Category: Open Lines

The first automatic toll collection station went into service this month in 1954. It was installed at the Union Toll Plaza on New Jersey’s Garden State Parkway. Motorists dropped coins into a wire mesh hopper, triggering a green light that told them to go ahead. The idea soon caught on at toll roads around the country, reducing the number of booth attendants and propelling cars and trucks on their way. There are fewer than 3,000 miles of toll roads in …

One of the most renowned of America’s historically black colleges was founded on this date in 1866 as the Howard Theological Seminary. Named after Civil War general and post-war Freedmen’s Bureau director Oliver O. Howard, the seminary changed its name to Howard University just two months after its founding. While not the first college to admit black students, nor the first to be established for blacks, Howard was the first to offer full undergraduate, graduate and professional training to African-Americans. …

Today is Geographic Information System Day, falling squarely in the middle of Geographic Awareness Week. Both the GIS industry, and geographers overall, hope to increase understanding of geospatial issues and the relationships between people and their environments. Concurrent with these occasions is the 25th anniversary of the launch of the Census Bureau’s Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing, or TIGER. This mapping system, developed for the 1990 Census and refined ever since, created the first seamless, digital map of the …

We still use the word “dial” to refer to the act of calling someone on the phone — even though likely most of us now have never used a rotary phone or seen one, except in old movies and TV shows. Push-button, or touch-tone, phones made their debut on this date in 1963. At the time, the service was an extra cost option and was available only in two cities in Pennsylvania. It didn’t take long, however, for the speed …

We still use the word “dial” to refer to the act of calling someone on the phone — even though likely most of us now have never used a rotary phone or seen one, except in old movies and TV shows. Push-button, or touch-tone, phones made their debut on this date in 1963. At the time, the service was an extra cost option and was available only in two cities in Pennsylvania. It didn’t take long, however, for the speed …

The often impressive or alarming appearing swings in the New York stock exchange must be kept in perspective. In the long run, the market has made steady advances. Recently closing at over 17,000, it was on this date 42 years ago that the Dow Jones Industrial Average first topped the 1,000 level. Developed by Charles Henry Dow, the index was first published in 1896 with a mark of 40.94. For decades, the index contained mostly stocks in the manufacturing sector. …

Even the most mundane items we take for granted have to be invented by someone. This month 110 years ago, that someone was Connecticut inventor Harvey Hubbell. In November 1904, he received a patent for the world’s first detachable electric plug: the two-, now sometimes three-prong plug familiar to us today. Remarkable as it sounds, at the time electric terminals would extend out from a wall, and any electrical device had to be hardwired to them. A time consuming process …

November is National Family Caregivers Month, honoring the great number of relatives, friends and neighbors involved in caring for those Americans needing assistance in the home. The nonprofessional caregivers render an important and devoted service, not just to the recipients, but society. In an aging nation, volunteer caregiving lessens the strain on the country’s medical system and provides an estimated $450 billion worth of service annually. Up to 40 percent of American adults are involved in some level of caregiving …

Today is Veterans Day, originating on this date in 1919 on the first anniversary of the end of World War I — then known as Armistice Day. In 1954, its name was changed to Veterans Day, and its scope widened to honor veterans from all eras. Across the country, there are over 21 million military veterans. Very nearly half — 9.6 million — are age 65 and older. The veteran population includes 1.6 million women. More than 7 million are …

Public education in the U.S. traces its birth to very early in the Colonial era. On this date in 1647, the Massachusetts Bay Colony authorities ordered that every township with 50 or more householders assign at least one person to teach children to read and write. The teachers would be paid by the children’s parents or the general village population. Towns of 100 or more householders were required to establish schools with headmasters and instruction to prepare children for still …

Tomorrow marks the anniversary of the opening in 1837 of the first American college for women — Mount Holyoke Seminary in South Hadley, Massachusetts. The new institution began instruction with 80 students, who paid annual tuition and boarding fees of $64. Receiving a collegiate charter in 1888, the school became Mount Holyoke College in 1893, and remains a prestigious liberal arts college for women. Among its prominent alumni are poet Emily Dickinson, and former Secretaries of Labor Frances Perkins and …

This is National American Indian Heritage Month, conceived almost a century ago but made official by a congressional resolution signed by President George H.W. Bush in 1990. The 2010 Census counted 5.2 million American Indians and Alaska Natives in the U.S., about 2 percent of the total population. By the year 2060, that percentage is projected to grow to 2.7 percent, or some 11 million people. California has long been home to the highest number of these populations, at over …

Much as been heard in recent years about national education policy, with an emphasis on encouraging more science, technology, engineering and math — or STEM — students. As far as engineering goes, the trail was broken on this date in 1824, with the founding of the Rensselaer School in Troy, New York. Now known as Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, it was the nation’s first engineering school. Its first 10 students graduated with engineering degrees in 1826. In the years since, engineering …

November is designated every year as National Diabetes Month. The goal is to make the public more aware of the serious nature of the disease and how to detect and control it. When our bodies are unable to maintain a normal blood sugar level, many complications may follow, including kidney failure. The disease is also the leading cause of new cases of blindness. Diabetes in the U.S. is on the rise, and some public health experts even refer to it …

Today is Cliché Day — any way you slice it, a minor and obscure occasion. While the ostensible purpose is to encourage our verbal banalities, it might also be stretched to stereotypes. Such as the cliché that men in particular are enchanted by sandwiches. If true, then today has double meaning, as it’s National Sandwich Day. This date was chosen in honor of the birthday in 1718 of John Montagu, the fourht Earl of Sandwich, and the purported inventor of …

There’s an excellent chance that today is an occasion deeply revered by young children and the nation’s candy makers. According to ancient Celtic tradition, Halloween — the evening before All Saints Day — is a time of haunting by ghosts. Halloween has come a long way from pagan practices to “trick or treat!” Today’s prank and costume-filled observance goes back about a century in the U.K., and giving the disguised young visitors to the doorstep some candies has been a …

A technological breakthrough that has led to remarkable changes in American and global society occurred 45 years ago today … or yesterday, depending on your point of reference. While Americans in the Eastern and Central time zones entered October 30, 1969, it was around 10:30 p.m. Pacific time on October 29 that the first connection was made on what would become the Internet. The first two computers linked were at the University of California, Los Angeles and the Stanford Research …

The scene on this date in 1945 at Gimbel’s department store in New York City was shopping chaos. Big ads the day before had trumpeted the first sale in the U.S. of a new writing instrument that guaranteed it would write for two years without refilling — the ballpoint pen. By the end of the day, the store had sold its entire stock of 10,000 at $12.50 each. The idea of the ballpoint pen was first patented in 1888 by …

One of the nation’s enduring symbols, the Statue of Liberty, was dedicated on Bedloe’s Island in New York Harbor on this date in 1886. A gift from France, the statue’s full name is “Liberty Enlightening the World,” and is the work of sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi. France also was the country of origin of a bit under 12,000 of the 334,000 immigrants arriving that year. The statue was the first glimpse of America for more than 20 million immigrants who …

One of the great engineering achievements of New York City began operation on this date 110 years ago. The city’s famous subway system was inaugurated amid speeches, bands, a ribbon cutting, and throngs of riders. The original line was just over nine miles long and connected City Hall to West 145th Street. Today, the system has 230 miles of routes. Each weekday, nearly 5.5 million people ride the subway. Among large cities of the world, the New York system is …