In 1752, The first American hospital opened in Philadelphia.
In 1812, the Massachusetts legislature, acting at the behest of Gov. Elbridge Gerry, passed a redistricting law favorable to Gerr's party, an action that resulted in the coining of the term "gerrymandering."
In 1847, inventor Thomas Alva Edison was born in Milan, Ohio.
In 1858, a French girl, Bernadette Soubirous, claimed for the first time to have seen a vision of the Virgin Mary near Lourdes.
-- part contents for background part 16
----- text -----
Movie director Joseph L. Mankiewicz ("All about Eve") (1909)
Actress Eva Gabor (1921)
Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, [D-Texas] (1921)
Actor Burt Reynolds (1936)
Musician Sergio Mendes (1941)
-- part contents for background part 17
----- text -----
"In the intellectual order, the virtue of humility is nothing more nor less than the power of attiention."