This day in history

Some notable historical events that happened today include:

 

1873 -  the Missouri Board of Education established the first public kindergarten in the country.

 

1930 -  Philo Farnsworth received patent No. 1773980 for his invention if a television system

 

1947 -  Dan Bankhead debut as the first African American professional pitcher in MLB. He took the mound for the Dodgers against the Pittsburgh Pirates. He was also a teammate of Jackie Robinson 

 

1968 -  the Beatles released "Hey Jude"

 

1971 -  Bobby Orr signed a millon-dollar contract with the Bruins, the first in NHL history

 

1981 -  the first photos of Saturn's moon Titan were taken by Voyager 2

 

2012 -  at 15 years old, Lydia Ko became the youngest LPGA tour winner

 

 

Some interesting birthdays include:

 

Charles Richet (1850) - won the Nobel Prize for his research on anaphylaxis 

Le De Forest (1873) - invented the Audion vacuum, making live radio Broadcasting possible. He became the chief scientist for the first US radio firm, American Wireless Telephone and Telegraph

Zona Gale (1874) - first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. She earned it in 1921 for her play Miss Lulu Bett

Earl Biggers (1884) - novelist who created private detective character Charlie Chan. Some people think these old stories are racist but the character was actually based on Hawaiian detective Chang Apana as an alternative to Yellow Peril stereotypes and villains like Fu Manchu

Albert Sabin (1906) - virologist who worked on the oral polio vaccine

Mother Teresa (1910) - was beatified as Saint Teresa by the Catholic Church in 2003

Katherine Johnson (1918) - her work as a computer for NASA was vital to the success of the first moon missions

Ben Bradlee (1921) - newspaper editor of the Washington Post for 23 years

Naomi Parker Fraley (1921) - model for the iconic Rosie the Riveter poster, "We Can Do It", she worked on an aircraft assembly line at the Naval Air Station in Alameda, CA

Irving Levine (1922) - spent 45 years with NBC reporting news in his trademark bow tie

Alva Jo Fischer (1926) - pitcher with the All American Girls' Professional Baseball League 

Mary Froning (1934) - recruited at age 16, played 3 years for the South Bend Blue Sox in the All American Girls' Professional Baseball League 

Geraldine Ferraro (1935) - first female vice-president nominee in 1984 with Democratic nominee Walter Mondale. They did not win.

Tom Ridge (1945) - first US Secretary of Homeland Security in 2003

Will Shortz (1952)

Chris Burke (1965)