In 1565 Pedro Menedez de Aviles – sighted land near St Augustine, FL and founded the oldest continuously occupied European city in the continental US1845 first issue of Scientific American magazine was published. In 1898 Caleb Bradham’s beverage “Brad’s Drink” was renamed Pepsi-Cola. In 1917 ten suffragists, members of the Silent Sentinels, were arrested while picketing the White House. And in 1963 in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom Martin Luther King Jr gave his “I Have a Dream” speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. I remember standing on that spot years ago and feeling the weight of history.
Notables who were born on this date include German novelist, poet, playwright and diplomat Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749), former Mariners manager Lou Pinella (1943), science fiction writer Vonda N McIntyre (1948) noted for several Star Trek novels and novelizations, LOTR actor Billy Boyd (Pippin 1968), and three US Olympic athletes – swimmer Janet Evans (1971) and skaters Scott Hamilton (1958) and Todd Eldridge (1971).’
Notables that passed on this date include Spanish priest Junipero Sierra (1784)who founded 8 of the 21 missions in California, American journalist and architect Frederick Law Olmstead (1903) who co-designed New York’s Central Park, Civil War historian Bruce Catton (1978), actor, director and screenwriter John Huston (1987) and actor Chadwick Bozeman (2020) known for playing Black Panther in film of the same name, and justice Thurgood Marshall in Marshall.
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