Virgil Newlands (1879 - 1969)

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

In 1879, in the year that Virgil Newlands was born, on October 22nd, Thomas Edison tested the first practical electric light bulb. Lasting 13½ hours before burning out, it used a "a carbon filament or strip coiled and connected to platina contact wires". He applied for a patent on November 4th, receiving the patent in January 1880.

In 1890, Virgil was just 11 years old when on December 29th, the Wounded Knee Massacre occurred in South Dakota on the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation . The U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment said that they rode into the Lakota camp "trying to disarm" the inhabitants. One person, Black Coyote - who was deaf - held onto his rifle, saying that he paid a lot of money for it. Shots rang out and by the end at least 153 Lakota Sioux - some estimates say 300 - and 25 troops had died. The site of the massacre is a National Historic Landmark.

In 1921, Virgil was 42 years old when the silent film The Sheik, directed by George Melford and starring Rudolph Valentino and Agnes Ayres (also featuring Adolphe Menjou) debuted on October 21st. Critics weren't enthusiastic but the public loved it - in the first few weeks 125,000 people had seen the movie - and it eventually exceeded $1 million in ticket sales. And Rudolph Valentino, an Italian American, became the heartthrob of a female generation.

In 1959, at the age of 80 years old, Virgil was alive 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 1969, in the year of Virgil Newlands's passing, on July 20th, the first men walked on the moon. Apollo 11 astronauts Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. both walked on the moon but it was Armstrong who first stepped on the moon. They fulfilled the promise of President Kennedy's commitment in 1961 to put a man on the moon before the end of the decade.