Friday / Weekend Open Lines


Friday, September 11th. This was a day that didn’t exist in Colonial America in 1752, as the familiar calendar underwent what is called the “Gregorian correction,” switching from the ancient Julian calendar to adjust for errors accumulated over centuries. After September 2, the next day was September 14, and there was rioting by those who felt cheated and demanded the 11 days back. The British parliament’s Calendar Act of 1750 had also changed New Year’s Day from March 25 to January 1. As a result, the year 1751 had only 282 days. Since then, with leap years built in, the calendar has remained constant. Calendar production engages some of the country’s 25,000 printing establishments, which employ around 435,000 workers.Profile America is in its19th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.

Saturday, September 12th. Tomorrow is National Grandparents Day — recognizing the love and help they provide, and their growing importance to the survival of many American families. The special day was the idea of Marian McQuade of Fayette County, West Virginia, and has been observed nationally since 1979. Today, grandparents are increasingly not just relatives to be visited on holidays and weekends, but part of the year-round household for many children. Some 7.2 million grandparents, together or separated, have around 5.7 million minor grandchildren living with them. Putting it another way, 10 percent of America’s children under the age of 18 live with at least one grandparent, and 2.7 million of those grandparents are responsible for the children’s care. You can find more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau online at <www.census.gov>.

Sunday, September 13th. When Henry Bliss stepped off a streetcar at Central Park West and 74th Street in New York on this date in 1899, automobiles were a novelty. Thus, he didn’t look carefully and was run over by an almost silent electric taxi. The accident was the first fatality in the U.S. involving an automobile. At the time, there were fewer than 8,000 motor vehicles in the whole country. As the number of registered automobiles climbed rapidly, so did the number of deaths. In 1999 — one century later — some 37,000 drivers, passengers and pedestrians were killed on the nation’s roads. In recent years, the number has trended down to fewer than 33,000 fatalities as of 2014, even though the number of cars continues to increase. You can find more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau online at <www.census.gov>.