1816 – President James Madison signed a Congressional resolution admitting Indiana to the Union as the 19th state. The new state government would be centered in the capital city of Corydon. Jonathan Jennings won the election to serve as the state’s first governor.
1909 – Workers placed the last of 3.2 million 10-pound bricks on the 2½-mile oval track at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It has been called “The Brickyard” ever since.
1917 – Thirty Indiana delegates attended the National American Women’s Suffrage Association Meeting in Washington, D.C. Women from around the nation met for the three-day event at Poli’s Theater. The Hoosier group was led by Mrs. R. E. Edwards of Peru, president of the Indiana Franchise League.
1920 – Football player George Gipp died of strep throat in his senior year at Notre Dame. Called “The Gipper” by Coach Knute Rockne, he is considered one of the most versatile athletes ever to play the game.
1958 – Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke to a crowd of 4,000 at Cadle Tabernacle in Indianapolis. The 29-year-old Baptist pastor was welcomed to the city by Mayor Charles Boswell. King told the crowd, “If democracy is to live, segregation must die.”
1972 – Eugene Cernan, Commander of Apollo 17, walked on the moon, becoming the last (or most recent) person to do so. He graduated with an engineering degree from Purdue University. When he died in 2017, Purdue President Mitch Daniels called him a “pioneer in aviation and one of the greatest Boilermakers of all time.”