Rebecca Jane [Deisher] Rose (born 1857)

In 1857, in the year that Rebecca Jane [Deisher] Rose was born, on March 2nd, the largest slave auction in US history was begun. Called "The Weeping Time", the auction lasted 2 days. Slave owner Pierce M. Butler - who had inherited the slaves 20 years before but was now deeply in debt - sold 436 men, women, children, and infants, all of whom were kept in stalls at a racetrack in Savannah, Georgia. The people were held for weeks before the auction in the horse stalls.

In 1872, on May 22nd, President Ulysses S. Grant signed the Amnesty Act of 1872. The Act restored full civil rights to secessionists, including about 150,000 former slaves who had fought in the Confederate Army. About 500 former Confederate sympathizers were not allowed their full civil rights.

In 1967, between June 5th and 10th, Israeli and Egypt, Jordan, and Syria fought what came to be called the "Six-Day War". The hostilities began when Israel launched "preemptive" strikes against Egypt, destroying nearly its entire air force. It ended with Israel occupying the Sinai Peninsula, Golan Heights, Gaza Strip and West Bank.

In 1976, on August 4th, a mysterious illness struck an American Legion convention in Philadelphia. Within a week, 25 people had died and 130 people had been hospitalized. It was the first known instance of what came to be called "Legionnaires Disease."

In 1996, on July 5th, the first cloned mammal - "Dolly the Sheep" - was born in Scotland. She had three mothers. Dolly lived to be 6 years old and produced 6 lambs. Since, other sheep have been cloned as well as horses, pigs, deer, and bulls.