On this day in 1948 Harry Truman won the presidency in upset fashion over Thomas Dewey. Truman was thought to be unfit for the highest office in the country when his first term came to an end. Most of this time was spent fighting southern democrats over civil rights laws and trying to fight criticism about being a shadow of FDR. As it turns out Truman would leave the presidency in disgrace over the Korean War, so maybe Dewey would have been a better man for the job.
On this day in 1947 the largest airplane ever to get airborne,Spruce Goose, flies for the first and only time. The brainchild of Howard Hughes, it was designed to be a mass troop carrier for the war department, but with the end of WWII the project was scrapped. Hughes pushed the production ahead on his own dime and the plane flew for just over a mile at a maximum altitude of 70 feet. It's ok to ridicule this guy because he was a germophobe who saved his own piss in jars and wore kleenex boxes on his feet.
On this day in 1983 the US got another federal holiday when Reagan signed a bill creating MLK jr day. It's supposed to honor a man who strove to gain equality for all people in this country, but unfortunately this day of remembrance became the subject of controversy when Arizona refused to honor this day. Not surprising these days with the forward thinking politicians who think any brown skinned person is an illegal immigrant.
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