It was on this day in 1907 that Hershey Park first opened with a baseball game between the Louisville Cardinals and the Boston Red Sox. Milton Hersey built the park near his factory town for workers to “leave dull cares behind“, and access was limited to only employees and their families. (It was later opened to the general public.) In addition to the baseball field the original park had a bandstand, a pavilion, and areas for picnicking & canoeing. The following summer a merry-go-round and 1,500-seat amphitheater was added on, with a tennis court & bowling alley built the year after that. The park continued to grow every season, with there now being over 60 rides (11 of which are roller coasters) as well as 200 animal zoo.
Wiki’s earliest event for this day is “1479 BC – Thutmose III ascends to the throne of Egypt, although power effectively shifts to Hatshepsut (according to the Low Chronology of the 18th Dynasty)” and their most recent is “2007 – Iceland announces that Norway will shoulder the defense of Iceland during peacetime.”
Some other things that happened on this day were:
1704 – The first newspaper in the United States is published in Boston.
1800 – The United States Library of Congress is established.
1898 – The United States declares war on Spain.
1980 – Eight servicemen die while trying to rescue American hostages in Iran.
2005 – World’s first cloned dog is born.
Happy birthday to Damon Lindelof, Michael O’Keefe, Jack Blades, Doug Clifford, Barbra Streisand, and Shirley MacLaine