PAST EVENTS THAT MADE HISTORY
FIRST CRADIT CARD ISSUED ON THIS DAY
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.
Henry Wells 1805 – 1878)
William George Fargo (1818 – 1881)
John Butterfield (1801 – 1869)
In 1850, American Express was started as a
freight forwarding company in Buffalo, New
York.
It was founded as a joint-stock corporation
by the merger of the cash-in-transit companies
owned by Henry Wells (Wells & Company),
William G. Fargo (Livingston, Fargo & Co.)
and John W. Butterfield.

FROM THE PDX RETRO BLOG ~
FIRST NUCLEAR SUB COMMISSIONED IN 1954

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 1947, he was put in charge of the navy’s nuclear-propulsion
program and began work on an atomic submarine. Regarded
as a fanatic by his detractors, Rickover succeeded in developing
and delivering the world’s first nuclear submarine years ahead of schedule.
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.
FIRST HISPANIC ELECTED TO CONGRESS
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.
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