Today in History: Things are Started!

The Olive Branch Petition

Yesterday was July 4th, the day the Declaration of Independence was adopted. One year before the United States declared independence in 1775, the Continental Congress adopted the Olive Branch Petition. The petition, which protested of King George's harsh governing, was to prevent any further large-scale war between the colonies and Great Britain. Congress sent this letter to King George on July 8th, only to have it to be rejected by him. The rejection allowed for many figures, such as John Adams, to push harder for independence. Adversely, the American Revolution continued to rage until American independence.

The Salvation Army, a large worldwide charitable organization, was founded on this day in 1865. Originally named the Christian Mission, founders William Booth and his wife Catherine founded this organization in London dedicated to strike down poverty while also being as efficient as the military. The Salvation Army is still based in London today along with more branches in over seventy five countries.

Micheline Bernardini poses in
the world's first bikini

In 1919, the Chicago White Sox were involved in one of the most devious scandals in baseball history, the Black Sox Scandal. Three years later, on this day in 1921, the Chicago White Sox were thoroughly accused of intentionally loosing games to receive money from gamblers. Eight players, Eddie Cicotte, Oscar Felsch, Arnold Gandil, Fred McMullin, Charles Risberg, George Weaver, Claude Williams, and "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, were banned from Major League Baseball.

The potential Hall of Famer, "Shoeless"
Joe Jackson, was banned from Major
League Ball due to the Black Sox Scandal

Imagine, it is a hot summer day at a beautiful warm beach with the breeze in your face and the sound of the ocean surrounds you. Many people on a beach are probably wearing bikinis, which were introduced on this day in 1946 by French designer Louis Reard. Many two piece bathing suits appeared around the 1930s, leading to Reard's designs. When finding a model to model the new design in its debut, Reard had a hard time finding someone who would model in this very skimpy design, but found exotic dancer Micheline Bernardini to model for him. The bikini became an instant hit. Reard even got over 50,000 fan letters. Today, the bikini is a popular swimsuits worldwide that can be seen in places from the beach to even athletes (track and field events, beach volleyball, etc).

In sci-fi movies, cloning seems like a breeze, but in reality, really is not as simple as it looks. On this day in 1996, scientist at the Roslin Institute in Scotland successfully clone the first mammal ever, a sheep named Dolly, from an adult cell. Though this occurred in 1997, Dolly was not publicly announced until February 1997. During Dolly's short lifespan, she gave birth to four lambs. Preceding her death, Dolly was found to have arthritis in her hind legs and had progressive lung disease. Scientist put Dolly down to rest on February 14th, 2003. Her body was stuffed and can be seen at the National Museum of Scotland.