23rd July: Annie Oakley Day

Today is Annie Oakley Day. Not sure why as it's not her birthday or the day she died; but here are 10 facts about Annie Oakley.

1. Her real name was Phoebe Ann Mosey.
2. By the age of eight, she was trapping and shooting to support her widowed mother and siblings. She would sell game to shopkeepers and hotels, and by the time she was fifteen she had paid off her mother's mortgage.
3. A travelling show marksman named Frank E. Butler placed a $100 bet ($2,148 today) with a hotel owner that he could beat any local fancy shooter. The hotel owner set up a shooting contest between Butler and Annie. The last opponent Butler had been expecting was a five foot tall, fifteen year old girl. They were pretty evenly matched - it was on the 25th shot that Annie beat him and he lost the bet. Butler had no hard feelings towards her - far from it. A year later, he married her and they were married for over 50 years, until she died.
4. Her stage name of Oakley is believed to have been taken from the area in which the couple lived.
5. The couple joined the Buffalo Bill show in 1885. The following year, another sharpshooting woman called Lillian Smith joined the show. She was eleven years younger than Annie; and they became rivals rather than friends. It's thought Annie started lying about her age when the younger woman started getting as much press coverage as she did. Annie left the show for two years, returning after Smith had left.
6. Annie toured Europe and performed for heads of state, including Queen Victoria. German Kaiser Wilhelm II was so impressed by her marksmanship that he asked her to shoot the ashes off a cigarette he was smoking. She did so, and it led to an oft quoted remark that had she shot the Kaiser instead she could have prevented the first world war. After the outbreak of World War I, Oakley wrote to the Kaiser requesting a second shot. He didn't reply.
7. Oakley was an early campaigner for women to serve in the US military. She wrote to President William McKinley in 1898, offering the government the services of a company of 50 'lady sharpshooters' who would provide their own arms and ammunition should the USA go to war with Spain. Her offer wasn't accepted, although that particular war never happened.
8. She also strongly believed that every woman should learn how to use a gun, for both exercise and self-defence. She taught about 15,000 women to shoot, and said, "I would like to see every woman know how to handle guns as naturally as they know how to handle babies."
9. Oakley's most famous trick was her ability to repeatedly split a Playing card, edge-on, and put several more holes in it before it could touch the ground, while using a .22 caliber rifle, at 90 feet (27 m).
10. After a serious train accident in 1901, she turned to stage acting. The play she appeared in was written especially for her and was called The Western Girl.