Moments in Time – July 19, 2023

#MiddleburyCT

• On July 31, 1703, author Daniel Defoe (Robinson Crusoe) was placed in a pillory after being found guilty of seditious libel for publishing a politically satirical pamphlet, but instead of mud or rotten food (or even worse), he was pelted with flowers, while his friends sold copies of the pamphlet nearby.
• On Aug. 1, 1971, race car legend Richard Petty won the Dixie 500 in Atlanta, Georgia, and became the first NASCAR driver to score $1 million in career earnings.
• On Aug. 2, 1909, the centennial year of Abraham Lincoln’s birth, the U.S. issued the Lincoln penny, designed by Victor David Brenner. It was the first widely circulating design of a U.S. president on a coin, an idea that had in the past been seen by George Washington as too reminiscent of monarchy.
• On Aug. 3, 2004, the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty reopened after being closed for safety and security improvements following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York City’s World Trade Center. The remainder of the statue stayed closed until July 4, 2009, when the observation deck in the crown was reopened to visitors chosen hourly by lottery.
• On Aug. 4, 1964, the bodies of civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney were discovered in a partially constructed dam near Philadelphia, Mississippi, after disappearing more than a month before. Before their bodies were found, outrage over the KKK-perpetrated murders aided passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
• On Aug. 5, 2013, the first lab-grown hamburger, made from taking cow cells and turning them into the strips of a muscle, was cooked and eaten at a news conference in London, England. Tasters remarked that while it lacked some of a conventional burger’s juiciness, the flavor and texture were fairly similar.
• On Aug. 6, 1916, watermelons proved to be a major problem for Army officials in El Paso, Texas, to the point of actually being banned. Since their thick rinds couldn’t be burned or properly disposed of, they drew a plague of flies, which military experts warned could breed disease.

© 2023 King Features Synd., Inc.