This Day…

1889-Washington is admitted to the Union.  During the past decade the territory has developed railway connections with the Great Lakes and the Mississippi Valley.  The population has grown from almost 25,000 in 1870 to more than 350,000.  Lumbering, shipbuilding, and commercial fishing are rapidly expanding.

1920  – Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis was elected the first commissioner of baseball.

1856 – Mabel Loomis Todd, American editor and author (d. 1932)

1875 – Billy the Kid is arrested for the first time.

1884-At the toll bridge over the Arkansas River in Dodge City, Kansas, Marshall Bill Tilghman emptied his revolver and started up with his Winchester in order to encourage some rowdy cowboys to return to their camp.  They stood their ground and fired a few shots in return but nobody was hit.

On this day in 1866, the Reno gang carries out the first robbery of a moving train in the U.S., making off with over $10,000 from an Ohio & Mississippi train in Jackson County, Indiana. Prior to this innovation in crime, holdups had taken place only on trains sitting at stations or freight yards.

1876-A patrol led by Texas Ranger Sergeant John Armstrong closed in on an outlaw camp in Espinoza Lake near Carrizo, Texas.  When the smoke cleared the rangers had killed three of the four outlaws in that camp and the fourth was hit four times, in separate shootouts that night Armstrong’s detachment killed two other outlaws.

Oct 1st – Yosemite National Park forms.  Thanks to the Mrs. Fremont for helping to make it all possible.