CAMILLE
BOHANNON

On May 30, 1911, Ray Harroun (above) dove his single-seater
Marmon Wasp to victory in the inaugural Indianapolis 500,
now one of the world’s most famous motor racing events.

The Indiana automobile dealer Carl Fisher first proposed
building a private auto testing facility in 1906, in order to
address car manufacturers’ inability to test potential top
speeds of new cars due to the poorly developed state of
the public roadways. The result, the Indianapolis Motor
Speedway, built on 328 acres of farmland five miles
northwest of downtown Indianapolis.

Ray Harroun (January 12, 1879 – January 19, 1968)

Harroun’s original Marmon “Wasp” on display at the Indianapolis
Motor Speedway Museum.

Months before its release, Orson Welles’ landmark film Citizen
Kane began generating such controversy that Radio City Music
Hall eventually refused to show it. Instead, Citizen Kane, now
revered as one of the greatest movies in history, made its
debut at the smaller RKO Palace Theater on May 1, 1941.

SANDY KOZEL

Jack Roosevelt Robinson
(January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972)

On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson, age 28, become the first
African American player in Major League Baseball when he
stepped onto Ebbets Field in Brooklyn to compete for the
Brooklyn Dodgers.

The bloodiest four years in American history began when
Confederate shore batteries under General P.G.T. Beauregard
open fire on Union-held Fort Sumter in South Carolina’s
Charleston Bay (above). During the next 34 hours, 50
Confederate guns and mortars launched more than 4,000
rounds at the poorly supplied fort. On April 13, U.S. Major
Robert Anderson surrendered the fort. Two days later, U.S.
President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation calling
for 75,000 volunteer soldiers to quell the Southern “insurrection.”

Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard
(1818-1893)

Robert Anderson
(June 14, 1805 – October 26, 1871)