This coming week in Indiana’s history …
1788 – The Official Seal of the Northwest Territory is thought to have been used for the first time. Images include a rising sun, a felled tree, a coiled snake on a log, boats, and an apple tree. Displayed is the Latin motto “Meliorem Lapsa Locavit,” which means “Having fallen, a better way was found.” The scene suggests primitive life being replaced by a better civilization. The design was a model for the Official Seal of the State of Indiana created some years after statehood in 1816.
1900 – Alice Taeffe was born in Vincennes. Her family moved to the Los Angeles area when she was 15. There, under the screen name of Alice Terry, she made 29 movies in a career that spanned the silent era to early “talkies.” In 1960, she was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1917 – The Ball Brothers of Muncie purchased the Indiana Normal Institute. Working with Governor James Goodrich and the Legislature, they arranged to donate the school to the State of Indiana. The institution evolved into Ball State Teachers College and, in 1965, became Ball State University.
1934 – John Dillinger was killed by FBI agents as he walked out of the Biograph Theater in Chicago. Born in Indianapolis, he moved in his teens with his family to Mooresville. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover declared Dillinger to be “Public Enemy #1” based on his role in numerous bank robberies and jail breaks.
1948 – Carl Erskine of Anderson began his major league pitching career with the Brooklyn Dodgers. He spent his entire career with the team and helped them win five pennants. During the 1953 season alone, he won 20 games and set a World Series record with 14 strikeouts in a single game.
1979 – Disco Music rocked Market Square Arena in Indianapolis as the Bee Gees performed to a capacity crowd of 17,600. Fans paid $15 each to hear the popular brothers, stars of the soundtrack of Saturday Night Fever. They sang 21 of their hits during the 90-minute show. Indianapolis News reviewer Zach Dunkin said, “Seldom have so many paid so much to catch a fever.”