Carl Philip Lerg (1852 - 1928)

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

In 1852, in the year that Carl Philip Lerg was born, on March 2nd, an experimental steam fire engine was tested in the US. Great Britain had begun using "steam pumpers" after 1829, when they were invented.

In 1875, at the age of 23 years old, Carl was alive when on February 18th, the Mason County War, also called the Hoodoo War, began. In central Texas, a German-American mob broke into a jail with a battering ram and lynched two suspected cattle rustlers. Thus began a year of vigilante "justice."

In 1885, he was 33 years old when on February 16th, the first Dow Jones Industrial Average was published by Charles Dow, who also founded the Wall Street Journal. The index was 62.76. It represented 12 stocks - American Cotton Oil, American Sugar, American Tobacco, Chicago Gas, Distilling & Cattle Feeding, General Electric, Laclede Gas, National Lead, North American, Tennessee Coal and Iron, U.S. Leather pfd. and U.S. Rubber.

In 1895, he was 43 years old when on March 15th, in County Tipperary, Ireland, Michael Cleary killed his wife of 8 years, Bridget, and burned her body. His defense was that his "wife" was a changeling that was left in his real wife's place when she was abducted by fairies. He was nonetheless convicted and imprisoned for manslaughter. He spent 15 years in prison.

In 1928, in the year of Carl Philip Lerg's passing, aviatrix Amelia Earhart, age 31, became the first woman to fly solo across North America and back in August. In June, she had been part of a 3 man crew that flew the Atlantic Ocean but since she had no instrument training, she couldn't fly the plane - she kept the flight log. The North American flight became one of her many "firsts" as a female pilot.