November 4, 1924: The 1st Woman Elected Governor

November 4, 1924: Nellie Tayloe Ross is elected Governor of Wyoming. She is the 1st woman to be elected Governor of any State. It is with some appropriateness that the 1st State to elect a female Governor was Wyoming: When it was established as a Territory in 1869, it gave women the right to vote; and, when it gained Statehood in 1890, it was the 1st State to grant that right.

Nellie Davis Tayloe was born on November 29, 1876 in St. Joseph, Missouri, and grew up in Miltonvale, Kansas. She became a kindergarten teacher, and married William B. Ross in 1902.

William Ross was elected Governor of Wyoming in 1922, but died on October 2, 1924, from complications from an appendectomy. Under the State Constitution, the new Governor was the State's Secretary of State, Frank Lucas -- a Republican, so the Democrats had lost the office.

Also under the State Constitution, a special election had to be held to fill the post of a Governor who did not complete his term. Officials in the State's Democratic Party had a better chance of keeping the Governorship if Mrs. Ross were the nominee than if anyone else was, since she would get a sympathy vote, and a pro-Prohibition vote, that would more than cancel out any vote against her because of her gender.

She was reluctant to accept the nomination, but after all the other suggested candidates dropped out of the race, she was unanimously nominated by a State Party convention. Moved by this gesture, she accepted. Lucas himself lost the nomination at the Republican Convention, to former State Representative Eugene J. Sullivan. In the general election, despite a national landslide for President Calvin Coolidge, which also gave the Republicans control of both houses of Congress (I have a separate entry for that event), Mrs. Ross got 55 percent of the vote, becoming the 1st woman ever to be elected Governor of any State.

She was inaugurated on January 5, 1925. However, times were changing, and one of the changes is that America, having ratified the 18th Amendment for the Prohibition of buying, holding, transporting and selling alcoholic beverages, had now turned against the idea, going from "dry" to "wet." Mrs. Ross still supported Prohibition. When she ran for re-election in 1926, she lost to former State Engineer Frank Emerson, by only 1,365 votes.

She was only 50 years old, so her political career was not necessarily over. She remained active in the State's Democratic Party. In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed her Director of the United States Mint, the 1st woman to hold that office. She served in that office for the entirety of the FDR and Harry Truman Administrations, 20 years. She later wrote for women's magazines.

On November 5, 1974, Ella Grasso of Connecticut, a Democrat, became the 1st woman elected Governor of any State without her husband having previously been Governor, as had been the case with Mrs. Ross, Miriam "Ma" Ferguson of Texas, and Lurleen Wallace of Alabama. She was inaugurated on January 8, 1975. Nellie Tayloe Ross lived to see this, living until December 19, 1977, at the age of 101.

Each State's 1st female Governor -- if any -- and her year of assuming the office:

1. 1925, Wyoming: Nellie Tayloe Ross

2. 1925, Texas: Miriam "Ma" Ferguson (In 1990, Ann Richards became the 1st non-wife elected Governor.)

3. 1967, Alabama: Lurleen Wallace (In 2017, Kay Ivey became Acting Governor, and was elected in her own right in 2018.)

4. 1975, Connecticut: Ella Grasso

5. 1977, Washington: Dixy Lee Ray

6. 1982, New Hampshire: Vesta Roy (Acting Governor for 8 days. Jeanne Shaheen was elected in 1996.)

7. 1983, Kentucky: Martha Layne Collins

8. 1985, Vermont: Madeleine Kunin

9. 1987, Nebraska: Kay Orr

10. 1988, Arizona: Ross Mofford (Acting Governor for nearly 3 years. Jane Hull became Acting Governor in 1997, and was elected in her own right in 1998. Janet Napolitano was elected in 2002, without having been Acting Governor.)

11. 1991, Kansas: Joan Finney

12. 1991, Oregon: Barbara Roberts (In 2015, Kate Brown of Oregon became the 1st openly gay female Governor of any State.)

13. 1994, New Jersey: Christine Todd Whitman

14. 1998, Ohio: Nancy Hollister (Acting Governor for 11 days.)

15. 2001, Montana: Judy Martz

16. 2001, Delaware: Ruth Ann Minner

17. 2001, Massachusetts: Jane Swift (Acting Governor for a year and a half. Maura Healey was elected in 2022.)

18. 2002, Hawaii: Linda Lingle

19. 2003, Michigan: Jennifer Granholm

20. 2003, Utah: Olene Walker (Acting Governor for a little over a year.)

