Community Corner

The First President To Fly; A President Gets A Promotion 200 Years Later; First Woman To Walk In Space

A look at October 11 through the foggy lens of history.

1906 -  San Francisco public school board sparks United States diplomatic crisis with Japan by ordering Japanese students to be taught in racially segregated schools.

1910 - Former President Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first U.S. president to fly in an airplane. He flew for four minutes with Arch Hoxseyin a plane built by the Wright Brothers at Kinloch Field (Lambert-St. Louis International Airport), St. Louis, Missouri.

1950 - Television: CBS's mechanical color system is the first to be licensed for broadcast by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.

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1968 - Apollo programNASA launches Apollo 7, the first successful manned Apollo mission, with astronauts Wally SchirraDonn F. Eiseleand Walter Cunningham aboard.

1972 -  A race riot occurs on the United States Navy aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk off the coast of Vietnam during Operation Linebacker.

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1975 - The NBC sketch comedy/variety show Saturday Night Live debuts with George Carlin as the host and Andy KaufmanJanis Ian andBilly Preston as guests.

1976 - George Washington's appointment, posthumously, to the grade of General of the Armies of the United States by congressional joint resolution Public Law 94-479 is approved by President Gerald R. Ford.

1984 - Aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan becomes the first American woman to perform a space walk.

1986 - Cold WarU.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet in ReykjavíkIceland, in an effort to continue discussions about scaling back their intermediate missile arsenals in Europe.

2001 - The Polaroid Corporation files for federal bankruptcy protection.


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