This Day…

1867 -Charles Dickens gave his first public reading. Taking place at a New York City theater, Charles Dickens gave his first reading of a six-month American book tour.

1902 – American Old West: Second-in-command of Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch gang Kid Curry Logan sentenced to 20 years imprisonment with hard labor.

1919 – American-born Lady Astor was elected the first female member of the British Parliament.

1865 – “Alice in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll is published in America.

1880 – Lillian Russell made her vaudeville debut in New York City.

1886 – Sherlock Holmes’s first story “A Study in Scarlet” is accepted by publisher Ward and Lock with payment of £25

1872 – Suffragette Susan B. Anthony is arrested by a U.S. Deputy Marshal and charged with illegally voting.

1952 – In the Peanuts comic strip, Lucy first held a football for Charlie Brown.

1889 – New York World reporter Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane) began an attempt to surpass the fictitious journey of Jules Verne’s Phileas Fogg by traveling around the world in less than 80 days. Bly succeeded by finishing the journey the following January in 72 days, 6 hours and 11 minutes.

1938 – Kate Smith first sang Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America” on network radio.