Today's Puzzle
What do the Lear Jet and the 8-track have in common?
What Happened On
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
June 26, 1997
The first novel in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, is released. It follows the young wizard Harry Potter who discovers his magical heritage on his eleventh birthday after he receives a letter of acceptance to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Written by J.K. Rowling, it and the following books of the series have sold over 500 million copies and have been adapted into several movies. After the book was finished, Rowling's agent spent over a year trying to find a publisher for it as most rejected it, saying it was too long for a children's book.
It was published the following year in the United States under the title Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, as it was felt an American audience wouldn't associate philosopher with magic.
23 Tomahawk Missiles were fired, each costing over $1 million
23 Tomahawk Missiles were fired, each costing over $1 million
U.S. Bombs Iraq in Retaliation for Bush Assassination Attempt
June 26, 1993
Nine civilians are killed when U.S. forces launch a missile attack at Iraqi intelligence headquarters in Baghdad. The attack was in retaliation for an alleged Iraqi plot to kill former U.S. President George H. W. Bush during his visit to Kuwait the previous April. On orders by President Bill Clinton, the U.S. launched 23 Tomahawk cruise missiles from two U.S. Navy warships. Secretary of Defense, Les Aspin, stated, "What we're doing is sending a message against the people who were responsible for planning this operation… (If) anybody asks the same people to do it again, they will remember this message."
First Women to Graduate From a U.S. Service Academy
June 26, 1978
Eight women graduate from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. The Merchant Marine Academy is one of the five U.S. service academies, which also include The U.S. Military Academy, U.S. Naval Academy, U.S. Air Force Academy, and the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.
10,000 Gather to Watch After Newspapers Announce a Black Man Will be Lynched for Dating White Girl
June 26, 1919
Newspapers announce that John Hartfield was going to be lynched in Mississippi for dating a white girl. Ten thousand people gathered to watch while he was hanged, shot, and burned. The townspeople took pieces of his corpse as souvenirs.
In 1919, Hartfield, now living in East St. Louis, Illinois, was visiting his hometown of Ellisville, Mississippi to see his white girlfriend who lived there. When the relationship was discovered by a group of white men, they accused him of raping her. The also claimed she was only 18, when in fact she was in her mid-twenties. Hartfield managed to evade the men for several weeks while they hunted him. During the search, a sheriff from a neighboring county took up donations to fund a hunting party with bloodhounds. Hartfield was eventually captured while trying to board a train and was turned over to the local sheriff, who then turned him over the deputy. The deputy agreed to turn him over to the mob at 4 p.m. The local newspapers ran articles saying "John Hartfield will be lynched by Ellisville mob at 5:00 this afternoon" and "The officers have agreed to turn him over to the people of the city at 4 o'clock this afternoon when it is expected he will be burned". A crowd of over 10,000 people gathered to watch as Hartfield was hanged from a tree and then his body was riddled with bullets. After his body was cut down, he was then cut up for souvenirs. Photo postcards of the event were sold afterwards. The Governor refused to intervene stating "This is a white man's country, with a white man's civilization and any dream on the part of the Negro race to share social and political equality will be shattered in the end".
Automobile Association
June 26, 1905
The Automobile Association (AA) is founded to help British motorists avoid police speed traps. This was in response to the Motor Car Act 1903 which introduced new penalties for breaking the speed limit.
AA patrolmen would warn drivers displaying an AA Badge of upcoming speed traps. In 1910, this was ruled illegal as it obstructed an officer in the course of his duty. AA patrolmen would then only wave to drivers if the road was clear and not wave if a speed trap was ahead, as they could not be prosecuted for not signaling drivers.
AA also erected roadside danger and warning signs, and managed road signage until responsibility was passed to local authorities in the early 1930s.
First and Only U.S. President to Elope
June 26, 1844
U.S. President John Tyler sneaks off to marry Julia Gardiner, who was 30 years younger than him. This also made him the first U.S. President to wed while in office. Tyler had been courting Julia for some time and she had rejected several marriage proposals. However, they were traveling together with her father and other family members aboard the USS Princeton when a gun explosion killed her father. Tyler's comforting of Julia through this tragedy won her consent to be wed. Julia in later years spoke of how Tyler's quiet strength sustained her through her grief.
Tyler would have been present at the gun explosion, however, he had stopped for drinks on the way and was late.
First Practical Helicopter Flight
June 26, 1935
Capable of full take-off, speed, forward motion, and control.
First U.S. Pure Food and Drug Legislation
June 26, 1848
The first U.S. pure food and drug legislation is enacted, to prevent the importing of adulterated drugs and medicines.
Birthdays
America's Greatest Female Athlete
Babe Didrikson Zaharias
Born June 26, 1911 d. 1956
American athlete. She is considered America's greatest female athlete. In the 1932 Olympics she won gold for the javelin and hurdles, silver for the high jump, and as a golfer won the British Women's Amateur (1947) and U.S. Open three times (1948, 50, 54).
She died of colon cancer at the age of 45.
William "Bill" Powell Lear
Born June 26, 1902 d. 1978
American inventor, businessman, founder of Lear Jet, Inc. He also developed the 8-track cartridge and was co-inventor of the first practical car radio. He originally created the 8-track for use in his jets, but the device caught on as an automotive accessory, first appearing in automobiles in 1965.
Lord Carnarvon and his daughter with Howard Carter at Tut's tomb
Lord Carnarvon and his daughter with Howard Carter at Tut's tomb
Victim of the Mummy's Curse?
