On October 1, 1958, the American Express Company issued
its first charge card in the U.S. and Canada to give traveling
customers more flexibility.

The purple paperboard card—which later became the iconic
green or gold plastic card—pre-dates a new era of paying for
purchases with revolving credit cards, with MasterCard and
Visa following years later.

William George Fargo (1818 – 1881)  

        
          
 
 John Butterfield (1801 – 1869)         
       

 
In 1850, American Express was started as a
freight forwarding company in Buffalo, New
York.

owned by Henry Wells (Wells & Company),
William G. Fargo (Livingston, Fargo & Co.)
and John W. Butterfield.

The USS Nautilus, the world’s first nuclear submarine, was commissioned by the U.S. Navy on this day in 1954.

The Nautilus was constructed under the direction of U.S.
Navy Captain Hyman G. Rickover, a brilliant Russian-born
engineer who joined the U.S. atomic program in 1946.

In 1952, the Nautilus‘ keel was laid by President Harry S. Truman,
and on January 21, 1954, first lady Mamie Eisenhower broke a
bottle of champagne across its bow as it was launched into the
Thames River at Groton, Connecticut.

Father of the nuclear Navy, Hyman G. Rickover
(1900 – 1986).

June 14: President Truman Dedicates the World’s First Nuclear Submarine.

First Lady Mamie Eisenhower christens the USS Nautilus.

On September 30, 1822, Joseph Marion Hernández became
the first person of Hispanic descent to be elected to the
United States Congress.

Born a Spanish citizen, Hernández would die in Cuba, but in
between he became the first Hispanic American to serve at
the highest levels of any of three branches of the American
federal government.

Hernández later served as Mayor of St. Augustine before
retiring to Cuba, where he died in 1857.

On this day in 1988, Stacy Allison of Portland, Oregon, became
the first American woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest,
which at 29,035 feet above sea level is the highest point on earth.

Allison, a member of the Northwest American Everest Expedition, climbed the Himalayan peak using the southeast ridge route.

At least 168 climbers and support staff died in attempts to reach
the top of Everest in the 20th century.

       
CAMILLE BOHANNON