Today in 1930, a Guernsey cow known as Elm Farm Ollie made aviation history as the first cow to go up in a plane, and the first one to be milked during the flight (!)
This bovine flight was what you might characterize today as a brand crossover.
The then-young aviation industry wanted to drum up more attention among rural Americans, and dairy farmers wanted to drum up some publicity for their industry, so why not put a cow on a plane and everybody wins?
The organizers chose Ollie, who was also known as Nellie Jay at home, as the passenger because she was an unusually productive cow; people said she sometimes had to be milked three times a day.
They arranged for a Ford Tri-Motor Plane piloted by Claude Sterling to pick Ollie up from her home, Sunnymeade Farm near Bismarck, Missouri, and fly her 72 miles to the International Air Exposition in St. Louis.
They also brought along Elsworth Bunce of the American Guernsey Cattle Club.
While in flight, Bunce not only milked Ollie, he put the milk into little containers which had little parachutes attached.
Then, as the plane approached St. Louis and the exposition, Bunce started dropping the milk cartons out of the plane, so that the people on the ground could drink the air milk.
Legend has it that one of the people who caught a milk carton and took a sip was Charles Lindbergh, who had made the first ever non-stop solo flight across the Atlantic.
He wasn’t actually there, but by the end of that day, Lindbergh wasn’t the only celebrity aviator on hand.
Elm Farm Ollie had wowed the crowd and won a new nickname: “the Sky Queen.”
Though this was her only flight, and it did not lead to a rush of other cows giving milk that was dropped by plane to thirsty Americans.
But each year, people in Wisconsin (a state with a soft spot for cow stories), marks every February 18th as Elm Farm Ollie Day.
Today in 2012, an odd moment in the world of golf.
Phil Mickelson hit his tee shot on the 15th hole of the Northern Trust Open in California.
He sliced the ball to the left, it hit a tree and then rolled up the pant leg of a guy who was, for whatever reason, laying on the ground.
For the record, Mickelson did not play it as it laid.
He took a drop and ended up with par for the hole.
Elm Farm Ollie: The Story of the First Cow to Take Flight (San Diego Air & Space Museum)
Trending: Mickelson’s ball ends up in man’s shorts (Golf Digest)
Keep this show flying into the future as a backer on Patreon
