Category: Quick hits

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 more than $118 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 …

Early this month in 1790, President George Washington addressed a joint session of Congress to deliver the first State of the Union report, as called for the in the still young Constitution. The requirement didn’t demand a speech, and after delivering just one, President Thomas Jefferson began reporting in writing, feeling a speech was too magisterial. The spoken presentation was revived over a century later by Woodrow Wilson. Washington’s address has echoes to this day, as he stated “the terms …

Friday, January 1st. 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 …

On this New Year’s Eve, some 322 million Americans of all ages and backgrounds are ready to greet the year 2015. A hundred years ago, the U.S. population was just over 100 million. Fifty years ago, it was around 194 million. The 2010 Census counted just under 309 million people. To show how the nation is growing, New Year’s Day will be the birthday of about 10,800 newborns, the first of whom will be reported in the media. These new …

As a year draws to a close, it is common to reflect on the passage of time. Two hundred years ago, the Senate ratified the Treaty of Ghent, ending the War of 1812. A week later, Congress declared war on Algiers. One hundred years ago, America’s first Jewish governor took office in Idaho, and AT&T became the first traded company with over a million shareholders. Fifty years ago, President Johnson proclaimed the “Great Society” and later signed the bill creating …

During the course of recorded history going back to ancient Egypt, men have felt cultural pressures to shave their facial hair. For centuries, their only recourse was the straight razor, which provided a close shave but had to be handled carefully to avoid cuts. Early this month in 1901, an American named King Camp Gillette applied for a patent for a safety razor with disposable blades. He began production in 1903, and received his patent in 1904. The electric razor …

The month of December has given Americans a lot to chew on, beyond holiday cookies, fruitcakes and candies. In December 1869, chewing gum was patented by Ohio dentist William Semple, who hoped that the flavored gum would help people keep their teeth clean. And the first bubble gum, created by Walter Deemer of the Fleer chewing gum company, was sold in a single Philadelphia location the day after Christmas in 1928. Both gum varieties have spread globally, which unfortunately includes …

Friday, December 25th. 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 high tech toys. 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 …

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 is a night of wrapping presents, especially. Some parents will discover to their dismay that some treasure has been overlooked, and head out into the cold, hoping to find an open store with the right solutions. Santa’s elves get plenty of help from U.S. toy makers. There are 545 enterprises across the country producing …

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 anniversary 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 …

This month in 1823, Georgia became the first state to enact a birth registration law. It required county clerks to record in a book the dates of birth of all new Georgians upon obtaining satisfactory proof by way of affidavit or sworn oaths. Enumerations of people go back to antiquity, but births were little noted outside of family and church records, and the memory of neighbors. This informal method held true until Georgia’s action in 1823, which by 1919 were …

Friday, December 18th. The holiday season is mostly a time of cheer. But it’s also a time for winter’s most frequent misery — the common cold and the cough that often goes along with it. While science works to find a cure for colds, the rest of us can only try to reduce their symptoms. Before the middle of the 19th century, a restaurant owner in Poughkeepsie, New York, did something to make life a little easier for cold sufferers. …

A dream of the ages became reality 112 years ago today on a windswept beach at North Carolina’s Outer Banks. There, the Wright brothers made the world’s first powered, heavier-than-air flight. With Orville and Wilbur alternating as pilot, the plane made four flights that day. The first airplane flight lasted 12 seconds and covered 120 feet. The longest distance covered that day was 852 feet in 59 seconds — an average speed of 31 miles an hour. In only a …

One of the most familiar and cherished Christmas stories has been around a long time — 172 years in fact. Tomorrow marks the anniversary of the 1843 publication of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” with sales starting on December 19. The first print run of 6,000 copies sold out in a week and the book has never been out of print. The tale about the reformation of Ebenezer Scrooge and his “Bah, humbug!” dismissal of the Christmas season became a …

America’s first life insurance policy issued by a general insurance company was issued on this date in 1794 in Philadelphia. The Insurance Company of North America was organized two years earlier, capitalized at $600,000. But the life insurance venture proved short-lived, as only six policies were written in five years, and the service was dropped in 1804. The Insurance Company of North America still exists as a subsidiary of a multinational insurance group. Now, of course, life insurance is an …

Among other special observances being noted in December is Learn a Foreign Language Month, with the goal of getting people to broaden their outlook on the world by taking a course in another language. Increasingly, many different languages are heard across the nation. In the U.S., nearly 61 million people over age 5, or 21 percent, speak a language other than English at home. The leading non-English language is Spanish at nearly 37 million. It’s a long drop to second …

Friday, December 11th. Throughout history, debt had been a criminal offense, with penalties ranging from enslavement to mutilation. In Colonial America, some debtors were branded or whipped in public, but most were thrown in jail, debt being the only crime for which long-term imprisonment was common. But this month in 1821, Kentucky became the first state to abolish debtors’ prison. The nation followed with a federal ban in 1832. Americans are fortunate in the more forgiving attitudes toward debt, encouraged …

“Scarcely any political question arises in the United States that is not resolved, sooner or later, into a judicial question.” That was the observation of Alexis de Tocqueville in his famous 1835 book, “Democracy in America.” Lawyering came early to the United States. In the middle of the Revolutionary War, the College of William and Mary established the first law school this month in 1779. The Williamsburg, Virginia school didn’t hire the professors, as they were paid directly by their …