Saturday, September 7th. Of the millions of students going to class in the new school year, many are attending junior high schools or middle schools. The first such school in the nation opened its doors on this date in 110 […]
Friday, March 22nd. 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 […]
Wednesday, March 20th. Banks had operated in America for about a half century before someone tried to make an unauthorized withdrawal. On this date in 1831, Edward Smith committed the country’s first bank robbery — hitting the City Bank on […]
Tuesday, March 19th. Among the blessings of civilization are the broad availabilities of food and clothing, such that we don’t’ have to reflect on how this abundance is created in the first place. To celebrate this great human achievement, today […]
Monday, March 18th. FM radio is 78 years old this month. In 1941, the first commercial FM station went on the air — W47NV in Nashville, Tennessee. FM —standing for frequency modulation — was first proposed by Edwin Armstrong in […]
John Rock, A First Among Firsts Black History Month stories often celebrate Thurgood Marshall, a successful attorney who became the first black appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1967. The trail to that tribunal was broken over a century […]
Sunday, 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 […]
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 […]
Friday, 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 24th. An invention that’s helped millions, but which no one really likes was patented this week in 1875—the electric dental drill. Those who dread the device should consider the primitive state of dental technology before George Green of […]
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, […]
Wednesday, January 2nd. The place where many of our ancestors first stepped ashore when they came to America seeking a new life opened this month 127 years ago — Ellis Island in New York Harbor. The very first immigrant processed […]
Saturday, December 1st. On this date in 1913, what is today the Gulf Oil Company opened the nation’s first drive-in gas station. Located at the intersection of Baum Boulevard and St. Clair Street in Pittsburgh, the filling station was a […]
This Week in Bronx History by David Greene Ten years ago this week Steve Armento and Actor Lilo Brancato go on trial in the shooting death of police officer Daniel Enchautegui, who was off-duty when he left his Pelham Bay […]
Tuesday, November 13th. The first automatic tolls collection station went into service this month in 1954. It was installed at the Union Toll Plaza on New Jersey’s Garden State Parkway. Motorists dropped coins into a wire mesh hopper, triggering a […]
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