Category: Quick hits

A device that many of us line up to use every few days or weeks was first unveiled on this date in 1885 — the gas pump. Sylvanus Bowser of Fort Wayne, Indiana made the pump for a customer to dispense fuel for lamps and stoves. As one might expect, the advent of automobiles spurred the development, popularity and distribution of the gas pump. Eventually, the inventor’s name became a generic term for a fuel dispenser, and gas pumps in …

Today is the 233nd anniversary of the founding of Los Angeles by the Spanish governor of California. It was a small village of just 12 families, but was given the name “The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels.” The town had grown to some 6500 residents when the Mexican Revolution overthrew Spanish colonial rule in 1821. California was among the territories ceded to the United States in 1848 after the Mexican-American War, and became a state in1850, …

Football season is soon to be in full swing again. Colleges have already begun playing, and the National Football League season starts on Thursday. For many years, it was believed the first professional game took place on this date in 1895 in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. It was considered professional because one player was paid the sum of $10. However, recent research determined that the first professional game took place in 1892 in Pittsburgh. There, a Yale All-American named Pudge Heffelfinger received …

“News is coming up next.” Such words are familiar to many of us, as Americans catch up on what’s happening around the world by listening to radio newscasts at home, at work, on their computers and in the car. One of the first daily news programs on the young medium launched at the start of this month in 1922. It was called “The Radio Digest,” and was hosted by George Thompson over WBAY in New York City. At the time, …

This is Labor Day — a time to honor the nation’s working men and women, and traditionally, the end of the summer season. The observance has added meaning this year because of the persistently cloudy employment picture. The first Labor Day was celebrated in September 1882 in New York City. By 1894, more than half the states were observing the occasion, and noting the first Monday in September as a national holiday became federal law in 1894. In the U.S., …

A perpetually hot topic, in summer and other seasons, is the fluctuating cost of gasoline and diesel fuel. Some discussion centers on the amount of taxes paid at the pump, as state taxes on fuels vary widely. The highest state tax plus fees on gasoline is 50.5 cents per gallon, levied in New York, while Connecticut imposes a 54.5 cent tax on diesel. Nationally, the lowest state taxes and fees on both is around 4.5 cents per gallon, the rate …

“This program is brought to you by …” Those words, or ones close to them, were heard on this date 92 years ago in what is believed to be the first commercial broadcast on the new medium of radio. Station WEAF in New York City carried that first ad — not for soap or automobiles — but for a group of apartment buildings in Queens. The cost was $100 for 10 minutes of programming. At the time, there were just …

The U.S. petroleum industry got its start on this date in 1859 when blacksmith William Smith saw a dark film floating on the surface of the water in a hole he was boring near Titusville, Pennsylvania. Rising from a depth of just 69 feet, it was the oil he was seeking for his employer, Edwin Drake. Soon, the nation’s first commercial oil well was pumping out crude oil. Western Pennsylvania was the center of the infant industry, as new uses …

It is said that “every dog has its day,” and according to an animal welfare organization in Oregon, today is it for every dog. Now in its 11th observance, this date is National Dog Day. The occasion has two goals. One is to honor dogs, which serve humanity as companions, watchdogs, herders, and Seeing Eye dogs. They also aid in search and rescue, and in sniffing out explosives and drugs. The second goal is to rescue dogs from neglect and …

The Smithsonian Institution, founded this month in 1846, is the world’s largest museum and research complex, with 137 million artifacts in its collection. One was donated to the museum in August 1985 to mark the 25th anniversary of its commercial debut — the original Xerox 914 copying machine. Weighing in at just under 650 pounds, the 914 could produce seven copies per minute. The principle of xerography — producing images on paper using electricity — was developed in 1938 by …

Two ordinary items found in many or most American households both trace their creation by New York City residents to this date in August. In 1865, the first liquid soap was patented by William Shepphard. His formula flowed from mixing a pound of regular soap with 100 pounds of ammonia solution, then dissolving it in water to the consistency of molasses. And in 1939, Julian Seth Kahn received a patent for an “apparatus for mixing a liquid with a gas” …

The American Bar Association was founded on this date in 1878 in Sarasota Springs, New York. One-hundred attorneys from 21 states were present at its first meeting. The legal profession as we know it barely existed at the time. There was no National Code of Ethics, lawyers generally worked alone and trained under a system of apprenticeship. Today, there are some 1.27 million lawyers in the U.S., as the ever-swelling number of civil and criminal cases, and federal and local …

The nation’s first licensed radio station began broadcasting in Detroit on this date in 1920 — station 8MK, now operating as WWJ. The station was owned by the Detroit News, and for some convoluted reasons, the station operated with an amateur license, which in 1922 was changed to commercial. The first station to receive a commercial license was KDKA in Pittsburgh, which began broadcasting in October of 1920. From these rudimentary early broadcasts, the new medium grew rapidly. In 1922, …

Two geniuses in the field of electronics whose inventions changed pastimes the world over were born in August. One was television pioneer Philo Farnsworth, whose 1906 birthday is noted today. He conceived the idea of television broadcasting while still in high school and realized his dream at the age of 21. The other was Lee de Forest, a Yale Ph.D. in physics. He invented the three-element vacuum tube among his hundreds of patents and was a pioneer in radio, which …

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 …

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 …

Keeping Social Security strong and solvent is a continuing concern in an increasingly aging America. The demographic profile was different on this date in 1935, when the program was signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The program aimed to provide security to retired workers over 65, most of whom had no pension, and life expectancy at birth was just 60 years for males and 64 for females. The first monthly check under the system was for $22.54, issued …