 Start Your Engines!
November 28, 1895 -
The First American Automobile Race
Auto races of today, such as the Indianapolis 500, have
sleek, colorful cars screeching around a racetrack at speeds
so fast that some spin off into the sides of the track,
flipping over as they go.
Back in 1895, auto racing was just beginning and it was a
very different sort of sport. On November 28, 1895, six "motocycles"
(a nickname for a horseless vehicle) left Chicago's Jackson
Park at 8:55 a.m. for a 54-mile race to Evanston, Illinois,
and back through the snow. The winner, Number 5, driven by
inventor J. Frank Duryea, won the race in just over 10 hours
with an average speed of 7.3 miles per hour!
The Chicago Times Herald sponsored that first race with
$2,000 going to the winner and $500 to the fan who named the
horseless vehicles "motocycles."
Two years earlier, the winners, J. Frank Duryea and his
brother Charles, had built and driven what they claimed to
be the first American gasoline-powered automobile. Yet by
the time the Times Herald race came along, more than 70
entries were filed. This huge response prompted President
Cleveland to ask the War Department to oversee the event.
After their victory, the Duryeas made 13 copies of the
Chicago car, and J. Frank Duryea developed the
Stevens-Duryea, an expensive limousine that remained in
production into the 1920s.
The Duryeas were not the only people inventing cars. The
Stanley twins built a steam-powered vehicle, the "Stanley
Steamer," in 1897. The vehicle achieved fame when F.E.
Stanley did a mile in 2 minutes 11 seconds on a dirt track
with a 30-degree incline. Eventually the "Stanley Steamer"
became known as the "Locomobile." By the time Henry Ford
incorporated the Ford Motor Company in 1903, the Stanley
plant already employed 140 workers.
This is a photo of Samuel Holland's Repair Shop in Park
River, North Dakota, where Holland, a native of Norway,
built self-propelled motor vehicles in his spare time. In
1904, the local newspaper reported that he built an
automobile and may have built as many as eight. One copy of
his car is known to exist. |
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Put the Ball in the Peach Basket!
January 18, 1896 -
First College Basketball Game
When you are out on the court playing basketball, or
watching it on TV, have you ever wondered who invented the
game? The first ever college basketball game with five
players on each side was played on this day, January 18,
1896, when the University of Iowa invited student athletes
from the new University of Chicago for an experimental game.
Final score: Chicago 15, Iowa 12, a bit different from the
hundred-point scores of today.
In December 1891, Canadian-born James Naismith, a physical
education teacher at the YMCA (Young Men's Christian
Association) training school, took a soccer ball and a peach
basket and in the gym invented basketball. In 1893, he
replaced the peach basket with iron hoops and a
hammock-style basket. Ten years later came the open-ended
nets of today. Before that, you had to retrieve your ball
from the basket every time you scored.
In 1963, college games were first broadcast on national TV,
but it wasn't until the 1980s that sports fans ranked
basketball up there with football and baseball. It's a
popular neighborhood sport, too. The next time you shoot
hoops with your family or friends, you can tell them how it
all got started. |
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Splish, Splash, I was Taking a Bath!
March 14, 1896 -
Sutro Baths Open in San Francisco
Do you like to splash around in water? You would have loved
the turn-of-the-century Sutro Baths. Mayor Adolph Sutro made
a big splash in San Francisco when he opened the popular
Sutro Baths on March 14, 1896. Seven thousand people
gathered at Ocean Beach, below the beautiful Cliff House
Hotel, to celebrate the opening of the extravagant public
bathhouse. What a big, fun place to visit!
