This Day in History – June 17
1837 – Charles Goodyear obtains his 1st rubber patent.
1863 – Travelers Insurance Co of Hartford chartered (1st accident insurer)
1885 – Stature of Liberty arrived in NYC aboard French ship ‘Isere’.
1898 – The United States Navy Hospital Corps is established.
1928 – Amelia Earhart leaves Newfoundland to become 1st woman (passenger) to fly Atlantic (as a passenger in a plane piloted by Wilmer Stultz).
1932 – Bonus Army: around a thousand World War I veterans amass at the United States Capitol as the US Senate considers a bill
that would give them certain benefits.
1946 – SW Bell inaugurates mobile telephone commercial service, St. Louis.
1947 – Pan Am Airways chartered as 1st worldwide passenger airline.
1950 – 1st kidney transplant (Chicago).
1953 – US Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas stays executions of spies Julius & Ethel Rosenberg scheduled for next day their 14th anniversary.
1954 – Rocky Marciano beats Ezzard Charles in15 for heavyweight boxing title.
1957 – “So Rare” by Jimmy Dorsey peaks at #2.
1960 – Ted Williams hit his 500th HR.
1963 – Supreme Court rules against Bible reading/prayer in public schools.
1965 – 1st bombing by B-52 (50 km north of Saigon).
1969 – “Oh! Calcutta!” opens in NYC (almost entirely in the nude).
1982 – US President Reagan’s 1st UN General Assembly address “We must serve mankind through genuine disarmament.”
1991 – Country entertainer Minnie Pearl suffers a stroke at 78.
1994 – O.J. Simpson doesn’t turn himself in on murder charges, LA cops chase his Ford Bronco for 1 1/2 hours, eventually gives up (seen live on TV).
2008 – First day of legal same-sex marriage in California.
2015 – US Treasury announced that the image of Alexander Hamilton will be replaced from the US $10 bill by an image of a woman.