Sunday, October 13. With the national median age being 38.2 years, only about half of the country’s population experienced life in what might strike young people as a bleak, dark and difficult age. Practically unimaginable today, there was a time […]
Thursday, September 12th. One of the great technical leaps in progress towards our digital age occurred on this date 61 years ago. It was in September 1958 that Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments demonstrated his invention of a miniaturized electronic […]
Wednesday, September 11th. This was a day that didn’t exist in Colonial America in 1752, as the familiar calendar underwent what is called the “Gregorian correction,” switching from the ancient Julian calendar to adjust for errors accumulated over centuries. After […]
Tuesday, September 10th. The route of the nation’s first coast-to-coast paved roadway was announced on this date in 1913. Known as the Lincoln Highway, its combination of new roads linking existing metropolitan roads originally ran for nearly 3,400 miles through […]
Saturday, January 26th. On this date 36 years ago, the infant personal computer was empowered to become something much greater than a glorified word processor with the release of the spreadsheet program Lotus 1-2-3. The popular program drew acclaim as […]
Monday, 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, […]
Thursday, November 29th. A key part of daily telecommunications is 67 years old this month, as direct-dial telephone area codes for transcontinental calling were introduced in 1951. The mayor of Englewood, New Jersey, made the first official call, picking up […]
Thursday, November 15th. It’s a time to celebrate one of life’s simple, viscous pleasures — it’s Peanut Butter Lovers Month. The stuff of one of America’s favorite sandwiches, peanut butter was first offered to the public at the St. Louis […]
Monday, October 29th. “Thousands of years ago, cats were worshipped as gods. Cats have never forgotten this.” That anonymous quotation overlooks the condition of plenty of Americans, who still venerate cats. For such folks, and also the former deities, today […]
Income taxes first came to America this month 156 years ago, when President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill levying a 3 percent tax on incomes between $600 and $10,000, and a 5 percent tax on greater incomes. The tax was […]
The first 18-hole golf course in the United States opened on this date in 1893 in Downer’s Grove, Illinois.
On this date in 1867, Harvard University opened the first dental school associated with a medical school.
Monday, July 16th. On this date in 1995, a small start-up company launched its business of selling books online out of a two-car garage in Bellevue, Washington. The first item purchased was a book titled “Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: […]
Thursday, July 12th. A romantic but controversial period of American history ended, semiofficially, on this date 125 years ago. In 1893, historian Frederick Jackson Turner delivered an academic paper in Chicago based on 1890 Census data. He noted that migration […]
Sunday, July 8th. On this date in 1831, a baby was born in Knoxville, Georgia, who would grow up to invent a product that rather symbolizes America all around the world. John Stith Pemberton was a pharmacist addicted to morphine […]
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