On October 6, 1829, the 6th Governor of Louisiana, Pierre Derbigny, died three days after being ejected from a horse-drawn passenger coach. Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain
“The first settlers of Germantown came from the country of the lower Rhine, not far from the borders of Holland. The purchase of land was made through the Frankfort Company, of which Francis Daniel Pastorius was the agent in America for a number of years. In 1683 thirteen families set out from Crefeld, their native town, for London, where passage had been engaged for them to Pennsylvania in the ship Concord, by James Claypole, a Quaker merchant of that city, who was to be their fellow passenger. On the 24th of July they sailed from London, and arrived in Philadelphia the 6th of October. They were met on landing by Pastorius who had preceded them a few weeks. On the 24th of October Thomas Fairman, the surveyor of the Province, laid out their land in the township, afterwards called Germantown, and on the next day the immigrants met in the cave of Pastorius on the bank of the Delaware and made selections of the plots of land by lot. Having done this, they proceeded at once to clear their land and erect dwellings before the winter should overtake them. The following are the names of the thirteen settlers : Abraham Op den Graeff Thones Kunders, Herman Op den Graeff Reynier Tyson, Lenart Arets, Jan Lucken, Jan Seimens, Johannes Bleikers, Willem Streypers, Peter Keurlis, Jan Lensen, Abraham Tunes, Dirck Op den Graeff They were all Friends or Mennonites. Before their departure from Germany there had been a Friends’ Monthly Meeting held at Crefeld, which was discontinued immediately after their departure, indicating that all or nearly all the full body of members had gone. By 1690 when the village of Germantown had grown to forty-four families, twenty-eight of them were Friends and the other sixteen of other religious faiths.” From: The guide book to historic Germantown by Charles Francis Jenkins, published in 1902 https://archive.org/details/guidebooktohisto01jenk/page/16/mode/2up Source says no known restrictions Image of the Concord on a 20 cent US stamp from 1983; 300 years after the ship’s arrival in Philadelphia via Shutterstock
Civil War Veteran and inventor George Westinghouse was born on October 6, 1846 in Central Bridge in upstate New York. A few years after the war he developed his most notable invention which was an air braking system for rail trains which saved countless lives. Image: George Westinghouse sometime before 1884 via Wikimedia Commons, public domain
Two-time Academy Award winning American actress, Bette Davis, passed away on October 6, 1989 at the American Hospital of Paris. She was 81. During WWII she sold war bonds which raised millions of dollars to help the American war effort. Image of Bette Davis in 1933 via Wikimedia Commons, public domain
Lt. Alford J. Williams c. 1923 On October 6, 1923 Lt. Alford J. Williams of the United States Navy won first place when he flew nearly 244mph during the Pulitzer Air Races over St. Louis, Missouri. Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain
On today’s date October 6, 1927: The Jazz Singer starring Al Jolson premiered in New York. This first “talkie” was the first full-length feature film using synchronized sound including music, singing and speech. It’s release marked the beginning of the end of the silent film era. Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain
The U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island was established on October 6, 1884. Chester Nimitz, William Halsey Jr., Raymond Spruance and Alan Shepard were among those who graduated from the college. Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain
Tony Dungy, the first African American head coach to win the Super Bowl, was born on October 6, 1955 in Jackson, Michigan. Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain
Carole Lombard was born on October 6, 1908 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The 1932 film “No Man of Her Own,” was the only movie that both she and Clark Gable appeared together. They played a married couple. Lombard and Gable wed in real life in 1939 and were married until Lombard’s tragic death in 1942. Image by Paramount Studios via Wikimedia Commons, public domain
Dr. J.W. Gidley of Smithsonian Institute with tooth of extinct elephant 10/6/1924 Image via LOC, no known restrictions
On October 6, 1958 the USS Seawolf (SSN-575) surfaced after being underwater for 60 days (she submerged on August 7, 1958.) It was a new underwater record for a submarine. Image of USS Seawolf (SSN-575) from 1977 via Wikimedia Commons, public domain
Spine-Tingling History
“ The night grew darker and darker; the stars seemed to sink deeper in the sky, and driving clouds occasionally hid them from his sight. He had never felt so lonely and dismal. He was, moreover, approaching the very place where many of the scenes of the ghost stories had been laid. In the centre of the road stood an enormous tulip-tree, which towered like a giant above all the other trees of the neighborhood, and formed a kind of landmark. Its limbs were gnarled and fantastic, large enough to form trunks for ordinary trees, twisting down almost to the earth, and rising again into the air.” from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving
