Moments in Time – May 31, 2018

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• On June 17, 1885, the dismantled Statue of Liberty, a gift from the people of France, arrives in New York Harbor packed in more than 200 cases. The copper and iron statue was reassembled and dedicated the following year.
• On June 13, 1895, Emile Levassor drives a Panhard et Levassor car with a two-cylinder, 750-rpm, four-horsepower engine to victory in the world’s first real automobile race. He completed the 732-mile course in just under 49 hours, at a then-impressive speed of about 15 mph.
• On June 15, 1917, two months after America entered World War I against Germany, Congress passes the Espionage Act. The act made it a crime to convey information intended to interfere with the U.S. armed forces prosecution of the war or to promote the success of the country’s enemies.
• On June 12, 1940, Edsel Ford agrees to manufacture 9,000 Rolls-Royce-designed engines to be used in British and U.S. airplanes in World War II. A biography about Edsel’s father, Henry, later revealed that Henry had already accepted a contract to work with the German government. He eventually reversed his position.
• On June 14, 1951, the U.S. Census Bureau dedicates UNIVAC, the world’s first commercially produced electronic digital computer. Weighing 16,000 pounds, UNIVAC used 5,000 vacuum tubes, and could perform about 1,000 calculations per second.
• On June 16, 1963, aboard Vostok 6, Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman to travel into space. She returned to Earth after 48 orbits, having spent more time in space than all U.S. astronauts combined to that date.
• On June 11, 1979, actor John Wayne, born Marion Morrison in Iowa, dies at age 72. In his early acting jobs Wayne was credited as Duke Morrison, a childhood nickname derived from the name of his beloved pet dog.

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