Inside the enormous glass structure that housed the Sutro
Baths were seven pools, more than 500 private dressing
rooms, viewing galleries, restaurants, and natural history
exhibits. Oh, and a giant slide that led into a pool of
steam-heated seawater piped in from the Pacific. The Sutro
Baths are now only ruins below a new Cliff House. But you
can still visit there, walk along Ocean Beach, and imagine a
frolicking day at the Sutro Baths. This old movie of Sutro
should help; check it out. Is your public pool anything like
it? Ask your parents or grandparents if they ever visited or
heard of the Sutro Baths. |
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Separate But Equal
May 18, 1896 -
Plessy v. Ferguson
For over 50 years, the states of the American South enforced
a policy of separate accommodations for blacks and whites on
buses and trains, and in hotels, theaters, and schools. On
May 18, 1896, the Supreme Court ruled in the Plessy v.
Ferguson law case that separate-but-equal facilities on
trains were constitutional. One justice, John Marshall
Harlan, disagreed with the ruling and argued that separating
blacks from whites (called segregation) in public facilities
created inequality and marked one race as inferior to
another.
African American legislator Benjamin W. Arnett described a
train ride in segregated Ohio in 1886: "I have traveled in
this free country for 20 hours without anything to eat; not
because I had no money to pay for it, but because I was
colored. Other passengers of a lighter hue had breakfast,
dinner and supper. In traveling we are thrown in [cars for
blacks only], denied the privilege of buying a berth in the
sleeping coach." How did this inequality by law finally
change?
By the 1930s, the practice of racial segregation was still
widespread. When devastating floods hit Arkansas in 1937,
for example, white refugees and black refugees were cared
for in separate relief facilities. Finally, after hearing
arguments by NAACP lawyer Thurgood Marshall, the Supreme
Court reversed the Plessy decision on May 17, 1954. In Brown
v. the Board of Education, a unanimous Court agreed with
what Justice Harlan had said 50 years ago, that segregation
was unconstitutional. What do you know about laws that kept
people separated and about later laws that disallowed this
practice? |
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A Boy and His Fawn
August 8, 1896 -
Short-story Writer and Novelist
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Was Born
There are some books that just about everybody reads in
school such as Where the Red Fern Grows, The Hobbit, or the
Harry Potter books. Years ago, students used to read The
Yearling, written by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings.
Born on August 8, 1896, in Washington, D.C., Rawlings was a
journalist, short story writer, and a novelist. She is best
known for The Yearling, which was published in 1938 and won
a Pulitzer prize, one of the most important prizes a writer
can receive. The book is a coming-of-age story of a young
boy who finds and raises a young fawn and then has to let it
go back to the wild. The story takes place in the big scrub
country, which is now the Ocala National Forest in Florida.
The Yearling was also turned into a movie in 1946. Do you
know a book that was turned into a movie? Which did you like
better?
Working as a journalist in the 1920s, Rawlings was a
trailblazer for women in that field. She worked for the
Louisville Courier-Journal, the Rochester Journal, and the
United Features Syndicate. In 1928, she settled at Cross
Creek, near Gainesville, Florida, in order to write fiction.
Cross Creek, published in 1942, tells of her enchantment
with this part of rural Florida. Her association with Cross
Creek continued until her death in 1953 at the age of 57. |
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The Legend of Chop Suey
August 29, 1896 -
Chop Suey Was Invented, Fact or
Fiction?
Have you ever eaten chop suey? The origin of this
Chinese-American dish is a bit of a mystery. Legend has it
that, while he was visiting New York City, Chinese
ambassador Li Hung Chang's cooks invented the dish for his
American guests at a dinner on August 29, 1896. Composed of
celery, bean sprouts, and meat in a tasty sauce, the dish
was supposedly created to satisfy both Chinese and American
tastes. The Chinese diplomat was trying to create good
relations with the U.S. And you know the old saying, "The
way to a person's heart is through his or her stomach!" But
is this legend true?
Whether or not the tale is entirely true, Li Hung Chang
definitely influenced the creation of chop suey. When Li
visited the U.S. in August 1896, cheering Americans lined
the streets hoping to catch a glimpse of this important
visitor and his famous yellow jacket. Children decorated
their bicycles with yellow streamers to catch the
ambassador's attention. As the guest of honor at grand
feasts and elegant banquets, Li declined the fancy food and
champagne that was offered to him and ate only meals
specially prepared by his personal chefs. In reality, chop
suey was probably not invented by Li Hung Chang's chefs, but
America's fascination with this royal visitor from Asia and
his team of personal chefs gave rise to new interest in
Chinese cooking.
