Chairs have a history going back to the ancient Egyptian Pharaohs, or even earlier in antiquity. But a couple of variants that no one was anxious to try out debuted this month in the 19th century. In 1890, the electric chair was used for the first time in Auburn, New York, to carry out a death sentence. Scarcely more alluring, a special dental chair was patented on this date in 1848 by Waldo Hanchett. His innovation was a wooden recliner with an extending headrest, and a tray-like footrest, so patients could open wide in somewhat greater comfort. Most furniture isn’t so specialized, and America’s 16,000 manufacturers of chairs, tables, beds and all other household furniture and related products ship over $64 billion worth of goods annually. Profile America is in its 17th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.
Saturday, August 16th. Since major league baseball began in 1876, there have been only two game-related deaths in the more than 200,000 games played. The first was in 1909, when Philadelphia catcher Doc Powers crashed into a wall chasing a foul pop-up, suffering internal injuries. He died two weeks later. The last occurred in 1920, when on this date at the New York Polo Grounds, popular Cleveland Indians shortstop Ray Chapman was hit on the head by a pitch from the Yankees’ Carl Mays. Chapman died the next morning from the skull fracture. Roughly midway between those deaths, there were some 23,000 work related fatalities in a single studied year in the U.S. Today, with a much larger workforce, that figure is around 3,600. Profile America is in its 17th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.
Sunday, August 17th. Although the numbers have fallen sharply in the last few decades, still some people in the U.S. succumb to diseases that could have been prevented by immunization. Others experience pain, suffering and disability. That’s why this is National Immunization Awareness Month — highlighting the importance of vaccinations to a long and healthy life. The process of vaccination was known even in ancient cultures. Its most spectacular success came in the eradication of smallpox, a human scourge for thousands of years. The last known natural case was diagnosed in Somalia in 1977. In the U.S., pharmaceutical manufacturing is a nearly $200 billion dollar a year business. You can find current data on the country’s economy by downloading the America’s Economy mobile application at https://www.census.gov/mobile.