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September 29, 1888
Mercedes-Benz, U.S.A.
Daimler cars managed to make it to New York long before other imports, thanks to William Steinway. Steinway, a car enthusiast, concluded licensing negotiations with Gottlieb Daimler on this day, gaining permission to manufacture Daimler cars in the U.S. He founded the "Daimler Motor Company" and began producing Daimler engines, as well as importing Daimler boats, trucks, and other equipment to the North American market. Still, the U.S. was just a small portion of Daimler's market, and when he introduced a new line in 1901, he christened it Mercedes because he feared the German-sounding Daimler would not sell well in France.


September 30, 1889
Wyoming legislators write the first state constitution to grant women the vote
On this day in 1889, the Wyoming state convention approves a constitution that includes a provision granting women the right to vote. Formally admitted into the union the following year, Wyoming thus became the first state in the history of the nation to allow its female citizens to vote.
That the isolated western state of Wyoming should be the first to accept women's suffrage was a surprise. Leading suffragists like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were Easterners, and they assumed that their own more progressive home states would be among the first to respond to the campaign for women's suffrage. Yet the people and politicians of the growing number of new Western states proved far more supportive than those in the East.
In 1848, the legislature in Washington Territory became the first to introduce a women's suffrage bill. Though the Washington bill was narrowly defeated, similar legislation succeeded elsewhere, and Wyoming Territory was the first to give women the vote in 1869, quickly followed by Utah Territory (1870) and Washington Territory (1883). As with Wyoming, when these territories became states they preserved women's suffrage.
By 1914, the contrast between East and West had become striking. All of the states west of the Rockies had women's suffrage, while no state did east of the Rockies, except Kansas. Why the regional distinction? Some historians suggest western men may have been rewarding pioneer women for their critical role in settling the West. Others argue the West had a more egalitarian spirit, or that the scarcity of women in some western regions made men more appreciative of the women who were there while hoping the vote might attract more.
Whatever the reasons, while the Old West is usually thought of as a man's world, a wild land that was "no place for a woman," Westerners proved far more willing than other Americans to create states where women were welcomed as full and equal citizens.

October 4, 1861
Lincoln watches a balloon ascension
President Abraham Lincoln observes a balloon demonstration near Washington, D.C. Both Confederate and Union armies experimented with using balloons to gather military intelligence in the early stages of the war, but the balloons proved to be dangerous and impractical for most situations.
Though balloons were not new, many felt that their military applications had yet to be realized. Even before the firing on Fort Sumter in April 1861, several firms approached the U.S. War Department concerning contracts for balloons. The primary figure in the Union's experiment with balloons was Thaddeus S. C. Lowe, an inventor who had been experimenting with hydrogen balloons for three years before the war. He built a large craft and intended to make a transatlantic crossing, but his tests were failures. In April 1861, he conducted trials around Cincinnati, Ohio, with the support of the Smithsonian Institute. On April 19, he sailed 900 miles in nine hours, floating all the way to Unionville, South Carolina. He was jailed twice by Confederates who were convinced he was a Union spy.
Lowe became the chief of army aeronautics after the First Battle of Bull Run, and he served effectively during the Peninsular campaign of 1862. With the view provided from his balloon, he discovered that the Confederates had evacuated Yorktown and he provided important intelligence during the Battle of Fair Oaks.
Lowe enjoyed a good working relationship with George McClellan, commander of the Army of the Potomac, but experienced difficulty with McClellan's successors, Generals Ambrose Burnside and Joseph Hooker, who were not convinced that balloon observations provided accurate information. Lowe became increasingly frustrated with the army, particularly after his pay was cut by 40 percent in 1863. Feeling that army commanders did not take his service seriously, Lowe resigned just after the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863. The Balloon Corps was disbanded three months later, and the U.S. Army did not use them again until 1892.

