TODAY IN HISTORY 1754 - A 22-year-old Lieutenant Colonel of the Virginia militia named George Washington successfully defeated a party of French and Indian scouts in southwest Pennsylvania as Virginia attempted to lay claim to the territory for its own settlers. The action snowballed into war (referred to as the Seven Years’ War), and began the military career of the first American commander in chief. 1863 - The 54th Massachusetts Infantry, the most famous African-American regiment of the Civil War, left Boston for combat in the South led by Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, a veteran of the 2nd Massachusetts infantry who saw action in the 1862 Shenandoah Valley and Antietam campaigns. The story of Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts was immortalized in the critically acclaimed 1990 movie Glory, starring Mathew Broderick, Denzell Washington, and Morgan Freeman. 1937 - The government of Germany--then under the control of Adolf Hitler of the National Socialist (Nazi) Party--formed a new state-owned automobile company, then known as Gesellschaft zur Vorbereitung des Deutschen Volkswagens mbH. Later that year, it was renamed simply Volkswagenwerk, or The Peoples Car Company. 1957 - National League owners voted unanimously to allow the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers to move to San Francisco and Los Angeles, respectively, at the mid-season owner’s meeting. The decision had conditions. First, either both teams had to move or neither could, which meant that if one team reconsidered, the other would have to change their plans as well. Second, both teams had to announce their plans before October 1, 1957. In the end, both teams did move: West Coast baseball fans were overjoyed, and the people of New York City were heartbroken.
Posted on: Wed, 28 May 2014 22:30:01 +0000
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