LUCKY LINDY LANDS IN PARIS
Charles A. Lindbergh landed safely today at Le Bourget Field in Paris, France after a 33 1/2 flight from New York.
Lindbergh, born in Detroit, Michigan in 1902, becomes the 1st aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean & the 1st to fly non-stop from New York to Paris.
Lucky Lindy was greeted by an excited crowd of 150,000 who carried him around above their heads for about 30 minutes.
Lindbergh's aircraft is named "The Spirit of St. Louis".
"What kind of man would live where there is no daring? I don't believe in taking foolish chances, but nothing can be accomplished without taking any chance at all."
Charles Augustus Lindbergh*
*Six men died attempting to do what Lindbergh accomplished.
Congressional Gold Medal
Presented to Col. Charles A. Lindbergh
by President Calvin Coolidge
August 15, 1930
May 21, 1932
"QUEEN OF THE AIR" COMPLETES TRANS-ATLANTIC FLIGHT
Five years after Lindbergh, female aviator Amelia Earhart became today the 1st to repeat the flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
Earhart flew from Newfoundland across the North Atlantic to Ireland.
In 1928, Miss Earhart became the 1st woman to fly across the Atlantic. She was part of a 3 person crew on that occasion.*
*In an attempt to fly around the world, Amelia Earhart's plane disappeared over the South Pacific on July 2, 1937. She was 39 years old.
"The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to."
Amelia Earhart
Amelia Earhart
Queen of the Air (1932)
May 21, 1881
AMERICAN RED CROSS IS FOUNDED
Clara Barton, born in Massachusetts in 1821, founded the American National Red Cross today in Washington, D.C.
Miss Barton, a nurse during the Civil War, earned the nickname "Angel of the Battlefield."
The American Red Cross will join the International Red Cross in providing humanitarian aid to victims of wars & natural disasters.
Clara Barton is to be the 1st President of the American National Red Cross.
In addition to her service in the Civil War, she was assigned the duty by President Lincoln of helping to identify the Union dead at Andersonville.*
*JFK's sister, Kathleen 'Kick' Kennedy, began volunteering for the Red Cross in 1940.
According to the JFK Library, she planned benefit luncheons & fashion shows for the Allied Relief Fund to aid British seamen disabled by the war.
She later volunteered to serve the Red Cross in London.
Kathleen 'Kick' Kennedy
American Red Cross Volunteer
London (1943)
JFK Library Photo
May 21, 1542
DE SOTO DIES IN LOUISIANA
Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto died today on the banks of the Mississippi River, the victim of a semitropical fever.
The explorer had led a 3 year expedition in search of gold & silver.
On the expedition, De Soto mistreated the native Americans & also made them slaves.
De Soto's men buried the body in the river to keep the natives from learning of his death.
Map of the De Soto Expedition
from Herb Rowe
May 21, 1962
AMA MEETS IN NEW YORK TO OPPOSE JFK'S MEDICAL CARE PROPOSAL
Yesterday the President of the United States spoke to a crowd of 20,000, at New York's Madison Square Garden, in support of his proposed medical care reforms.
The proposals would help cover hospital bills & would be funded, in part, by a worker's social security deductions.
Today, the American Medical Association, met in the very same place to oppose JFK's reforms only there was no audience this time.*
Former 1st Lady Eleanor Roosevelt writes this in her column "My Day":
"The AMA opposes this plan because everything that is different seems to these stand-pat gentlemen a step toward what they apparently dread more than anything....socialized medicine."
*Despite the AMA's opposition, JFK was very complimentary of doctors stressing their importance "to all of us" in his address.
AMA's Code of Ethics
