Maire Smith (1902 - 1976)

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

In 1902, in the year that Maire Smith was born, the first Rose Bowl game was played in Pasadena, California. Called the "Tournament East–West football game" at the time, the Michigan Wolverines (East) played the Stanford Indians (West) - the Wolverines won 49 - 0. (The Stanford captain requested an end to the game with 8 minutes remaining.) The Tournament of Roses Parade began in 1890 and the football game began as a way to boost tourism in the area.

In 1916, she was only 14 years old when the Battle of Verdun was fought from February through December. It was the largest and longest battle of World War I, lasting 303 days. The original estimates were 714,231 casualties - 377,231 French and 337,000 German, an average of 70,000 casualties a month. Current estimates are even larger. The Battle of the Somme was also fought from July through September of the same year. Original estimates were 485,000 British and French casualties and 630,000 German casualties.

In 1948, by the time she was 46 years old, on January 30th, Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated in New Delhi by a member of a Hindu nationalist party who thought that Gandhi was too accommodating to Muslims. The man, Nathuram Godse, shot Gandhi 3 times. He died immediately. The shooter was tried, convicted, and hung in November 1949.

In 1964, she was 62 years old when in June, three young civil rights workers - Andrew Goodman and Mickey Schwerner from New York City, and James Chaney from Meridian, Mississippi - were kidnapped and murdered in Mississippi. Working with "Freedom Summer", they were registering African-Americans to vote in the Southern states. Their bodies were found two months later. Although it was discovered that the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, the Neshoba County Sheriff's Office and the Philadelphia, Mississippi Police Department were involved, only 7 men were convicted and served less than six years.

In 1976, in the year of Maire Smith's passing, The United States celebrated the Bicentennial of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. It was a year long celebration, with the biggest events taking place on July 4th.