There were a number of firsts on this date in history. Mont Blanc, at 15,774 ft the highest mountain in Europe outside of the Causcauses, was summited for the first time in 1786. Thomas Edison received a patent for his mimeograph in 1876. Wilbur Wright made his first public flight at a racecourse in Le Mans France in 1908. The first night baseball game in Wrigley Field – home of the Chicago Cubs- happened in 1988. And another event where those alive knew where they were and what they were doing happened in 1974. President Richard Nixon became the first President to resign – on TV announcing his resignation would take effect at noon the following day. I was in Corvallis Oregon painting my sister and brother-in-law’s house.
Birthdays on this date include American physician and surgeon Bob Smith (1879) who co-founded Alcoholics Anonymous, Mexican general Emiliano Zapata (same year),, Nobel-Prize-winning physicist Ernest Lawrence (1901) who worked on the Manhattan Project, US Supreme Court Associate Justice and US Ambassador to the UN Arthur Goldberg (1908), and Italian movie maker Dino de Laurentis (1919, King Kong).
Those who passed away on this date include the Roman Emperor Trajan (117 AD) , American novelist and short-story writer Shirley Jackson (1965), who brought us the chilling tale of The Lottery, Apollo 13 astronaut James Irwin (1991), Fay Wray (2004) of the original King Kong, and two unforgettable singers Glen Campbell (2017) and Olivia Newton-John (2022).
It is Happiness Happens Day and International Cat Day
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