Burr-Hamilton Duel, a War Ends & a Woman Pilot

Today in New Jersey history:

July 11, 1804: Former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton was mortally wounded in a duel with Newark-born Vice President Aaron Burr at Weehawken. Hamilton died the following day in New York City. A warrant was issued in New Jersey for the vice president’s arrest. It was later dismissed, however, on the rather dubious grounds that although Hamilton was shot in New Jersey, he died in New York.

July 11, 1865: The Second New Jersey Volunteer Infantry Regiment, the last remaining regiment in service from the First New Jersey Brigade, one of the few units of brigade size to maintain exclusive state identification throughout the Civil War, was mustered out of the Union army. The First New Jersey brigade, which served in the Army of the Potomac's Sixth Army Corps, ranked fourth among all Union brigades in the number of its men killed and mortally wounded during the conflict – 900.

July 11, 1954: Sixty-two-year-old Marion Hart landed at Teterboro Airport on a break from her ongoing flight odyssey. After learning to fly at age fifty-four at Teterboro, Hart piloted her single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza thirty-five thousand miles to twenty-five countries. Hart, a sculptor by profession, had previously sailed a ketch around the world. She eventually made seven solo flights across the Atlantic, the last at the age of 83, and, in 1976, received the annual Harmon International Trophy "for her consistently outstanding performance as a private pilot operating small aircraft on a global scale." Hart died in California in1990.