21. 2004, Louisiana: Kathleen Blanco

22. 2006, Alaska: Sarah Palin

23. 2009, North Carolina: Bev Perdue

24. 2011, New Mexico: Susana Martinez (1st Hispanic female Governor of any State.)

25. 2011, Oklahoma: Mary Fallin

26. 2011, South Carolina: Nikki Haley (1st Asian-American female Governor of any State.)

27. 2015, Rhode Island: Gina Raimondo

28. 2017, Iowa: Kim Reynolds (Acting Governor, elected in her own right in 2018.)

29. 2019, Maine: Janet Mills

30. 2019, South Dakota: Kristi Noem

31. 2021, New York: Kathy Hochul (Acting Governor, elected in her own right in 2022.)

None yet: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, West Virginia, Wisconsin.

UPDATE: In 2023, Arkansas became the 32nd State with a female Governor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, daughter of former Governor and Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. In 2026, Virginia became the 33rd, Abigail Spanberger. A few days later, New Jersey swore in Mikie Sherrill, who was elected on the same day. In a weird turn of events, Sherrill was born and raised in Virginia, Spanberger was born and raised in New Jersey, and, as members of the House of Representatives, were roommates in a Washington apartment.

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November 4, 1924 was, like all modern American Election Days, a Tuesday. Despite Coolidge's landslide, Nellie Tayloe Ross, a Democrat, was elected Governor of Wyoming, to replace her late husband, William B. Ross. I have a separate entry for that occurrence.

The World Series had ended 25 days before, with the Washington Senators winning, as it turned out, their only World Championship. As I mentioned, Calvin and Grace Coolidge were in attendance. Football was in midweek. The NHL season was 25 days away. And professional basketball barely existed. So there were no scores on this historic day.

October 12, 1998: The Murder of Matthew Shepard

October 12, 1998: Matthew Shepard, an openly gay student at the University of Wyoming, dies 5 days after being beaten and tied to a wooden fence post -- a filthy twist on the Crucifixion -- in the University's town of Laramie. He was a few weeks short of his 22nd birthday. His killers were convicted, and sentenced to life in prison, where they remain.

As it happened, after he was found, he was taken to a hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado. Fort Collins is the home of Colorado State University -- which the University of Wyoming considers their arch-rival in sports. (And likewise. The University of Colorado is each's secondary rival, but considers its own biggest rival to be the University of Nebraska.)

Matthew Shepard effectively became to the gay rights movement what Emmett Till was to the original Civil Rights Movement. His murder helped to create a new generation of gay rights activists, one not old enough to remember the depth of the AIDS epidemic in the mid-1980s, much less the Stonewall Riot in 1969 or the assassination of Harvey Milk and its aftermatch in 1978 and '79. It also inspired hate-crime legislation.

On May 6, 2013, basketball player Jason Collins became the 1st major league athlete to come out while still active. He had already dropped a hint at the start of that season, when, having been signed by the Boston Celtics, he switched his uniform number from the 34 he had worn with previous teams to 98, in Matthew's memory.

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October 12, 1998 was a Monday. Game 5 of the National League Championship Series was played at Qualcomm Stadium, formerly named San Diego Stadium and Jack Murphy Stadium. After 7 innings, the San Diego Padres led the Atlanta Braves, 4-2. The Braves scored 5 runs in the top of the 8th, to take the lead. The Padres tried to come back in the bottom of the 9th, and fell just short, 7-6.

The Padres had led the series 3 games to none. Now, the Braves had closed to within 3-2. To that point, no team, in either League's Championship Series history, had come back from being down 3-0 to force a Game 7. This was the 1st time a Game 6 had even been forced. But the Padres won Game 6 in Atlanta to take the Pennant.

The American League Championship Series was on a travel day. The New York Yankees led the Cleveland Indians, 3 games to 2. The next night, the Yankees won Game 6 to take the Pennant.

And on ABC Monday Night Football, the Jacksonville Jaguars beat the Miami Dolphins, 28-21 at Alltel Stadium (now TIAA Bank Field) in Jacksonville, Florida.

July 10, 1890: Wyoming Is Admitted As the 44th State

July 10, 1890: Wyoming is admitted to the Union as the 44th State. It is known as the Equality State, because it was the 1st State, and before that the 1st Territory, in the Union to grant women the right to vote.

This concluded a run that started on November 2, 1889, where, in 8 months, 6 new States were added to the Union.

