1860: Annie Oakley is Born

Anything you can do, she could do better. It was on this day in 1860 that Phoebe Ann Mosey, better known as Annie Oakley, was born in Woodland, Ohio. By the age of seven, Annie had learned the art of trapping and a year later learned how to shoot and hunt animals. Annie did not attend school regularly as a child and 1870, she was sent to work as a nanny for who agreed to pay her fifty cents per week and an education. It is said that Annie spent two years serving in a near-slavery conditions where she was mentally and physically abused. Later when she returned home, Annie sold what she caught to local restaurants and hotels. By the age of 15 she was able to pay off her mother’s farm. It was the same year that Annie took on Frank E. Butler, a traveling show marksman in a shooting competition. Butler missed his 25th shot and Annie took home $100. However, in a sense, they both won as he began to court Annie and the two were married a year later. The two joined the Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show in 1885 and was known as “Little Sure Shot” in many of the show’s advertisements. It is believed that Annie taught about 15,000 women how to use a gun during her lifetime. She became a bigger legend when Annie Get Your Gun came to Broadway in 1946.