1863 – Philosopher and author Ralph Waldo Emerson delivered a lecture at the Masonic Hall in Indianapolis. The author of Self-Reliance and founder of transcendentalism had been in the city for several days, staying at the Bates House Hotel. The topic of his talk was “Clubs and Conversation.”
1919 – The USS Indiana, which served in the Spanish-American War and World War I, was decommissioned by the Navy. Another ship bearing the same name served in World War II. The most recent USS Indiana is a nuclear submarine commissioned last year.
1922 – Vice President Calvin Coolidge visited Indianapolis. He was greeted at Union Station by United States Senator Harry New and Governor Warren McCray. Coolidge and his wife Grace went to the Columbia Club and the Claypool Hotel, where the Vice President addressed the Republican Editorial Association.
1950 – Children crowded onto the fifth floor of the L. S. Ayres Department Store in Indianapolis to see “Electro, the Mechanical Man.” Made of metal, standing seven feet tall, and weighing 265 pounds, Electro could talk, understand voice commands, move his arms, and even blow up balloons. He and his mechanical dog Sparko were built by the Westinghouse Company for an exhibit at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York.
1967 – A flash fire aboard the Apollo I test capsule took the life of astronaut Gus Grissom from Mitchell. Two fellow astronauts, Ed White and Roger Chaffee, were also killed.
2000 – The African-American Historical Museum opened in Fort Wayne. It was founded by Hana Stith, a retired school teacher and community leader. The museum houses the city’s largest public collection of African art.