Caroline Valcourt (1872 - 1967)

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

In 1872, in the year that Caroline Valcourt was born, on May 22nd, President Ulysses S. Grant signed the Amnesty Act of 1872. The Act restored full civil rights to secessionists, including about 150,000 former slaves who had fought in the Confederate Army. About 500 former Confederate sympathizers were not allowed their full civil rights.

In 1895, at the age of 23 years old, Caroline was alive when on May 18th, Italy's first motor race was held. The race was 58 miles long - from Turin to Asti and back. Five cars started but only three completed the race. It was won by Simone Federman who drove a Daimler Omnibus - his average speed was 9.6 mph.

In 1933, she was 61 years old when Frances Perkins became the first woman to hold a cabinet-level position, appointed by President Roosevelt to serve as Secretary of Labor. She told him that her priorities would be a 40-hour work week, a minimum wage, unemployment compensation, worker’s compensation, abolition of child labor, direct federal aid to the states for unemployment relief, Social Security, a revitalized federal employment service, and universal health insurance. President Roosevelt approved of all of them and most them were implemented during his terms as President. She served until his death in 1945.

In 1955, when she was 83 years old, in January, President Eisenhower sent direct aid to South Vietnam. In February, U.S. advisors were sent to train troops.

In 1967, in the year of Caroline Valcourt's passing, on November 7th, President Johnson signed legislation passed by Congress that created the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which would later become PBS and NPR. The legislation required CPB to operate with a "strict adherence to objectivity and balance in all programs or series of programs of a controversial nature".