Blue Ribbon Babies, Harrison Race Riot, Charlie Brown Debut: MySaline’s Daily History October 2

See the archive of MySaline’s Daily History issues at www.mysaline.com/history.

Saline County, Arkansas

1931 — The Saline County Fair opens in Benton. The fair opened on October 2 and featured a baby clinic where about 40 babies were examined, with 11 receiving blue ribbons. Myrtle Westbrooks was crowned fair queen, and Congressman D. D. Glover spoke about the cotton situation.

See below for history from Arkansas, United States and the World.

Arkansas

1905 — The Harrison Race Riot begins. A white mob stormed the Harrison jail and seized two Black prisoners. The violence then spread into the city’s Black community, where homes were burned, windows were shot out and Black residents were ordered to leave town. The violence and its aftermath contributed to the near disappearance of Harrison’s Black community during the following years.

1919 — Federal troops arrive in Elaine during the Elaine Massacre. More than 500 U.S. soldiers from Camp Pike near Little Rock arrived in Elaine on October 2 after Governor Charles Brough requested federal assistance. The arrival brought the immediate phase of the armed conflict to an end, but hundreds of Black residents were detained and the violence had already claimed numerous lives.

United States

1780 — British intelligence officer Major John André is executed as a spy. André was captured while returning to British lines after meeting American general Benedict Arnold, who had secretly offered to surrender West Point to the British. Papers concerning the plot were found hidden in André’s clothing, and he was hanged on October 2 in Tappan, New York.

1919 — President Woodrow Wilson suffers a major stroke. Wilson suffered a severe stroke while serving as president, leaving him seriously disabled. His condition was largely concealed from the public, and his wife, Edith Wilson, took on an unusually influential role in managing access to him and the work of the executive branch.

1950 — “Peanuts” makes its newspaper debut. Charles M. Schulz’s comic strip first appeared in seven newspapers on October 2, introducing readers to Charlie Brown and beginning one of the most successful comic-strip runs in American history.

1967 — Thurgood Marshall is sworn in as a U.S. Supreme Court justice. Marshall became the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court. Before his appointment, he had been a prominent civil-rights attorney and had successfully argued the landmark school-desegregation case Brown v. Board of Education.

1970 — A plane carrying members of the Wichita State University football team crashes in Colorado. The aircraft went down near Silver Plume, Colorado, killing 31 of the 40 people aboard. The tragedy became one of the darkest events in Wichita State’s history.

World

1869 — Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is born in Porbandar, India. Gandhi became a central leader of India’s independence movement and internationally known for his advocacy of nonviolent resistance. His birthday, October 2, is observed as Gandhi Jayanti in India and is also recognized by the United Nations as the International Day of Non-Violence.

1944 — The Warsaw Uprising ends. After approximately two months of fighting against German occupation forces, Polish resistance leaders in Warsaw surrendered on October 2. The uprising caused enormous casualties, and German forces subsequently destroyed much of the city.

1958 — Guinea becomes independent from France. Guinea declared independence on October 2 after rejecting membership in the French Community proposed by French President Charles de Gaulle. Ahmed Sékou Touré became the country’s first president.

1968 — The Tlatelolco massacre occurs in Mexico City. Mexican security forces opened fire on demonstrators gathered at the Plaza de las Tres Culturas in the Tlatelolco district. The violence occurred just days before Mexico City was scheduled to host the 1968 Summer Olympics, and the number of people killed remains disputed.

1990 — A deadly aircraft hijacking ends at Guangzhou’s Baiyun Airport in China. Xiamen Airlines Flight 8301 was hijacked and crashed during an attempted landing at Guangzhou, colliding with two other aircraft. The disaster killed 128 people.

See the archive of MySaline’s Daily History issues at www.mysaline.com/history.