Category: Open Lines

The first salvo in what we’ve come to know as the War on Poverty was fired on this date 51 years ago. Following President Lyndon Johnson’s State of the Union call for tackling poverty in America, the Economic Opportunity Act was introduced in and passed by Congress with 11 program components. The landmark legislation was signed into law in August. The poverty rate in 1965, at the implementation of the programs, was around 16 percent, down from some 22 percent …

The first state college for women was created this month in 1884 in Mississippi. Known as the Mississippi Industrial Institute and College, classes opened in the fall of the next year on the campus of a former college in Columbus. Now called the Mississippi University for Women, it has been ranked as one of the top schools in the annual list of “America’s Best Colleges.” The now coed school of some 2,400 students has a number its campus buildings on …

One of the most famous department stores in America opened in Philadelphia on this date in 1877. Wanamaker’s, now absorbed into the Macy’s family of department stores, opened in a converted train station and is now a national historic landmark. The store was among the first in the country to make the experience of shopping as much a draw as the merchandise itself, pioneering the use of the price tag, and was the first to install a restaurant on the …

One of the most devastating public health crises in history hit the U.S. on this date 97 years ago — and experts are still studying it, hoping to head off a similar global pandemic. The first cases of what was called “Spanish flu” were reported among soldiers at Fort Riley, Kansas. By October, the worst month, 195,000 Americans perished. By 1920, nearly one-in-four Americans had suffered from this strain of the flu, killing about 600,000. Worldwide, estimates put the death …

For many Americans, trying to envision life without our various telephones would be like trying to live without indoor plumbing. The telephone is 139 years old today. In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell made the first, very local, telephone call in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Over a wire to his assistant in the next room, Bell said, “Mister Watson, come here; I want to see you.” Only when Bell improved his invention to carry a voice for several miles did the public discover …

“Don’t accept your dog’s admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful.” Whatever is the merit in the remark by the late advice columnist Ann Landers, there are few bonds of affection stronger than that between owners and their dogs. But that relationship comes with responsibilities. One was set this week in 1894, when the first statewide dog license law was enacted by New York. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was designated to carry out …

Seemingly out of nowhere, the issue of mandatory vaccinations has been in the news recently, particularly in conjunction with an upsurge in cases of measles. Governmental involvement in vaccination traces back to this date in 1810. That’s when Massachusetts enacted a law to “diffuse the benefits of inoculation for the Cow-Pox.” Such vaccinations of the mild, bovine cowpox virus immunized humans from smallpox, then a leading cause of disfiguring illness and death. This particular discovery dated from Great Britain just …

A severe economic panic, striking in 1893, led the city of Seattle to create the nation’s first municipal unemployment assistance office on this date in 1894. State and federal unemployment assistance wasn’t established until the 1930s. Recently, the national unemployment rate, as determined by the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey, has settled to around 5.5 percent. In 2010, Washington state’s average was at the then national average of 9.6 percent. The most current unemployment rate in Washington state is 6.6 …

The first woman to serve in Congress took her seat on this date in 1917. Barely a month later, Jeannette Rankin of Montana shortly became one of the few representatives to vote against entry into World War I, a stand that contributed to her defeat when she ran for the Senate in 1918. She reentered Congress in 1940, and putting her principles ahead of office holding, cast the lone vote against declaring war on Japan after Pearl Harbor in 1941. …

Children have worked for family enterprises like farms and small shops for countless generations. But child labor in mines and the often-dangerous factories arising from the Industrial Revolution was quickly regarded as a social ill. In response, Massachusetts became the first state to regulate child labor on this date in 1842. The modest measure prohibited children under the age of 12 from working more than 10 hours a day. Now, all states have statutes regulating child labor, and nationally, the …

The capital of the vanquished Confederacy was the site of the first chartered black-owned bank in the U.S., founded on this date in 1888 by former slave and Union Army veteran William Washington Browne. It was known as the Savings Bank of the Grand Fountain, United Order of True Reformers. The bank provided mortgage loans and other banking services that were difficult for African-Americans to obtain in the segregated climate after reconstruction. When the bank opened, Richmond had a population …

On this date in 1872, America’s third female law student was graduated. But this third was a first. Charlotte Ray was a freeborn African-American, and the first black woman to graduate law school. With her degree from historically black Howard University, she shortly began her law practice in Washington, D.C., and was the first woman accredited to argue a case before the Supreme Court. When Charlotte Ray graduated, only some 8,500 college and professional degrees were awarded in the U.S. …

Car insurance is both required and a major item in the budget of many households. The idea of insuring cars against accidents began this month in 1898 when the Traveler’s Insurance Company issued a policy to Dr. Truman Martin of Buffalo. His policy cost $12.25 and gave him $5,000 in coverage. Martin was chiefly concerned about accidents between his automobile — one of fewer than 4,000 in the entire country at the time — and horses, which numbered about 18 …

Paper money has circulated in North America since 1690, when the Massachusetts Bay Colony issued some to paper over — so to speak — the shortage of coins. But these were just promissory notes from governing bodies. That changed on this date in 1862 when Congress passed the Legal Tender Act, fixing paper money as a means of paying the government’s considerable Civil War bills with something other than gold or silver. One result was that greenbacks became a means …

Every time we use a phone, drive a car, watch TV, turn on our computers, or do myriad everyday activities, we are benefitting from the accumulated work of a most important, broad profession — engineering. To note its contribution to our way of life, this is National Engineers Week. During this time, engineering societies and corporations will reach out to schoolchildren and stage events across the country to call attention to the achievements of the profession. From iPods to bridges …

The nation’s first college of pharmacy was founded in Philadelphia on this date in 1821, an appropriate anniversary to note that many health care organizations prescribe February as Wise Health Care Consumer Month. The “Rx” for Americans is to invest at least as much time in researching their health care options as they do for a new television. While prescription medication is one aspect of health care consumption, all levels of services and insurance are the elements of being a …

One of the first chain stores in the U.S. opened its doors this week in 1879 in Utica, New York. For generations of Americans, Woolworth’s was known simply as the “five and dime” in tribute to its low-cost merchandise. Inside were wooden floors and display tables stacked with items that sold for up to a dime. Equally famous was the store’s lunch counter, featuring malted milk shakes. The distinctive red and gold signs were taken down in 1997. Woolworth’s was …

On this date in 1942, some two and a half months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt issued an executive order requiring Japanese-Americans living along the Pacific Coast to be relocated inland. This order affected some 77,000 citizens and 43,000 resident aliens. The internment lasted throughout the Second World War, and the camps closed by early 1946. The dislocation caused by the internment order singling out an ancestry group came to be widely regretted and led to …

Although Canada has been self-governing since 1867, it wasn’t until this date in 1927 that the U.S. established formal diplomatic relations through recognition of a Canadian ambassador in Washington. Until that date, the Dominion of Canada’s foreign relations remained under the control of London. The relations since have been sterling, as Canada is our greatest trading partner. Last year, more than $600 billion of goods passed one way or the other across the effectively undefended border. At over 5,500 miles, …

This month — and some sources cite this date — is the anniversary of the 1766 birth of Thomas Malthus in Dorking, England. Given that birthplace, he perhaps naturally became an economist, demographer and statistician. He’s remembered for “The Principle of Population,” a 1798 essay foretelling widespread famine caused by population growth far outstripping the food supply. While the forecast remains unrealized, his theory of demand-supply mismatches was a precursor to later theories about the Great Depression. When Malthus wrote …