Keep It Together
The Maundy Monday Newsletter - This Week in History April 8 - 14.
Happy Eclipse Day! It’s as big a day. Just like it was on February 15, 2021. You will remember that day – it was when I invented Okay History. I don’t hold any patents on it because, like the guy who discovered the polio vaccine, I think sharing this with the world is important.
God did not bless me with the ability to create gadgets that would be useful and helpful to my fellow people. Instead, my gift is to give you history lessons twice a week.
Walter Hunt, on the other hand, was born to invent stuff. Stuff that we use regularly.
Hunt was born in 1796 in Martinsburg, New York, which is way north of Albany. He grew up curious about how things worked, which led him to become an inventor, which is not a job that appears on any LinkedIn search today.
In 1826, he traveled to New York City to show off some of his inventions, where he witnessed a horrible accident in which a horse and buggy ran over a child. Hunt immediately invented a foot-operated horn that buggy drivers could use. Running over people went dramatically down.
He would go on to invent or improve numerous devices, including oil lamps, knife sharpeners, and mail-sorting machinery. He supplemented his inventing fun with a side hustle focused on real estate.
Here’s hoping he made better deals when it came to properties. He never got rich off his inventions. He kept selling the patents at low prices to other people, and those people made bank. William Hunt is a lot like me – not very good at negotiating. But many of his inventions are things we use regularly.
One of Hunt's most critical inventions is a small everyday item. You probably have a billion of them scattered all over your house. It is the safety pin, and on April 10, 1849, the patent for it was approved.
Safety pins are awesome. They can be used for many things, like keeping your clothes together and making yourself a fishing hook. When I used to run in races, I would get four safety pins for my bib and then pin it to my shirt. It was never straight, which is probably why I stopped running races—because my bib looked stupid.
Hunt also invented the sewing machine and fountain pen. So, if you use a safety pin this week, remember ole William Hunt. Write it down or sew something. Just have fun.
Okay, let's highlight what else happened this week. As a reminder, these events celebrate their anniversary, ending in 5 or 0. Here's what I got:
Hank Aaron tied Babe Ruth’s Home Run record on April 8, 1974. Hamming Hank hit his 715th home run off a Los Angeles Dodger pitcher. As he rounded the bases, his mother ran onto the field and hugged him tightly because she thought nobody would shoot her son if she were hugging him. Aaron would go on to hit a total of 775 home runs.
NASA announced the first astronauts on April 9, 1959. The Space Place introduced seven white guys chosen after a detailed vetting process that included even more white guys. These white guys would go on to launch the Mercury Program, which would begin in 1961.
Sidney Poitier won an Academy Award on April 13, 1964. He won the Best Actor award for portraying Homer Smith in the movie Lillies of the Field, becoming the first black actor to win. In 2002, he received the Honorary Academy Award for his contributions to American film. That year, Denzel Washington won Best Actor, becoming the second black actor to do so.
Are you ready to see the moon blot out the sun today? If not, well, it’s going to happen, and there is nothing you can do to stop it. Be like a safety pin today – keep it together.
Anonymous and I are in Cleveland, on the path of totality. Immediately afterward, we will head to the Cleveland Guardians home opener baseball game, which will begin around 5:00 PM. The weather will be quite colder, so it should be fun!
I’ll be back on Friday with another election ranking. We are making steady progress here, and I hope you are enjoying the series.
Thanks for being here. Have a great week.
Okay,
Chris
