On this day, June 14
1863 In a meeting at the Monongahela House, Pittsburgh businessmen and manufacturers, fearing a raid by the Confederate cavalry forces of Gen. J. E. B. Stuart, decided to suspend business and set up a defense.
1919 John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown embarked on the first nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean. (Flying a Vickers Vimy biplane bomber, they took off from St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada, and arrived 16½ hours later in Clifden, Ireland.)
1931 Florenz Ziegfeld’s Follies opened the new season of their 23rd edition at the Nixon Theater; among those featured in the cast were Helen Morgan, Gladys Glad, Ruth Etting, Harry Richman and, in the chorus, two Pittsburgh girls: Zecil Silvonia and Mony Lange.
1954 President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a measure adding the phrase “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance.
1999 The Pittsburgh Board of Public Education announced that Helen Faison would serve as interim superintendent during the search for a person to fill the position left vacant when Dale Frederick accepted a position at the University of Arizona. Ms. Faison began teaching for the district in 1950 and retired as a deputy superintendent in 1993; for the prior four years, Ms. Faison had served as dean of education at Chatham University.
Some items are from Stefan Lorant’s “Pittsburgh: The Story of an American City” (digital.library.pitt.edu/chronology). — Compiled by Rick Nowlin
Today’s birthdays: Actress Marla Gibbs, 89. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, DMd., 81. Rock singer Rod Argent (The Zombies; Argent), 75. President Donald Trump,
74. Singer Janet Lennon (The Lennon Sisters), 74. Actor Will Patton, 66. Olympic gold medal speed skater Eric Heiden, 62. Singer Boy George, 59. Actress Yasmine Bleeth (“Baywatch”), 52. International Tennis Hall of Famer Steffi Graf, 51.
Thought for today: “It is the flag just as much of the man who was naturalized yesterday as of the men whose people have been here many generations.” — Henry Cabot Lodge, U.S. senator and historian (1850-1924)