Gen. Douglas MacArthur delivered his farewell address to
Congress on this day in history, April 19, 1951, uttering
the famous line, "Old soldiers never die; they just fade
away."

Eight days before the speech, MacArthur had been relieved
of his duties as general of the U.S. Army by President Harry
S. Truman — putting an end to his 52 year storied military
career.

Douglas MacArthur (26 January 1880 – 5 April 1964)

President Harry S. Truman and General Douglas MacArthur
at President Truman’s arrival at the Wake Island Conference (1950).

Jeannette Pickering Rankin, the first woman ever elected to
Congress, took her seat in the U.S. Capitol as a representative
from Montana.

Born on a ranch near Missoula, Montana Territory, in 1880,
Rankin was a social worker in the states of Montana and
Washington before joining the women’s suffrage movement
in 1910.

Following her election as a representative, Rankin’s entrance
into Congress was delayed for a month as congressmen
discussed whether a woman should be admitted into the
House of Representatives.

Bronze statue of Rankin inside the Montana
State Capitol in Helena.

CAMILLE BOHANNON

Film maker Martin Charles Scorsese emerged as one of the major
figures of the New Hollywood era. Scorsese has received many accolades, including an Academy Award, four BAFTA Awards,
three Emmy Awards, a Grammy Award, three Golden Globe
Awards, and two Directors Guild of America Awards.

He has been honored with the AFI Life Achievement Award in
1997, the Film Society of Lincoln Center tribute in 1998, the
Kennedy Center Honor in 2007, the Cecil B. DeMille Award in
2010, and the BAFTA Fellowship in 2012. Five of his films have
been inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of
Congress.

Jeannette Pickering Rankin (June 11, 1880 – May 18, 1973)

On November 7, 1916, Montana suffragist Jeannette Rankin, a
Republican from Montana was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. She was the first woman in the history of the
nation to win a seat in the federal Congress.

Rankin arguing against the fortification of Guam before
the House Naval Affairs Committee in 1939.

On September 30, 1822, Joseph Marion Hernández (1788-1857) 
became the first Hispanic 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.