Today in History 12/12/16

Today in History
(1917) Father Edward Flanagan establishes Boys Town near Omaha
1917 The 31-year-old Irish priest opens the doors to a Victorian mansion as a home for troubled boys. He starts out with just six kids, but numbers will quickly grow. Thanks to help from local citizens, Flanagan will move the home to a large facility outside of Omaha to serve more children.

Boys Town, formerly Girls and Boys Town and Father Flanagan’s Boys’ Home, is a non-profit organization dedicated to caring for its children and families, with national headquarters in the village of Boys Town, Nebraska. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was designated as a National Historic Landmark on February 4, 1985.

Founder: Edward J. Flanagan
Address: 14100 Crawford Street, Boys Town, NE 68010
Website: www.boystown.org
Opened: 1917
Tax ID: 47-0376606
CEO: Steven E. Boes (2005)
Headquarters: Boys Town, NE

— Source: wiki/Boys_Town_(organization)
(1925) World’s first motel opens in San Luis Obispo, California
Arthur Heineman opens the Motel Inn in a town midway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. As people began driving longer distances, Heineman sought to offer travelers a spot for the night beyond camping. Now, they could drive up to his “motor hotel” or “motel” and sleep in comfort. 1925

The Motel Inn, located in San Luis Obispo, California, is the first motel in the world. It opened on December 12, 1925. The emergence and popularization of the automobile in the United States of the early 20th century inspired many car owners beyond commuting into town. The poor roads of the era combined with the vehicle speeds and reliability required two or more days of nearly all day driving for 400-mile trips such as Los Angeles to San Francisco. Nearby destinations of 40 miles or less could be visited in a day to include a return trip. Longer trips requiring an overnight stay often left travelers looking for places to pitch tent or to sleep in their automobile if arrangements hadn’t been made ahead to destinations and stopovers that also happen to have hotels or inns. The lack of niche accommodations to fill the need for automobile travelers who only needed an overnight stay to continue their trip inspired many entrepreneurs. The combination of the convenience of a campground with the comforts and respectability of a hotel or inn spurred the creation of the motel.

Address: 2223 Monterey St, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
Phone: (805) 543-4000

— Source: wiki/Motel_Inn
(1980) Armand Hammer buys Da Vinci notebook for $5 million
1980 At an auction in London, the oil tycoon outbids the room for a Leonardo da Vinci notebook, from around 1508, that contains notes and drawings about water and its properties. In 1994, the notebook will be on the block again, but this time it’ll go for $30.8 million.

The Codex Leicester is a collection of famous scientific writings by Leonardo da Vinci. The Codex is named after Thomas Coke, later created Earl of Leicester, who purchased it in 1719. Of Leonardo’s 30 scientific journals, the Codex may be the most famous of all. The manuscript holds the record for the sale price of any book, when it was sold to Bill Gates at Christie’s auction house on 11 November 1994 in New York for US$30,802,500.

Author: Leonardo da Vinci
First published: 1510
Genre: Handwriting

— Source: wiki/Codex_Leicester
(2003) Keiko, the orca star of ‘Free Willy,’ dies in Norwegian fjord
After a $20 million project to reintroduce him to the wild, Keiko succumbs to pneumonia off the coast of Norway. In captivity since he was a pup, Keiko never reintegrated with wild orca pods and continued to seek out human contact during his year and a half in the open ocean. 2003

Keiko was a male orca who portrayed Willy in the 1993 film Free Willy. Keiko, whose name means “lucky one” in Japanese, was captured near Reyðarfjörður, Iceland in 1979 and sold to the Icelandic aquarium in Hafnarfjörður. Three years later he was sold to Marineland in Ontario where he first started performing for the public and developed skin lesions indicative of poor health. He was then sold to Reino Aventura, an amusement park in Mexico City, in 1985. He was the star of the movie Free Willy in 1993.

Lived: 1976 – Dec 12, 2003
Weight: 11,993 pound (5,440 kg)
Movies and TV shows: Free Willy · Azul
Awards: Kids’ Choice Award for Favorite Animal Star (1996)
Nominations: MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss (1994) · Kids’ Choice Award for Favorite Animal Star (1998, 1996)
Birth place: Iceland

— Source: wiki/Keiko_(orca)
DIH v2.9.o16

FacebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmailFacebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail