An emotional and legal battle that lasted many decades ended on this date in 1920, changing the course of U.S. social and political history. The event was the certification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. The amendment prohibits discrimination based on sex with regard to voting — in short, it extended to women the right to vote. Two days earlier, Tennessee had become the required 36th state to ratify the amendment, in spite of last minute efforts by some …
Category: Quick hits
Wednesday Open Line
Hand-tools have a long history. Evidence of hammer-stones and hand axes date from about 2.6 million years ago. That’s well over 2 million years before the appearance of Homo sapiens about 200,000 years ago. Nearly all of those millennia passed before the development of the monkey wrench. On this date in 1835, the adjustable or screw wrench was patented by Solymon Merrick of Springfield, Massachusetts. The modern looking wrench was soon followed by improved designs that are still in use …
Tuesday Open Line
It’s still summer break for many kids, but already in progress is one of the nation’s largest seasonal events; one that exchanges leisure for classroom study. It’s back to school time. From nursery school to college, over 77 million students are headed to the classroom — that’s more than one-out-of-four of the total U.S. population age 3 and over. Of the 8.5 million Americans ages 20 and 21, over 51 percent are enrolled in college. Nursery school or kindergarten enrollment …
Monday Open Line
Chairs have a history going back to the ancient Egyptian Pharaohs, or even earlier in antiquity. But a couple of variants that no one was anxious to try out debuted this month in the 19th century. In 1890, the electric chair was used for the first time in Auburn, New York, to carry out a death sentence. Scarcely more alluring, a special dental chair was patented on this date in 1848 by Waldo Hanchett. His innovation was a wooden recliner …
Friday / Weekend Open Lines
Friday, August 12th. This date 35 years ago is significant in the advance of the digital age. On August 12, 1981, IBM introduced its model 5150 — which soon became known simply as the “PC.” There had been consumer computer models for some years before, such as the early Apple and Commodore, but the IBM machine marked a turning point in acceptance due to the manufacturer’s prominence. The company was famous for its pioneering, large mainframe computers, and even by …
Henderson / Vance Night Out Against Crime August 11th, 2016
In cooperation with the National Night Out Against Crime the Henderson / Vance Night Out Against Crime Committee and the Henderson Police Department will be hosting the Henderson/Vance Night Out Against Crime on Breckenridge Street in downtown Henderson on August 11th, 2016. The event is scheduled from 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM with set-up beginning at 3:00 PM. The introduction of National Night Out, “America’s Night Out Against Crime”, in 1984 began an effort to promote involvement in crime prevention …
Thursday Open Line
A company founded in Seattle this month some decades ago has grown into a global titan in its industry. Its business isn’t web-based retailing, building aircraft, or brewing coffee. United Parcel Service began in 1907 as the American Messenger Company, founded by 19-year old Jim Casey for deliveries around Seattle on foot, or on bicycles. The expanding company became UPS in 1930, and today commands a fleet of 237 aircraft and about 105,000 motor vehicles. While UPS is the world’s …
Wednesday Open Line
The Smithsonian Institution was founded on this date in 1846. It is named for British scientist James Smithson, who willed his fortune to the U.S. to establish the institution, even though he had never visited America. Today, the 170-year-old Smithsonian is the world’s largest museum and research complex, made up of 19 museums and galleries, the National Zoo, and nine research centers. It currently has over 138 million items in its collections. It is one of the main attractions for …
Tuesday Open Line
With so much modern infrastructure featuring soaring atriums and deep subterranean transit systems, it’s not easy to imagine getting by without escalators. However, this efficient people mover was conceived in a far simpler, down to earth time. The first patent for a moving stairway was obtained on this date in 1859 by Nathan Ames. However, it was never built. The first practical escalator was built by Jesse Reno in 1896 at Coney Island, New York. Reno called his device an …
Monday Open Line
On this date in 1930, an offbeat sort of history was made when a stock trade order was placed from a zeppelin — an airship — off the Atlantic coast. This didn’t start a trend because the stock market had crashed and burned less than 10 months earlier, and a famous zeppelin crashed and burned just seven years later. While 810 million shares were traded in 1930, that was down significantly from 1929’s volume of 1.1 billion. The stock market …
Friday / Weekend Open Lines
