March 5
ANNIE OAKLEY DAY
Just five feet tall, one wouldn’t expect Phoebe Anne Oakley Mozee to be able to use a rifle, a pistol or a shotgun. Yet, the diminutive Annie Oakley -- as she was better known -- found out, at the age of nine, that she was a dead shot. Born in a log cabin in Patterson Township, Ohio, Annie starred in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show for seventeen years equally adept at hitting targets with any of the three weapons.
On this day in particular, in 1922, Annie broke all existing records for women’s trap shooting. She smashed 98 out of 100 clay targets thrown at 16 yards while at a match at the Pinehurst Gun Club in North Carolina. She hit the first fifty, missed the 51st, then the 67th.
This was a record-breaker, true; but Annie Oakley was well-known throughout the United States and Europe for her expert shooting ability. In one day, ‘Little Sure Shot’ took a .22 rifle and hit 4,772 glass balls out of 5,000 tossed in the air. She could hit a playing card from 90 feet (the thin side facing her), puncturing it at least five times before it hit the ground. It was this display that named free tickets with holes punched in them, Annie Oakleys.
In 1935, Phoebe Mozee was immortalized on film in Annie Get Your Gun, which was later made into a musical for the stage. In 1985, another film, Annie Oakley, was made for TV. It included silent-film footage of the record-breaking sharp-shooter, taken by Thomas Edison.
Those Were the Days, the Today in History service from 440 International
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