This Day in History: July 7th

This Day in History: Due to her direct involvement in the assassination plot against President Lincoln, Mary Surratt is the first woman executed by the Federal government, 1865; after growing calls for recognition as a sovereign entity and the urging of large local business interests like the Dole Food company, President McKinley announces the annexation of Hawaii, 1898; in the early days of the Great Depression, President Hoover puts thousands of unemployed people to work building one of the greatest man-made structures in the world- Hoover Dam, which would go on to supply large portions of the southwest with electricity for decades, 1930; Frances Cabrini becomes the first U.S. citizen declared a saint by the Catholic Church, 1946; for the first time, female cadets are enrolled at West Point, 1976; President Reagan keeps a campaign promise and nominates Sandra Day O'Connor to become the very first female Supreme Court Justice, despite the calls from feminists who opposed nearly everything he stood for, in this case that she was too conservative to really "count" as a true representative for women, 1981