Friday, August 5th. On this day in 1966, a groundbreaking ceremony was held near the southern tip of Manhattan. On the site of a recently cleared neighborhood of low-rise buildings called Radio Row, work began on what would become the World Trade Center. The iconic twin towers, the landmark feature of the seven-building development, were briefly the tallest in the world after their completion in the early 1970s. The cost of the World Trade Center complex was around $1.5-billion. In …
Thursday Open Line
In this first week of August 102 years ago, American motorists got the green light to safely proceed through increasingly traveled crossroads. A traffic light system, credited with being the first in the U.S., flashed red and green at the intersection of 105th Street and Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio. To further prompt drivers, the words “Stop” and “Move” were emblazoned on the operating red and green lights. At the time, there were about 1.8 million motor vehicles in the …
Wednesday Open Line
Although the numbers have fallen sharply in the last few decades, still some people in the U.S. succumb to diseases that could have been prevented by immunization. Others experience pain, suffering and disability. That’s why this is National Immunization Awareness Month — highlighting the importance of vaccinations to a long and healthy life. The process of vaccination was known even in ancient cultures. Its most spectacular success came in the eradication of smallpox, a scourge of humanity for thousands of …
Henderson / Vance Night Out Against Crime August 2nd, 2016
In cooperation with the National Night Out Against Crime the Henderson / Vance Night Out Against Crime Committee and the Henderson Police Department will be hosting the Henderson/Vance Night Out Against Crime on Breckenridge Street in downtown Henderson on August 2, 2016. The event is scheduled from 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM with set-up beginning at 3:00 PM. The introduction of National Night Out, “America’s Night Out Against Crime”, in 1984 began an effort to promote involvement in crime prevention …
Tuesday Open Line
A patent awarded on this date in 1903 literally affected the shape of things to come. Specifically, the shape of glass things to come. Michael Owens of Toledo, Ohio, patented a machine that could automatically manufacture glass bottles, producing four per second. The invention standardized and expanded the glass industry. It also enabled tremendous growth in the soft drink and beer industries, making available a less expensive way of packaging their products. Owens’ later machines were developed to quickly turn …
Monday Open Line
Supermarkets carry dozens of brands in their cereal aisles, from the sugary and candy-like to high-fiber organic products. One of them has been available for over 120 years, an early entrant in the cereal business. On this date in 1893, Denver restaurant owner Henry Perky received a patent for a “Machine for the Preparation of Cereals for Food.” That food was shredded wheat. By 1901, he had set up an ultra-modern plant at Niagara Falls called “the Palace of Light” …
Friday / Weekend Open Lines
Friday, July 29th. The nation’s love affair with automobiles is generations old. Our devotion can be traced down through the decades by looking at advertising, as cars progressed from romantic if noisy new playthings to a near necessity in our vast country. The first known national ad promoting a car appeared at the end of July 1898 in the Scientific American magazine. It was for the now forgotten Winton Motor Carriage with the headline “dispense with a horse.” Americans did …
Thursday Open Line
The home front during World War II had to cope with some irritating impositions, notably gas rationing and a lack of new cars and tires. But what for many was a real crisis was coffee rationing. Decreed in 1942 because of hoarding and supply concerns, it proved very unpopular. President Roosevelt ended the rationing on this date in 1943 because imports had rebounded. Coffee may have been an early import by the Jamestown colony in the 17th century. Coffee consumption …
Wednesday Open Line
The past few decades have seen ever more frequent public opinion polls, whether from the traditional Gallup and Harris firms, to those commissioned by newspapers or political campaigns. The first such poll in U.S. history appeared this month in 1824 in the Harrisburg Pennsylvanian, finding that Andrew Jackson was favored over John Quincy Adams in the four-man presidential race. But most favored “none of the above,” as that contest recorded the lowest participation rate in our history–under 27 percent. Although …
Tuesday Open Line
On this date 26 years ago, the Americans with Disabilities Act became law. First introduced in Congress in 1988, the goal of the legislation was to guarantee equal opportunity for people with disabilities in public and commercial facilities, employment, transportation, and services at all levels of government. Nearly 57 million Americans — or about 19 percent of the population — have at least one disability. Some 12 million over the age of 15 need assistance with one or more activities …