This Day in American History for Kids — Nov 12: The First Paid Football Player and Voyager 1 at Saturn

Host 1: Welcome to this day in American history for kids on this day November 12th well we are digging into some amazing things that all happened on this exact calendar date

Host 2: Right because instead of just you know looking at history in a straight line it is fun to look straight down through one single date

Host 1: yeah we are looking at American sports immigration and space all on November 12th it shows how people always want to push boundaries so let's jump into 1892.

Host 2: Okay. So picture Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania you have two rival football teams but back then football was an amateur sport

Host 1: Meaning you just played for fun right like nobody got paid

Host 2: Exactly. You played for pride. But the Allegheny Athletic Association well they wanted to win bad. So they secretly gave William Pudge Heffelfinger $500 in cash to play for them.

Host 1: Oh, wow. I mean $500 today NFL contracts are huge but back then that was a lot of money

Host 2: A very big deal. It changed the whole motivation of the sport turning play into a job and Pudge he proved he was worth it

Host 1: What did he do?

Host 2: He forced a fumble and ran 25 yards for a touchdown

Host 1: Wait a touchdown how many points did they get for that?

Host 2: Back then a touchdown was only worth four points but it won the game four to nothing

Host 1: that is so cool

Host 2: yeah

Host 1: like one single transaction started a whole new industry

Host 2: yeah and you know 1892 wasn't important year for another reason Ellis Island opened

Host 1: oh right

Host 2: mm-hmm

Host 1: the famous immigration station where millions of people came to America for a new life

Host 2: yep and it actually officially closed on November 12 1954 after they released the very last person a sailor from Norway

Host 1: Wow 1954

Host 2: so over all those years how many people passed through

Host 1: Over 12 million immigrants.

Host 2: Mm-hmm and the very first one back in 1892 was an Irish teenager named Annie Moore.

Host 1: I think I read about her the record said she was 15 right

Host 2: Well official records said 15 but genealogists you know people who study family history later figured out she was probably 17

Host 1: Oh interesting

Host 2: Mm-hmm

Host 1: so her exact age is a bit disputed.

Host 2: Right but when she arrived officials handed her a $10 gold coin her first American money

Host 1: I love that you have Pudge's $500 starting a new sport and Annie's $10 coin giving her hope in a new country Both coins funded the future in very different ways.

Host 2: That is a great way to put it. And that same human drive to cross oceans eventually took us to space. Let's fast forward to November 12th, 1980.

Host 1: Oh and also on this day in 1981 the space shuttle Columbia was the first crewed spacecraft to fly into space a second time.

Host 2: Yes but in 1980 the Voyager 1 spacecraft flew within 78,000 miles of Saturn NASA said it worked like a perfect clock.

Host 1: What did it find out there?

Host 2: So much. It discovered three new moons it also found that Saturn's moon Titan has a thick nitrogen atmosphere kind of like Earth

Host 1: wait really

Host 2: yeah

Host 1: that is amazing

Host 2: yeah but the neatest part was Saturn's E ring it looked braided

Host 1: braided like how does space dust braid itself

Host 2: it is because of these things called shepherd moons they are tiny moons right on the edge of the ring and their gravity keeps the icy pieces in line

Host 1: so they herd the ice just like a shepherd

Host 2: exactly

Host 1: that is drag the debris and keep it from spreading out

Host 2: that is just like the officials at Ellis Island they had to direct the flow of millions of travelers just like those little moons using gravity to guide the ice

Host 1: that is a perfect connection

Host 2: a force imposing order on a big moving crowd

Host 1: it shows how history is a big tapestry of firsts and finales that build our modern world

Host 2: for sure and before we wrap up here is our did you know fact did you know that the proof of the very first professional football payment to Pudge Heffelfinger survives today on just one single team expense sheet

Host 1: just one piece of paper

Host 2: just that is so neat

Host 1: So if so many culture shifting milestones happened on an otherwise ordinary November 12th what world changing events might be happening quietly in the background around you today just waiting for future historians to notice

Host 2: Always keep your eyes open

Host 1: Thanks for tuning in see you back here tomorrow