1811 – The Battle of Tippecanoe was fought between forces under William Henry Harrison and Native Americans led by the Prophet, brother of Tecumseh. It was this event that earned Harrison the nickname “Old Tippecanoe.”
1855 – Eugene V. Debs was born in Terre Haute. He was a union leader and activist known throughout the nation. On the Socialist Party ticket, he ran four times for President of the United States.
1862 – Richard Gatling of Indianapolis received a patent for his rapid-fire repeating gun. It was the forerunner of the machine gun. Gatling wrote that he invented the gun to reduce the size of armies and therefore reduce the number of war deaths.
1912 – Thomas Marshall was elected Vice President of the United States. He had just completed a term as Governor of Indiana. Born in North Manchester, he practiced law in Columbia City. He served eight years as Vice President under Woodrow Wilson. Marshall is one of six men from Indiana who have served in the No. 2 position at the White House.
1978 – Janet Flanner died in New York City. Born in Indianapolis in 1892, she attended Tudor Hall for Girls. She was a long-time Paris correspondent for the New Yorker magazine and associated with fellow Americans in Paris, including Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, E. E. Cummings and Gertrude Stein.
2005 – A powerful series of tornadoes hit a large area around Evansville, killing 25 people and injuring hundreds more.