Anna Riddick (1896 - 1974)

Refresh this page to see various historical events that occurred during Anna's lifetime.

In 1896, in the year that Anna Riddick was born, on May 18th, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson. By a vote of 7 to 1, the Court upheld state racial segregation laws, introducing the idea of "separate but equal" facilities for races.

In 1906, Anna was just 10 years old when English biochemist Frederick Hopkins concluded that vitamins are essential to the human body and that a lack of vitamins caused scurvy and rickets. Scurvy and rickets were both huge problems in sailors that were at sea for extended time and the addition of vitamin C, vitamin D, and calcium in their diets helped eradicate the problem.

In 1931, at the age of 35 years old, Anna was alive when in March, “The Star Spangled Banner” officially became the national anthem by congressional resolution. Other songs had previously been used - among them, "My Country, 'Tis of Thee", "God Bless America", and "America the Beautiful". There was fierce debate about making "The Star Spangled Banner" the national anthem - Southerners and veterans organizations supported it, pacifists and educators opposed it.

In 1954, when she was 58 years old, from April 22 through June 17th, the Army v. McCarthy hearings were held. The U.S. Army accused Roy Cohn (chief counsel to Senator McCarthy and later trusted mentor of Donald Trump) of blackmail. McCarthy and Cohn accused the U.S. Army of harboring communists. The Army allegations were found to be true. The U.S. Senate later censured McCarthy.

In 1974, in the year of Anna Riddick's passing, on July 30th, the House Judiciary Committee adopted three articles of impeachment against President Nixon. He was charged with obstruction of justice, failure to uphold laws, and the refusal to produce material subpoenaed by the committee. In order to avoid impeachment, Richard M. Nixon announced that he would resign on August 8th, the first President to do so.