Today in History — October 16

1841 – The Church of Scotland establishes Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, under a charter from Queen Victoria..

1846 – Dentist William Morton makes the first public display of anaesthesia before a skeptical audience at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. A surgeon uses inhaled ether to remove a tumor painlessly from the neck of a patient.

1869 – The College for Women (now Girton College, Cambridge) is founded as the first residential college for women in England.

1875 – Brigham Young University is founded by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Provo, Utah.

1882 – The New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad—known mostly by its nickname, the Nickel Plate Road—opens for business.

1898 – Future U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Orville Douglas is born at Maine Township in Otter Tail County, Minnesota.

1923 – Two young men from Chicago, Roy (age 30) and Walt (22) found the “Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio” in their uncle’s garage in Los Angeles.

FGS