Minnie Simmons (1886 - 1973)

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

In 1886, in the year that Minnie Simmons was born, on October 28th, President Grover Cleveland officially dedicated the Statue of Liberty. A gift from France, the base for the statue had been built using donations from the American public. The unplanned but enthusiastic celebration after the dedication led to the first ticker tape parade.

In 1896, by the time she was only 10 years old, on May 18th, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson. By a vote of 7 to 1, the Court upheld state racial segregation laws, introducing the idea of "separate but equal" facilities for races.

In 1948, at the age of 62 years old, Minnie was alive when 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 1959, she was 73 years old when on January 3rd, Alaska became the 49th state of the United States and the first state not a part of the contiguous United States. The flag was changed to display 49 stars.

In 1973, in the year of Minnie Simmons's passing, in October, Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned - President Nixon nominated Gerald Ford for Vice President. Nixon's tax returns came under investigation. Nixon offered the recently discovered Oval Office tapes be heard by one person and summarized - his offer was rejected by the Special Prosecutor. Nixon ordered the Attorney General, then the assistant Attorney General, to fire the Special Prosecutor. Both refused and were fired. The Solicitor General became the acting Attorney General and fired the Special Prosecutor (the Saturday Night Massacre). Nixon releases some of the tapes, under extreme pressure because of the firings.