On this day in 1790, Benjamin Franklin, American printer and publisher, author, inventor and scientist, and diplomat, passes away from Pleurisy in his beloved Philadelphia. One of the foremost of the Founding Fathers, Franklin helped draft the Declaration of Independence and was one of its signers, represented the United States in France during the American […]
The Chevrolet Brothers and Racing
On this day in 1946, Arthur Chevrolet, an auto racer and the brother of Chevrolet auto namesake Louis Chevrolet, commits suicide in Slidell, Louisiana; he was 61. Older brother Louis was born in Switzerland in 1878, while Arthur’s birth year has been variously listed as 1884 or 1886. By the early 1900’s, Louis and Arthur, […]
The Mayor of South Bend, Indiana
Who? That’s the first question I asked myself eight years ago when looking at the South Bend Tribune’s list of mayoral candidates for the city I had been living in for several years. The “who” was soon followed by, “and how do you pronounce that name?” And then, “he’s how old?” I mean, this 29-year-old […]
Jackie Robinson-much more than a Baseball player
On this day in 1945, Jackie Robinson breaks the color barrier and the great game changed forever when Brooklyn Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey secured him from the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Leagues. Rickey, who called the move baseball’s “great experiment,” knew that the player chosen to cross the “color line” would have […]
Reconstruction Died with Abraham Lincoln
On this day in 1865, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, was assassinated by well-known stage actor John Wilkes Booth while attending the play Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. Shot in back of the head with Booth’s derringer as he watched the play, Lincoln passed the following morning […]
The History of Apollo 13
On this day in 1970, approximately 205,000 miles from Earth, an explosion aboard Apollo 13 ruptured an oxygen tank in the service module. The resulting shortage of power and oxygen forced the abandonment of the Moon mission and imperiled the lives of three astronauts and the very space program itself. On what was to be […]