Horace Mann dies in Yellow Springs, Ohio at age sixty-three

Horace Mann, one of the nation's leading education reformers, died in Yellow Springs, Ohio where he was president of Antioch College. Born on a farm in Franklin, Massachusetts, he became a champion of the longer school year, free and equal publicly-funded schools staffed with professional teachers, and a wide curriculum free from religious influences, his ideas shaped public education all over the United States. He became president of Antioch in 1853 and established its reputation for egalitarianism, opposing slavery and restrictions on African-Americans, and hiring the first female college faculty member to be paid an equivalent male salary. (By John Osborne)