Nixon Nominates First Female Generals; Queen Elizabeth Attends First Baseball Game: Today In History

May 15, 2017, is the 135th day of the year, with 230 days remaining. The moon is in a waning gibbous phase, with illumination at 82 percent.

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Nixon nominates first female generals for U.S. Armed Forces

In 1970, President Richard Nixon announced the first women selected for promotion to brigadier general: Anna Mae Hays, chief of the Army Nurse Corps, and Elizabeth Hoisington, a U.S. Army officer. The announcement made front-page headlines, with the Chicago Tribune reporting on the event for the historic occasion that it was. It was the first time that a woman — let alone two — had been on a promotion list for the position of general since Congress authorized general’s stars for women in 1967.

In June of that year, Hays and Hoisington were promoted within minutes of each other, and because the two were promoted in alphabetical order, Hays became the first woman in the U.S. Armed Forces to wear the insignia of a brigadier general.

Bush takes Queen Elizabeth to Orioles game

Queen Elizabeth II of England garnered a standing ovation from fans who attended the Orioles game in 1991. Her date? President George H.W. Bush.

The two leaders, alongside their respective spouses, waved to a crowd of 32,596 on the Memorial Stadium field, with Van Morrison’s “Brown-Eyed Girl” playing overhead through the public address system.

“It was thrilling and very exciting,” said then-Orioles manager Frank Robinson, as reported by UPI. “It didn’t last very long because we were rushed through. I just shook her hand and said ‘Your Majesty’ and ‘Your Highness.’”

This was the queen’s first baseball game. After two innings, the Bushes and their English guests departed.

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Photo credit: Hays image via U.S. Army, Hoisington image via U.S. Army Signal Corps