2000 – Last Peanuts Comic
On the day after Charles M. Schultz died the comic strip “Peanuts” appeared in newspapers for the last time. The characters of “Peanuts” included Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus, Peppermint Patty, Snoopy, Woodstock, and others.
1931 – U.S.A. Train Crash
An attempt was made today to derail train no. 18, a train southbound between Dallas and Houston. This incident took place around midnight near the old Chambers Creek. As soon as the train engineer suspected trouble on this line, that engineer signaled a porter for help. The porter had notices two rails missing from the track, and two more that were loose. The removal of the train rails had taken about 40 minutes. Personnel from the Navarro county sheriff’s department railroad detectives arrived on the scene as soon as possible. The tools used for this act of vandalism were believed to be stolen from a nearby Cotton Belt tool house.
1958 – U.S.A. T-Bird
A four-passenger Thunderbird was made by the Ford Company, and it was introduced on this day in 1958 This new version was called the “Square Bird”, and was considered to be a model of car that turned the Thunderbird from a sports car into a luxury car. This version of the Thunderbird is often even today referred to as the T-Bird. It is known as the epitome of 1950s culture, and has appeared in movies such as Grease and in music videos (i.e. Beach Boys “I Get Around”).
1991 – Huckleberry Finn
This was the day that the original manuscript of Huckleberry Finn by Mark was recovered. It was a handwritten script of the first half of the original draft of this book, which included Twains own handwritten corrections. This manuscript had been missing for over a hundred years. It was found by a 62-year old librarian from Los Angeles, who finally sorted through old papers sent to her from upstate New York. Mark Twain had sent the second half of the manuscript to this librarian’s grandfather, James Gluck. Gluck had solicited this manuscript in Buffalo, New York where Mark Twain had lived at one time. Mark Twain could not find the first half of his manuscript, even while he was alive. However, he did find it and sent it to Gluck. Court proceedings had taken place to decide who owned the rights to the lost Huckleberry Finn manuscript (the first half). The sisters, the library, and the Mark Twain Papers Projects in Berkeley, California all fought for rights of this book. After a fairly lengthy battle, the three different groups mentioned above came to a consensus, and made a deal. The library would be awarded the rights to the physical papers, and all three parties would share in publication rights. Then, in 1995, Random House won the rights to publish the book. They were said to have paid a high price for these rights, however, and the amount they were said to have paid was not disclosed to the public.
2011 – Italian Women Protest Prime Minister
Female protesters took to the streets in over sixty cities across Italy as a reaction to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s sex scandals. Protesters demonstrated against what they said was demeaning behavior against women.
2014 – Belgium Extends Euthanasia
The parliament of Belgium voted 86 to 44 to extend euthanasia rights by getting rid of any age limit for terminally ill children. If the King of Belgium signs the bill, which is likely, then Belgium would become the first country in the world to remove all age limits on euthanasia. There were still rules in place before euthanasia for children could be carried out.
