Category: Quick hits

Nineteen-year-old Jim Casey had an idea. So, this week in 1907, he and a friend borrowed $100. With it, they started the American Messenger Service in Seattle. By 1913, they had their first vehicle, a Ford Model T, and switched from messages to packages. By 1919, the firm expanded beyond Seattle. Soon, the growing United Parcel Service painted its trucks a rich brown. Today, UPS trucks are still brown. It is the largest package delivery company, serving more than 200 …

“This program is brought to you by…” Those words or ones close to them, were heard for the first time on this date 90 years ago, as the first commercial was 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 30 …

Much is being written and said about the nation’s dependency on foreign oil and the daily need to fuel our cars, trucks, railroad locomotives, ships and jetliners. The U.S. petroleum industry got its start on this date in 1859, when “Uncle” Billy Smith saw a dark film floating on the water of a shaft he was digging near Titusville, Pennsylvania. Soon, the nation’s first commercial oil well was pumping out crude oil. Today, there are 526,000 oil wells in the …

It may seem like it’s still summer — it’s hot and many people are on vacation. But one of the nation’s largest seasonal events is already under way. It’s back to school time. From nursery school to college, 77 million students are headed to the classroom — that’s more than one-out-of-four of the total U.S. population aged 3 and over. Of the 56 million elementary and high school students enrolled this fall, 11 percent will attend private schools. There are …

Today marks the 100th birthday of one of the nation’s most popular entertainers of the 1940s and ’50s — dancer, movie director and producer, choreographer, singer and actor Gene Kelly. Kelly, a powerful and athletic dancer, is perhaps best remembered for two movies–“An American In Paris,” and “Singin’ in The Rain.” He was a dominant force in Hollywood musicals for the better part of 20 years and received many prestigious awards, including the Kennedy Center honors and an honorary Academy …

Big city hotels as we know them would not be possible without elevators — guests simply would not walk up countless flights of stairs with their luggage. This week in 1859, the first hotel with an elevator opened in New York City, an elegant structure called the Fifth Avenue Hotel. It was six stories high. Its elevator did not use cables, but cars carried guests to upper floors atop a solid, screw-like mechanism, called a “vertical screw railway.” The first …

All across the country, many families are squeezing in a last week of vacation before school gets under way. These getaways will take people to the mountains, lakes, ocean beaches, and the country’s network of national parks and recreation areas for one last summer fling. Many will be sightseeing trips, while others have more defined goals, such as fishing, camping, or hiking. Americans go on 350 million leisure trips each year, averaging about 4½ nights away from home. More than …

It’s unfortunate, but many people die each year in the U.S. from diseases that could have been prevented by immunization. That’s why this is National Immunization Awareness Month — calling attention to the importance of people of all ages to get their shots. Also known as vaccination, its most spectacular success came in the eradication of smallpox, a human scourge for thousands of years. The last known natural case was diagnosed over 30 years ago. While Edward Jenner and Louis …

Young America got the motive power it needed to expand beyond the capacities of the horse on this day in 1807 — as the public got its first glimpse of a steam-powered boat. Robert Fulton in his vessel, the Clermont, went 150 miles from Albany to New York City in 32 hours. The impact of the trip was not immediately clear, and some even called the effort “Fulton’s Folly.” But steamboats caught on and revolutionized the way America moved. Today, …

Yes, the 4th of July is long gone, but in La Porte, Indiana, fireworks fans have been having a festival, which began last Saturday and runs through this Friday. That’s because La Porte is the site of this year’s annual convention of the Pyrotechnics Guild International. The purpose is to promote the design and safe display of the finest quality pyrotechnics. There will be fireworks events each evening, as the professionals compete for the title of “Grand Master.” The Guild’s …

Today marks the birthday of one of America’s most beloved authorities on food — Julia Child, who didn’t take a cooking lesson until she was in her 30s. When her husband was assigned to Paris, she fell in love with French cooking and wrote the first of several important cookbooks demystifying that nation’s culinary art. The books led to a television show of several decades and many awards, including the French Legion of Honor and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. …

We’re all used to thumbing through the catalogs that arrive in the mail almost daily for the latest bargains. However, this pastime may be older than you think. The first such catalog was sent out by Montgomery Ward this week in 1872. That first catalog consisted of only one page, but the idea was so successful that by 1904, the Ward’s catalog weighed in at four pounds. Today, the mail-order business is still thriving, generating an increasing amount of sales …