1787 William and Caroline Herschel identified two moons of Uranus’s, Titania and Oberon. Uranus has twenty-seven moons in all and counting.
1908 U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt declared the Grand Canyon a national monument. TR had seen it on his travels in the West and never forgot it. He was green avant le mot. We’ve been there and saw why. A Park Ranger I talked to pointed out a plaque honouring Teddy for his long campaign to protect the Canyon.
1922 Insulin was first used to treat diabetes in fourteen year-old Leonard Thompson. The discovery of the insulin is credited to London Ontario GP Frederick Banting who moonlighted at the University of Toronto where he was allowed to use the laboratory. Though the National Library of Canada web site on this day in history has not mentioned this achievement.
1935 Amelia Earhart flew solo from Honolulu to Oakland, California. A $10,000 had been offered to the first person to make the flight non-stop and she did it, flying 2,400 miles in 18 hours. The aim of the sponsor was to promote air travel to Hawaii. It was her first solo flight of any distance.
1964 U.S. Surgeon General Luther Terry reported that smoking is associated with major health problems including lung cancer. The tobacco industry’s pressure on the Surgeon General before, during, and after this report was unremitting but successive presidents stood by the facts. Ah, the good old days when facts counted. His example inspired later Surgeons General like Charles Everett Koop to assert the facts, making Sergeant Friday proud.
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