Europeans still had a pretty vague idea of what lay beyond the western shores of the Atlantic Ocean, and were looking for a northwest passage to India.
1732 - A company led by James Oglethorpe was granted a charter for Georgia.
1784 - Fr. John Carroll was appointed Prefect-Apostolic of the Catholic missions in America. He was the first formally appointed Catholic official in the U.S., and a friend of Benjamin Franklin.
1896 - William Jennings Bryan delivered his "cross of gold" speech at the Democratic Convention in Chicago.
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5354/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;... you shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.
Bryan was probably the greatest orator to run for president and lose.
The controversies over the gold standard and free silver are almost incomprehensible to those of us who use paper money and credit cards.
1954 - Joseph Welch, lead cousel for the U.S. Army in the "Army-McCarthy Hearings," asked Senator Joseph McCarthy, "Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"
These hearings were viewed on television, probably more widely than any government proceeding in previous history. It was the beginning of the end for McCarthy, who was formally censured in December 1954, and died in 1957.
1959 - The George Washington was launched, the first nuclear-powered Polaris submarine.
1969 - The U.S. Senate confirmed Warren Burger as Chief Justice of the United States.
Though appointed by Richard Nixon and regarded as a conservative strict-constructionist, Justice Burger presided over some of the most contentious rulings in U.S. history.
1973 - Secretariat won the Belmont Stakes in one of the greatest races in living history.
- Jim