1898 Frances Willard died of influenza. She was a reformer, WCTU president and suffragist

1926 Negro History Week celebrated for the first time — created by Carter Woodson. The forerunner of Black History Month which happens each February. . Women’s history month is March, according to a 1987 declaration of congress. Until then, here’s some statistics from the Census Bureau.

1931  Amelia Earhart and George Putnam married. He was also her publicist and a Book publisher.

1935  Monopoly is invented by Charles Darrow. Well, not really. Ever hear of The Landlord’s game created by Elizabeth Magie? the symbol of rich Uncle Pennybags came later.

1946 A Filibuster in the US Senate kills the FEPC bill.(Fair Employment Practices Commission) against workplace discrimination. And what about sexual discrimination against women?. In 2006 the EEOC. received 23,247 charges of sex-based discrimination. They resolved 23,364 sex discrimination charges and recovered $99.1 million in monetary benefits

1949 Joe DiMaggio becomes the first $100,000/year baseball player (New York Yankees)

1956 Autherine Lucy, first black admitted to University of Alabama, is expelled (for her own good of course.)

1959 Dorothy (Comisky) Rigney sells White Sox to Bill Veeck for a reported $27M

1979  "Supertrain", the Superbomb of 1979, debuts on NBC. Competes with My Mother the Car and Me and the Chimp, for worse TV shows.

Notable Birthdays

1832 Hannah Whitall Smith a Quaker author involved in both the temperance movement and Christian Mysticism.

1859 Emma Nevada (Wixom) A frontier woman who become an international Opera Singer

1867 Laura Ingalls Wilder – Author most famous for Little House on the Prairie series

1871 Ethel Perrin - an instructor and administrator of physical education programs at such institutions as the Boston Normal School of Gymnastics, Smith College, the University of Michigan, and the Detroit Public Schools, assumed the role of Associate Director of Health Education for the American Child Health Association from which she retired in 1936.

1888 Dame Edith Evans – English actress (The importance of being Ernest)

1918 Ruth Sager professor of cellular genetics and cancer research

1977  Hillary Wolf, actress and Judo expert who to took part in the 96 Olympics. Ironic, that in Home Alone it was her brother (Mcauley Culkin) who got to beat up the bad guys