Friday, August 14th. Preserving Social Security is a continuing concern in an increasingly aging America. The demographic profile was different on this date in 1935, when the program was signed into law by President Roosevelt. The program aimed to provide security to retired workers over 65, most of whom had no pension, and life expectancy at birth was just 58 years for men and 62 for women. The first monthly check under the system was for $22.54, issued in January 1940. Now, there are 39 million retired workers receiving Social Security benefits averaging about $1,300 a month. Current life expectancy at birth is roughly 77 years for males and over 81 years for females, with the longest lifespans projected for native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders. Profile America is in its 19th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.
Saturday, August 15th. 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 household furniture and related products ship over $69 billion worth of goods annually You can find current data on the country’s economy by downloading the ‘America’s Economy’ mobile application at <www.census.gov/mobile>.
Sunday, August 16th. It’s still summer break for many kids, but already in progress is one of the nation’s largest seasonal events; one that exchanges leisure for classroom study. It’s back to school time. From nursery school to college, over 77 million students are headed to the classroom — that’s more than one-out-of-four of the total U.S. population age 3 and over. Of the 8.5 million Americans ages 20 and 21 years old, over 50 percent are enrolled in college. For women, that figure nears 56 percent. Nursery school or kindergarten enrollment is about 8.8 million. There are nearly 33 million students in elementary schools and 16.5 million high school students. Some 264,000 high school students are over the age of 25. You can find more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau online at <www.census.gov>.