1873 Susan B Anthony was fined $100 for having tried to vote in the presidential election in the previous November. The Susan B Anthony silver dollar was minted in 1979 in her honour. Those who prosecuted her have no such memorial.
1923 The first Checker Cab hit the street in Kalamazoo Michigan. It was designed and built specifically to be a big city taxi, first in Chicago. A Russian immigrant and his family cobbled together the finance to build the first ones and were soon producing a hundred a month. In the 1960s Checker produced 8000 cars a year. Durable, manoeuvrable, dent-proof, and comfortable for driver and passengers, at twice the weight of a typical sedan they were also gas guzzlers. The last one was built in 1982. Ridden in a few but not the one Travis Bickle drove in 1976. Phew!
1960 Denver, Sports. A young man from the steel mill country of Pennsylvania won the Masters Gold Tournament in a remarkable last round in which he overcame a seven stroke deficit to tie and then set a course record that stood for years. This was Arnold Palmer whose simple speech, working class background, and affinity with the crowd was a breath of fresh air at a time when golf was the preserve of the idle rich. He learned golf early in morning and in the evening twilight in the private club where his father worked because he was not allowed on the greens when club members were active. In 1971 he bought that golf club and made it public.
1979 Vienna. President Jimmy Carter and Soviet First Secretary Leonid Brezhnev signed the SALT-II Treaty, limiting strategic nuclear weapons. Though never ratified, thanks to disruption caused by the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, both parties observed its strictures. I heard the West German foreign minister of the day describe it as the most important treaty ever mooted.
1983 Cape Canaveral. Sally Ride in Challenger went into a near Earth orbit. She was responsible for the guidance systems on ascent and descent, as well as operating the Canadarm to retrieve an orbiting satellite. This latter operation was the first time it had been tried and it succeeded.
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