1. Eleanor Roosevelt, early champion of the Civil Rights Movement.
Eleanor Roosevelt’s public advocacy for civil rights began with her dramatic resignation from the Daughters of the American Revolution for barring Marian Anderson from performing in Constitution Hall, and then arranging for Anderson’s performance to take place at the Lincoln Memorial, an event enjoyed by 75,000 people on Easter Sunday, April 9, 1939. [Above, Roosevelt’s resignation from the DAR.] Later, Roosevelt and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. exchanged letters during the last years of her life in which she voiced support for desegregation. [Above, she presents King with an award from the Americans for Democratic Action, a progressive advocacy group she co-founded, Feb. 1961.]
2. On this date in 1860.
Lincoln, an unannounced presidential candidate, ended a day in New York City with a visit to the House of Industry in the Five Points neighborhood of the Lower East Side. There, Lincoln observed the mission's work with destitute and orphaned neighborhood children. He was taken there by this happy man, NY lawyer Hiram Barney, an early Lincoln supporter and fundraiser, who obtained a plum political appointment as Collector of the NY Port once Lincoln became president.
3. The Meuse-Argonne Offensive in northeastern France, 1918.
The Meuse-Argonne Offensive was the largest operation of US forces during WWI and in all of US military history, involving 1.2 million US troops. It began on Sept. 26, 1918, and continued for 46 days, until the moment the Armistice came into effect on Nov. 11. The American and French military leadership viewed the Armistice as a mere cessation in fighting, which could resume at any time. So, they wanted to inflict as many German casualties and gain control over as much territory as possible if the war should resume. The Offensive was intended to push German troops out of France and reclaim a rail network that had been keeping them supplied, but the terrain the Americans encountered was quite difficult. The rugged Argonne Forest had no roads and had been heavily fortified by the Germans during their 4-year occupation. The Offensive was a costly success and is credited with helping to end the war. More than 26,000 US troops were KIA in the offensive, many in the last moments of battle. Another 97,000 were wounded. The high number of US casualties, which far exceeded the losses the US would suffer 25 years later in either the Battle of the Bulge or in Okinawa, has been attributed to command errors and troop inexperience. [US Army photos]
4. Strange moments from circus history.
5. Guglielmo Marconi changes the world, 1901.
6. The Makah Tribe of Neah Bay, in far-northwest Washington.
Ancient Makah people lived in longhouses made from western red cedar, a tree found in abundance in their tribal lands. Cedar bark was used to make water-resistant clothing, cedar roots were used in basket-weaving, and cedar logs were hollowed out to make canoes. Much of their food came from the ocean -- whales, seals, fish and shellfish -- supplemented by berries, nuts and edible plants gathered by women and deer, elk and bear hunted in the forest. About 1,200 Makah people survive. Most live in the Neah Bay reservation.
