August 22 · This Day in America
In Hartford, Connecticut, Theodore Roosevelt steps up into a Columbia Electric Victoria Phaeton and rides through the streets, waving to thousands lined along the route — the first time a sitting president travels by automobile in a public procession. It is a small, almost comic scene: the car tops out around thirteen miles an hour, and the leisurely ride takes nearly three hours, a carriage of mounted Secret Service trotting alongside. But the symbolism is enormous. The most famous man in America, the embodiment of the strenuous life, has chosen the machine over the horse, in public, on purpose. Within a generation the automobile will remake American streets, work, courtship, and geography itself. Standing in that open electric car, grinning under his mustache, Roosevelt is riding straight into the century that the United States will spend on wheels.
Source: connecticuthistory.org
Also on this day · 1851
Off the Isle of Wight, the American yacht America races a fleet of Britain's finest around the island for a silver cup. She wins so decisively that, legend says, when Queen Victoria asks who is second, the answer comes back: "Your Majesty, there is no second." The trophy is carried home and renamed the America's Cup — and no challenger would pry it from American hands for 132 years, the longest winning streak in sports.
Source: www.britannica.com