This Day…

1933 – The singing telegram was introduced by the Postal Telegraph Company of New York City.

1887 – The Dawes Act authorizes the President of the United States to survey Native American tribal land and divide it into individual allotments. Those who accepted allotments and lived separately from the tribe were granted United States citizenship.

1891 – 1st great train robbery by the Dalton Gang: Southern Pacific #17, near Alila (now Earlimart), California

1815 – Burned US Library of Congress re-established with Thomas Jefferson‘s 6,500 volumes.

1931 – “City Lights”, American silent romantic comedy film directed by Charlie Chaplin, starring himself and Virginia Cherrill, premieres at Los Angeles Theater.

1802 – The U.S. Congress passed an act calling for a library to be established within the U.S. Capitol.

1908 – Katie Mulcahey is arrested for lighting a cigarette, violating the 1-day old “Sullivan Ordinance” banning women from smoking in public, and is fined $5. Appearing before the judge she stated “I’ve got as much right to smoke as you have. I never heard of this new law, and I don’t want to hear about it. No man shall dictate to me.”

1895 – Oscar Wilde‘s play “An Ideal Husband” premieres at the Haymarket Theatre in London

1862 – American publisher Frank Nelson Doubleday, founder of the book-publishing firm Doubleday & Company, Inc., was born.