Category: Quick hits

The first town in America to have its streets illuminated by electric lights wasn’t one of the familiar, Eastern metropolises that loom in our history. That distinction instead went to the north-central Indiana town of Wabash, late this month in 1880. Wabash had a population of just 3,800 Hoosiers in 1880, so it took only four 3,000-candlepower arc lamps on the county courthouse to light the streets. By newspaper accounts, witnesses were awestruck by the modern wonder. Now, the 10,400 …

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited discrimination based on sex as well as race in hiring, promoting, and firing. While this act is a famous landmark in the national effort to assure equality of treatment, its ban on sex discrimination was not in the forefront of the effort. On this date in 1872, the state of Illinois enacted the first such ban on discrimination. It came about through the lobbying of Alta Hulett, who had been kept from sitting …

Today marks the birthday in 1910 of one of the major figures of the American wine industry — Julio Gallo. When Prohibition ended, he and his brother Ernest started making wine in humble surroundings — a rented California warehouse with equipment bought on credit. Years of hard work saw their winery became the largest in the U.S., and their creative marketing techniques helped shape the nation’s drinking tastes. When the Gallos began their business in 1934, Americans on average drank …

Friday, March 18th. This is National Peanut Month — celebrating one of the nation’s favorite foods, and absolutely America’s favorite snack nut. They are enjoyed in many ways — roasted in the shell, used in salads and stir-fry recipes, in cookies and, of course, ground into peanut butter. The idea of honoring the peanut has been a monthlong observance since 1974. Americans eat an average of more than six pounds of shelled peanuts a year, about half in the form …

This is a day when people of all ethnicities are cheerfully encouraged to wear something green. It is St. Patrick’s Day, a rare national holiday observed outside its native land. The day honors Bishop Patrick, born in England, who brought Christianity to Ireland in the fifth century, using a shamrock to illustrate divinity. The celebration here goes back to Colonial times. New York City’s parade has taken place every year since 1762, and today is the largest such event in …

The first salvo in what we’ve come to know as the War on Poverty was fired on this date 52 years ago. Following President Lyndon Johnson’s State of the Union call for tackling poverty in America, the Economic Opportunity Act was introduced and passed by Congress with 11 program components. The landmark legislation was signed into law in August. The poverty rate in 1965, at the implementation of the programs, was around 16 percent, down from some 22 percent in …

Ask many Americans where their food comes from, and they’ll answer the supermarket, while clothing comes from the mall. That’s why today is National Agriculture Day, and March 13 to 19 is National Agriculture Week. These annual programs focus on students across the nation, the consumers of tomorrow. They’ll learn that from pizzas to cosmetics, from clothing to orange juice, agriculture gives us what we eat each day and much of what we wear and use. In 1920, there were …

This month in 1879 marked a milestone in women’s history and the opportunities available to them. Earlier, President Rutherford Hayes signed a congressional act “to relieve certain legal disabilities of women.” So in March, the act’s leading champion, 49-year-old Belva A. Lockwood, became the first woman to be admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, which she did in 1880. Lockwood was one of about 75 female attorneys in 1880. By 1890, there were only 208 in a national …

Friday, March 11th. One of the most devastating public health crises in history hit the U.S. on this date 98 years ago — and experts are still studying it, hoping to head off a similar global pandemic. The first cases of what was called “Spanish flu” were reported among soldiers at Fort Riley, Kansas.  By 1920, nearly one-in-four Americans had suffered from this strain of the flu, killing about 600,000. Worldwide, estimates put the death toll up at 50 million …

For many Americans, trying to envision life without our various telephones would be like trying to live without indoor plumbing. The crucial utility is 140 years old today. In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell made the first, local, telephone call in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Over a wire to his assistant in the next room, Bell said, “Mister Watson, come here; I want to see you.” Only when Bell improved his invention to carry a voice for several miles did the public discover …

“Don’t accept your dog’s admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful.” Whatever is the merit in the remark by the late advice columnist Ann Landers, there are few bonds of esteem stronger than that between owners and their dogs. But that relationship comes with responsibilities. One was set this week in 1894, when the first statewide dog license law was enacted by New York. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was designated to carry out …

The inventor of the first practical automatic dishwasher was born on this date in 1839 and was perhaps an unlikely candidate for the distinction. Josephine Cochrane was a socialite, and devised the dishwasher out of some annoyance at how her domestic staff damaged her china. Awarded a patent in 1886, Cochrane sold her machines in the 1890s mainly to restaurants and hotels. Her company eventually became KitchenAid, now part of the Whirlpool Corporation. In 2013, the Census Bureau’s American Housing …

Las Vegas is renowned for spectacular stage shows and as a destination for conventions and expositions. One opens there today that likely would draw an enormous crush of visitors. But sadly, the 2016 International Pizza Expo at the city’s convention center is not open to the general public. Running through March 10, the attendees are in the serious business of the preparation, improvement and distribution of one of America’s favorite foods. The first pizzeria in the U.S. opened in New …

Friday, March 4th. The first woman to serve in Congress took her seat on this date in 1917. Barely a month later, Jeannette Rankin of Montana shortly became one of the few representatives to vote against entry into World War I, a stand that contributed to her defeat when she ran for the Senate in 1918. Absent for 24 years, she reentered Congress by winning a seat in the 1940 elections. Putting her pacifist principles ahead of office holding, she …

Children have worked for family enterprises like farms and small shops for countless generations. But child labor in mines and the often-dangerous factories arising from the Industrial Revolution was quickly regarded as a social ill. In response, Massachusetts became the first state to regulate child labor on this date in 1842. The modest measure prohibited children under the age of 12 from working more than 10 hours a day. Now, all states have statutes regulating child labor, and nationally, the …

The capital of the vanquished Confederacy was the site of the first chartered black-owned bank in the U.S. Known as the Savings Bank of the Grand Fountain, United Order of True Reformers, it founded on this date in 1888 by former slave and Union Army veteran William Washington Browne. Opened in 1889, its deposits on the first day totaled $1,269. The bank provided mortgage loans and other banking services that were difficult for African-Americans to obtain in the segregated, repressive …

This is Women’s History Month — a time to recognize the often overlooked vision, courage, and accomplishments of the nation’s women. One example is Clara Barton, who ministered to wounded soldiers in the Civil War and went on to found the American Red Cross. Another is Grace Hopper, a long-serving naval officer who was a pioneer in computer programming. In recent years, women have excelled in educational attainment. In 1960, men received two-thirds of all college degrees. Today, nearly 24 …

Immigration as an item of government involvement appeared on Colonial America’s shores 350 years ago. Born in Bohemia, essentially today’s Czech Republic, Auguste Herman came to the New World initially to work for the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, now New York. A surveyor and cartographer of considerable talent, Herman’s work took him to the Chesapeake Bay, on the shores of which he wished to settle. Because he wasn’t born a British subject, he had to apply for citizenship in …