Lord Carnarvon (George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon, DL)
Born June 26, 1866 d. 1923
English Aristocrat. Was Lord Carnarvon a victim of the "Mummy's Curse"? In 1922, he and Howard Carter opened King Tutankhamen's tomb. He died five months later due to an infected mosquito bite, leading many to speculate, including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (creator of Sherlock Holmes), that his death was caused by protections put in place by Tutankhamen's priests to guard the royal tomb.
Loreta Janeta Velázquez
Born June 26, 1842 d. circa 1897
Cuban-born woman. She fought as a Confederate soldier in the American Civil War disguised as a man using the name Harry T. Buford. She fought at Bull Run, Ball's Bluff, and Fort Donelson. After being discovered, she was discharged, but reenlisted and fought at the Battle of Shiloh.
Invented Baseball, Cable Cars, and Fired the First Union Shot of the Civil War
Abner Doubleday
Born June 26, 1819 d. 1893
American Union soldier. He is credited with inventing baseball, although he never claimed so and modern research indicates similar games were played before he was born. He aimed the cannon that fired the first shot at the Confederacy after it fired on Fort Sumter at the start of the American Civil War. He also patented the cable car railway that runs in San Francisco.
Zeng Jinlian
Born June 26, 1964 d. 1982
Chinese giant, world's tallest woman (8 ft. 1 3/4 in.).
Greg LeMond
Born June 26, 1961
American bicyclist, three-time winner of Tour de France (1986, 89-90), the first non-European to win it.
Pamela Bellwood
Born June 26, 1951
American actress. TV: Dynasty (Claudia Blaisdel).
Roy J. Plunkett
Born June 26, 1910 d. 1994
American chemist, inventor of Teflon (1938). He was working with refrigerant gases when he and his co-workers discovered that the sample had polymerized spontaneously into a white, waxy solid to form polytetrafluoroethylene.
Ralph Edward Schneider
Born June 26, 1909 d. 1964
American businessman, founded Diner's Club (1950), the first credit card company.
Col. Tom Parker (Andreas Cornelius Van Kuijk)
Born June 26, 1909 d. 1997
Dutch impresario, Elvis Presley's manager. He also managed Hank Snow and Eddy Arnold. Parker, who was not a U.S. citizen and couldn't get a visa, was afraid that if he left the states he would not be allowed back in. Consequently, Elvis never toured Europe.
Peter Lorre (Laszlo Loewenstein)
Born June 26, 1904 d. 1964
American actor. Film: The Maltese Falcon (1941), Casablanca (1942, Ugarte), and star of the Mr. Moto movies (1930s).
Pearl Sydenstricker Buck
Born June 26, 1892 d. 1973
American author. He won 1938 Nobel prize for literature, and the 1932 Pulitzer prize for The Good Earth.
First Baron Kelvin (William Thomson)
Born June 26, 1824 d. 1907
British scientist, inventor. He developed the Kelvin temperature scale (1848), based on the temperature of absolute zero.
Arthur Middleton
Born June 26, 1742 d. 1787
American patriot, signer of the Declaration of Independence.
Deaths
First public demonstration
First public demonstration
Co-inventor of the Hot-Air Balloon
Joseph Michel Montgolfier
Died June 26, 1810 b. 1740
French inventor. He and his brother Jacques Montgolfier invented the hot-air balloon (1782). They made the first sustained flight of a hot-air balloon the following year.
Liz Claiborne
Died June 26, 2007 b. 1929
Belgian-born American fashion designer. Her company, Liz Claiborne Inc., was the first company founded by a woman to make the Fortune 500 (1986).
Strom Thurmond (James Strom Thurmond Sr.)
Died June 26, 2003 b. 1902
American politician. U.S. Senator (1954-2003, South Carolina), governor (1947-51, South Carolina).
Thurmond ran for U.S. President in 1948 as the Dixiecrat candidate, receiving over a million votes and winning four states.
An opponent of Civil Rights legislation, Thurmond conducted the longest continuous one-person speaking filibuster in U.S. history, at 24 hours and 18 minutes in length, in a failed attempt to block the Civil Rights Act of 1957. He also voted against the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Thurmond denied the accusation that he was a racist by insisting he was a supporter of states' rights and an opponent of excessive federal authority. Thurmond switched parties ahead of the 1964 United States presidential election, saying that the Democratic Party no longer represented people like him.
He retired in 2003 as the only member of either chamber of Congress to reach the age of 100 while still in office and the oldest-serving senator.
Roy Campanella
Died June 26, 1993 b. 1921
American baseball Hall of Famer. National League MVP (1951, 1953, and 1955). Campanella played in the first major league baseball game where a team fielded a majority of black players.
André Tchaikowsky
Died June 26, 1982 b. 1935
Polish composer and pianist. He donated his skull to the Royal Shakespeare Company to be used as a prop on stage. Although used in rehearsals, it wasn't used for a performance until David Tennant (10th incarnation of the Doctor in the TV series Doctor Who, 2005–2010; 2013) used it in a 2008 production of Hamlet.
Karl Landsteiner
Died June 26, 1943 b. 1868
Austrian-born American pathologist, discovered the four basic blood types (1900) and that the donor and recipient of blood transfusions must be compatible types.
Albert I
Died June 26, 1922 b. 1848
Prince of Monaco, oceanographer.
George IV
Died June 26, 1830 b. 1762
King of Great Britain and Ireland (1820-30). He built Buckingham Palace (1820s).
Caesar Rodney
Died June 26, 1784 b. 1728
American patriot, signer of the Declaration of Independence.