On this day in 1915, an American heroine is born. Olivia J. Hooker would become the first black woman to serve in the United States Coast Guard.
She sure survived a lot to get to that point.
Trouble started early, during the Tulsa race riots of 1921. Olivia was then just a 6-year-old girl, living in the midst of something bigger than herself: The community believed that a black teenager had assaulted a white woman. The facts were in doubt, but that didn’t stop what followed. The city was left in turmoil as a mob ransacked homes and businesses in Greenwood, a thriving and predominantly black community.
Homes were torched. People were killed. As for Olivia, she was in her home when it was attacked.
“I remember our mother put us under the table,” Olivia later remembered. “She took the longest tablecloth she had to cover four children and told us not to say a word. It was a horrifying thing for a little girl that's only 6 years old.”
The attackers took an axe to a piano, and they poured gas on a bed. They nearly torched it, but didn’t—mostly by fluke.
The story continues here:
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On this day in 1943, a B-17 Flying Fortress completes its 25th combat mission without losing a member of its crew. Memphis Belle would return to the United States, embark on a war bond tour, and become one of the most famous bombers to emerge from World War II.
She was nearly sold for scrap metal after the war, but Memphis mayor Walter Chandler saved her for $350. Today, she’s been refurbished and sits at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio.
Memphis Belle’s survival was no small feat.
The story continues here: https://www.taraross.com/post/tdih-memphis-belle
On this day in 1868, votes are taken in President Andrew Johnson’s impeachment trial. Thirty-five Senators voted to convict, one vote shy of the 36 votes then needed to remove him from office.
That trial has since been labeled a “political circus” and “a contest for power.” Regardless, Johnson would survive the attempt against him.
Americans were then recovering from a brutal Civil War that had left hundreds of thousands dead or wounded. Johnson wasn’t supposed to be the President that got them through this trying period. He was President only because Abraham Lincoln had been killed just one month into his second term.
Needless to say, Johnson struggled.
The story continues here: https://www.taraross.com/post/tdih-johnson-impeached
On this day in 1918, the first official U.S. airmail flight departs from Washington, D.C. Such a flight is ordinary today, but in the early 20th century, the success of such an undertaking was far from certain.
“When airmail began in 1918,” a USPS publication explains, “airplanes were still a fairly new invention. Pilots flew in open cockpits in all kinds of weather . . . . [They] followed landmarks on the ground; in fog they flew blind. Unpredictable weather, unreliable equipment, and inexperience led to frequent crashes . . . .”
Some credit Otto Praeger, Second Assistant Postmaster General, with pushing airmail into existence. Praeger was all enthusiasm for the mail: He knew nothing about planes or their limitations.
The story continues here: https://www.taraross.com/post/tdih-airmail-service
