Category: Open Lines

The important holiday business of viewing such classics as “It’s A Wonderful Life” and “A Christmas Story” from the comfort of home owes much to a technological advance this month 75 years ago. In December 1938, Russian-American engineer Vladimir Zworykin was awarded two patents for cathode ray tubes. One was for the iconoscope to capture video images. The other was for the kinescope, which displayed television and computer monitor images for decades until the advent of flat panel screens. Zworykin …

Most Americans drive on their vacations, and if they don’t stay with relatives they often stay at one of the nation’s many motels. The term motel came to have meaning only when the automobile started to dominate the landscape and the term “motor hotel” came into general use. The first motel opened on this date in 1925 in San Luis Obispo, California. The building featured a sign with flashing lights that changed the first letter so that it alternated the …

With just two weeks left before Christmas, the holiday shopping is entering its high stress period. The upcoming days promise to be the busiest time of the season as anxious crowds of shoppers descend on malls and shopping centers across the country. Faced with the hassle of getting to and then finding a parking place at these facilities, a growing number of people have turned to mail-order catalogs and ordering gifts online. These businesses sell more than $234.5 billion worth …

With just two weeks left before Christmas, the holiday shopping is entering its high stress period. The upcoming days promise to be the busiest time of the season as anxious crowds of shoppers descend on malls and shopping centers across the country. Faced with the hassle of getting to and then finding a parking place at these facilities, a growing number of people have turned to mail-order catalogs and ordering gifts online. These businesses sell more than $234.5 billion worth …

One of the universal conveniences of modern life, and a boon to those of us with little time to spend grocery shopping and cooking, was developed by a man who was born on this date in 1886. Clarence Birdseye was on a scientific expedition to Labrador early in the 20th century when he noticed that freshly caught fish froze solid almost immediately when exposed to Arctic atmospheric conditions. But when thawed and eaten, the fish still tasted fresh. Birdseye went …

This is fifth annual Musical Instrument Gift Day, sponsored by the National Pawnbrokers Association. Its purpose is to distribute musical instruments to organizations in need. This is just one high note for the nearly 6,400 pawnshops across the nation, which provide valuable lending and resale services in their communities. Another important player in selling used goods is the much larger used miscellaneous merchandise stores, which number close to 78,000 from coast to coast. These stores are where you go if, …

After nearly 14 eventful years, Prohibition ended on this date in 1933, and Americans were able to legally have a drink once again. This marked the closing of an unusual chapter in American history, where an amendment to the Constitution was overturned by the 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 …

Black Friday is behind us, but the holiday shopping season continues to build. People jamming the malls and department stores with their gift lists in hand are rediscovering one of the travails of the season — finding a place to park. When the mall lots and garages end up being full, many shoppers will turn to nearby commercial lots and garages. The first city parking garage in the U.S. opened this week in December of 1941 in Welch, West Virginia. …

One of the most important technological breakthroughs was made on this date in 1942, one that would change the course of world history. At the University of Chicago, a group of scientists led by physicist Enrico Fermi succeeded in producing the first controlled, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction. This first simple reactor, built in great secrecy under the stands of the university’s football stadium, helped provide the knowledge that led to the development of the first atomic bombs less than three …

One of the most important technological breakthroughs was made on this date in 1942, one that would change the course of world history. At the University of Chicago, a group of scientists led by physicist Enrico Fermi succeeded in producing the first controlled, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction. This first simple reactor, built in great secrecy under the stands of the university’s football stadium, helped provide the knowledge that led to the development of the first atomic bombs less than three …

Many people in the U.S. had not yet seen an airplane when the first municipal airport in the country opened this month in 1919 in Tucson, Arizona. The airfield was located where the rodeo grounds are today. A few years later, the airport moved to a larger parcel of land, part of which was given to the war department in 1940 to use as an aviation facility. A new civil airport was built in 1948, which still serves the Tucson …

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

This month in 1883, the ancestor of today’s familiar U.S. time zones first appeared at the initiative of the American Railway Association. A schoolteacher named Charles Dowd is credited with first proposing the notion of time zones as early as 1863 in order to rationalize railroad timetables, there being 80 time standards then in use by localities. There was wide but incomplete acceptance of the railway association’s zones, and the adjusted zones were not made law until 1918. In 1884, …

This month in 1883, the ancestor of today’s familiar U.S. time zones first appeared at the initiative of the American Railway Association. A schoolteacher named Charles Dowd is credited with first proposing the notion of time zones as early as 1863 in order to rationalize railroad timetables, there being 80 time standards then in use by localities. There was wide but incomplete acceptance of the railway association’s zones, and the adjusted zones were not made law until 1918. In 1884, …

November is a time to celebrate one of life’s simple but sticky pleasures — it’s Peanut Butter Lovers’ Month. The stuff of America’s favorite sandwich, peanut butter was first offered to the public at the St. Louis Exposition in 1904. But as we currently know it — with the peanuts roasted and the product churned like butter to be smooth and so the oil won’t separate — peanut butter didn’t appear on grocery shelves until 1922. While we each eat …

In this month, there falls the 50th anniversary of one of the most unsettling events in U.S. history: the November 22, 1963, assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The fourth president to be slain in a span of under 99 years and the sixth to die in office in that time, Kennedy left a vast archive of film, video and audio recordings that sustain his legacy in American consciousness. But his place in history is also upheld by living memory. …

The United States Congress met for the first time in the District of Columbia in late November 1800. Up until then, it did its squabbling, vituperating and, most importantly, legislating in Philadelphia. Ever since President George Washington laid the cornerstone for the Capitol in 1793, the District had been planned as the permanent home for the U.S. government. By 1800, enough of the Capitol had been completed for the members of the 6th Congress to move in. One senator found …

This is National American Indian Heritage Month, also called Native American Heritage Month. Either way, it’s observed with a wide variety of events across the country. The 2010 Census counted 5.2 million American Indians and Alaska Natives in the U.S., 1.7 percent of the total population. California is home to the highest number of these groups, at over 723,000, followed by Oklahoma at nearly 483,000. Los Angeles County leads all of the nation’s counties with the number of people in …

What is widely considered the most memorable speech in all American history was given 150 years ago this month when President Abraham Lincoln delivered what we know as “the Gettysburg Address.” The brief speech dedicated 17 acres of the Pennsylvania battlefield as a national cemetery and is recognized as one of the most concise in the English language. Gettysburg National Cemetery continues to draw thousands of visitors each year. The three-day battle in 1863 involved some160,000 Union and Confederate soldiers …

We still use the word “dial” to refer to the act of calling someone on the phone — even though several generations have not used a rotary phone — or maybe ever seen one, except in the movies. Push-button, or touch-tone, phones made their debut this month 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 of placing calls on …