A Lemhi Shoshone woman, who accompanied the Lewis and Clark Expedition, acting as an interpreter and guide, in their exploration of the Western United States between 1804 and 1806. She either died in 1812 (historical research) or 1884 (oral tradition). Since 2000, there has been a golden dollar coin minted each year with her image (it’s almost like real money).
Note: Today is Native American Heritage Day, a civil holiday observed on the day after Thanksgiving in the U.S.
A celebrated 19th-century American folk hero, frontiersman, soldier and politician who was born on this day in 1786. He is commonly referred to in popular culture by the epithet “King of the Wild Frontier.” He represented Tennessee in the U.S. House of Representatives, served in the Texas Revolution and died at the Battle of the Alamo in 1836.
A noted American aviation pioneer. Born on this day in 1897, she was the first woman to receive the U.S. Distinguished Flying Cross, awarded for becoming the first aviatrix to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean on July 2, 1937 while attempting an around-the-world flight.
An American aviator and former NASA astronaut best known as the first person to set foot on the Moon. The first Moon walk occurred exactly 42 years ago today. Armstrong served as commander of the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing mission, which fulfilled U.S. President John F. Kennedy’s goal of reaching the Moon before the Soviet Union by the end of the 1960s.
