In the ninety years that Laura Ingalls Wilder lived, she witnessed or read about many events. I thought it might be interesting to mention some historical events that took place in America and abroad during Wilder's life. Here is what happened on March 8th.*
1884 - 1st performance of Edward MacDowell's 2nd Piano suite
1884 - Susan B. Anthony addresses the U.S. House Judiciary Committee arguing for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution granting women the right to vote. Anthony's argument came 16 years after legislators had first introduced a federal women's suffrage amendment
1887 - Everett Horton, CT, patents fishing rod of telescoping steel tubes
1894 - The state of New York enacts the nation's first dog-licensing law
1896 - Volunteers of America forms (NYC)
1898 - Richard Straus' "Don Quixote," premieres in Keulen
1900 - NL decides to go with 8 teams. They exclude Baltimore, Cleveland, Louisville & Washington (in 1953 Boston Braves move to Milwaukee)
1902 - 1st performance of Jean Sibelius' 2nd Symphony
1904 - Hugh Trumble takes a hat-trick in his final Test Cricket match
1906 - Stanley Cup: Ottawa Silver 7 sweep Smiths Falls (Ont) in 2 games
1908 - Dutch utopist Frederick of Eden speaks in Carnegie Hall, NY
1910 - Baroness Raymonde de Laroche of Paris is 1st licensed female pilot
1911 - 1st International Woman's Day. International Women's Day is launched in Copenhagen, Denmark, by Clara Zetkin, leader of the Women's Office for the Social Democratic Party in Germany.
1913 - Federal League organizes with 6 teams
1913 - Internal Revenue Service begins to levy & collect income taxes
1915 - 1st US navy minelayer, Baltimore, commissioned
1916 - US invades Cuba for 3rd time, this to end corrupt Menocal regime
1917 - Russian revolution breaks out [OS=Feb 24] (in Petrograd)
1918 - The first case of Spanish flu occurs, the start of a devastating worldwide pandemic.
1920 - Denmark & Cuba join the League of Nations
1921 - Spanish Premier Eduardo Dato Iradier is assassinated while exiting the parliament building in Madrid
1924 - Coal mine explosion kills 171 at Castle Gate Utah
1927 - Pan American Airlines incorporates
1929 - US worker union commission reports of slavery in Liberia
1930 - Mahatma Gandhi starts civil disobedience in India
1930 - Babe Ruth signs 2-year contract for $160,000 with NY Yankee GM Ed Barrow, wrongly predicts "No one will ever be paid more than Ruth."
1934 - Edwin Hubble photo shows as many galaxies as Milky Way has stars
1936 - The first stock car race is held in Daytona Beach, Florida
1939 - Lenore Coffee & William Joyce Cowan's "Family Portrait," premieres
1941 - 1st baseball player drafted into WW II (Hugh Mulcahy, Phillies)
1942 - Japanese forces captures Rangoon Burma
1942 - KNIL, Dutch colonial army on Java, surrenders to Japanese armies
1943 - 335 allied bombers attack Neurenberg
1943 - Limited gambling legalized in Mexico
1943 - US Ladies Figure Skating championship won by Gretchen Merrill
1943 - US Mens Figure Skating championship won by Arthur Vaughn
1944 - US resumes bombing Berlin
1945 - "Kiss Me Kate" opens in Britain
1945 - 53 Amsterdammers executed by nazi occupiers
1945 - International Women's Day is 1st observed
1945 - Phyllis M Daley is 1st black nurse sworn-in as US Navy ensign
1946 - 1st helicopter licensed for commercial use (NYC)
1948 - Supreme Court rules religious instructions in pub schools unconstitutional
1949 - WAGA TV channel 5 in Atlanta, GA (CBS) begins broadcasting
1949 - WBAP-FM, Fort Worth Texas, begins broadcasting
1950 - 1st woman medical officer assigned to naval vessel (BR Walters)
1950 - Marshall Voroshilov of USSR announces they developed atomic bomb
1951 - Intl Table Tennis Federation bans Egypt (for refusing to play Israel)
1952 - Antoine Pinay forms French government
1953 - "Two's Company" closes at Alvin Theater NYC after 90 performances
1953 - Census indicates 239,000 farmers gave up farming in last 2 years
1953 - KSWO TV channel 7 in Lawton, OK (ABC) begins broadcasting
1953 - Patty Berg wins LPGA Jacksonville Golf Open
1953 - WFMJ TV channel 21 in Youngstown, OH (NBC) begins broadcasting
1954 - Herb McKinley sets quarter mile record of 0:46.8 in Melbourne, Australia
* Source for this information is
http://www.historyorb.com/
