Perhaps one of these details would work in a speech you’re writing this week:
1854: In Ripon, Wisconsin, antislavery leaders and members of the crumbling Whig party met to talk about forming a new political party … with the proposed name Republican. (Only seven years later, the first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, moved into the White House.)
1905: The Rotary Club was organized in Chicago.
1913: The Income Tax Amendment to the Constitution went into effect.
1919: The state of Oregon instituted a new government charge … the first tax on gasoline.
1927: The Federal Radio Commission was set up (later to become the Federal Communications Commission).
1945: The famous photograph of the U.S. Marines raising the flag at Iwo Jima was taken.
1949: A B-50 airplane (Lucky Lady II) took off from Carswell Air Force Base in Texas. Four midair refuelings later, it succeeded in flying nonstop around the world.
1954: The experimental Salk polio vaccine was first administered to children in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
1961: U.S. automobile manufacturers announced that car seats would become standard on all cars, starting with 1962 models.
1968: The President’s National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders was established.
1972: President Richard M. Nixon completed his historic visit to the People’s Republic of China.
1980: Israel and Egypt established diplomatic relations.