1807 The first public street lighting with gas was demonstrated on the Pall Mall, London.
1908 Author and activist Julia Ward Howe, famous for her composition, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” became the first woman elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She was an abolitionist and advocated women’s rights, prison reform, and sex education throughout her long life.
1916 President Woodrow Wilson nominated Louis Brandeis to the Supreme Court. He had pioneered the eponymous Brandeis Brief which documented with social science data the effect of laws on the society. In Boston he worked largely pro bono on cases involving labor. He was subjected to a long and acrimonious Senate hearing. His Jewish heritage was much maligned along with everything else. I have spent time at Brandeis University.
1935 Iceland made abortion legal. At the time it was a sovereign country in personal association through the king with Denmark. It was the first country to do so.
1958 The Lego brick was patented. Lego has since produced 500 billion bricks, enough for ten lego towers from the Earth to the Moon. Seen plenty of Lego displays, including some in Copenhagen where it started.
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