Wyoming is in the Rocky Mountains. It had been acquired as part of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. It has become known for cattle ranches, mining, and Yellowstone National Park, the nation's 1st National Park.

Politically, Idaho has been Western conservative, with a libertarian bent: Pro-gun, pro-landowner. Its highest-ranking politician is Dick Cheney, who served as White House Chief of Staff under President Gerald Ford, Wyoming's only Congressman from 1979 to 1989, as Secretary of State under George Bush the father, and as Vice President to George Bush the son.

Among the 50 States, Wyoming is last in alphabetical order, and last in population, with 576,851 people according to the 2020 Census. The State is huge and sparsely-populated: While Cheyenne, the State Capitol and the largest city, with 65,000 people, is only 100 miles from the major league city of Denver, and Laramie, seat of the University of Wyoming, the only major sports-playing college in the State, is just 130 miles away, Yellowstone, at the opposite corner of the State, is over 530 miles away, and nearly 800 miles from Seattle.

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July 10, 1890 was a Thursday. Baseball was the only professional team sport in America, and it was the year of the Players' League, so there were 3 major leagues.

In the National League:

* The New York Giants beat the Pittsburgh Alleghenys, 14-3 at Manhattan Field in Upper Manhattan. The NL Giants built that, while the Players' League team that stole the name built the 1890-1911 version of the Polo Grounds next-door. After the PL folded, the Giants moved into that Polo Grounds.

* The Brooklyn Bridegrooms beat the Cincinnati Reds, 5-3 at the original Washington Park in Brooklyn.

* The Boston Beaneaters beat the Chicago Colts, 5-3 at the 1888-94 version of the South End Grounds in Boston. The Beaneaters eventually became the Braves, and the Colts became the Cubs.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Cleveland Spiders, 14-9 at the Philadelphia Base Ball Grounds. It burned down in 1894, and the ballpark that became Baker Bowl was built on the site. The Spiders went out of business after the 1899 season.

In the American Association:

* The Brooklyn Gladiators beat the Toledo Maumees, 9-6 at Speranza Park in Toledo, Ohio. The Gladiators finished a distant last in the AA, and folded after the season. The Maumees folded with the AA after the 1891 season.

* The Rochester Broncos beat the Columbus Solons, 11-9 at Recreation Park in Columbus, Ohio. This would be the only season in MLB for Rochester. The Solons finished 2nd in the AA, albeit 10 games behind the Colonels, but still lost money, and folded with the league after the 1891 season.

* The Louisville Colonels beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 12-3 at Eclipse Park in Louisville, Kentucky. This version of the A's folded with the AA after the 1891 season. At that point, the Colonels joined the NL.

* The Syracuse Stars beat the St. Louis Browns, 5-3 at the 1881-98 version of Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. The Stars were among the losers in the "Players' League War," and folded after the season. Syracuse previously had a team called the Stars in the NL in 1879. These are, to date, the only 2 seasons in MLB for the city. The Browns joined the NL in 1892, and became the Cardinals.

In the Players' League:

* The PL's version of the New York Giants beat the PL's version of the Chicago White Stockings, 9-5 at the 1890-1911 version of the Polo Grounds.

* The Brooklyn Ward's Wonders beat the Buffalo Bisons, 8-5 at Eastern Park in Brooklyn. The Brooklyn team was named after their star shortstop, the PL's founder, John Montgomery Ward. Although the Buffalo Bisons name would be applied to later teams in multiple sports, this team died with the PL.

* The Boston Reds beat the Pittsburgh Burghers, 12-6 at the Congress Street Grounds in Boston.

* And the Philadelphia Athletics beat the Cleveland Infants, 17-11 at Forepaugh Park in Philadelphia.

March 1, 1872: Yellowstone National Park Is Established

Old Faithful

March 1, 1872: President Ulysses S. Grant signs the Yellowstone National Park Protection Act, establishing the park of the same name. It is the beginning of America's National Park Service, and it makes Yellowstone the 1st national park anywhere in the world.

The park is known for its wildlife, its subalpine forest, and its many geothermal features, especially a geyser known as Old Faithful. First observed in 1870, its eruptions can shoot 3,700 to 8,400 gallons of boiling water to a height of 106 to 185 feet, lasting from 1½ to 5 minutes. The average height of an eruption is 145 feet.

The name "Old Faithful" came because it supposedly erupted once an hour. This isn't quite accurate, but close. Intervals between eruptions have ranged from 34 to 125 minutes, averaging 66½ minutes in 1939, slowly increasing to an average of 90 minutes apart since 2000, which may be the result of earthquakes affecting subterranean water levels.

