On this Day... August 19

• In 1871, pioneer aviator Orville Wright was born. Younger than brother Wilbur, he became the first man to achieve powered sustained flight in the plane they’d built by winning the chance on the flip of a coin. Orville had always been something of a prodigy – he repaired sewing machines at age five, made and sold kites to his friends, and built a printing machine at the age of 13. Neither he nor his brother went to high school, and among their juvenile moneymaking ventures were collecting the bones of dead cows and selling them for fertilizer. Orville also earned the dubious distinction of being the world’s first pilot to kill his passenger, a Lt. Selfridge, badly injuring himself at the same time.

• In 1977, funnyman Groucho Marx died at 86, after being looked after by his 36-year-old girlfriend Erin Fleming. Despite his stipulation that if any beneficiary contested his will “they should be disinherited with just one dollar,” there was a major legal wrangle between ex-secretary Erin and members of his family, who claim she abused the comedian and taunted him about his sexual prowess. But Marx had told her, “Remember, I’ve given you the worst years of my life.” Married three times, he said, “Marriage is a wonderful institution, but who wants to live in an institution?” He wrote his own epitaph: “Here lies Groucho Marx, and lies, and lies, and lies. P.S. He never kissed an ugly girl.” Years earlier, Irving Berlin had written, “The world wouldn’t be in such a snarl, if Marx had been Groucho instead of Karl.”