Good News in History, August 18

86 years ago today, the Thousand Islands Bridge connecting the US with Canada over the Saint Lawrence Seaway was dedicated by F.D. Roosevelt. The complex contains 5 bridges spanning 8.5 miles, with each bridge section anchored on a separate island in the middle of the waterway. This remarkable feat of engineering took just 16 months to build. One span is a suspension bridge, while another section is a truss bridge, and the two are divided by a stretch supported solely by arches. READ more from this day in history… (1938)nnnn

nnMORE Good News on this Day:n

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• Ringo Starr made his debut with The Beatles at a horticultural society dance– the first appearance of John, Paul, George, and Ringo playing together in public (1962)

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• The Police played live for the first time as a three-piece band in Birmingham, England, in a style influenced by punk, reggae, and jazz that made them one of the first New Wave groups to achieve mainstream success (1977)

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• Canada’s ‘highway to the Arctic’ opened (Dempster Highway), from Dawson, Yukon, to Inuvik, Northwest Territories, stretching 457 miles/736 km – much of it following an old sled dog trail (1979)

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• Japan‘s election law was amended to allow for proportional representation (1982)

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• Liberia‘s civil war ended after 14 years when the Comprehensive Peace Accord was signed in Accra, Ghana (2003)

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n61 years ago today, James Meredith became the first black person to graduate from the University of Mississippi, 2 years after his famous challenge on the grounds of his civil rights as decided in Brown vs the Board of Education, and one year after his admission to the college sparked riots so large that 31,000 members of the national guard were required to restore peace. He graduated with a degree in political science.nn

nnInspired by President John F. Kennedy, Meredith resolved to avail himself of the state-funded educational institution that was the University of Mississippi, though he was denied admission twice.nnOn May 31, 1961, Meredith, with the backing of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, alleging that the university had rejected him only because of his race, as he had a highly successful record of military service and academic courses. The court ruled in Meredith’s favor.nnThe state’s governor attempted to pass a law that would bar people from admission to university who had some crime of “moral turpitude” against them, and the state court convicted Meredith on moral turpitude charges in absentia.nnAttorney General Robert F. Kennedy had a series of phone calls with Miss. Governor Barnett between September 27 to October 1. Barnett reluctantly agreed to let Meredith enroll in the university. Barnett committed to maintain civil order. Nonetheless, Robert Kennedy ordered 127 U.S. Marshals as well as 316 deputized U.S. Border Patrol and 97 Federal Bureau of Prisons officers to accompany Meredith during his arrival and registration.nnFollowing his graduation in political science, James Meredith went to Columbia University Law School and graduated there with an LLB, after which he began a long campaign of activism for civil rights. (1963)nnHappy 37th birthday to Joanna Jędrzejczyk (yoon-JAY-check) the Polish female mixed-martial artist who held the UFC’s Women’s Strawweight title for two-and-a-half years, putting the women’s divisions on the map with her mixture of punishing Muay Thai strike combinations, and infectious personality. She holds the record for most successful strawweight title defenses (5), most consecutive wins at strawweight (8), and is the first Polish champion and first female European champion in the UFC.nn

nnJędrzejczyk discovered Muay Thai (kickboxing from Thailand) at 16 years old, and during her professional career, Jędrzejczyk won five world titles with a record of 27-3.nnThis gave her a strong platform with which to launch a foray into the then-very-young world of women’s mixed martial arts. Signing with the UFC in 2014, she won her first two bouts before challenging the 115-pound women’s title in 2015 against Carla Esparza, whom she demolished in the second round via technical knockout.nnShe went on to fight regularly, defending the belt against Jessica Penne, and Valerie Letourneau during which Jędrzejczyk landed 220 significant strikes and 70 leg kicks, both records for numbers landed in a championship bout. She again defended her title for the 3rd time against Claudia Gadelha, and a 4th time against fellow Pole, Karolina Kowalkievicz, the latter at the organization’s first-ever event at Madison Square Garden.nnJędrzejczyk beat Jessica Andrade in 2017 and successfully defended her title for the fifth consecutive time, breaking the records she set against Letourneau for significant strikes and leg kicks landed in a championship bout (225) and (75).nnAfter losing her sixth title defense, a series of wins and losses saw her retire from mixed martial arts at 35, announcing in the octagon that “It’s been 20 years. I’m turning 35 this year. I want to be a mom. I want to be a businesswoman. I’ve been training two decades, more than half of my life. I appreciate you all. I love you guys.” (1987)nnHappy 88th Birthday to Hollywood star Robert Redford. From his working-class roots in California, he became an actor beloved for his roles in The Sting, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Way We Were, and the timeless political journalism thriller All the President’s Men.nn

nnHe was the male lead in Out of Africa, which was an enormous 1985 box office success that won 7 Oscars, including Best Picture. We love whenever he plays a cowboy, including in The Horse Whisperer, which he also directed.nnHe won the Oscar for Best Director for Ordinary People—and further awards for directing The Milagro Beanfield War, A River Runs Through It, and The Legend of Bagger Vance, the spiritual golfing movie that co-starred Matt Damon and Will Smith.nnnnHe is also the founder of the Sundance Film Festival and a noted environmental activist.nnMost recently, Redford starred on 2 Netflix streaming films in 2017: The Discovery and Our Souls at Night (which was also produced by Redford and reunited him with co-star Jane Fonda, who played opposite him in Barefoot in the Park and The Electric Horseman). Redford played an aged bank robber in the 2018 drama The Old Man & the Gun, for which he received a Golden Globe nomination. He briefly reprised his role as Alexander Pierce, the head of S.H.I.E.L.D., in a cameo appearance in Avengers: Endgame. (1936)nn[raw][/raw]nn[raw][/raw]nn nnAlso, on this day in 1868, the colorless, odorless, non-toxic gas, Helium, was first discovered. Named for the Greek Titan of the Sun, Helios, it showed up as an unknown yellow spectral line signature during a solar eclipse.nnnnNorman Lockyer was the first to propose that it was a new element, which he named. The second most abundant element in the observable universe, most helium in the universe is helium-4, the vast majority of which was formed during the Big Bang. Used in the cooling of superconducting magnets, in MRI scanners, and for arc welding, a well-known but minor use is as a lifting gas in balloons and airships.nn104 years ago today, the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, finally giving women the right to vote. It was the culmination of decades of effort by the women’s suffrage movement, who lobbied for passage of such a bill in the House and Senate for 41 years.nnnnIn 1900, Carrie Chapman Catt succeeded Susan B. Anthony as president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Catt refocused the group’s energy on the passage of the federal amendment, calling her strategy ‘The Winning Plan’. By 1915, NAWSA was a large, powerful organization, with 44 state chapters and more than two million members.nnAfter they won in Congress, they had to convince 2/3 of the states to ratify. Tennessee was the last of the necessary 36 to secure adoption into law, thus enfranchising with a political voice 26 million American women. WATCH a Short History of Suffrage below… (1920)nn[raw][/raw]nn nnAnd, 55 years ago today, the massive music festival at Woodstock, after many rain delays, concluded with a sunrise performance by Jimi Hendrix, who played The Star Spangled Banner. The guitarist and his band were the last act to perform at the festival, playing a two-hour set on Monday morning.nnAt 8:30 his surprise psychedelic rendition of the U.S. national anthem reminded the remaining 200,000 hippies that they were essentially Americans, just like all their neighbors—then he segued into Purple Haze. (1969)nnSHARE the Milestones, Memories, and Music…