Category: Open Lines

This month in 1879 marked a milestone in women’s history and the opportunities available to them. Earlier, President Rutherford Hayes signed a congressional act “to relieve certain legal disabilities of women.” So in March, the act’s leading champion, 49-year-old Belva A. Lockwood, became the first woman to be admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, which she did in 1880. Lockwood was one of about 75 female attorneys in 1880. By 1890, there were only 208 in a national …

Friday, March 11th. One of the most devastating public health crises in history hit the U.S. on this date 98 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 1920, nearly one-in-four Americans had suffered from this strain of the flu, killing about 600,000. Worldwide, estimates put the death toll up at 50 million …

For many Americans, trying to envision life without our various telephones would be like trying to live without indoor plumbing. The crucial utility is 140 years old today. In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell made the first, 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 esteem 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 …

The inventor of the first practical automatic dishwasher was born on this date in 1839 and was perhaps an unlikely candidate for the distinction. Josephine Cochrane was a socialite, and devised the dishwasher out of some annoyance at how her domestic staff damaged her china. Awarded a patent in 1886, Cochrane sold her machines in the 1890s mainly to restaurants and hotels. Her company eventually became KitchenAid, now part of the Whirlpool Corporation. In 2013, the Census Bureau’s American Housing …

Las Vegas is renowned for spectacular stage shows and as a destination for conventions and expositions. One opens there today that likely would draw an enormous crush of visitors. But sadly, the 2016 International Pizza Expo at the city’s convention center is not open to the general public. Running through March 10, the attendees are in the serious business of the preparation, improvement and distribution of one of America’s favorite foods. The first pizzeria in the U.S. opened in New …

Friday, March 4th. 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. Absent for 24 years, she reentered Congress by winning a seat in the 1940 elections. Putting her pacifist principles ahead of office holding, she …

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. Known as the Savings Bank of the Grand Fountain, United Order of True Reformers, it founded on this date in 1888 by former slave and Union Army veteran William Washington Browne. Opened in 1889, its deposits on the first day totaled $1,269. The bank provided mortgage loans and other banking services that were difficult for African-Americans to obtain in the segregated, repressive …

This is Women’s History Month — a time to recognize the often overlooked vision, courage, and accomplishments of the nation’s women. One example is Clara Barton, who ministered to wounded soldiers in the Civil War and went on to found the American Red Cross. Another is Grace Hopper, a long-serving naval officer who was a pioneer in computer programming. In recent years, women have excelled in educational attainment. In 1960, men received two-thirds of all college degrees. Today, nearly 24 …

Immigration as an item of government involvement appeared on Colonial America’s shores 350 years ago. Born in Bohemia, essentially today’s Czech Republic, Auguste Herman came to the New World initially to work for the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, now New York. A surveyor and cartographer of considerable talent, Herman’s work took him to the Chesapeake Bay, on the shores of which he wished to settle. Because he wasn’t born a British subject, he had to apply for citizenship in …

Friday, February 26th. 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 …

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, cross a bridge, or do myriad everyday activities, we are benefitting from the accumulated work of a most important, broad profession — engineering. To celebrate 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 skyscrapers to …

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 …

The history of radio and the presidency seems to center entirely on Franklin Roosevelt’s famous “fireside chats” beginning in 1933 in the depths of the Depression. But the first president to address the nation from the White House over the infant broadcast medium was, ironically, “Silent Cal.” President Calvin Coolidge spoke to a coast-to-coast audience on this date in 1924 on the occasion of George Washington’s birthday. His words were carried over a mere 42 stations. That year, there were …

Friday, February 19th. On this date in 1942, 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 the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, formally apologizing for …

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. In 2014, more than $660 billion of goods passed one way or the other across the effectively undefended border. There are about 6.8 …

This month — and some sources cite this date — is the 250th 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 …

The nation’s first college for deaf students traces its beginning to this date in 1857, when Congress incorporated the Columbia Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf, Dumb and Blind. In 1864, the school was federally chartered to confer degrees, the first three of which were awarded in 1869. Those diplomas were signed by President Ulysses S. Grant, and all subsequent diplomas awarded by the school bear the U.S. President’s signature. In 1954, the name of the institution was changed …