This week in Indiana’s history …
1816 – Dec. 11: President James Madison signed a Congressional resolution admitting Indiana to the Union as the 19th State. The new state government would be centered in Corydon. Jonathan Jennings assumed the office of governor, having won the election in August. In Washington, James Noble and Waller Taylor were seated as United States Senators and William Hendrix took his chair as the Indiana member of the United States House of Representatives.
1879 – Former President Ulysses S. Grant and his wife Julia arrived in Logansport to a grand reception led by Mayor Samuel Jacobs. In his address to the crowd, Grant spoke of his recent two and one-half year tour of the world. After a luncheon at the Hotel Murdock, the couple traveled by train to Indianapolis where they were greeted by Governor James D. Williams and welcomed by another large crowd. The former President and Civil War General spent three hours shaking hands at the Marion County Courthouse before attending a choral concert at Roberts Park Church.
1896 – Marshall “Major” Taylor won his first professional bicycle race. He grew up in Bucktown on the western edge of Indianapolis. As a young man, he worked in local bicycle shops where he became interested in bicycle racing. He went on to become one of the first African American sports “superstars,” a world-class cyclist who set world records.
1925 – This advertisement for the Cardinola radio store on Monument Circle in Indianapolis set the tone for the shopping season. Radios were the “must have” Christmas gifts as the amazing new technology swept the country. Newspapers were already running program listings and articles about how to operate the rather complicated radio receivers of the era. Several broadcasting stations were on the air in Indiana, including WOWO in Fort Wayne, WSBT in South Bend, WGBF in Evansville, and WFBM in Indianapolis.
1934 – The new Indiana State Library and Historical Building was dedicated on Ohio Street in Indianapolis. Governor Paul V. McNutt was on hand to accept the keys to the beautiful new structure. Among the speakers was Nora Huddleston Hicks of Cambridge City, president of the Indiana Federation of Women’s Clubs. “The library is to the adult what the school is to a child,” she said. “It offers an opportunity for more complete living.”
1941 – December 7: Japanese bombers attacked American bases in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and Manila, in the Philippines. The “Day of Infamy” led Congress to declare war and enter World War II. More than 400,000 Hoosiers went into uniform. Over 11,000 were killed and 17,000 wounded.