Chief Writing Wolf

1725 – A group of White men in New Hampshire took 10 scalps from a band of encamped Native Americans in the first known appropriation by Europeans of the Indian practice.

1792 – President George Washington signed the Postal Service Act.  Letters delivered up to 30 miles cost six cents to mail.  For letters up to 150 miles, postage was 12-1/2 cents.  And, just like today, letters over 150 miles were not guaranteed to be delivered at all.

1872 – Luther Crowell received a patent for a machine that manufactured paper bags.  Patent #123,811 allowed for the bags to have two longitudinal inward folds.

1872 – The Metropolitan Museum of Art opened in New York City.

1872 – Silas Noble and J.P. Cooley of Granville, MA patented the toothpick manufacturing machine.

1902 – Famed photographer Ansel Adams was born in San Francisco.

1921 – The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, starring Rudolph Valentino, opened.

1951 – Emmett L. Ashford became the first black umpire in organized baseball.  He was authorized as a substitute in the Southwestern International League.

1952 – The African Queen, starring Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart, opened at the Capitol Theatre in New York City.

1962 – John Glenn became the first American to orbit the globe, when his space capsule Friendship 7 circled the planet three times in 4 hours, 55 minutes.

1963 – Baseball player Willie Mays signed with the San Francisco Giants as baseball’s highest-paid player, earning $100,000 a year.

1985 – In a highly controversial move defying the Roman Catholic Church, the government of Ireland approved the sale of contraceptives.

2003 – A fire at The Station nightclub in Warwick, RI resulted in the deaths of 100 people.  The fire started when foam packing around the stage ignited from sparks from pyrotechnic devices during a show by Great White.