Friday, December 4th. Black Friday is behind us, but the holiday shopping season continues to build. People jamming the malls are rediscovering one of the travails of the season — finding a place to park. When the mall spaces are filled, many turn to commercial garages. One innovative solution opened this week in the nation’s capital in 1951. The Park-O-Mat garage was completely automated, and parked 72 cars in 18 levels of space just 25 by 40 feet. Without entering customers’ cars, the attendant would use two elevators to park or retrieve the vehicles. This took less than a minute to accomplish. Today, in a nation with nearly 256 million motor vehicles, there are 11,900 parking facilities across the country, generating $7.2 billion in revenue annually. You can find more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau online at <www.census.gov>.
Saturday, December 5th. After nearly 14 eventful years, Prohibition ended on this date in 1933, and Americans were able once again to legally drink alcoholic beverages. This marked the closing of an unusual chapter in American history, where an amendment to the Constitution was overturned by a subsequent amendment. The 18th amendment, banning nearly all sales and manufacture of alcohol, was ratified in 1919 and took effect in January 1920. The 21st Amendment ratified on this date voided the 18th. After the lifting of prohibition, by the end of December of 1933, there were just 17 liquor stores in the entire country. Today, the number of liquor stores approaches 33,000. On average, Americans spend around $450 a year on alcoholic beverages. Profile America is in its19th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.
Sunday, December 6th. Ancient Egyptians kept careful records and markings of goods kept in royal warehouses more than 53 centuries ago. This prenumerical recording means that the practice of accounting predates written language itself. After some 5,200 years of development and refinement of accounting practices, New York state followed with the establishment of the certified public accountant. In December 1896, certificate number one, the first in the country, went to Frank Broaker of New York City. Today there are around 128,000 accounting and bookkeeping establishments, which record over $131 billion of annual business. Of America’s nearly 1.9 million accountants, over 60 percent are women. You can find more facts about America’s people, places and economy, from the American Community Survey, at <www.census.gov>.