On this day in 1947 aviator Kenneth Arnold of Washington State made the first widely reported UFO sighting. As he was flying a plane near Mt Rainer in Washington, he claims to have seen nine unusual flying objects. He said they were shaped like a pie pan or like a saucer. The term “flying saucer” was quickly used by the media. The US Government was quick to label Arnold’s sighting a mirage as they generally are wont to do with UFO sightings. 

Arnold’s sighting is notable for the stir it caused. UFO sightings increased after his report and he participated in a few interviews of people claiming they had contact with aliens.

But Arnold grew tired of UFOs and the enthusiasts and stopped all UFO-related guest appearances. But on the 30-year anniversary of his sighting he showed up to the first International UFO Congress meeting in Chicago and said a few words as a guest of honor. The plane Arnold was flying when he made the sighting is preserved at a small aircraft museum in the town of Concrete, Washington and supposedly still flies smoothly. 

Today is the birthday of Chuck Taylor, American basketball player and salesman. Chuck played semi-professional basketball in the late 1910s, but the sport was loosely organized at the time, with teams starting up and disbanding the next year. 

A love of basketball and a true people-person made Chuck the perfect hire as the salesman for the new Converse basketball shoe. But before he would sell the shoe, Taylor had feedback on the rubber shoe company’s latest sneaker. He felt the shoe was too restrictive in places and suggested a flexible material be used. Additionally, he recommended a higher rise in the shoe for ankle support. 

With the Converse All Star shoe ready for the market, Chuck began traveling around hosting basketball clinics to promote basketball and, conveniently, the Converse All-Star sneaker. People didn’t always remember the name of the shoe, but Chuck’s gregarious personality certainly left an impression. People started calling the shoes “Chucks” or “Chuck Taylors.” In the 1930s, Converse embraces the Chuck Taylor name and added Chuck’s signature to the star patch on the shoe. 

His affable personality allowed him to amass an incredible Rolodex of coaches, players, athletic directors, and sports enthusiasts. It became easier and easier for him to find towns that would be happy to host his next clinic.  Over the years Chuck sharp people skills meant that coaches and athletic directors from all over would call him to recommend personnel for their staff. 

During his time at Converse, Taylor invented a “stitchless” basketball that was easier to handle and he was eventually promoted to their marketing director. He was such a staunch promoter he was asked to travel internationally to promote basketball.  

He was so well connected in the basketball world that when basketball became an Olympic sport in 1936, Taylor’s modified All-Star design became the official shoe of the men’s basketball team for the game that year until 1968. 

Chuck Taylor was inducted into the Sporting Goods Hall of Fame in 1958 and the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1968, a year before his death at age 67. 

 

Robert Louis Stevenson

 

Faster than fairies, faster than witches,

Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches;

And charging along like troops in a battle,

All through the meadows the horses and cattle:

All of the sights of the hill and the plain

Fly as thick as driving rain;

And ever again, in the wink of an eye,

Painted stations whistle by.

 

Here is a child who clambers and scrambles,

All by himself and gathering brambles;

Here is a tramp who stands and gazes;

And there is the green for stringing the daisies!

Here is a cart run away in the road

Lumping along with man and load;

And here is a mill and there is a river:

Each a glimpse and gone for ever!