a collection of "this day in history"

February 2, 1880
First electric streetlight installed
The first electric streetlight was installed in Wabash, Indiana. The city paid the Brush Electric Light Company of Cleveland, Ohio, $100 to install a light on the top of the courthouse. A month later the city commissioned four more lights to be installed. Residents of Wabash became the first Americans to wear their sunglasses at night.
February 1, 1898
First auto insurance policy is issued
The Travelers Insurance Company of Hartford, Connecticut, extended coverage to an automobile owner, making them the first company to issue an automobile insurance policy to an individual. Dr. Truman J. Martin of Buffalo, New York, paid a premium of $11.25 for the policy that covered $5,000 to $10,000 of liability. In 1925, Massachusetts became the first state to mandate automobile insurance, "requiring owners of certain motor vehicles and trailers to furnish security for their civil liabilities." Today, auto insurance is a fact of life for American drivers as nearly every state requires some insurance for the operator of a motor vehicle. In a country where the driver's license serves as the primary form of identification, the challenge of selecting a coverage policy and paying the car insurance premium has become a rite of passage for many young Americans.
February 1, 1893
First movie studio built
On this day in 1893, Thomas Alva Edison finishes the first movie studio on his property in West Orange, N.J. The studio, a frame cabin covered with black roofing paper, was built on a pivot so it could be turned to face the sunlight throughout the day. Edison spent $638 building the studio, which he called a "revolving photographic building."
January 29, 1886
Benz gets patent
Karl Benz received a patent for his "Motorwagen" on this day. The Motorwagen, a three-wheeled automobile powered by an internal-combustion engine, was the first practical internal-combustion vehicle ever constructed. It made its first test run in early 1885. Benz completed his first four-wheeled motorcar in 1893, and went on to build many successful racing cars. In 1926, his company, Benz and Co., merged with Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft to form Daimler-Benz, an industry giant that has remained a formidable auto maker to the present day.
January 24, 1860
New engine runs on fire, not water
French inventor Etienne Lenoir was issued a patent for the first successful internal-combustion engine. Lenoir's engine was a converted steam engine that burned a mixture of coal gas and air. Its two-stroke action was simple but reliable--many of Lenoir's engines were still working after 20 years of use. His first engines powered simple machines like pumps and bellows. However, in 1862, Lenoir built his first automobile powered by an internal-combustion engine--a vehicle capable of making a six-mile trip in two to three hours. It wasn't a practical vehicle, but it was the beginning of the automobile industry.
January 23, 1849
First woman M.D.
Elizabeth Blackwell is granted a medical degree from Geneva College in New York, becoming the first female to be officially recognized as a physician in U.S. history.
Blackwell, born in Bristol, England, came to the United States in her youth and attended the medical faculty of Geneva College, now known as Hobart College. In 1849, she graduated with the highest grades in her class and was granted an M.D. In 1857, after several years of private practice, she founded the New York Infirmary for Women and Children with her sister, Emily Blackwell, also a doctor. In 1868, the institution was expanded to include a women's college for the training of nurses and doctors, the first of its kind in America. The next year, Blackwell returned to England, where in 1875 she became professor of gynecology at the London School of Medicine for Women, a medical discipline she had helped to establish.
January 20, 1870
First female brokerage firm opens
In 1870, Victoria Woodhull and her sister Tennessee Claflin opened the doors of Woodhull, Claflin & Co., the nation's first brokerage firm run solely by women. The firm, which represented an early victory for equal rights in the often-chauvinistic world of Wall Street, was in part a product of the sisters' friendship with rail baron Cornelius Vanderbilt. All three were fiercely interested in spirituality--as children, Tennessee and Victoria performed psychic demonstrations in a traveling medicine show--and Vanderbilt willingly used his money and influence to help the sisters. The firm proved to be a success, but Victoria and Tennessee's achievements were hardly restricted to Wall Street. In 1870, the sisters established a publication, Woodhull and Claflin's Weekly, which became a pulpit for their ardent beliefs in free love and women's suffrage and also served as the first venue for the English translation of the Communist Manifesto. Though her rejection of the tenets of conventional marriage raised the ire of some suffragettes, Victoria became a leading light in the women's rights movement. In 1872, the Equal Rights Party, a dissident branch of the National Woman Suffrage Association, even nominated Woodhull as their candidate for the president of the nation. Despite her stated aversion to the principles of marriage, Victoria wedded several times; later in life she headed to England and married an affluent British merchant, as did her sister. Tennessee died in 1923, while Victoria passed away a few years later, in 1927.
In 1866, Charles Elmer Hires invented root beer.
Throughout the 1870s and 1880s, the city of government of Cincinnati was known for corruption. Politicians liberally utilized the spoils system, appointing family members, friends, and supporters to city offices. Jury tampering also was purportedly rampant. In March 1884, William Berner was tried for the murder of his employer. The jury found Berner guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter. Many city residents were outraged, believing that jury tampering had taken place to assure Berner a lighter sentence. In protest of the reduced sentence, prominent Cincinnati residents organized a protest meeting. The meeting quickly evolved into a riot. Locals were infuriated with the political corruption and jury tampering occurring in their city. The rioters, who eventually numbered more than ten thousand people, marched on the courthouse and set it on fire, completely destroying the structure. The building, constructed in 1853, had served as the Hamilton County courthouse for more than thirty years. The riot lasted for three days. It took Ohio National Guard soldiers, some of whom were armed with Gatling guns, to quell the disturbance. Approximately fifty residents died in the riot, and another two hundred were injured. (Image Details -- Interior view of the Court of Common Pleas in the Hamilton County Courthouse after it was damaged by fire, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1884. The fire was started during a riot sparked by public outrage over the outcome of a murder trial.)
January 14, 1875 -- Debate continues over greenbacks -- By 1875, the United States was involved in a roiling debate over greenbacks, the paper currency issued during the Civil War. So-called "soft money" supporters had taken up the cause of the greenback and successfully pushed for the paper notes to stay in circulation following the close of the war. However, "hard money" forces in the House fired back, and on January 14, they engineered the passage of the Specie Resumption Act, a legislative salvo against paper currency. The bill directed the Treasury to begin exchanging legal tender for gold on January 1, 1879; it also mandated that the number of greenbacks in circulation be trimmed down to $300 million. Treasury Secretary John Sherman stocked up on gold and, by the dawn of 1879, the specie exchange program was up and running. But, at the same time, greenbacks had become just as valuable as gold on the exchange market; the public was reluctant to swap their paper currency for coinage and the exchange program turned out to be a flop.
The Chattanooga Police Department in 1884. In the front row, left to right, were French Lawson, First Lieutenant and Assistant Chief W. P. “Dock” Mitchell (a future chief), Chief of Police James A. Allen, Second Lieutenant and Assistant Chief J. P. Kilgore (a future chief), Tom Russell, and “Dasher” Bates. Left to right in the second row were John Shelow, Tom J. Howard, Caleb Smith, Frank Duncan, W. F. Springer, John Usery, and Jenkins. The back row from left to right were an unidentified officer, John Hall, John Hankins, Cicero Rape, and Abe Litz. Uniforms were double breasted with brass buttons and a plain pinched shield breast badge. The wide brim hats had no insignia. Chief of Police James Allen was the first to hold the title Chief of Police. He was appointed to the position on April 13, 1883, and served for twelve years. Allen had previously served as a lieutenant on the force.
In 1958, a hydrogen bomb known as the Tybee Bomb was lost by the US Air Force off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, never to be recovered.