Ellsworth Gilleland (1883 - 1961)

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

In 1883, in the year that Ellsworth Gilleland was born, on July 4th, the first rodeo in the world was held in Pecos, Texas - according to its citizens. In the towns of Prescott and Payson Arizona, the same claim is made. All of these were gatherings of local cowboys, showing off their skills - no matter who was first.

In 1911, by the time he was 28 years old, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen became the first man to reach the South Pole, along with four fellow Norwegian explorers. After hearing that Peary had beaten him to the North Pole, Amundsen decided to tackle the South Pole. On December 14th, he succeeded.

In 1929, at the age of 46 years old, Ellsworth was alive when on October 29th (Black Tuesday), the stock market crashed in the United States. Billions of dollars were lost and some investors committed suicide as a result, having lost their fortunes. This ushered in the 12 year, worldwide Great Depression.

In 1944, by the time he was 61 years old, on December 16th, The Battle of the Bulge began in the Ardennes forest on the Western Front. Lasting for a little over a month, the battle began with a surprise attack by Germany on the Allied forces The U.S. suffered their highest casualties of any operation in World War II - 89,000 were casualties, around 8,600 killed - but Germany also severely depleted their resources and they couldn't be replaced.

In 1961, in the year of Ellsworth Gilleland's passing, on April 17th, about 1,000 CIA trained Cuban exiles invaded Cuba with the intention of igniting a rebellion and overthrowing Castro. They were defeated within three days. Although the operation began under Eisenhower, Kennedy approved it and the operation, named the Bay of Pigs for the beach where they landed, was a humiliation for the United States.