Category: Open Lines

There have been 27 ratified amendments to the U.S. Constitution over the past 223-plus years, but that total comes with an asterisk. Uniquely, the 21st Amendment repeals the 18th, which began its short career this day in 1919. That amendment launched the Prohibition Era, a well-intentioned act of social hygiene, seeking to ban the availability of alcoholic beverages. The unintended consequences, though, were perhaps worse — vast flouting of the law by the public and a boost to organized crime. …

Dr. Martin Luther King would be 86 years old today. The civil rights leader, minister, and recipient of the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize was born in 1929 and assassinated in 1968. Next Monday is a national holiday, honoring his memory and life’s work, appropriate in a month that also sees the anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. America’s diverse population of some 316 million enjoys the civil rights Dr. King advocated, including around 245 million whites, 44.5 million African-Americans, about 19 …

January is Financial Wellness Month, appropriately timed to the confluence of New Year’s resolutions and holiday bills. It’s a time to set new goals for financial freedom and moderation in spending; for people to understand the benefits of “paying yourself first.” A financial adviser can help shape money management goals, pointing out the power of compound interest to work for you in savings and against you in debt. Americans have a per capita income average of nearly $28,000 and a …

Couch potatoes can trace their roots to this date in 1928 when three experimental television sets were installed in private homes in Schenectady, New York. Not that there was much to see, the test broadcast by General Electric and RCA being of a person smoking, followed by a man playing a ukulele. The first home receivers’ screens were only 1½ inches square; a far cry from today’s theater-sized flat screens. And in another departure from 1928’s lonely three, the percentage …

Near this date in 49 B.C., Julius Caesar, leading the 13th Roman legion, crossed the Rubicon. That minor river in northeastern Italy marked a boundary south of which a Roman general could not bring his troops. Crossing the Rubicon, which has since come to mean passing a point of no return, precipitated a civil war. Caesar triumphed, effectively ending the Roman republic and launching imperial Rome. Many generations later, the descendants of the Romans crossed a more formidable water barrier: …

If you feel a special, hair-raising electricity in the air today, well that’s no wonder — it’s National Static Electricity Day. Static electricity is the result of an imbalance between negative and positive charges in an object. These charges build up on the surface until they are discharged. This commonly happens when you shuffle about when the humidity is very low and then touch a conductor, such as a door handle or your pet’s wet nose. Static electricity has uses …

The nation’s telephone service options changed forever on this date 33 years ago when AT&T complied with a Justice Department mandate to give up its local Bell System companies. The action came as the result of what has been termed the most significant antitrust suit since the breakup of Standard Oil in 1911. From the late 19th century, the virtual monopoly of what had come to be known as “Ma Bell” controlled America’s telephone equipment and lines. After the breakup, …

During the Revolutionary War, the rebelling colonies and the Continental Congress were anything but too big to fail. To the contrary, finances were very spotty and precarious. To help put affairs in order and make credit available, the first commercial bank in the U.S. opened on this date in 1782, just a week after being chartered by Congress. Called the Bank of North America, it was capitalized at $400,000, which roughly would be around $5.5 billion today. The names of …

Today, when a home is damaged or destroyed by fire, there usually is no question that it was insured against such a common danger. The first fire insurance company in Colonial America was the Friendly Society for the Mutual Insurance of Houses Against Fire. Organized in 1734 in Charleston, South Carolina, it began receiving subscriptions in January 1735. The company was apparently bankrupted by claims after a disastrous citywide fire in 1740. The first full-time, professional firefighting company was formed …

The business world was confronted with a new idea on this date in 1914, when Henry Ford announced that he would reduce the workday from nine to eight hours and pay his factory assembly line workers a minimum wage of $5 a day, which is nearly $119 in current dollars. The idea eventually gained general acceptance, and in 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law a federally mandated minimum wage of 25 cents an hour. Currently, the hourly minimum …

When Prohibition ended in 1933, the sale of alcoholic beverages resumed in the U.S. but was subject to a patchwork of differing regulations. Local options mean that some counties remain dry. Some states regulate the alcoholic content of beer sold at supermarkets and gas stations. In a few states, beer, wine and liquor may be sold practically anywhere. And in 18 states, liquor is sold exclusively in facilities run by the government. These are usually called ABC stores, for alcoholic …

The place where many of our ancestors first stepped ashore when they came to America seeking a new life opened on this date in 1892 — Ellis Island in New York Harbor. The very first immigrant processed at the new facility was a 15-year-old Irish girl named Annie Moore. Over the course of more than 60 years, some 12 million people flowed through the center. Some sources say the number is considerably higher. The peak year was 1907, when just …

On this New Year’s Eve, some 319 million Americans of all ages are ready to greet the year 2015. A hundred years ago, the U.S. population was just over 99 million. Fifty years ago, it was around 192 million. The 2010 Census counted just under 309 million people. To show how the nation is growing, by this time tomorrow there will be 10,800 new babies on hand to welcome the new year, the first of whom will be reported in …

As a year draws to a close, it is common to reflect on the passage of time. How history will judge 2014 is not yet known, but this year’s anniversaries are woven into the fabric of today. Two-hundred years ago, we experienced a foreign invasion and occupation, as British troops captured Washington, DC and burned the White House. One-hundred years ago, Henry Ford set an eight-hour workday, while President Woodrow Wilson signed a Mothers Day proclamation. Fifty years ago, we …

Yesterday was the 33rd birthday of Elizabeth Comeau, formerly Elizabeth Jordan Carr. Her birth in 1981 was notable because her delivery by cesarean section marked the success of the country’s first in-vitro fertilization, so both her conception and birth involved technology. The in-vitro fertilization technique, sometimes described as implanting a test-tube baby, was first used in England in 1977, with Louise Brown being born in late July of 1978. Elizabeth Comeau is now a journalist and a mother herself. Her …

The millions of Americans who for nearly a century and a half have enjoyed well-brewed coffee can direct their gratitude to James H. Nason of Franklin, Massachusetts. He received the nation’s first patent for a coffee percolator on this date in 1865. Now, not only does just about every home in the U.S. have a coffeemaker, but many also grind their own fresh from coffee beans. The percolator still has a market niche, but since the 1970s has been overtaken …

Today is Christmas Day — a joyous religious observance for many, but for almost everyone, one of the happiest days of the year. Outside or indoors, whether in balmy or snowbound climates, children are busy trying out their shiny new treasures, ranging from traditional bikes to the latest marketing craze. Inside, others are busy with video games and other electronic marvels. Many will have attended church services to honor the day. And in many of the more than 115 million …

This is Christmas Eve, a time of gathering families close together and to wind down from the hectic weeks of shopping and mailing. But it also a night of wrapping presents, especially toys — some of which have to be put together. Some parents will discover to their dismay that some treasure has been overlooked, or that batteries are not included with their purchases and head out into the cold, hoping to find an open store with the right solutions. …

An institution that has been in the news a lot these past few years, and which has come in for its share of criticism during the nation’s stubborn economic problems, observes the centennial of its founding today. The Federal Reserve System, known simply as “the Fed,” came into being on this date in 1913, with the job of keeping the nation’s complex financial system in tune. Acting as the nation’s central bank, “the Fed” influences the lending and investing activities …

One of the most important inventions of modern times dates to this week in 1947. Three Bell Laboratory scientists successfully tested what would become the junction transistor, vital to our information age. The three shared the Nobel Prize in physics in 1956. The transistor replaced bulky, fragile vacuum tubes, which generated a lot of heat as they amplified a signal. As a Bell colleague who coined the term “transistor” said, “nature abhors the vacuum tube.” The first application that caught …