Don't Change That Channel (April 16)

Today's Spotlight promises to be more upbeat than the last 2. And how much higher can you go than being on a plane? Seriously.

Harriet Quimby (born in Arcadia, Michigan on May 11, 1875) was a woman who achieved quite a lot in her life. Early in her life, she worked as a theater critic for Leslie's Illustrated Weekly, where she would write over 250 articles. But her interest in aviation was first piqued in 1910, where she met famed aviator Matilde Moisant who was running a flight school. August 1, 1911 was the day that Harriet Quimby became the first woman to earn a pilot's certificate. Matilde would become the second woman to earn the certificate soon after.

(As a side note, she also penned five screenplays that would become romantic silent movies, which would all be directed by D.W. Griffith. He's probably most famous for his 1915 film Birth of a Nation)

Probably Quimby's most important flight took off from Dover, England and landed in Calais, France. The flight took 59 minutes total. Why is this flight so important? It just so happens that to get from Dover to Calais, one has to fly over a little something called the English Channel (350 miles long and between 21-150 miles wide). On this day, April 16th, 1912, Harriet Quimby became the first woman to fly across the English Channel.

Her illustrious career was sadly cut short. Just a few months later, on July 1, while flying at an event in Boston, her aircraft pitched forward, flinging herself and her passenger, William Willard (the organizer of the event) out of the plane to their deaths. Harriet Quimby was 37.

A remarkable woman who set in motion the flight plan for women's aviation. A high-flying ace in the American History books. For more information on Harriet Quimby, feel free to navigate here or here.


DUH OTHERS:
MLK Jr. pens the Letter from Birmingham Jail while being jailed for protesting against segregation in 1963.
Apollo 16 launched from Cape Canaveral, FL in 1972.
Syria gains independence from France in 1946.
The Virginia Tech Massacre, where 33 people were killed (including the gunman who killed himself) and 23 others were injured occurred today in 2007.


HELLO HELLO:
American Aviator Wilbur Wright (First American Flight) in 1867
American Actor Charlie Chaplin (famous for his character "The Tramp") in 1889
American Composer Henry Mancini (The Pink Panther) in 1924
Pope Benedict XVI (The Freakin' Pope) in 1927
Taiwanese Actress Shu Qi (The Transporter) in 1976

I DON'T KNOW WHY YOU SAY GOODBYE:
French Artist Marie Tussaud (Founder of Madame Tussauds Wax Museum) in 1850
British Chemist Rosalind Franklin (whose data helped Crick & Watson with the structure of DNA) in 1958
American Author Edna Ferber (Show Boat, Ice Palace) in 1968
British Film Director David Lean (Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago) in 1991
American Restaurateur Ruth Fertel (founder of Ruth's Chris Steak House) in 2002


HOLIDAZE:
Happy Emancipation Day! (Washington D.C.): Abraham Lincoln signed the Compensated Emancipation Act in 1862, which freed about 3,100 slaves from the District of Columbia (this is nine months prior to the Emancipation Proclamation).