This upcoming week in Indiana’s history …
1847 – Quakers in Richmond opened a boarding school which, 12 years later, became Earlham College. It was the second Quaker college in the world and the first one to be coeducational. The school was named in honor of Quaker minister Joseph John Gurney, who was born at Earlham Hall in England.
1865 – The first city election was held in South Bend. With 543 votes cast, William G. George was elected mayor. Members of the city council were also chosen. South Bend had incorporated just two weeks before. Located near the southernmost bend of the St. Joseph River, the area was used many years ago by Native Americans as a short overland route from the St. Joseph to the Kankakee River.
1918 – Charles Warren Fairbanks died at his home in Indianapolis. He had served as United States Senator from Indiana and Vice President under Theodore Roosevelt. His body lay in state in the rotunda of the Indiana Statehouse.
1961 – A. J. Foyt and Ray Harroun appeared on the TV quiz show “I’ve Got a Secret” with host Garry Moore. Foyt had won the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race the week before and Harroun had been the winner of the first race 50 years earlier, in 1911. It took only a few minutes for the panel of four celebrities to guess their “secrets.”
1978 – Broadway legend Ethel Merman performed with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra at Clowes Hall in Indianapolis. She sang many of the songs for which she was famous, including “I Got Rhythm” by the Gershwins and “I Get a Kick Out of You” by Indiana’s Cole Porter. Charles Staff, reviewer for The Indianapolis News, said “Everything about her was up, the way she moved, the way she looked, the way she sang.”
1979 – President Jimmy Carter addressed members of the Indiana Democratic Party at the Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner at the Indianapolis Convention Center. He was met at the airport by United States Senator Birch Bayh and was later joined by Indiana Congressman Andy Jacobs as well as many other party members.