One of the most common items of modern life first appeared this month in 1937, when Sylvan Goldman introduced wheeled carts in his Oklahoma City grocery stores. Before that, housewives usually shopped every day or two for what they needed, and stacked their purchases on the counter. After paying, they walked the short distance home, carrying a bag or two. But as people began shopping less frequently and bought more each time, the grocery cart was a natural and was soon used across the country. Now, there are nearly 90,000 retail grocery stores, and each American spends an average of $1,684 on food and beverages annually. You can find these and more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau online at <www.census.gov>.
While I’m here, here are the features for yesterday and Saturday:
Saturday, June 9th. Today marks the birthday of one of the most influential guitarists of the American music scene. Born Lester Polsfuss, he became famous as Les Paul. He invented the solid-body guitar and recording techniques that allowed a performer to accompany himself, overdubbing multiple parts for special effects. In the 1950s he and his wife, Mary Ford, had many top 10 hits, such as “The World is Waiting for the Sunrise” and “Vaya Con Dios.” In the U.S. today, there are 600 musical instrument makers, and they sell some $1.8 billion of instruments each year. You can find these and more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau online at <www.census.gov>.
Sunday, June 10th. A patent was granted on this date in 1902 for something that most of us would rather not see — an envelope with a transparent window in it, usually meaning a bill. The inventor, Americus Callahan of Chicago, called his idea the “outlook” envelope. The idea caught on quickly, as businesses discovered that it saved them the expense and time of addressing each envelope — since the address on the letter it contained could be seen through the window. The year Callahan’s invention was introduced, there were nearly 76,000 post offices around the U.S. While the amount of mail has grown enormously since then, there are now just over 27,000 offices. You can find these and more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau online at <www.census.gov>.
Weekly Address: Congress Must Act to Keep Our Teachers on the Job. President Obama urges Congress to take action now to put our teachers back to work in classrooms, because the best predictor of individual and American success in this economy is a good education.
This week, the President traveled to Honeywell International in Minnesota, to highlight efforts to help veterans find good paying jobs, urged Congress to support the Paycheck Fairness Act and to not let interest rates double on student loans on July 1st. That’s June 1st to June 7th or “Roll up our sleeves and never quit.”
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