On October 6, 1866, the brothers John and Simeon Reno staged
the first train robbery in American history, making off with
$13,000 from an Ohio and Mississippi railroad train in Jackson
County, Indiana.

Of course, trains had been robbed before the Reno brothers’
holdup. But these previous crimes had all been burglaries of
stationary trains sitting in depots or freight yards.

The Reno brothers’ contribution to criminal history was to stop
a moving train in a sparsely populated region where they could
carry out their crime without risking interference from the law
or curious bystanders.

Though created in Indiana, the Reno brother’s new method of
robbing trains quickly became very popular in the West.

By the late 19th century, train robbery was became an
increasingly difficult—and dangerous—profession.

Colt 45 the favorite gun of train robbers.

On October 6, 1926, Yankee slugger Babe Ruth hit a record
three homers against the St. Louis Cardinals in the fourth
game of the World Series.

On October 5, 1947, President Harry Truman (1884-1972) made
the first-ever televised presidential address from the White
House, asking Americans to cut back on their use of grain
in order to help starving Europeans.

At the time of Truman’s food-conservation speech, Europe was
still recovering from World War II and suffering from famine.

Truman, the 33rd commander in chief, worried that if the U.S.
didn’t provide food aid, his administration’s Marshall Plan for
European economic recovery would fall apart.

                               
MIKE GRACIA

Mount Rushmore (Six Grandfathers) before construction,
c. 1905.

On October 4, 1927, sculpting began on the face of Mount
Rushmore in the Black Hills National Forest of South Dakota.

It would take another 12 years for the granite images of four
of America’s most revered presidents—George Washington,
Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt
to be completed.

The monument was the brainchild of a South Dakota historian
named Doane Robinson, who was looking for a way to attract
more tourists to his state.

American sculptor John Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum
(1867 – 1941)