Day 45. This Day

When I woke up this morning I thought, well, it’s just another day.  Then my curiosity got the better of me; and I wondered if anything notable had ever happened on  September 20.  At any time in history.  Both good and bad.  Google to the rescue.

From Historyorb.com, where their info goes back to 368,  I learned that  on this day in 1519, Magellan began his first successful circumnavigation of the world.  Also, in 1664 Maryland passed it’s first anti-amalgamation law to stop the intermarriage of English women and black men.  Sadly, almost 350 years later, there are still many states where mixed marriage continues to be an unpopular idea; and now, of course, the real hullabaloo is over gay marriage.

In 1830, the 1st Negro Convention of Free Men agreed to boycott slave-produced goods.  In 1859 George Simpson patented the first electric range.  Do you think that’s when they coined the phrase, “Now you’re cooking?”  And on September 20, 1873 panic swept the NY Stock Exchange because of a railroad bond default/bank failure; and, in fact, New York banks were closed down for 10 days due to a bank scandal (guess we haven’t learned our lesson yet).

But what’s most interesting is that, in 1884 the Equal Rights Party nominated the first female candidates for President and VP.  So I guess Hilary Clinton isn’t such a groundbreaker, after all.

Babe Ruth tied Ned Williamson’s major league record of 27 home runs in 1919.  Ghandi began his hunger strike against the treatment of ‘untouchables’ in 1932;  and the first Cannes Film Festival was held in 1946.