Friday, September 25th. For those who believe that beer is proof that a higher power loves us and wants us to be happy, a great chance for bliss is found in Denver. The 2015 Great American Beer Festival continues today in the Colorado Convention Center. Some 49,000 people are attending this latest sold-out celebration, which began in 1982 in Boulder and moved to Denver in 1984 to accommodate the burgeoning interest. Building on past performance, the festival includes one-ounce samplings of 5,500 beers from more than 1,300 breweries. Meanwhile, thousands of beers are engaged in competition for festival medals in about 90 different categories of brew. America’s nearly 1,700 brewing establishments employ about 27,000 people in the art of beer making. Profile America is in its19th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.
Saturday, September 26th. Today marks the end of “Unmarried and Single Americans Week,” noting that many who are unmarried do not identify with the world “single,” since they may be parents, have partners, or are widowed or divorced. The idea for the observance started in Ohio in the 1980s. There are 105 million unmarried adult Americans, more than 44 percent of all U.S. residents 18 and older. Eighteen million of them are seniors over the age of 65. The number of people who live by themselves is 34 million — 27 percent of all U.S. households, a figure that in 1970 was just 17 percent. That leaves room for households with unmarried couples, of which there were 7 million in the year 2012, including nearly 640,000 same-sex households. Profile America is in its19th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.
Sunday, September 27th. On this date in 1772, America’s first medical licensing law was enacted by the colony of New Jersey. A licensing board was set up with three members, and the practice of medicine was forbidden without the approval of the panel. The licensing board was comprised of two New Jersey Supreme Court judges, and a third member chosen by the judges. Exempted from its oversight were colonists who pulled teeth, bled patients, or gave free care or assistance. Medical education and licensing has grown considerably stricter since 1772. Today, there are some 691,000 physicians and surgeons, working in nearly 221,000 medical offices, and practicing in the 5,400 hospitals across the country. You can find more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau online at <www.census.gov>.