Category: Quick hits

It’s purely coincidence, but nonetheless symbolic, that this date, the traditional presidential inauguration day, also happens to be the 232nd anniversary of the end of hostilities in the American Revolution. This 1783 cease-fire, while throwing off a monarch, started us on the way to electing our head of state. Along with creating the office of president, the ensuing constitution of the new republic was unique in world history for requiring a regular, periodic census. Letting bygones be bygones, census figures …

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 …

There have been 27 ratified amendments to the U.S. Constitution over the past 223-plus years, but that total comes with an asterisk. Uniquely, the 21st Amendment repeals the 18th, which began its short career this day in 1919. That amendment launched the Prohibition Era, a well-intentioned act of social hygiene, seeking to ban the availability of alcoholic beverages. The unintended consequences, though, were perhaps worse — vast flouting of the law by the public and a boost to organized crime. …

Dr. Martin Luther King would be 86 years old today. The civil rights leader, minister, and recipient of the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize was born in 1929 and assassinated in 1968. Next Monday is a 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 316 million enjoys the civil rights Dr. King advocated, including around 245 million whites, 44.5 million African-Americans, about 19 …

January is Financial Wellness Month, appropriately timed to the confluence of New Year’s resolutions and holiday bills. It’s a time to set new goals for financial freedom and moderation in spending; for people to understand the benefits of “paying yourself first.” A financial adviser can help shape money management goals, pointing out the power of compound interest to work for you in savings and against you in debt. Americans have a per capita income average of nearly $28,000 and a …

Couch potatoes can trace their roots to this date in 1928 when three experimental television sets were installed in private homes in Schenectady, New York. Not that there was much to see, the test broadcast by General Electric and RCA being of a person smoking, followed by a man playing a ukulele. The first home receivers’ screens were only 1½ inches square; a far cry from today’s theater-sized flat screens. And in another departure from 1928’s lonely three, the percentage …

Near this date in 49 B.C., Julius Caesar, leading the 13th Roman legion, crossed the Rubicon. That minor river in northeastern Italy marked a boundary south of which a Roman general could not bring his troops. Crossing the Rubicon, which has since come to mean passing a point of no return, precipitated a civil war. Caesar triumphed, effectively ending the Roman republic and launching imperial Rome. Many generations later, the descendants of the Romans crossed a more formidable water barrier: …

If you feel a special, hair-raising electricity in the air today, well that’s no wonder — it’s National Static Electricity Day. Static electricity is the result of an imbalance between negative and positive charges in an object. These charges build up on the surface until they are discharged. This commonly happens when you shuffle about when the humidity is very low and then touch a conductor, such as a door handle or your pet’s wet nose. Static electricity has uses …

The nation’s telephone service options changed forever on this date 33 years ago when AT&T complied with a Justice Department mandate to give up its local Bell System companies. The action came as the result of what has been termed the most significant antitrust suit since the breakup of Standard Oil in 1911. From the late 19th century, the virtual monopoly of what had come to be known as “Ma Bell” controlled America’s telephone equipment and lines. After the breakup, …

During the Revolutionary War, the rebelling colonies and the Continental Congress were anything but too big to fail. To the contrary, finances were very spotty and precarious. To help put affairs in order and make credit available, the first commercial bank in the U.S. opened on this date in 1782, just a week after being chartered by Congress. Called the Bank of North America, it was capitalized at $400,000, which roughly would be around $5.5 billion today. The names of …

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 nearly $119 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 minimum …

When Prohibition ended in 1933, the sale of alcoholic beverages resumed in the U.S. but was subject to a patchwork of differing regulations. Local options mean that some counties remain dry. Some states regulate the alcoholic content of beer sold at supermarkets and gas stations. In a few states, beer, wine and liquor may be sold practically anywhere. And in 18 states, liquor is sold exclusively in facilities run by the government. These are usually called ABC stores, for alcoholic …

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 1907, when just …

On this New Year’s Eve, some 319 million Americans of all ages are ready to greet the year 2015. A hundred years ago, the U.S. population was just over 99 million. Fifty years ago, it was around 192 million. The 2010 Census counted just under 309 million people. To show how the nation is growing, by this time tomorrow there will be 10,800 new babies on hand to welcome the new year, the first of whom will be reported in …