Mamie Till Mobley, mother of lynched Emmett Till dies at age 81. Her insistance that her son's casket remain open helped spur the civil rights movement. Her last words being: “Remember white people lie before telling the truth”
On this day in:
1492 Columbus sighted the island he names Hispaniola (Now consisting of Haiti and the Dominican Republic).
1866 The 2 mile long, 5 foot diameter Chicago ‘Lake Tunnel’ was completed. It was the first water supply tunnel for a U.S. city.
1872 Felix Archimede Pouchet died. A French naturalist, he was one of those who believed that life was created from nonliving matter in processes such as fermentation and putrefaction. Those flies and maggots, fungi, yeast and bacteria just appeared from nowhere. (He was wrong.)
1877 Thomas A. Edison made the first sound recording "Mary had a little lamb"
1879 Erastus Brigham Bigelow died (born April 2, 1814). Inventor of manufacturing machinery for making gingham cloth. The red & white checked tablecloths used in restaurants is a classic example of gingham.
1883 The 'Ladies’ Home Journal and Practical Housekeeper' began publication.
1917 Irv Robbins was born (died May 5, 2008). Co-founder, with Burt Baskin, of the Baskin-Robbins ice cream parlor chain in 1946 in Glendale, California.
1931 Catharine Furbish died. An American botanist, she spent almost 40 years traveling and painting very accurate watercolors of the flora of the state of Maine.
1964 'Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer' Christmas special first aired on NBC TV.
1968 'Beggar's Banquet' album by the Rolling Stones was released.
1994 Orange County, California filed for bankruptcy due to investment losses.
1994 The play 'Lamb Chop On Broadway' opened in New York.
2006 An outbreak of illness from the dangerous E. Coli 0157:H7 was reported, with green onions as the suspected cause. Cases were reported in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, South Carolina, and Utah.
2014 A record 4.16 pound (1.89 kg) White Alba Truffle from the Umbrian region of Italy sold at auction for $61,250 to a Taiwanese buyer.