On This Day

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Let's take a look back at what happened on this day in history. 1811 Becoming the first South American country to declare its independence from Spain was Venezuela. 1865 Trying to stop the production of counterfeit currency, the Secret Service Division of the US Treasury Department was established. 1935 Signing into law the National Labor Relations Act was President Franklin D Rosevelt. The law was established to help protect worker's rights. 1937 Arriving on store shelves on this day were the first cans of Spam. I do like it, especially when making an omelet. 1943 It would take several weeks but eventually the Russians were able to defeat the German troops in the battle of Kursk during WW2. 1946 Frenchman Louis Reard best design, the bikini, was modeled for the first time on this day in Paris, France. 1947 3 months after Jackie Robinson made baseball history by becoming the first black man to play in the National League, Larry Doby became the first black man to play in the American League. 1954 Before he became the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis had to release a single and, on this day, his first, That’s All Right, was recorded at Sun Studio in Memphis, TN. 1971 Lowering the voting age from 21 to 18 was President Richard Nixon when he certified the 26th Amendment to the US Constitution. 1975 Arthur Ashe became the first black man to win the men's championship at Wimbledon when he beat Jimmy Conners in four sets; 6–1, 6–1, 5–7, 6–4. 1980 Staying at Wimbledon, on this day Bjorn Borg of Sweden, became the first male tennis player to win 5 consecutive titles. He won 1976-1980. 1994 Jeff Bezos started selling books on his newly established web site, Amazon. 2011 Being not found guilty of the murder of her young daughter Caylee, Casey Anthony was found guilty on 4 counts of lying to the police and was sentenced to 4 years in prison and fined $4000. The murder of the 2-year-old still remains unsolved. Happy birthday to American colonial clergyman known as "the father of Connecticut", Thomas Hooker American accuser at the Salem witch trials, Mary Walcott English bare knuckle boxer (Champion of England 1736-50; published first boxing code), Jack Broughton American admiral known for the famous line, "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!", David Farragut American circus promoter and showman (Barnum & Bailey), P T Barnum American astronomer and inventor of dendrochronology (tree-ring dating), A E Douglass American tennis player (US Open mixed doubles 1908; US Open Men's Singles 1917 runner-up) and figure skater (US Championship Gold Singles 1918, 25, 27), Nathaniel Niles German founder of medical genetics, known as the father of pharmacogenomics (study of a person's genetics and how it would respond to therapeutic drugs), Arno Motulsky Rock and Roll singer (Huey Lewis and the News), Huey Lewis The first mammal to be cloned, Dolly the Sheep We said good bye to Stamford Raffles, British Statesman and Founder of Singapore, age 44 Nicephore Niepce, French inventor and pioneer of photography, age 68 American inventor (invented earmuffs at age 15), Chester Greenwood The first identified American soldier killed in the Korean War, Private Kenneth Shadrick, age 19 American tennis player (Winner of 19 Wimbledon, 4 French, and 3 US Doubles Championship titles), Elizabeth Ryan, age 87 American radio pioneer and producer of daytime radio serials during the 1930s and 1940s (Just Plain Bill, The Romance of Helen Trent), Anne Hummert, age 91 American Baseball Hall Of Fame outfielder, Ted Williams, age 84