October 5, 1892
The Dalton gang performs their last robbery attempt
The Dalton gang attempts to rob two banks simultaneously in Coffeyville, Kansas, but meets resistance from townspeople, who wind up killing four of the five bandits. Emmett Dalton, the sole survivor, returned to the site of the crime nearly 40 years later and offered a caution to would-be thieves: "The biggest fool on earth is the one who thinks he can beat the law, that crime can be made to pay. It never paid and it never will and that was the one big lesson of the Coffeyville raid."
Grat, Bob, and Emmett Dalton turned to a life of crime when they became bored with their other career possibilities on the Western frontier. They started with cattle rustling and moved on to armed robbery in 1890. Their younger brother, Bill, soon joined their endeavors. On February 6, 1891, Bob, Grat, and Bill tried to rob a Southern Pacific train heading to Los Angeles, California. Despite shooting and wounding a guard, the brothers didn't score any money, and Bill and Grat were captured.
Although Bill managed to escape the charges, Grat received a 20-year sentence. However, he escaped from the train that was taking him to prison, and all the brothers headed back to the Midwest together, where they recruited the best gunmen they could find and began an impressive crime spree. They got $14,000 from a train robbery in Oklahoma and then $19,000 from a bank.
Eugenia Moore, who was engaged to Bob, was in charge of scouting out the best robbery targets for the gang. She was adept at chatting with bankers and railroad workers in order to find out when large sums of money were to be transported. For over a year, the Dalton gang completed a streak of successful robberies that were designed to bring them enough money to retire. However, Eugenia died of cancer, and the gang soon made a huge blunder.
Emmett, Grat, Bob, Dick Broadwell, and Bill Power rode into Coffeyville, Kansas, wearing false beards and carrying rifles. As Grat, Broadwell, and Power walked into the Condon Bank and Bob and Emmett entered the First National Bank, one of town's citizens recognized the Daltons and quickly called the town's men to action. (Some sources report that Moore was still alive when the gang went to Coffeyville; others report that there were in fact six robbers that day, not five, and that Moore was the sixth.)
As the gang was about to make their getaway, a throng of armed townsfolk surprised them. The five thieves shot their way to the alley where their horses were waiting and tried to defend themselves, but they were greatly outnumbered. In the epic gunfight that ensued, all five men were shot, but not before killing a number of the makeshift vigilantes, many of whom had been armed for the fight by a local hardware store. Dick Broadwell made it out of the alley on his horse but died a few miles outside of town.
Emmett Dalton, who had been shot more than 20 times, was the only one that managed to survive. He received a life sentence for the murder of the men who tried to stop him but was released a mere 15 years later. He lived a peaceful and law-abiding life until his death in 1937. In 1894, law enforcement officials shot his younger brother Bill, who was not at the fateful Coffeyville robbery, as he tried to escape deputy marshals who were trying to arrest him.
October 5, 1892
The Dalton Gang is wiped out in Coffeyville, Kansas
On this day in 1892, the famous Dalton Gang attempts the daring daylight robbery of two Coffeyville, Kansas, banks at the same time. But if the gang members believed the sheer audacity of their plan would bring them success, they were sadly mistaken. Instead, they were nearly all killed by quick-acting townspeople.
For a year and a half, the Dalton Gang had terrorized the state of Oklahoma, mostly concentrating on train holdups. Though the gang had more murders than loot to their credit, they had managed to successfully evade the best efforts of Oklahoma law officers to bring them to justice. Perhaps success bred overconfidence, but whatever their reasons, the gang members decided to try their hand at robbing not just one bank, but at robbing the First National and Condon Banks in their old hometown of Coffeyville at the same time.
After riding quietly into town, the men tied their horses to a fence in an alley near the two banks and split up. Two of the Dalton brothers-Bob and Emmett-headed for the First National, while Grat Dalton led Dick Broadwell and Bill Powers in to the Condon Bank. Unfortunately for the Daltons, someone recognized one of the gang members and began quietly spreading the word that the town banks were being robbed. Thus, while Bob and Emmett were stuffing money into a grain sack, the townspeople ran for their guns and quickly surrounded the two banks. When the Dalton brothers walked out of the bank, a hail of bullets forced them back into the building. Regrouping, they tried to flee out the back door of the bank, but the townspeople were waiting for them there as well.
Meanwhile, in the Condon Bank a brave cashier had managed to delay Grat Dalton, Powers, and Broadwell with the classic claim that the vault was on a time lock and couldn't be opened. That gave the townspeople enough time to gather force, and suddenly a bullet smashed through the bank window and hit Broadwell in the arm. Quickly scooping up $1,500 in loose cash, the three men bolted out the door and fled down a back alley. But like their friends next door, they were immediately shot and killed, this time by a local livery stable owner and a barber.
When the gun battle was over, the people of Coffeyville had destroyed the Dalton Gang, killing every member except for Emmett Dalton. But their victory was not without a price: the Dalton's took four townspeople to their graves with them. After recovering from serious wounds, Emmett was tried and sentenced to life in prison. After 14 years he won parole, and he eventually leveraged his cachet as a former Wild West bandit into a position as a screenwriter in Hollywood. Several years after moving to California, he died at the age of 66 in 1937.

1866 : First U.S. train robbery

On this day in 1866, the Reno gang carries out the first robbery of a
moving train in the U.S., making off with over $10,000 from an Ohio &
Mississippi train in Jackson County, Indiana. Prior to this innovation
in crime, holdups had taken place only on trains sitting at stations
or freight yards.

This new method of sticking up moving trains in remote locations low
on law enforcement soon became popular in the American West, where the
recently constructed transcontinental and regional railroads made
attractive targets. With the western economy booming, trains often
carried large stashes of cash and precious minerals. The sparsely
populated landscape provided bandits with numerous isolated areas
perfect for stopping trains, as well as plenty of places to hide from
the law. Some gangs, like Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch, found robbing
trains so easy and lucrative that, for a time, they made it their
criminal specialty. Railroad owners eventually got wise and fought
back, protecting their trains' valuables with large safes, armed
guards and even specially fortified boxcars. Consequently, by the late
1800s, robbing trains had turned into an increasingly tough and
dangerous job.

As for the Reno gang, which consisted of the four Reno brothers and
their associates, their reign came to an end in 1868 when they all
were finally captured after committing a series of train robberies and
other criminal offenses. In December of that year, a mob stormed the
Indiana jail where the bandits were being held and meted out vigilante
justice, hanging brothers Frank, Simeon and William Reno (their
brother John had been caught earlier and was already serving time in a
different prison) and fellow gang member Charlie Anderson.