After 1896, Americans began to visit Chinese restaurants in
large numbers for the first time. A chop suey fad swept big
cities such as New York and San Francisco. Questioning the
origins of the chop suey story, scholars suspect restaurant
owners used the popular ambassador's name to inspire
interest in a Chinese dish adapted for Americans. Newspaper
owners used the same strategy to sell more papers. The New
York Journal took advantage of Li Hung Chang's popularity to
claim in an advertising poster, "Li Hung Chang Never Misses
the Sunday Journal." What do you think is the real story
behind chop suey? |
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Living the Life of The Great Gatsby
September 24, 1896 -
Writer F. Scott Fitzgerald Was Born
Fiction writers are often asked, "How much of you is in your
characters?" For writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of The
Great Gatsby, it was a lot. Born September 24, 1896, in St.
Paul, Minnesota, Fitzgerald was famous for his depictions of
the Jazz Age (the 1920s) in which he thrived. Named for his
distant cousin, Francis Scott Key, author of "The
Star-Spangled Banner," he was brought up as an American
aristocrat in St. Paul, but he was also driven by a highly
charged, romantic imagination.
After turbulent years of schooling, Fitzgerald joined the
army. While stationed at Camp Sheridan, he met and fell in
love with Zelda Sayre. To win her hand, he rewrote and
published his first novel, This Side of Paradise, in 1920.
The novel, reflecting his years at Princeton University,
tells the story of a young man's quest for fulfillment in
love and career. Over the course of the next decade and a
half, while struggling to cope with the demons of his
alcoholism and Zelda's emerging mental illness, the
Fitzgeralds enjoyed a life of literary celebrity.
In 1925, Fitzgerald published The Great Gatsby, considered
his greatest work. Although it initially met with little
commercial success, this novel about the American dream of
material success has become one of the most popular, widely
read, and critically acclaimed works of fiction in American
literature. The life of the title character, Jay Gatsby, has
been compared to Fitzgerald's life.
While living on the French Riviera, Zelda's illness became
serious. She suddenly began to practice ballet, dancing
night and day. After a second nervous breakdown, she was
hospitalized for mental illness in Asheville, North
Carolina. During the last years of his life, Fitzgerald
lived in Hollywood, earning his living as a screenwriter. He
died at the age of 44, leaving his final novel, The Last
Tycoon (about life in Hollywood), only half done. |
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Thornton Hears a Who
April 17, 1897 -
Playwright Thornton Wilder Was Born
So much of human experience is universal; people living a
world away go through many of the same conflicts, emotions,
and lessons that you do. Thornton Wilder sought to show this
in his books and stage plays. Born April 17, 1897, in
Madison, Wisconsin, Wilder is one of the greatest
playwrights of the 20th century. Author of seven novels,
three plays, many essays, one-act plays, and articles, he is
the only writer to win Pulitzer Prizes for both literature
and drama.
Wilder's writing puts humankind under a magnifying glass. In
his Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Skin of Our Teeth
(1943), he looks at war, disease, poverty, and the
destruction caused by fire. His other prize-winning play,
Our Town (1937), takes place in a fictional town called
Grover's Corner, New Hampshire, perhaps much like the town
in this photograph. The play again focuses on the
universality of human experience. What human experiences can
you think of that are universal? Ask your family if they
have ever seen a play or read a novel by Thornton Wilder. |
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The Big Sneeze
August 31, 1897 -
Thomas Edison Patented the
Kinetoscope
When his assistant W.K.L. Dickson invented the motion
picture viewer, Edison initially considered it an
insignificant toy. However, it turned out to be an immediate
success. Edison had hoped the invention would boost sales of
his record player, the phonograph, but he was unable to
match sound with pictures. Therefore, he directed the
creation of the kinetoscope, a device for viewing moving
pictures without sound. Edison patented this invention on
August 31, 1897. Most of those early kinetoscope films
disintegrated or burned because of the film's nitrate
(acidic) base. But luckily, he had made paper copies of the
film's individual frames, called "contact prints." So now
you can view one of Edison's first-ever moving pictures,
commonly called "Fred Ott's Sneeze."
