1889 – The cornerstone was laid for the new Wells County Courthouse in Bluffton. The Romanesque building was the third for the county and is still in use.
1910 – Blanche Stuart Scott became the first woman to pilot an airplane in public, appearing in the Curtiss Team Exhibition in Fort Wayne. She had already gained fame as the first woman to drive across America, going from New York to San Francisco in nine weeks. She went on to become a stunt pilot, movie actress, and screenwriter. In 1980, the U.S. Post Office issued an airmail stamp in her honor.
1918 – State health officials believed that the worst of the influenza epidemic was over. There were hundreds of thousands of cases in Indiana, resulting in an estimated 10,000 deaths. All public gatherings were banned during the month.
1976 – Governor Otis Bowen helped dedicate a new addition to the Indiana State Library. The building on West Ohio Street in Indianapolis, first opened in 1934, was expanded by 87,000 square feet. The Governor called the $4.7 million project “a versatile and outstanding new addition.”
1986 – Forrest Tucker died in Los Angeles. Born in Plainfield, Ind., he began an acting career at age 14 at the Chicago World’s Fair. He went on to a long career in movies and television in which he played a wide variety of characters. In The Music Man, he was Professor Harold Hill over 2,000 times. Classic television fans will remember him as Sergeant Morgan O’Rourke in F-Troop.
1999 – Market Square Arena closed in Indianapolis. Opened in 1974, it was home to the Indiana Pacers and the site of Elvis Presley’s final concert. The structure was demolished in 2001.