Email your questions to: theantiqueman@pdq.net
or regular mail to:
The Antique Man
P.O. Box 1016
Bellaire, TX 77402
713-666-2222
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Is it trash or treasure?
....1865 - John Wilkes Booth, a well known actor, was permitted upstairs at Ford's Theatre. Thus, he gained access to U.S. President Abraham Lincoln's private theatre box as Lincoln watched the performance of Our American Cousin. It was just after 10 p.m. when Booth, a Confederate sympathizer, shot Lincoln in the head. After shooting the President, Booth leaped to the stage below, shouting, "Sic semper tyrannis!" ("Thus always to tyrants!", the state motto of Virginia.) He broke his leg in the fall but managed to escape the theatre (which was in Washington, D.C.), mount a horse, and flee to Virginia. Booth was hunted down and shot as he hid in a barn near Port Royal, Virginia. Lincoln died at 7:22 a.m. the next day.
....1902 - J.C. (James Cash) Penney opened his first store - in Kemmerer Wyoming. In partnership with Thomas M. Callahan and William Guy Johnson. Penney named the store Golden Rule. The dry goods and clothing store had a first-year profit of $8,514.36 on sales of $28,898.11.
....1935 - Babe Ruth played his first game for the National League in Fenway Park in Boston, MA. This time, he was playing for the Boston Braves, not his old Red Sox. Ruth was in his last year of pro ball in the major leagues. In this, his last season, Ruth played only 28 games, getting 13 hits and six home runs, before hanging up his spikes for good.
....1968 - Bob Goalby won the Masters Golf Tournament after Roberto DeVicenzo signed an incorrect scorecard. DeVicenzo signed for a score higher than his actual score on the 17th hole (a par 4 when he actually made a birdie 3). The rules say that you have to stick to the higher score, once you sign for it. The lower score would have pitted DeVicenzo against Goalby in a playoff match and who knows what might have happened? Ouch! On top of this, it was DeVicenzo's 45th birthday, as well!!
....1894 - The kinetoscope was demonstrated by its inventor, Thomas Alva Edison in New York City. A viewer that held 50 feet of film - about 13 seconds worth - showed images of Annie Oakley and Buffalo Bill. The demonstration was actually called the first peep show, as one had to peep into the device to see what was on the film. Movies were not projected on a screen at that time.