Yellowstone is in the northwestern corner of Wyoming, with some spillover into Montana and Idaho, in the Rocky Mountains, and is far from any major city: 336 miles northeast of Salt Lake City, 403 miles east of Boise, and 589 miles northwest of Denver. It's the kind of place that you have to want to go to, that you don't discover by accident. It includes a portion of the Continental Divide, the point at which the direction of rivers change: East of it, rivers tend to run to the east; west of it, to the west.

It takes in about 3 million visitors every year, exceeded by only a few other parks in the system: Great Smoky Mountains National Park stretching across the State Line of Tennessee and North Carolina, Grand Canyon in Arizona, Zion in Utah, Rocky Mountain in Colorado, Acadia in Maine, and Yosemite in California.

The National Park Service is operated by the U.S. Department of the Interior. It is headquartered at the Main Interior Building, which opened in 1936 at 1849 C Street NW in Washington.

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March 1, 1872 was a Friday. Since it was too soon for baseball, the off-season for what Americans were then calling "football," and over 19 years before the invention of basketball, there were no scores on this historic day.

January 5, 1904: "The Virginian" Premieres Onstage

Owen Wister

January 5, 1904: The Virginian premieres at the Manhattan Theatre, at 102 West 33rd Street. The play was written by Owen Wister, who had written the 1902 novel on which it was based, and established Broadway writer Kirke LaShelle. Dustin Farnum played the title role.

Note: I'm citing the date of the play's premiere, because I can't find an exact date of publication for the book.

At the time, 34th Street was the center of New York's Theater District. It had a habit of moving 10 blocks Uptown every few years. Over the next few years, it moved up to 42nd Street, and by the 1920s, it pretty much filled up the space between 42nd and 57th Streets, and 6th and 8th Avenues, where it remains.

The Virginian is set in Wyoming, at some undetermined time, but between the end of the American Civil War in 1865 and Wyoming's Statehood in 1890, in what was already being called "The Wild West." The name of the title character, a ranch foreman, is never officially given, although the novel's narrator calls him "Jeff." Otherwise, he is only referred to as "The Virginian."

The novel, the play based on it, and eventually the films based on it helped to popularize many of the tropes we now associated with the Wild West, many of which either never happened or were greatly exaggerated.

The Virginian himself arrives in town as a "tall dark stranger," and is "the strong, silent type." At one point, he is called "you son of a bitch," and he responds with, "When you say that, smile!" (Which, thanks to the Gary Cooper film version, tends to get remembered as, "Smile when you say that, stranger!") He is a man of honor, refusing to shoot the novel's antagonist in the back. (This becomes, in the public mind, part of "The Code of the West.") But he does face the antagonist in a gun duel in the middle of a street, and this is often credited as the first such duel in literature. And he romances the virtuous local schoolteacher, or "schoolmarm," instead of any of the "fallen women" who make up the "saloon girls."

Farnum starred in the 1st film version, a silent one produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille in 1914. This was followed by a 1923 silent film starring Kenneth Harlan, the 1st "talkie" version in 1929 with Gary Cooper, and a 1946 version with Joel McCrea.

The best-known version remains NBC's 1962-71 drama, the only prime-time show in American history to have 90-minute episodes. James Drury starred. Through 9 seasons and 249 episodes, the Virginian's real name was never revealed. It has been suggested, but not proven, that The Virginian was the 1st TV show to be promoted by its network with the words, "Whatever you do, don't miss the last five minutes."

One major difference between the character and most Western heroes: He wore a black hat, usually a sign of a bad guy, although Richard Boone also wore one in Have Gun -- Will Travel, and Pernell Roberts tended to wear one on Bonanza.

James Drury

The TV version of The Virginian proved so definitive, only one version has been tried since, a 2014 film starring country singer Trace Adkins.

LaShelle died in 1905, a pair of household accidents having combined with diabetes to damage his health. He was only 42 years old. Farnum died in 1929, Wister in 1938, Cooper in 1961, and Drury in 2020 (not from COVID).

The Manhattan Theatre was torn down in 1909, to make way for a new home for Gimbels department store. That building is still on the site, occupied by the Manhattan Mall.

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January 5, 1904 was a Tuesday. Astrologer Jeane Dixon was born on this day. But there were no scores: Baseball and football were out of season, and basketball and hockey were strictly minor-league at this point.