This day in history

Some notable historical events that happened today include:

 

1845 -  the first organized baseball team was named the New York Knickerbockers. The name now applies to the Basketball team known as the Knicks 

 

1848 -  John Curtis began selling the first commercially available chewing gum, State of Maine Pure Spruce Gum. His later flavors included American Flag, Yankee Spruce, White Mountain, Biggest and Best 

 

1879 -  Richard S. Rhodes was granted patent No. 219,828A for an audiophone. The device improved the hearing of those with conductive hearing loss and is considered the first of its kind

 

1889 -  Fusajiro Yamauchi founded Nintendo Koppai (later named Nintendo Company, Limited) - the business originally produced playing cards and dabbled in other businesses including a taxi company 

 

1911 -  Earle Ovington became the first airmail pilot when he carried the mail in his Bleriot "Queen" monoplane. His route ran between Garden City Estates and the post office in Mineola, NY

 

1953 -  Norman D. Larsen, Gordon Dawson and John B. Gregory founded Rocket Chemical Company which produced and marketed WD-40

 

1969 -  the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid premiered directed by George Roy Hill and starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford 

 

1984 -  Sparky Anderson became the first MLB manager to win 100 games in both the National League and the American League 

 

Some interesting birthdays include:

 

Victoria Woodhull (1838) - leader in the women's Suffrage movement, was the first woman to own a Wall Street brokerage firm and the first woman to run for President in the US

Robert Bosch (1861) - invented the spark plug and magneto used in automobiles

Mary Church Terrel (1863) - first president of the National Association of Colored Women, she also taught in the first African American public high school

Mary Mallon (1869) - better known as Typhoid Mary, she was suspected of infecting 53 people while she remained asymptomatic 

Walter Lippmann (1889)

Dottie Wiltse Collins (1923)

Andre Cassagnes (1926) - creator of the Etch A Sketch

Ray Charles (1930) - one of my favorite musicians, he earned 17 Grammys over the corse of his career 

Bruce Springsteen (1949)

Hasan Minhaj (1985)