1840     Mother Theodore Guerin and five other Sisters of Providence began organization of St. Mary of the Woods College near Terre Haute.  In 1846, the college was granted the first charter for higher education of women in the state of Indiana.  Mother Theodore also established schools in other cities, including Jasper, Vincennes, Madison, Fort Wayne, Evansville, and Columbus.

1920     Over 13,000 Indiana teachers were in Indianapolis for their annual convention.  They met in five different venues in the city:  Tomlinson Hall, Caleb Mills Hall, the Masonic Temple, the Claypool Hotel, and the Meridian Street Methodist Episcopal Church.  Guest speakers included former United States Senator Albert J. Beveridge and Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis.

1929     “The Celebration of Light’s Golden Jubilee” was held in Indianapolis.  The event honored the 50th anniversary of Thomas Edison’s invention of the electric light.  Airplanes flew over the World War Memorial while searchlights “spotted” them in the air.  One beam was rated at one-billion candlepower.  Other planes flew low over residential sections of the city with “Edison” spelled out in lights on their lower wings.

1930     Indianapolis residents with a sense of adventure were invited to take a ride in the Goodyear Blimp.  Named The Vigilant, the Zeppelin-Type ship was 128 feet long and 37 feet in diameter.  It carried 86,000 pounds of helium.  For a fee of $5.00, passengers were given a 15-minute ride over the city at 1,500 feet.  The craft was under the command of Charles E. Brannigan, a world war test pilot.

1954     The TR-1, the first transistor radio, went into production by the Regency Company in Indianapolis. Selling at $50, the radio was expensive for its time but caught on quickly because of its small “pocket size.”  Over 100,000 were sold the first year.  According to the Smithsonian Magazine, the TR-1 “launched the portable electronic age.”

1987     Under a heavy cloud cover, an Air Force Corsair jet crashed into the Ramada Inn near the Indianapolis airport.  The plane was en route to Tinker Air Base in Oklahoma when the engine flamed out.  The pilot was able to eject, but 10 people in the hotel were killed.

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Indiana Statehouse Tour Office

Indiana Department of Administration

Tours of the Indiana Statehouse are offered Monday through Friday by appointment only.  For more information, please contact us.

You are invited to take a “Virtual Tour” of the Statehouse by clicking the link at the bottom of this page.

(317) 233-5293
touroffice@idoa.in.gov 

Indiana Quick Quiz

     Match each of the following Indiana schools to its location.

1.  Taylor University  2.  DePauw University  3.  Earlham University  4.  Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology  5.  Martin University

A.  Richmond   B.  Indianapolis        C.  Upland   D.  Greencastle        E.  Terre Haute

Answers Below

Hoosier Quote of the Week

“We are not called upon to do all the good possible, but only that which we can do.”

– – -  Mother Theodore Guerin (1798 – 1856)

Did You Know?

     At age 17, Thomas Edison came to Indianapolis to work as a telegraph operator at the old Union Station.  He had already had a stint in Fort Wayne.  At the time, Western Union was paying its telegraphers a salary of $75 a month, not bad for 1864 when skilled craftsmen were making about $50 a month.  It is thought that the young Edison boarded in a home at the southeast corner of Illinois and Market Streets.  While in the Hoosier capital, he developed what might have been his first true invention.  It was a combination device that would record a telegraph message on a paper tape and then play it back at a slower speed to make the message easier to transcribe.   Alas, the young inventor spent too much time inventing and too little time at the telegraph key.  He was fired after a few months, and he moved on to another telegraph job in Cincinnati.

ANSWERS:  1.  C     2.  D     3.  A    4.  E     5.  B