1800 Philadelphia, Politics: The United States government moved from Philadelphia to the swamp at Washington D.C.
1851 Bangkok, Politics: King Mongkut was crowned King of Siam. While courting Deborah Kerr he played off the English and French colonisers against each other to maintain the independence of Siam. He also promoted the use Western cutlery. No chopsticks for him. I have spent time at Chulalongkorn University and Thammasat University in Bangkok.
1863 Paris, Art: The Salon des Refusés opened to exhibit works rejected by the offical Salon. The artists included Paul Cézanene, Camille Pissaro, Edouard Manet, and Henri Fantin-LaTour, James Whister, and others. This event heralded the beginning of modern art.
1869 New York City, Politics: Susan B Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton founded the National Woman Suffrage Association to unite campaigns for the female vote, to co-ordinate fund raising efforts, to increase lobbying in state and territory legislatures, and to have an office in Wahington D.C.
1928 Cloncurry, Queensland, Society: The Aerial Medical Service took wing and later morphed into the Flying Doctor Service. Reverend John Flynn had worked with two doctors who served an area of nearly two million square miles in West Australian and the Northern Territory. Sometimes it took weeks for a doctor to get to an injured or sick person. Flynn combined two new technologies, radio and aircraft. He raised money from a benefactor, H. V. McKay, and set it up. By the way, pedal radios were distributed to remote locations at a nominal charge since electricity was not available in the places that needed the service the most. It was renamed in 1942 and in 1955 after learning of it during a visit Queen Elizabeth gave it a royal warrant. That recognition lifted its profile in the philanthropic community, in the media, and among politicians.
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