Stella Markova (1887 - 1967)

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

In 1887, in the year that Stella Markova was born, on January 28th, the largest recorded snowflakes fell in a snowstorm in Fort Keogh, Montana. They were supposed to have been 15 inches wide and 8 inches thick. A rancher in the area said that they were “larger than milk pans”. A Wild West tall tale? Not according to the Guinness World Records book.

In 1898, by the time she was merely 11 years old, magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company controlled 84% of the oil and pipelines in the United States. Rockefeller grew Standard Oil through the merger of several other small oil companies throughout the U.S., creating a monopoly.

In 1911, by the time she was 24 years old, the United States Supreme Court broke up Standard Oil in May. John D. Rockefeller established Standard Oil in 1870 and it was the largest oil refinery at the time. The Supreme Court found that Standard Oil of New Jersey (one of the many iterations of Standard Oil) was guilty of "monopolizing the petroleum industry through a series of abusive and anticompetitive actions". The Court broke up the several entities that comprised Standard Oil and they eventually became competing firms.

In 1959, Stella was 72 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 1967, in the year of Stella Markova's passing, 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.