This Day…

1975 – Gertrude Olmstead, American actress (b. 1897)

1915 – Fannie Farmer, American cookbook author and educator during the height of the domestic science movement (b. 1857)

1884 – Sophie Tucker, Russian-born American singer and actress (d. 1966)

1928: Amelia Earhart began her record-breaking flight from Honolulu to California

1860 – Emma Booth, English member of The Salvation Army was born.

1899 – Phyllis Haver, American actress (d. 1960)  Haver auditioned for comedy producer Mack Sennett.  Sennett hired her as one of his original Sennett Bathing Beauties.  Within a few years, she appeared as a leading lady in two-reelers for Sennett Studios.

1844 – Helen Kendrick Johnson, American author, poet, and activist opposing women’s suffrage is born.  During her time as an anti-suffragette activist she addressed legislative committees in Albany and Washington and wrote many newspaper articles and pamphlets on the subject. In 1910 she founded the Guidon Club, an anti-suffragette organization dedicated to the study of politics and government.

1879 – Edison demonstrates incandescent light.

1887 – California is experiencing a flood of new immigrants that reaches its peak this year.  Passenger fares on the railroads drop from $125 a ticket to as low as a $1 in some instances.  In all, more than 200,000 people will come to California by rail.

1881 – Virgil Earp is shot on the streets of Tombstone.  He looses the use of one arm.