Category: Quick hits

On this date 150 years ago, Henry Ford was born in Dearborn, Michigan to a farming family. But his life’s course led him to revolutionize industrial production the world over. He built his first automobile in 1896, and in 1908, introduced the Model T, an immediate success. To meet demand, Ford developed the assembly line, which cut the time to build each car from over 12 hours to just 90 minutes. At one point, half of all the cars in …

Long before there were automobiles in the U.S., good roads were badly needed to get farm produce to market and to allow people to go visiting and shopping without battling mud. An American professor who had emigrated from Belgium — Edward de Smedt–invented an asphalt mix, which could be applied in sheets to make a smooth surface. His first trial occurred on this date in 1870 on William Street in Newark, New Jersey. Even though de Smedt’s technique worked well, …

On this date 23 years ago, the Americans with Disabilities Act became law. The goal 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 have at least one disability. Some 12 million over the age of 15 need assistance with one or more activities of daily living, such as taking a shower or a bath. Over 8 million Americans over 15 have …

The past few decades have seen a great expansion in the number and frequency of 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. Ironically, that contest drew the lowest recorded participation in our history — less than 27 …

This is National Drive-Thru Day — noting the popularity of restaurants that take orders by intercom and then pass the food out a window to the customers wanting to keep on the move. The first such service was the idea of Robert Peterson, at a Jack-in-the-Box restaurant in San Diego in 1951, serving hamburgers for just 18 cents. At the time, drive-in restaurants were very popular. The serving staff — some even on roller skates — brought food to people …

The home front during World War II had to cope with some irritating limitations and scarcities, notably gas rationing and a lack of new cars and tires. But what really hit the public where it hurt was coffee rationing. Imposed in 1942 because of hoarding and supply concerns, it proved very unpopular. Late this month in 1943, President Roosevelt ended the program because imports had rebounded. Coffee is believed to have been introduced into America by Captain John Smith of …

An aviation milestone was achieved on this date 80 years ago, as famed pilot Wiley Post landed his Lockheed monoplane on Long Island, New York, completing the first solo flight around the world. In a feat of endurance, he made the trip in 7 days, 18½ hours. His plane is now displayed in the National Air and Space Museum. Post, blind in one eye, was an aviation pioneer who held many high-altitude records, and discovered the jet stream. He was …

It’s time to pass the strained peaches or maybe the junior green beans. Fremont, Michigan is celebrating the 23rd annual National Baby Food Festival, which concludes tomorrow. The town of 4,000 is home to the Gerber Baby Food Company, and is welcoming thousands of visitors to enjoy entertainment as well as baby food eating contests by adults and a baby crawl race. Today in the U.S., there are more than 4 million babies being cradled or held in parents’ laps …

On these scorching hot summer days, with the nation’s average warmest day of the year coming up within a week, most of us welcome ducking in from the heat into a cool office, business, or home. For this, we can thank Willis Carrier, who in the depths of winter in 1906 received a patent for what he called an “apparatus for treating air.” His idea has fundamentally changed the way most Americans live, and the Carrier name is still prominent …

On this date in 1984, President Reagan signed a bill known as the Minimum Legal Drinking Age Act. Backed by Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the law standardized a patchwork of local laws across the country and made it illegal for anyone under 21 to purchase or publicly possesses alcohol. It has been calculated that many lives a year are saved as a result, particularly among young drivers. Across the nation, some 58 million Americans are binge drinkers, and that can …

Major league baseball takes a pause in its regular schedule today to play its 84th all-star game. This year’s event is being held at Citi Field in New York, home of the Mets. The first midsummer all-star game was played on July 6, 1933, at Comiskey Park in Chicago. A homer by Babe Ruth helped the American League defeat the National League, 4-to-2. In 1933, all 16 teams in the major leagues were clustered in the northeast of the country, …

When car drivers in Oklahoma City went to bed on this date in 1935, they probably had no idea how their world, and ours, was going to change come the next morning. On July 16th, America’s first parking meter was operating on the corner of First Street and Robinson Avenue. While local drivers could avoid that space, they couldn’t escape for long. That meter was just the first of many, as millions of ticketed motorists will attest, and as municipalities …

A romantic period of American history that still intrigues us ended, semiofficially, on this date in 1893. That’s when historian Frederick Jackson Turner delivered an academic paper in Chicago declaring the American Frontier had closed. Based on 1890 Census data, Turner said that migration from the East, the building of railroads and hundreds of new towns had combined to forge a single nation from coast-to-coast. The most recent census showed that the West is still a magnet for growth. Between …

The far-flung reaches of planet Earth came into focus for the average American this week in 1962 with the launching of Telstar. This was the first privately owned satellite and the first to relay live television pictures across the ocean. While a major communications advance and a sensation of the day, Telstar didn’t last long. It failed in December, was restored briefly, and then went dead in February 1963. Today, dozens of communications satellites allow television signals, telephone calls and …

Wyoming became the 44th state to join the Union on this date in 1890. Its history reflects the larger story of the West — beginning with early exploration by fur trappers. For many years, the area was the Wyoming territory — carved out of the Dakota, Idaho, and Utah territories. It was an important route for settlers and gold miners moving west, for the Pony Express and the overland stage. Wyoming is called the Equality State — noting that it …