Ray Randall (1889 - 1974)

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

In 1889, in the year that Ray Randall was born, on April 22nd, at "high noon," about 50,000 people took off to claim open lands in the Land Rush of 1889. Called the "Unassigned Lands," part or all of 6 counties in Oklahoma were up for grabs. By the end of the day, Oklahoma City and Guthrie were created - each with about 10,000 inhabitants.

In 1893, when he was just 4 years old, on March 4th, Grover Cleveland became the 24th President of the United States. On July 1st, President Cleveland was operated on for a non-cancerous tumor in his mouth. He chose to have the operation secretly because he didn't want to worsen the financial depression that was occurring at the time.

In 1911, he was 22 years old when the first Indianapolis 500 was run in May. Ray Harroun was the winner - he was an engineer and had retired from racing but he came back for this race. After the race, he retired for good. The purse was $27,550 - the largest offered up to that time - and Harroun received $10,000 for first place. His average time was 74.602 mph.

In 1949, Ray was 60 years old when on April 4th, NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization) was established. Twelve nations originally signed the North Atlantic Treaty - the United States, Great Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Iceland, Canada, and Portugal. Greece, Turkey, and West Germany later joined. Today, there are 26 nations in NATO.

In 1974, in the year of Ray Randall's passing, on August 9th, Gerald R. Ford became the 38th President of the United States. He had been Vice President for 8 months when he became President due to the resignation of President Nixon.