This Day…

1906 – San Francisco earthquake and fire kills nearly 4,000 while destroying 75% of the city

1941 – American actress Doris Day (19) weds trombonist Albert Jorden

1862  – American poet Emily Dickinson first corresponds with author and future literary mentor Thomas Wentworth Higginson, a relationship that lasts the rest of her life

1872 – Jesse James‘ gang robs a bank of $1,500 in Columbia, Kentucky, 1 dead

1912 – RMS Titanic sets sail from Southampton for her maiden (and final) voyage

1893 – The Critic reports that ice cream soda is America’s national drink

1887 – Anne Sullivan makes the breakthrough to Helen Keller by spelling “water” in the manual alphabet.

1860 – The Pony Express mail delivery system, which used continuous horse-and-rider relays along a 1,800-mile (2,900-km) route between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California, was launched in the United States.

1930 – “The Blue Angel” starring Marlene Dietrich in her breakthrough role premieres in Germany

1915 – American domestic Mary Mallon, better known as Typhoid Mary, was placed under a quarantine on North Brother Island, New York City, that lasted until her death in 1938; a typhoid carrier, she was allegedly responsible for multiple outbreaks of typhoid fever.