Month: April 2016

On this date in 1892, the first U.S. patent for a truly portable typewriter was issued to George C. Blickensderfer of Stamford, Connecticut. His “type writing machine” featured a revolving type-wheel, a precursor to the type-ball of 1970s typewriters. The wheel reduced the number of moving parts from 2,500 to 250, improving reliability and reducing the weight by one-fourth. The Blickensderfer Manufacturing Company eventually became one of the world’s largest typewriter manufacturers in a crowded field. In 1900, U.S. manufacturers …

On this date 48 years ago, the Civil Rights Act of 1968 became law. At the bill signing ceremony, President Lyndon Johnson said: “The proudest moments of my presidency have been times such as this when I have signed into law the promises of a century.” Putting the event into perspective, it occurred one week to the day after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Among its provisions, the Act protected civil rights workers, expanded the rights of …

Friday, April 8th. On this date 103 years ago, the 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, establishing direct popular election of senators. Previously, members of the Senate were elected by each state’s legislature. As the voting franchise expanded after the Civil War and into the Progressive Era, growing sentiment held that senators ought to be popularly elected in the same manner as representatives. Because of such developments, at least 29 states by 1913 were nominating senators on a …

The years of Prohibition, from 1920 to 1933, were considered a noble experiment that failed, as the subsequent crime associated with bootlegging caused problems worse than the lone problem of drunkenness. The crumbling of the unpopular Volstead Act accelerated on this date in 1933 when Congress amended the act to permit beer of 3.2 percent alcohol to be brewed and sold. The beer permitted earlier under Prohibition contained only .05 percent. Called “near beer,” and much disdained, one humorist declared …