1971: Fred Smith incorporates in Delaware a company he calls Federal Express Corp.

Source: “Absolutely Positively Overnight” by Robert A. Sigafoos

1957: Plough Inc. buys Coppertone Sales Corp. of Miami in a stock swap, Plough founder Abe Plough announces. Plough turns over 777,682 of its shares for all of the capital stock of Coppertone and the company that makes its suntan lotions and other products, Douglas Laboratories Corp. Three years earlier, Coppertone had trademarked its “Little Miss Coppertone” image, which would become one of the most famous logos in American advertising history. Within a year of the sale to Plough, Coppertone would become the largest-selling suncare brand in the world.

Source: www.coppertone.ca

1858: The steamboat “Pennsylvania” explodes 70 miles downriver from Memphis, killing hundreds of people on board. Those injured and who later died from their injuries flooded Memphis hospitals, including 20-year-old Henry Clemens, whose brother Samuel Clemens would come to the city to be by his brother’s bedside until his death. Clemens wrote his sister that “Memphis is the noblest place on the face of the earth. She has done her duty by the poor afflicted creatures.” Clemens would later be known by his pen name, Mark Twain.

1978: On the front page of The Daily News, Calvin Henze, the president of Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division, announces his involuntary retirement as head of the utility after 17 years, effective in September. Henze has been locked in a feud with Memphis Mayor Wyeth Chandler and references the differences without mentioning Chandler by name. “If the people of Memphis are to continue to receive the benefit of low utility rates, it is imperative that professional people continue to operate MLGW – it is not a job for politicians,” Henze says. Henze is rumored to be a potential candidate for mayor in the 1979 city elections. He announces his retirement as the Memphis City Council is considering the utility’s request for an increase in electric rates.