The text covers various events, including the first SAT exam (1926), Lorena Bobbit cutting off her husband’s penis (1993), the first attempt to go around the world in a single-engine plane (1931), the birth of the International Olympic Committee (1894), the patent for the typewriter (1868), the registration of the Mercedes brand (1902), John Gotti’s conviction (1992), the conviction of a New Zealand killer without finding the victim’s body (1934), the first victims of the Auschwitz gas chamber (1942), President Nixon’s Watergate scandal (1972), the death of polio vaccine inventor Dr. Jonas Salk (1995), the death of Ed McMahon (2009), the birth of June Carter Cash (1929), and the birth of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas (1948).
Students took the first SAT exam in the United States. (1926) The College Board, founded in 1900 as the College Entrance Examination Board (CEEB), administered the first test. The SAT exam has become a standard requirement for most US universities.
Lorena Bobbit cut off her husband’s penis. (1993) Lorena cut off her husband John’s penis with a knife after he allegedly raped her. During her trial, she cited years of emotional and physical abuse. She was found not guilty by reason of insanity and sentenced to 45 days of observation in a psychiatric hospital. The couple divorced in 1995. The penis, which had been encased in ice after being retrieved from a field, was stitched back together in a nine-hour surgery.
Two airmen took off in the first attempt to go around the world in a single-engine plane. (1931) Pilot Wiley Post and navigator Harold Gatty set the record just eight days later when they landed again at New York’s Roosevelt Field, where they had departed on July 1. The journey, 15,474 miles (24,902 kilometers), took a total of eight days, 15 hours and 51 minutes. Wiley later became the first pilot to solo around the world, breaking the record he and Gatty had originally set.
The International Olympic Committee is born. (1894) Founded at the Sorbonne in Paris, the committee organized the first Summer Games in 1896 in Athens, Greece with 245 competitors, most of them Greeks. With 14 countries participating, it was the largest event of its kind. The first Winter Games were held in 1924 in Chamonix, France. The committee continues to organize the modern games today.
Christopher Latham Sholes has obtained the patent for his invention: the “Type-Writer”. (1868) His typewriter included the QWERTY keyboard format still used today. Others had invented typewriters, but Sholes invented the only one that became a commercial success.
Mercedes has become a brand. (1902) The German automobile company Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG) registered the name. The Mercedes three-pointed star symbol was registered as a trademark in 1909.
American mobster John Gotti has ended up in prison. (1992) Often nicknamed Teflon Don for escaping conviction in several previous trials, Gotti was convicted on 14 counts of conspiracy to murder and racketeering. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. After his conviction, rioting broke out in the streets outside the courtroom.
Prosecutors convicted a New Zealand killer without finding the victim’s body. (1934) With forensic science making great strides, murderer William Bayly was convicted on the basis of hair and bone fragments found cremated in a drum in his shed. He was hanged in July.
The first victims of the Auschwitz gas chamber boarded a train in Paris. (1942) Auschwitz was the largest of the concentration camps, with an estimated three million victims during World War II.
President Richard Nixon was recorded attempting to cover up the Watergate raid. (1972) The Watergate scandal would eventually lead to President Nixon’s resignation and the conviction of many of his staff.
The doctor who invented the polio vaccine has died. (1995) Medical researcher Dr. Jonas Salk developed the vaccine in some of the largest field trials in medical history, involving 20,000 health care workers, 64,000 school employees, 220,000 volunteers and over 1,800,000 children. The vaccine was announced as a success on April 12, 1955. The doctor died at the age of 80.
Ed McMahon is dead. (2009) Mahon, perhaps most famous for the 30 years he performed as a side kick on the American television talk show The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. McMahon was 86 years old.
June Carter Cash is born. (1929) The famed second wife of American singer Johnny Cash, June was herself a songwriter and won numerous awards, including a 1999 Grammy Award for her album Press On.
Clarence Thomas, Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, is born. (1948) Thomas was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1991 and is the second black justice to serve.
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