Category: Open Lines

For many Americans nowadays, it’s hard to conceive of life without computers. But such a life is within the living memory of America’s seniors. The first electronic computer was publicly demonstrated on Valentine’s Day 1946 at the University of Pennsylvania. Inventors J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly developed the computer to help calculate the proper ballistic trajectory for artillery shells. It filled a large room with 18,000 vacuum tubes and the resulting heat. Eckert and Mauchly went on to develop …

Friday, February 12th. One of the nation’s major civil rights organizations is 107 years old today — the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Founded to combat lynching and segregation, the NAACP continues to work toward greater opportunities for minorities. One of its most telling moments came with the 1954 Supreme Court ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education, which desegregated the nation’s schools. The lawyer who argued that case, Thurgood Marshall, became the first African-American Supreme Court …

Among his very many achievements, Benjamin Franklin played a leading role in the founding of America’s first hospital, decades before the Declaration of Independence. Together with Dr. Thomas Bond, he obtained a charter for a hospital to serve the poor, sick and insane in Philadelphia. The Pennsylvania Hospital opened on this date in 1752 in a converted house. The hospital later developed at a location where a modern medical complex still serves the city. During its long history, the hospital’s …

This month 150 years ago, Lucy Hobbs Taylor received a doctorate in dentistry from the Ohio College of Dental Surgery. She was the first American woman so credentialed, and it’s believed she was also the first in the world. Born in 1833, Lucy Hobbs at first tried to attend medical school, but finding that avenue closed to her, studied dentistry. Beginning in 1861, she practiced without a certificate as was common at the time. Following her graduation, she married James …

On this date in 1825, our most unusual presidential election was held; with the winner receiving just 13 votes to the runner-up’s seven, and four to the third-place finisher. The election held in November 1824 saw only 353,000 votes cast, out of a population of about 10 million residents. Andrew Jackson won a plurality of 43 percent in the four-way race. But Jackson received only 99 of the 131 electoral votes needed to win. So the matter went to the …

Today is Chinese New Year, marking the beginning of 4714, the year of the monkey in the Chinese Zodiac. This month in the year 4670, more familiar to us as 1972, President Richard Nixon surprised everyone with his dramatic state visit to China. This successful diplomatic initiative led to expanded contacts between the U.S. and that nation. Today, China is a major U.S. trading partner. In 2014, China bought nearly $124 billion of American goods, while we imported over $466 …

Friday, February 5th. February is American Heart Month, dedicated to the serious matter of monitoring and taking care of our beating hearts. This is important because while heart disease has claimed fewer lives in recent years, it is still the nation’s number one killer — responsible for nearly 600,000 deaths annually. However, almost as if to prove that no good intention goes unpunished, February is also National Snack Food Month. Despite increasing health consciousness, snack foods still find a way …

Adding poignancy to Black History Month, today marks the birthday in 1913 of Rosa Parks, a community activist who became a symbol of the fight for civil equality. Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus to a white man. This sparked a boycott of the bus system by blacks, which greatly energized the ultimately successful civil rights movement. During her life, Rosa Parks championed the cause of increased opportunities for youth. When …

On this date in 1848, the United States and a defeated Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, ending their controversial war, which began in May 1846 after some mutual provocations. In the peace treaty, Mexico recognized America’s annexation of the Republic of Texas, with the Rio Grande being the border. In exchange for $15 million and other provisions, the U.S. obtained all or much of what are now six of our other southwestern states. Some 80,000 Mexicans were thereby …

February is Black History Month, a time to honor the many contributions to our nation’s history made by people of African descent. Started as a special week in 1926 by historian Carter G. Woodson, the observance is now a full month of activities across the country. African-Americans, in counting single race or in combination with others, number over 43 million in the U.S. By 2060, this figure is projected to reach 74.5 million — nearly 18 percent of the country’s …

Friday, January 29th. A social milestone was reached this date in 1907 when Congressman Charles Curtis of Kansas was seated in the U.S. Senate to complete the few weeks remaining in the term of a resigned senator. He was the first person with Native American blood to serve in the Senate, as his mother was descended from three tribes. He was elected to that office four times, serving for 20 years. He remained until March 3, 1929, when he left …

As the Great Depression approached its worst, Wisconsin made the nation’s first governmental direct relief effort for the unemployed. On this date in 1932, it enacted unemployment insurance, soon followed by a half-dozen other states before the Social Security Act in mid-decade moved all states to adopt such programs by 1937. Wisconsin’s program issued its first unemployment check in August in the amount of $15. By 2012, states and local governments took in over $80 billion from the payroll tax …

“To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.” That’s the motto of the University of Georgia, which on this date in 1785 became the young nation’s first state-chartered university. Royally chartered private universities existed in America in Colonial times, notably Harvard and William and Mary. The University of Georgia opened in 1801 after the similarly chartered University of North Carolina. Today, over 70 million Americans hold bachelor’s or graduate degrees. People with bachelor’s degrees average around …

On this date 33 years ago, the infant personal computer was empowered to become something much greater than a glorified word processor with the release of the spreadsheet program Lotus 1-2-3. The popular program drew acclaim as the first PC “killer application.” Finance and accounting workers were thus freed from hunching over ledger books and switched to hunching before a computer screen. The name “1-2-3” stemmed from the product’s integration of three main capabilities — spreadsheet, charting and graphing, and …

On this date in 1915, east and west were linked by voice in the first transcontinental phone call. This event was a conference call involving Alexander Graham Bell in New York, his assistant Thomas Watson in San Francisco, President Woodrow Wilson in Washington, and the president of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company in Georgia. Using the new commercial service was a major financial commitment. The charge for a three-minute call from New York to San Francisco started at $20.70. …

Friday, January 22nd.  Many sumptuous foods get their day — or month — in the sun by way of some commemoration. But even very basic, traditional and unexciting foods get a salute. For example, this is National Oatmeal Month, recognizing the long-term favorite for its up-to-date health characteristics — low fat, no sodium, and the ability to help lower the risk of heart disease. Oatmeal also fits today’s time pressures, since a bowl can be made in seconds in the …

You may think the debate about smoking is fairly recent, but the more things change, the more they resemble 1908. On this date that year, the New York City council passed an ordinance that made it illegal for women to smoke in public places. The ordinance was the result of a campaign by the National Anti-Cigarette League. At the time, a number of cities had banned smoking, along with the states of Arkansas, Iowa, Idaho, and Tennessee. All of these …

Several decades ago, America’s coffee culture featured very little variety. Average annual per capita consumption was high, reaching 46 gallons in 1946. But it mostly was a uniform roast, made by a percolator or a drip method. Such variety as existed was pretty much limited to ethnic restaurants and a scattering of hip coffee shops. No more. Even with American consumption down to 23.5 gallons per capita, coffee has become a lifestyle choice. So January is Coffee Gourmet International Month, …

Being able to store and distribute food before it spoiled became easier in the young United States on this date in 1825. That’s when Ezra Daggett and Thomas Kensett were granted a patent for the tin can. Heating and sealing food in glass jars had started a few years before in France, and the British Royal Navy was being supplied with canned foods by 1820. Borrowing the practice, the U.S. became the eventual world leader in canning. Even though today …

Dr. Martin Luther King would have been 87 years old this year. The civil rights leader, minister, and recipient of the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize was born in 1929 and assassinated in 1968. Today is the 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 319 million enjoys the civil rights Dr. King advocated, including around 254 million whites, nearly 46 million African-Americans, …