1325 Mexico, History: The legendary date for the foundation of the Aztec capital on the island in Lake Texcoco in the Valley of Mexico. The entirety of the Valley is now Mexico City. Been there and been overwhelmed.
1852 New York City, Finance: Henry Wells and William Fargo incorporated a shipping company that in time became a bank. They were inspired by the opportunities of the 1849 California Gold Strike. Wells Fargo shipped gold but also began to store it for clients and issue notes for it. Then it began trading the notes. It became much storied because it travelled far and wide. I have had two account with WF, one a long time ago in California, and another more recently in Nebraska.
1931 Montreal, Techology: Jacob Schick sold the first electric razors providing millions of men with the excuse of a shave. He spent ten years in the army and hated cold water shaving. His solution was to shave without water. Users have not had a close shave since but many skin rashes from pressing hard. Still it was an advance compared to the lethal straight razor of the day. And it offered dry shaving which was convenient for use in the car when battery powered versions appeared.
1959 Honolulu, Politics: In far Washington with the stroke of a pen President Dwight Eisenhower made Hawaii the fiftieth state. The back story is that Ike was reluctant make Alaska a state because he saw it as front line with the Soviet Union and wanted Federal powers there to be unfettered. But Alaska and Hawaii had made common cause in agitating for statehood, and Congress would not vote for one and not the other. After many consultations, he conceded the point with his usual good humour. Been to Hawaii many times, so many that we have lost count, and plan to go again in May.
1965 Cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov exited the spacecraft Voskhod 2 for twelve minutes. He is the first of our kind to float in space. Leonov worked in the Soviet space program for many years, training others after his own flying days ended. Below is a selfie he took. A review of a super Soviet film about Salyut 7 is discussed elsewhere on this blog.
Skip to content