This Day…

1901 – a 63-year-old schoolteacher named Annie Edson Taylor becomes the first person to take the plunge over Niagara Falls in a barrel.

1867 – Four boisterous cowboys in Laramie, Wyoming, decided to roust some immigrants from Illinois.  The immigrants were not intimated though and a fearful brawl erupted.  Deputy Marshal Big Steve Long commanded a halt to the proceedings which was ignored, of course.  He then pulled both 44’s and fired into the pugilists.  Five of them were killed, three from Illinois and two of the cowboys.

1940 – On this day in 1940, cowboy-movie star Tom Mix is killed when he loses control of his speeding Cord Phaeton convertible and rolls into a dry wash (now called the Tom Mix Wash) near Florence, Arizona.  He was 60 years old.

1877 – Custer’s funeral is held at West Point.

1877 – Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce Indians surrenders to U.S. General Nelson A. Miles in the Bear Paw mountains of Montana declaring, “Hear me, my chiefs: My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever.”

1863 National Thanksgiving Day proclamation – American president Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday of November as Thanksgiving Day. The holiday has been celebrated annually since that year.

The United States obtains the northeast part of North Dakota in a treaty with Britain.

1934 “Judge Priest” film directed by John Ford, starring Will Rogers is released.

1968 1st broadcast of “Hawaii Five-O” on CBS-TV.

1954 Tonight Show premieres on NBC (Johnny takes over 8 years later).