This Day…

1961 – “Show Girl” closes at Eugene O’Neill Theater NYC after 100 performances.

1949 – “South Pacific” opens at Majestic Theater NYC for 1928 performances

1914 – Film serial “Perils of Pauline” shown for the first time in Los Angeles

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

1867 – The United States buys Alaska from Russia.  The territory at the north-western tip of North America cost only $7.2 million.

1920 – Actor Douglas Fairbanks (36) marries actress Mary Pickford (28).

1916 – British author of “The Lord of the Rings”, J.R.R. Tolkien marries Edith Mary Bratt at St. Mary Immaculate Roman Catholic Church, Warwick

1922 – British magistrates in India sentence Mahatma Gandhi to 6 years imprisonment for disobedience.

1826 – The first railroad in the U.S. was chartered. It was the Granite Railway in Quincy, MA.

1854 – Republican Party formally organized in Ripon, Wisconsin.