You may think the debate about smoking is fairly recent, but the more things change, the more they resemble 1908. On this date that year, the New York City council passed an ordinance that made it illegal for women to smoke in public. The ordinance was the result of a campaign by the National Anti-Cigarette League. At the time, a number of cities had banned smoking, along with the states of Arkansas, Iowa, Idaho, and Tennessee. All of these laws were revoked by 1917, since they were not only difficult to enforce but added to the allure of smoking. That allure has diminished in the succeeding decades, but between last July and August, the value of U.S. tobacco product shipments jumped almost 12 percent, to $3.7 billion. Profile America is in its 16th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.
Sunday, January 20th. It’s purely coincidence, but nonetheless symbolic, that this presidential inauguration day also happens to be the 230th anniversary of the end of hostilities in the American Revolution. This cease fire, while throwing off a monarch, started us on the way to electing our head of state. Along with creating the office of president, the ensuing constitution of the new republic was unique in world history for requiring a regular, periodic census. Letting bygones be bygones, census figures show that in the decade leading up to the 2010 Census, over 153,000 Britons and other United Kingdom subjects obtained legal permanent resident status in the U.S. You can find more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau, online at <www.census.gov>.
Saturday, January 19th. Being able to store food and distribute it before it spoiled became a lot easier in the young United States on this date in 1825. That’s when Ezra Daggett and Thomas Kensett were granted a patent for the tin can. Heating and sealing food in glass jars had started a few years before in France, and the British Royal Navy was being supplied with canned food by 1820. Even though today frozen foods, plastic containers and concentrates are widely available, canned foods are still popular, including soups and canned tomato sauce. In fact, it takes more than 19,000 people to make all the tin cans we use each year, an industry doing annual business worth more than $13.5 billion. You can find more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau, online at <www.census.gov>.