Category: Quick hits

A most unusual childbearing event in medical history occurred in Lima, Peru on this date 75 years ago, which in 1939 happened to be Mothers Day. A boy was delivered by caesarian section, but that’s not uncommon. What was unique is that the mother, Lina Medina, was just over five and a half years old. For a time, this extraordinary story was believed to be a hoax, but it was quickly confirmed. How the girl was impregnated has never been …

Today marks the 407th anniversary of the founding of the first permanent English settlement in what is now the United States, at Jamestown, Virginia. The name honored King James I of England. Captains John Smith and Christopher Newport were among the leaders of a group of royally chartered settlers, who sailed from Plymouth, England aboard three small ships — the Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery. By 1625, more than 1,200 European colonists lived in Virginia. Today, the state has a …

Yesterday honored mothers, but it also was the 160th birthday of a German-American whose name may not be familiar, but whose invention had a profound impact on the reading habits of all Americans, and indeed, the world. His name was Ottmar Mergenthaler. His invention, the linotype — allowed one person to set type for printing by simply pressing keys on a keyboard — bypassing four different operations at much greater speeds. It was first used in 1886 by the New …

This is a time to recognize those nonhuman friends who add a special dimension to our lives — it’s Be Kind to Animals Week and National Pet Week. While pets are a source of companionship, many dogs provide protection and act as eyes for the blind, as well as helping other disabled owners. Less is expected of cats, who keep humans as household staff. Dogs are found in well over one-third of U.S. homes, cats in slightly less than one-third. …

This is National Nurses Week. Yesterday’s National Nurses Day began a week honoring the outstanding efforts of nurses in helping to keep Americans healthy. The observance ends next Monday, the birthday of Florence Nightingale, who established the world’s first nursing school in England in the 19th century. In the U.S., there were some 12,000 registered nurses by 1900. Today, that figure is over 2.6 million, with median annual earnings of about $62,000. As their numbers have grown, so have nurses’ …

What is perhaps the nation’s foremost professional organization, the American Medical Association, was founded on this date in 1847 in Philadelphia. Two hundred fifty delegates from 28 states attended the founding meeting, which adopted the first code of medical ethics, and established the first nationwide standards for preliminary medical education and the degree of MD. At the time, there were some 50,000 medical doctors in the U.S. Today, there are nearly 700,000. Physicians and surgeons have median annual earnings of …

In Spanish, today’s date is Cinco de Mayo, and celebrations will be held in many cities across the U.S., as well as Mexico. These events mark the anniversary of the Battle of Puebla in 1862, when outnumbered Mexican troops defeated the invading French forces of Napoleon III. Over the years, the celebration has evolved from one of military victory to a colorful and vibrant event, celebrating Mexican culture. Appropriately, this is also National Salsa Month. There are over 34 million …

One of major league baseball’s most dramatic and poignant moments occurred on this date in 1938. That was when the New York Yankees’ famously durable first baseman Lou Gehrig removed himself from the lineup, breaking his streak of 2,130 consecutive games played; a record which would stand until 1995, and hasn’t otherwise been approached. Gehrig never played again, and was shortly diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a wasting, usually fatal disease, which in fact took his life in another two …

Construction began on this date in 1884 in Chicago for a radical new building design — destined to be America’s first skyscraper. It was the Home Insurance Company headquarters, designed by engineer William Jenney. For many centuries, thick outer walls supported multi-story buildings, limiting the height that could be safely or usefully attained. Jenney’s building used a metal frame for support, like a skeleton. The exterior walls were attached to the frame, and so these so-called curtain walls weren’t load …

This is the anniversary of the one of the greatest real estate deals in history — one that doubled the size of the U.S. and put the nation in position to become a world power. The year was 1803, and the deal was the Louisiana Purchase. The young U.S. under President Thomas Jefferson bought nearly 830,000 square miles from France at the cost of four cents an acre. The land stretched from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and …

Health insurance and its affordability has been a topic of political contention mostly in the past two decades, but the social need was recognized much earlier. On this date in 1942, Rhode Island became the first state to set up a health or temporary disability insurance program for its working citizens unemployed because of sickness. The covered workers — not the employers — funded the program with a 1 percent tax on wages of less than $3,000 a year. Today, …

Today marks the completion of the first full century of an invention many — if not most — of us use every day without a second thought. In April 1913, Hoboken, New Jersey resident Gideon Sundbach patented the zipper. He called his invention the “hookless fastener.” Improved and patented again in 1917 as the “separable fastener,” for many years the invention was used mainly on rubber boots. Such was the use by the B.F. Goodrich Company, which gave the fastener …

Many automobile license plates proclaim glories of the issuing states; others spell out something dear to the drivers but indecipherable to anyone else. Those plates and the basic ones handed out by motor vehicle departments are requirements to drive on public roads. New York was the first state to require license plates on motor vehicles on this date in 1901. At the time, there were just under 15,000 sputtering automobiles in the entire country, traveling over muddy, rudimentary roads without …

Early America certainly was a simpler society than that which we have today, but some of today’s familiar institutions were part of the national experience over 200 years ago. On this date in 1795, the city of Baltimore set up a permanent, elected board of health, successor to the nation’s first such appointed agency. The first board was created by Maryland’s governor to cope with yellow fever epidemics beginning in 1792. At one point, the city of Baltimore quarantined or …

America’s first — and oldest — school is celebrating its 369th birthday today. The Boston Latin School started in 1635 with a handful of students meeting in the headmaster’s home. Admission was by reading aloud a few verses from the Bible. Stressing a classical education and the development of independent thought, the school has long been considered one of the top public secondary schools in the nation. Its list of graduates includes John Hancock, George Santayana, and Leonard Bernstein. Ben …

One of world’s most important medicines — insulin — became available for general use this month in 1923, saving the lives of millions of people suffering from diabetes. Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas and is critical in the processing of carbohydrates in the human body. It was first isolated the year before by a Canadian team led by Dr. Frederick Banting at the University of Toronto. The effect was like a miracle. One year, the disease was …