This coming week in Indiana’s history …
1804 – In Vincennes, Elihu Stout published the Indiana Gazette, the first newspaper in the Indiana Territory. It lasted until 1806, when the publishing house burned to the ground. Stout later established the Western Sun, now called the Vincennes-Sun Commercial.
1869 – Booth Tarkington was born in Indianapolis. He attended Shortridge High School, Purdue University and Princeton University, where his interest in theater led to a successful writing career. He wrote for Broadway and won two Pulitzer Prizes (for the novels The Magnificent Ambersons and Alice Adams.) Active in politics, he served one term in the Indiana House of Representatives.
1919 – The big news in sports was that Arthur Nehf, star left-handed pitcher for the Boston Nationals, had been recruited by the New York Giants (now in San Francisco). Nehf was born in Terre Haute and attended Rose Polytechnic Institute. His pro baseball career also included the Boston Braves, Cincinnati Reds and Chicago Cubs. The varsity baseball field at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology is named in his honor.
1945 – The USS Indianapolis was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. Of the 1,196 men aboard, approximately 300 went down with the ship. Those remaining were plunged into shark-infested waters. By the time they were rescued four days later, only 316 were alive.
1970 – Movie actress Frances Farmer died in Indianapolis at the age of 56. Her beauty and talent won her a contract with Paramount Pictures in the 1940s. In her later years, she moved to Indianapolis where she hosted a popular afternoon television show on WFBM. She presented feature films and often provided first-hand knowledge about their production.
1998 – A Ford F-250 pickup truck carrying a homemade bomb crashed into the east entrance of the Tippecanoe County Courthouse in Lafayette. The truck caught fire, but the explosive did not detonate. The cost of repairs to the building amounted to over $200,000. The driver escaped and the case remains unsolved.