harry and Meghan, in 2021. The inventor of the hovercraft, Christopher Cockerell, was born in 1910. Singer and guitarist Freddy Fender was born in 1937. And US- and Olympic-figure skating champion Evan Lysacek was born in 1985.
Scads of actors and actresses share this date as a birthday: Dennis Weaver (1924), Bruce Dern (1938), Noah Whyle (1971), and Angelina Jolie (1975). Plus we welcomed onto the world stage Michelle Phillips (1944), part of the Mamas and the Papas.
The notorious Italian adventurer and author Giacomo Casanova charmed his last lass in 1798. We lost two notable political leaders – Frederick Muhlenberg (1801) who had the distinction of being the first Speaker of the US House of Representatives, and Antonio Jose de Sucre (1830) Venezuelan general and rebel against the Spanish control of South America and 2nd president of Bolivia, whose capital bears his name. And we said goodbye to Clarence Williams III, an essential part of what we remember as the Mod Squad (2021).
This date is commemorated as the International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression – the littlest casualties of war.
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