Jody Victor : What happened on this day June first, in history? Read on to find out.
1638 - An earthquake was reported in the unlikely locale of Plymouth, MA.
1792 - Kentucky entered the United States of America as the 15th state. Since its name is an American Indian word for "great meadow," it is fitting that Kentucky's nickname is the Bluegrass State, and its flower is the goldenrod. The official state bird is the cardinal. The capital of Kentucky is the city of Frankfort.
1796 - Tennessee joined the United States of America on this day. Long before it officially became the 16th state, Tennessee had already begun to earn its nickname, the Volunteer State, as it sent large numbers of volunteers to fight in the American Revolution. The tradition continued for the War of 1812, the Mexican War and the Civil War. The country-music capital of the world, Nashville, is also the governmental capital of Tennessee. The state's official flower is the iris, its bird, the mockingbird.
1831 - Sir James Clark Ross, an English navigator and explorer, discovered the magnetic North Pole while on his Arctic exploration.
1869 - Thomas Edison of Boston, MA received a patent for his electric voting machine. Ol' Tom would soon have a filing cabinet full of patents.
1911 - The folks in Bradford and Leeds in Great Britain didn't need wheelbarrows to get around...they were the first in England to have trolleys. The trolleys started running on this day.
1925 - Lou Gehrig of the New York Yankees played the first of what would become 2,130 consecutive baseball games (Gehrig played in every Yankee game until May 2, 1939), setting a major-league record not to be broken until Cal Ripken, Jr. of Baltimore did so in the summer of 1995. Gehrig wasn't even a starter on this day. He was inserted in the lineup for Wally Pipp.
1936 - The Lux Radio Theater moved from new York City to Hollywood. Cecil B. DeMille, the program's host on the NBC Blue network, introduced Clark Gable and Marlene Dietrich in The Legionnaire and the Lady.
1949 - Microfilm copies of Newsweek magazine were offered to subscribers for the first time. The weekly publication cost $15 a year.
1953 - The Mask of Medusa, on ABC-TV's Twilight Theater, featured the network-TV acting debut of Raymond Burr. He later became the star of Perry Mason and Ironside.
1957 - The first American to break the four-minute mile was Don Bowden, who was timed at 4minutes, 58.7 seconds.
1959 - Celebrating a solid year at the top of the album charts was Johnny's Greatest Hits on Columbia Records. The LP stayed for several more years at or near the top of the album charts. It became the all-time album leader at 490 weeks.
1961 - There was a new sound in the air this day. FM multiplex stereo broadcasting was enjoyed for the first time by listeners to FM radio in Schenectady, NY, Los Angeles and Chicago. The FCC adopted the standard a year later.
1967 - The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was released. One of the first critically-acclaimed rock albums, Sgt. Pepper's became the number one album in the world and was at the top of the U.S. album list for 15 weeks.
1975 - Nolan Ryan of the California Angels tied the no-hit record in major-league baseball. A future Hall of Famer, Ryan tossed his fourth career no-hitter with a 1-0 win over the Baltimore Orioles.
1987 - Knuckleballer Phil Niekro won game number 314 by leading the Cleveland Indians to a 9-6 win over the Detroit Tigers. The victory also brought Phil and his brother, Joe, to a total of 531 career wins, breaking the record set by the Perry brothers.
1991 - Former Temptations lead singer David Ruffin died in Philadelphia of a cocaine overdose at age 50. He was the lead singer on such Temptation hits as My Girl (1965) and Ain't Too Proud to Beg (1966). Ruffin had hits on his own with My Whole World Ended (The Moment You Left Me) (1969) and Walk Away from Love (1976).