Stella Fridman (1874 - 1974)

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

In 1874, in the year that Stella Fridman was born, on May 20th, Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis were approved for a patent for "blue jeans with copper rivets". They charged $13.50 per dozen jeans. Although the term "jeans" was first used in 1795 - in Italy - using rivets to reinforce stress points in jeans such as pockets and the bottom of the fly was an original idea..

In 1892, Stella was 18 years old when on October 5th, the Dalton Gang was shot. The Gang was attempting to rob two banks - simultaneously - in Coffeyville Kansas but word spread of the robberies and townspeople with guns greeted them when they left the banks. Four members of the gang were killed - only Emmett Dalton survived his wounds and spent 14 years in prison.

In 1942, she was 68 years old when on February 19th, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. This authorized the Secretary of War to "prescribe certain areas as military zones." On March 21st, he signed Public Law 503 which was approved after an hour discussion in the Senate and 30 minutes in the House. The Law provided for enforcement of his Executive Order. This cleared the way for approximately 120,000 men, women, and children of Japanese ancestry to be evicted from the West Coast and to be held in concentration camps and other confinement sites across the country. In Hawaii, a few thousand were detained. German and Italian Americans in the U.S. were also confined.

In 1967, she was 93 years old when on October 2nd, Thurgood Marshall was sworn in as the first black US Supreme Court justice. Marshall was the great-grandson of a slave and graduated first in his class at Howard University Law School. His nomination to the Supreme Court was approved by the Senate, 69 to 11.

In 1974, in the year of Stella Fridman's passing, on February 5th, Patty Hearst, age 19 - granddaughter of William Randolph Hearst and daughter of publisher of the San Francisco Examiner Randolph Hearst - was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army, a left wing terrorist group. She was found, alive, 19 months later.