June 16 Birthday
On June 16, 1963, Valentina Tereshkova, a twenty-six-year-old textile worker and amateur parachutist, became the first woman in space. She orbited Earth forty-eight times in seventy-one hours. She was chosen from five candidates — all civilians, all parachutists. Tereshkova did not tell ground control she had a problem with her spacesuit. She did not tell them she was nauseated. She reported years later that "we women pilots, we were ready to fly." No other woman flew in space for nineteen years, until Svetlana Savitskaya in 1982. The United States did not send a woman into space until Sally Ride in 1983. Tereshkova never flew again. Ford Motor Company was incorporated on June 16, 1903, with $28,000 from twelve investors. The first car, the Model A, was sold in July. Henry Ford had already started two failed companies. The third one succeeded because Ford combined the assembly line, interchangeable parts, and a single model. The Model T, introduced in 1908, was $850 — about half the price of competing cars. By 1925, it was $260. Ford built fifteen million Model Ts. The last one rolled off the line in 1927. People born on June 16 fall under the zodiac sign of Gemini. The birthstone is Pearl and the birth flower is Rose. Historical events on June 16 include 1903: Ford Motor Company incorporated in Dearborn, Michigan, 1963: Valentina Tereshkova becomes first woman in space aboard Vostok 6, 1884: First roller coaster opens at Coney Island (Switchback Railway). Famous people born on June 16 include Stan Laurel (1890), Tupac Shakur (1971), Joan Lunden (1950).