1826 – Native Americans of the Miami Tribe signed the Mississinewa Treaty, which granted Indiana a large area of land in the northeastern part of the state. The document permitted the construction of roads and canals through the area. It also allowed for Chief Jean Baptiste de Richardville to build a home, now a historic site in Fort Wayne.
1908 – William Howard Taft, campaigning for President, made a whirlwind speaking tour of Indiana, starting in Brazil and going to Crawfordsville, Lafayette, Frankfort, Kokomo, Muncie, Anderson and Marion. In Lafayette, a line of Civil War veterans stood along the street and saluted as Taft passed by.
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, making the trip from New York to San Francisco in nine weeks. She went on to become a stunt pilot, movie actress and screenwriter. In her long adventurous life, she lived to see men walk on the moon. The United States Post Office issued a stamp in her honor in 1980.
1939 – Eleanor Roosevelt was in Muncie to speak to the Optimist Club. The First Lady said, “Even though our country wants to keep out of the war, the fact that there is a war will have an effect upon young people.” Regarding a rumor that she might run for Vice President, she replied, “I do not plan to run for any kind of office … besides, the Vice President has to preside over the Senate and that is not a nice job.”
1976 – Governor Otis Bowen helped dedicate a new addition to the Indiana State Library. The building on West Ohio Street, 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, he began a stage 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 for over 2,000 performances. Classic television fans will remember him as Sergeant Morgan O’Rourke in “F-Troop.”