JUNE 15 ^TH

1667: The first human blood transfusion is performed. Jean-Baptiste Denys, a French physician, transfused sheep’s blood into a 15-year-old boy who had been bled with leeches. The boy survived, and Denys continued his experiments, but two of his other patients died from the transfusions. He was tried for murder, acquitted, and quit practicing medicine.

1752: Benjamin Franklin proves that lightning is electricity. Franklin performed his famous experiment in Philadelphia. He flew a kite in an electrical storm, using a wet string made of hemp to conduct the electricity to a house key attached to its end. The hemp string was connected to a dry silk string that Franklin’s son William held. The silk string was intended to insulate him from any electricity that the kite might pick up in the storm. While popular culture often depicts the experiment with the kite being struck by lightning, this did not in fact happen. The string picked up electricity from the charged air of the storm, and the loose threads of the hemp string stood up. Franklin moved his hand near the key and saw an electric spark, proving the lightning storm was conducting electricity. He wrote an article describing the experiment in the Pennsylvania Gazette that October. His experiments led him to invent the lightning rod, which are still used to protect buildings from lightning storms.

1775: George Washington is appointed the commander of the Continental army. Washington’s military experience in the French and Indian wAr, prestige among Virginians, and credentials as a dedicated Patriot made him an ideal candidate in the eyes of the Continental Congress. Washington recruited Baron von Steuben to train the new Army and established an officer corps that included Nathaniel green, Daniel Morgan, and Henry Knox. After eight years of fighting, the colonists won their independence with the signing of the treaty of Paris in 1783.

1864: Arlington National Cemetery is established. The cemetery was created on land around Arlington Mansion, which had formerly belonged to Confederate general Robert E. Lee that was confiscated during the Civil War. Originally built for Civil war dead, it became the final resting place of many of the soldiers who fought in America’s wars.

1919: Great Smoky Mountain National Park is dedicated. The Park consists of 800 square miles of public land, and has a greater diversity of trees than all of the forests of Europe combined. The U.S. government acquired much of the land from logging and pulpwood companies.

JUNE 16 ^TH

1858: Abraham Lincoln delivers his “House Divided” speech. Upon accepting the Republican Party’s nomination for U.S. Senate, Lincoln delivered the speech in which he declared that a “house divided against itself cannot stand.” He said that the United States could not continue to exist with half of the Union as slave-owning states and half as free states. The speech was designed to distinguish Lincoln’s position from that of Stephen A. Douglas, his Democrat opponent. The two met debated one another in seven debates around the state of Illinois, which primarily discussed the issue of slavery. Lincoln lost the election and published edited texts of the debates in a book, which raised his national profile and established him as a moderate regarding the issue of slavery.

1884: The Switchback Railway opens at New York’s Coney Island. It was the first roller coaster deigned as an amusement park ride in America. Riders paid five cents to board a rail car with a singe long bench that was then released on a track from a 600-foot tower to coast over rolling tracks at about 6 mph.

1909: Glenn Curtis sells his first airplane. Curtiss was the main competitor of the Wright Brothers in developing new aviation technology. He founded the first commercial aviation company in the United States in 1907, and sold his first airplane for $5,000.

1933: The Federal deposit Insurance Corporation is created. The FDIC was created by the U.S. congress following the stock market crash of 1929 and ensuing bank runs that led to the Great depression. The Corporation guarantees Americans’ principal deposits in banks against market crashes up to $1000,000.

JUNE 17 ^th

1885: The Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbor. The Statue was sent from France aboard the ship Isere as a gift to the people of America. Its head is ten feet wide, and the elevated arm, which carries the torch, is 42 feet long. The Statue was the tallest structure in New York City until 1899.

1901: The first standardized test is introduced. The College Board administered the test, which was named the Scholastic Aptitude Test, or SAT, in 1926.

JUNE 18 ^TH

1923: The first Checker Taxi goes into service. The cab company began service in Chicago, Illinois, where multiple railroads had terminals. Its iconic Checker A series sedans that operated between 1959—1982 became the most widely-recognized taxis in America.

1960: Arnold Palmer wins the U.S. Open golf tournament. In one of the greatest comebacks in the history of golf, Palmer was down by seven strokes entering the final round of the Open. He overcame the deficit and won the tournament with a score of 65, two strokes ahead of the second-place finisher