Eliza Gaughan (1885 - 1977)

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

In 1885, in the year that Eliza Gaughan was born, 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 1892, by the time she was merely 7 years old, on August 4th, the father and stepmother of Lizzie Borden were found murdered. Lizzie was accused of the crime and on June 20th of the next year, she was acquitted of murder by a jury. But she was never acquitted in the public mind.

In 1918, Eliza was 33 years old when following European countries, Daylight Saving Time went into effect in the United States in March. It was an effort to conserve fuel needed to produce electric power. This was a war effort and proved unpopular so in most areas of the United States, Daylight Saving Time ended after World War I. It returned during World War II.

In 1943, Eliza was 58 years old when on June 20th through June 22nd, the Detroit Race Riot erupted at Belle Isle Park. The rioting spread throughout the city (made worse by false rumors of attacks on blacks and whites) and resulted in the deployment of 6,000 Federal troops. 34 people were killed, (25 of them black) - mostly by white police or National Guardsmen, 433 were wounded (75 percent of them black) and an estimated $2 million of property was destroyed. The same summer, there were riots in Beaumont, Texas and Harlem, New York.

In 1977, in the year of Eliza Gaughan's passing, on January 20th, Jimmy Carter became the 39th President of the United States. Running against incumbent Gerald Ford, he won 50.1% of the popular vote to Ford's 48.0%. He was elected to only one term.