Moments in Time – October 13, 2021

#Middlebury

• On Oct. 26, 1775, King George III speaks before both houses of the British Parliament to discuss growing concern about the rebellion in America. He urged Parliament to move quickly to end the revolt and bring order to the colonies.
• On Oct. 31, 1864, Congress quickly admits Nevada as the 36th state in the Union. President Lincoln’s proposed 13th Amendment banning slavery was the decisive factor in easing Nevada’s path to statehood.
• On Oct. 27, 1873, Joseph Glidden, an Illinois farmer, submits an application to the U.S. Patent Office for his new design for a fencing wire with sharp barbs on two strands. Barbed wire would forever change the face of the American West.
• On Oct. 25, 1929, during the Teapot Dome oil reserve scandal, Albert Fall, who served as secretary of the interior under President Warren Harding, is found guilty of bribery and conspiracy. He was the first former cabinet officer sentenced to prison as a result of misconduct in office.
• On Oct. 30, 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt, determined to keep the United States out of the war while helping those allies already mired in it, approves $1 billion in Lend-Lease loans to the Soviet Union. The terms: no interest, and repayment would not start until five years after the war ended.
• On Oct. 28, 1962, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev orders the withdrawal of missiles from Cuba, ending the Cuban Missile Crisis. In 1960, Khrushchev had launched plans to install ballistic missiles in Cuba that would put the eastern U.S. within range of nuclear attack.
• On Oct. 29, 1998, almost 40 years after he became the first American to orbit Earth, Sen. John Glenn Jr. is launched into space again as a payload specialist aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. Glenn, 77, was the oldest human ever to travel in space.

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