This Day…

1870 – Arguments for women’s suffrage were prominently advocated during a period of rapid development for the American feminist movement, a time later archived and recalled by the Ms. Magazine archives.

1962 – Marilyn Monroe sings “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” to JFK before 15,000 attendees, accompanied by jazz pianist Hank Jones, at Madison Square Garden, NYC

1875 – First Kentucky Derby: The inaugural “Run for the Roses” was held at Churchill Downs, won by Aristides with jockey Oliver Lewis.

1921 – Florence Allen is the first female judge to sentence a man to death in Ohio

1924  – Pulitzer Prize for poetry awarded to Robert Frost for “New Hampshire: A Poem with Notes and Grace Notes”

1878 – Thomas Edison‘s phonograph is shown for the first time at the Grand Opera House in NYC

1900 – Casey Jones dies heroically in a train wreck at Vaughn, Mississippi, while driving Cannonball Express, immortalized in the song “Ballad of Casey Jones”

1927 – Birth of Coretta Scott King, renowned civil rights activist, author, and leader who continued the legacy of her husband, Martin Luther King Jr.

1931 – US gangster film “The Public Enemy” starring James Cagney and Jean Harlow premieres.