This Day In History

On August 28, 1864, the US Post Office Department created the Railway Mail Service. It revolutionized mail delivery for a century.

On August 27, 1894, the Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act became law and established the nation’s first federal income-tax exemption for charitable, religious, and educational organizations. Although much of the law proved short-lived, its basic distinction between commercial profits and nonprofit work became a lasting part of the federal tax system.

Mother Teresa was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu on August 26, 1910, in Skopje, then part of the Ottoman Empire and now the capital of North Macedonia. Decades later, the teacher-turned-missionary would build a religious order devoted to caring for people facing poverty, illness, abandonment, and death.

Writer Francis Bret Harte was born on August 25, 1836, in Albany, New York. His stories of California mining camps later brought him national fame and gave eastern readers a vivid, if literary, picture of life in the American West.

On February 22, 1855, Governor James Pollock put his signature on a document that changed Pennsylvania’s future. It created The Farmers’ High School of Pennsylvania — the seed of what would eventually become Penn State — and set in motion a struggle to fulfill the promise of the Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1862.

National Milk Day, celebrated each year on January 11, honors a simple innovation that changed daily life in America: the first home delivery of milk in glass bottles. On January 11, 1878, milk was delivered to homes in the United States in sealed glass bottles for the first time, marking a major step forward in food safety, convenience, and nutrition. What seems ordinary today was once a breakthrough that helped build the modern dairy industry.

Inventor and businessman Cyrus McCormick died on May 13, 1884, in Chicago, Illinois. He’s best known for his mechanical reaper, which increased productivity, and advanced the industrialization of agriculture in dozens of nations.

On August 23, 1970, the largest farm worker strike in US history began. The strike lasted for nearly seven months, with growers losing about $500,000 a day.

Ingrid Bergman was born on August 29, 1915 in Stockholm, Sweden, and was named after the princess of Sweden at the time. Appearing in over 50 films in five different languages, earning numerous awards, Ingrid Bergman will always be remembered as one of the most accomplished actresses of the 20th century.

On August 29, 1861, the first combined Union Army and Navy battle of the Civil War concluded at the Battle of Hatteras Inlet Batteries. A Union victory a month after the defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run, it boosted morale in the North.

On August 29, 1869, Sylvester Marsh demonstrated the world’s first mountain-climbing cog railway, earning the recognition and funds needed to complete it.

On August 29, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed the Naval Appropriations Act of 1916, establishing the Marine Corps Reserve.