In 1774, The Minute Men are organized in America.
In 1774, the First Continental Congress adjourned in Philadelphia.
In 1825, the first man-made waterway, the Erie Canal opened in upstate New York, connecting Lake Erie and the Hudson River.
In 1858, the rotary washing machine was patented by Hamilton E. Smith of Philadelphia.
In 1861, the Pony Express service ends, two days after the first transcontinental telegram is sent from San Francisco to President Lincoln.
In 1941, the Japanese fleet sails to attack Pearl Harbor.
In 1950, Mother Teresa founded the first Mission of Charity in Calcutta, India. More than 450 such missions around the world help the poorest of the poor. Curiously, none of them provide birth control devices.
In 1958, Pan American Airways flew its first Boeing 707 jetliner from New York to Paris. The trip took eight hours and 41 minutes.
In 1973, President Nixon released the first of the White House tapes concerning the Watergate affair.
In 1975, The American Medical Association endorses use of the Heimlich Maneuver to aid persons choking on food. The technique developed by Dr. Henry Heimlich.
In 1977, the experimental space shuttle Enterprise glided to a bumpy but successful landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California. It would go on to become a museum piece. The boondoggle shuttle program is still in operation as of 1998, 21 years later, having never shown itself to be a cost effective launch system. But boy those parts are made in a bunch of Congressional districts!
Henry Derringer: 1786
Inventor, Manufacturer, Derringer short-barrelled pistol
Lewis Boss: 1846
Astronomer, star catalog compiler
Charles William Post: 1854
Industrialist, b. in Springfield, IL; created Grape-Nuts cereal, founded Post Cereal Co. 1897
Leon Trotsky: 1879
Russian revolutionary; real name was Lev Davidovich Bronstein;
This particular maniac was responsible for much of the Russian Revolution of 1917. His falling out with Stalin after Lenin's death led to his being icepicked by Frank Jackson in Mexico City in August 1940, ridding the world of another socialist extremist.
John S. Knight: 1894
Publisher, assembled Knight-Ridder newspaper chain
Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi: 1919
Dictator of Iran, supported by US from 1941 to 1979. Modernized Iran and ran gruesome torture chambers. Overthrown by revolution led by Ayatollah Khomeini. His surgery in the US was something President Jimmy Carter insisted upon and was the proximate cause of the taking of the US embassy in Teheran. Upon his death in Cairo in 1979, the Ayatollah's faction took over his torture chambers.
Ralph Bakshi: 1938
Animator, Producer/Director, Lord of the Rings, American Pop, Fritz the Cat, Mighty Mouse
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton: 1947
First Lady, Attorney/Lawyer, Alleged Thief and Alleged Co-Conspirator in Whitewater, Travelgate, and numerous other Clinton scandals. In 1973-74 she worked with the then-Democrat House Judiciary Committee to set standards for impeachment which she now opposes in their application to her husband. See also hypocrite.
Born 26 October
Georges Jacques Danton: 1759
Revolutionary, French, French revolutionary leader
Thought for Today: "It is excellent, we must all allow; yet this government never of itself furthered any enterprise, but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way. It does not keep the country free. It does not settle the West. It does not educate. The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way. For government is an expedient by which men would fain succeed in letting one another alone; and, as has been said, when it is most expedient, the governed are most let alone by it. Trade and commerce, if they were not made of India rubber, would
never manage to bounce over the obstacles which legislators are continually putting in their way; and, if one were to judge
these men wholly by the effects of their actions, and not partly by their intentions, they would deserve to be classed and
punished with those mischievous persons who put obstructions on the railroads. "
Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience, 1962.
