This week in Indiana’s history …
1859 – Otto Stark was born in Indianapolis. Exhibiting an early talent in art, he went on to study in New York and Paris. He experimented with impressionism, a new style at the time. Returning to Indianapolis in the 1890s, he became a member of the famed “Hoosier Group” of artists.
1877 – Fire destroyed the Academy of Music in Indianapolis at the southeast corner of Illinois and Ohio streets. Governor James D. Williams had taken the oath of office there just three weeks earlier.
1921 – Indiana Governor Warren McCray met with members of the James Whitcomb Riley Memorial Association at the Statehouse. They shared with him a proposal to build a children’s hospital in tribute to the Hoosier Poet, who had died five years earlier. The Governor agreed that there was a need for a medical facility for children and pledged the state’s cooperation.
1940 – Thousands lined up at Loew’s Theater in Indianapolis for the Indiana premier of Gone With the Wind. Governor M. Clifford Townsend and Mayor Reginald Sullivan were among those in the opening night audience for the highly-anticipated movie. The theater had installed new projector lenses to enhance the richness of the Technicolor process used in the film.
1967 – A flash fire aboard the Apollo I test capsule took the lives of Hoosier astronaut Gus Grissom and fellow astronauts Edward White and Roger Chaffee. Grissom had grown up in Mitchell and served in the Air Force during the Korean War. He earned a degree in mechanical engineering at Purdue University.
1978 – Indiana Governor Otis Bowen declared a snow emergency for the entire state after the worst blizzard on record. State Police said all roads should be considered closed. A record 30.6 inches of snow fell in Indianapolis during the month.