Today in History

Earth Day 20th Anniversary, pin-back button, 1990. Gift of Toni Ellen Heisler, New-York Historical Society, 2002.74.118.

Happy West Virginia Day! On June 20, 1863, West Virginia was formally admitted to the Union. In 1927 the date was made a formal holiday in the state. West Virginia State Capitol, South Elevation, ink on trace. Cass Gilbert Architecture Collection, PR 021, New-York Historical Society, 85867d.

Juneteenth, Freedom Day, or Emancipation Day, commemorating June 19, 1865 when the abolition of slavery was announced and enforced in the state of Texas, over two years after the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect. Isaac and Rosa, emancipated slave children, from the Free Schools of Louisiana; cabinet card photograph by M.H. Kimball, 1863. New-York Historical Society, 78327d.

“We’ve got some difficult days ahead,” Martin Luther King, Jr., told an overflowing crowd in Memphis, Tennessee, on 3 April 1968, where the city’s sanitation workers were striking. “But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop … I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land” (King, “I’ve Been,” 222–223). Less than 24 hours after these prophetic words, King was…

December 14, 1799: George Washington dies at home in Mount Vernon. George Washington in his Last Illness, attended by Doctors Craik and Brown. Hand-colored etching. Unidentified artist, ca. 1800. New-York Historical Society, 46066.

November 29, 1832: Louisa May Alcott was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania. Best-known as the author of Little Women (1868), Alcott was also a noted abolitionist and feminist. Cabinet card photograph, J. Notman, Boston, n.d. PR 052, New-York Historical Society, 70276.

October 28, 1886: President Grover Cleveland dedicates the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor following a parade from Madison Square to Battery Park, during which traders at the Stock Exchange threw ticker tape, initiating that tradition. Invitation to the Inauguration of the Statue of Liberty, New-York Historical Society Library, 92215d.

Timor-Leste [Memória]

August 17, 1920: Actress Maureen O'Hara (nee FitzSimons) was born in Ireland and would later charm in The Parent Trap (1961).

Happy Skyscraper Appreciation Day! George B. Post was a pioneering architect who built some of the earliest skyscrapers in New York. For the now demolished Produce Exchange Building, he designed an...

August 5, 1906: John Huston was born in Nevada, Missouri. His first movie, as writer and director, was The Maltese Falcon (1941). Larry Silver, Times Square, NYC, 1952 [Movie theatre ads for The Maltese Falcon and Dark Victory, additional movie theatres, I. Miller shoe store, Planters Peanut ad, CBS-TV]. Gelatin silver photograph. Gift of William and Jeryl Silverstein, Collection of the New-York Historical Society, 90402d.

August 5, 1850: Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant is born in Tourville-sur-Arques, France. A protégé of Flaubert, Maupassant's output includes the famous twist-ending short story, "The Necklace." Necklace, part of a parure, 1840-1880. Pearls, mother-of-pearl, gold, string. Gift of Mrs. J. Harper Skillin, New-York Historical Society, 1956.47a-i.

Happy Birthday, Mr. President! August 4, 1961: Barack Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. Campaign Handkerchief, ca.2008. Designed by Juiana Um, manufactured by UTEXRWA. Cotton, made in Rwanda. Purchase, New-York Historical Society, 2012.34.