On This Day

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It's been a little while since I did a on this day in history post so let's look back and see what happened on this day. 1758 Members of the Lenape Indian tribe in Pennsylvania kidnapped 10-year-old Mary Campbell from her home during the French and Indian War. Kidnapping women and children was a common practice during the war, to replace those natives which were killed. Mary would remain with the tribe until she was 16 years old. 1792 Mount Unzen on Japan's Shimabara Peninsula erupted, killing about 15,000 people. It remains the worse volcano eruption in Japan's history. 1881 Clara Barton and Adolphus Solomons established the American Red Cross in Washington, DC. The organization helps during times of natural disasters and war. 1901 Connecticut became the first state in the US to enforce speed limits on their roads. Within city limits the speed limit was 12 mph and on country roads, 15mph. 1927 The first ever nonstop flight between New York to Paris was completed on this day by Charles Lindbergh when he landed at Le Bourget Field in Paris. 1932 Amelia Earhart followed Charles Lindbergh into the history books when she completed the first nonstop flight between New York and Paris by a woman. 1940 In East Prussia, Nazis began killing those they felt weren't fit to live. They would murder more than 1.500 mental patients over an 18-day period. 1956 The US wanted to see if hydrogen bombs would be feasible airborne weapons, so on this day they dropped one over the tiny island of Namu in the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. The test was successful. 1960 Valdivia, Chile was hit with a 7.6 magnitude earthquake. It left 5,000 dead and more than 2 million homeless. 1992 The Lond Island Lolita, Amy Fisher, was arrested on this day for shooting Mary Jo Buttafuoco in the face. Amy, who was 17 at the time, was having an affair with Mary Jo's husband Joey, age 38. Amy pled guilty and received a sentence of 5-15 years in prison for her actions. Mary Jo stood by Joey who was charged with statutory rape of a minor and was given a 6 month jail sentence. He should have been given a much longer sentence. 1999 After 19 nominations, Susan Lucci finally won an Emmy for Best Actress for her portrayal of Erica Kane on the soap opera All My Children. Happy birthday to Aurelia Cotta, who was the mother of Julius Caesar Alexander Pope, English poet Elizabeth Fry, English prison reformer, social reformer Fats Waller, jazz pianist who wrote Ain't Misbehavin and Honeysuckle Rose Raymond Burr, actor who portrayed one of my favorite characters on television, Perry Mason John Dalton, bassist for the Kinks Mr T, actor known for Rocky and the A Team Jeffery Dahmer, serial killer We said goodbye to Henry VI, executed at age 49 Hernando de Soto, first European explorer to have crossed the Mississippi River, age 46 August Kundt, German physicist, (sound vibration) age 54 Jane Addams, co-founder of ACLU, social activist age 65 Sammy Davis Sr, American vaudeville dancer, father of Sammy Davis Jr, age 87 Rajiv Gandhi, Indian Prime Minister, assassinated, age 46