On This Day in Indianapolis History

Although best known for &quote;The Greatest Spectacle in Racing,&quote; Indianapolis claims countless fascinating stories that happened off the track--one for every date on the calendar. In a single day on January 1, 1970, Indianapolis jumped from the nation's twenty-sixth largest city to number eleven. On July 25, 1934, gangster and native son John Dillinger was laid to rest in Crown Hill Cemetery, where chips of his four successive gravestones became favorite city souvenirs. On September 17, 1945, the nation finally learned that Indianapolis was the top-secret manufacturing center for the Norden bombsight, crucial to Allied victory. And on September 6, 1959, jazz musician Wes Montgomery and his brothers finished recording one of their most popular albums. One day at a time, author Dawn Bakken chronicles a year of people, places and events in Circle City history.

Dawn Bakken is the associate editor of the Indiana Magazine of History, a scholarly history journal published by the Department of History at Indiana University, Bloomington. She received her PhD in religious studies and American studies from IU Bloomington, where she has also taught courses in religious studies. Her family moved to Indianapolis when she was six years old and she grew up on the city's west side.