Monday, January 29th. There have been 27 ratified amendments to the U.S. Constitution over the past 225-plus years, but that total comes with an asterisk. Uniquely, the 21st Amendment repeals the 18th, which began its short career this month in […]
Saturday, January 27th. “To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.” That’s the motto of the University of Georgia, which on this date in 1785 became the young nation’s first state-chartered university. Royally chartered private universities […]
Wednesday, January 24th. An accidental discovery at a construction site on this date 170 years ago changed the course of our history. In 1848, James Marshall was building a sawmill for his boss, John Sutter, near Coloma, California, when he […]
Thursday, January 25th. On this date in 1915, east and west were linked by voice in the first transcontinental phone call. This event was a conference call involving Alexander Graham Bell in New York, his assistant Thomas Watson in San […]
Thursday, January 18th. The X-ray machine, the first medical imaging device, was invented in Europe in the late 19th century. Americans got their first glimpse of this medical marvel on this date in 1896 in an exhibit in New York […]
Monday, January 15th. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would have been 89 years old today. The civil rights leader, minister, and recipient of the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize was born in 1929 and assassinated in 1968. Today is the national […]
Monday, January 8th. On this date in 1790, President George Washington addressed a joint session of Congress to deliver the first State of the Union report, as required by the still young Constitution. The requirement didn’t demand a speech, and […]
Sunday, January 7th. During the Revolutionary War, the rebelling colonies and the Continental Congress were anything but too big to fail. To the contrary, finances were very spotty and precarious. To help put affairs in order and make credit available, […]
Many causes are being celebrated this month, some ridiculous, some serious. In the serious category are two linked together — National Eye Care Month and National Glaucoma Awareness Month. Regular eye examinations should be part of everyone’s health care regimen, […]
Tuesday, January 2nd. When Prohibition ended in 1933, the sale of alcoholic beverages resumed in America, but was subject to a patchwork of differing regulations. Local options mean that some counties remain dry. Some states regulate the alcoholic content of […]
How history will judge 2017 can’t yet be known, but last year’s anniversaries are woven into the fabric of today.
January 1, 2018 Monday, January 1st. For Americans in 1863, this day was not one especially suited to a greeting of “Happy New Year.” But in a nation riven by Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln used the occasion of the […]
One of the most important inventions of modern times dates back 70 years this month. In 1947, three Bell Laboratory scientists successfully tested what would become the junction transistor, vital to our information age. The three shared the Nobel Prize […]
Friday, December 29th. Colleges and universities with both male and female students are the norm today. But in 1833, only a few women went to college and the idea of coed classes was a social innovation. In December that year, […]
The reliable TV remote control, a crucial labor saving device for couch potatoes, was unveiled this month 60 years ago. Robert Adler of the Zenith Corporation received a patent for a mechanical unit that used a striker and four small […]
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