Welcome to the history tricks, where any resemblance to a boring old history lesson is purely coincidental.

And here's your 30-second summary. Elizabeth Packard's husband punished her for speaking her mind by committing her for years to a mental institution, something that was fully legal at the time. After her release,

she dedicated the rest of her life to advocating for the rights of the mentally ill and of married

women. The end. Let's talk about Elizabeth Packard. But first, let's place her into history.

In 1860, Abraham Lincoln campaigned

for the U.S. presidency and received a letter from an 11-year-old girl named Grace Bidel, telling him

he would look better with a beard. He took her advice, grew a glorious facial topiary, and won the presidency.

The Duchies of Parma, Tuscany, Madina, and Romania,

voted to join the Kingdom of Sardinia, a major step toward the ultimate unification of Italy.

The covered gimlet screw with a tea handle was patented and would later become known as the corkscrew.

Or, in Italian, the cavatapi. I'm so glad I learned that.

After nearly 10 years of evading capture, while leading enslaved people from the U.S. South into

Freedom in the North and Canada, Harriet Tubman conducted her final mission on the Underground Railroad.

Born this year, Lizzie Borden, Annie Oakley, Jane Adams, Grandma Moses, and the founder of the

U.S. Girl Scouts Juliet Gordon Lowe. Died this year, Charles Goodyear, famous for the vulcanization of rubber,

and Phineas Gage, an American railroad construction foreman who became a famous subject for mental

health researchers after an

accident in which a large iron rod was driven completely through his head. He survived afterward,

but curiously, exhibited a completely different personality. And in 1860, Elizabeth Packard was

committed by her husband to an insane asylum for speaking her mind

and not obeying him unquestioningly, a three-year ordeal that would turn her into an activist

for the rights of the oppressed.

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