All the earliest movies were short because their creators,
like Edison, didn't think people would stand the "flickers"
for more than 10 minutes. The kinetoscope, which could only
be viewed by one person at a time, was soon replaced by
screen projectors, which showed the movie to a whole room of
people at once.
Wanting to film a great number of motion pictures, Edison
and his assistant W.K.L. Dickson designed the Black Maria,
the first movie studio, completed in 1893. Its name is the
slang for a police paddy wagon, which the studio was said to
resemble. Could you watch the "flickers" for more than 10
minutes?
Edison produced between 200 and 300 films at the Black
Maria. You can watch this film, "Three Acrobats," produced
in the Black Maria in 1899. The motion picture industry has
come a long way since these early films. What do you think
Edison would say if he saw "Star Wars" or "Titanic"? |
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Faulkner's South
September 25, 1897 -
Novelist William Faulkner Was Born
Novelist William Faulkner knew the South well. He spent most
of his life there, and wrote with compassion about family,
community, and the people he knew. Born in New Albany,
Mississippi, on September 25, 1897, Faulkner created the
legendary Yoknapatawpha County. Its fictitious population
includes Southern white aristocrats, merchants, farmers,
poor whites, and persecuted blacks. Faulkner told how the
South is still affected by its past. "The past is never
dead," he wrote. "It's not even past."
Faulkner earned two Pulitzer Prizes and the 1949 Nobel Prize
for literature. For a brief period in 1925, he lived in New
Orleans, Louisiana. There, fellow writer Sherwood Anderson
encouraged Faulkner to write about the people and places he
knew, and that is why Faulkner created his fictional
country, Yoknapatawpha, which is the setting for most of his
works.
Except for short stints in Europe and Hollywood, Faulkner
spent the remainder of his life in Mississippi and Virginia,
writing brilliantly and constantly. At first, no one would
publish his work because of his experimental formats, but he
was determined to continue writing anyway, for his own
fulfillment. With the publication in 1929 of his fourth
novel, The Sound and the Fury, his career took off. Much of
the novel is told from the viewpoint of a retarded boy.
Faulkner created many characters who confronted racial
injustices while struggling to live with dignity. |
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America's Library
November 1, 1897 -
The Library of Congress Opened Its
Doors
How big do you think the Library of Congress is? It was
originally in one room, the Congressional Reading Room in
the Capitol in Washington, D.C. As the collection grew,
America's Library needed a building of its own. The new
Library of Congress building opened its doors to the public
on November 1, 1897, and it was quite a sight!
In 1871 the Librarian of Congress, Ainsworth Rand Spofford,
suggested the construction of a building designed with the
dignity and magnitude befitting "America's National
Library." Spofford "envisioned a circular, domed reading
room at the Library's center, surrounded by ample space for
the Library's various departments." Thomas Casey and Bernard
Green of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began to focus on
the interior of the building in 1888. They hoped to make it
a showcase for the talents of American artists and artisans.
When completed, it was the largest and costliest library
building in the world and a grand showcase for knowledge and
learning in America.
In 1980, the building was named the Thomas Jefferson
Building in honor of the nation's third president. In 1815,
Jefferson sold his personal collection of 6,487 books to the
Library, helping to rebuild the holdings that had been
destroyed when the British burned the Capitol during the War
of 1812.
How big is the library today? Congress houses most of its
collections in three buildings on Capitol Hill. In fact, if
all the bookshelves in the library were laid end to end,
they would stretch over 500 miles! Take a visit to your
Library of Congress. |
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Who Sunk My Battleship?
February 15, 1898 -
U.S.S. Maine Was Sunk
Have you ever played the game Battleship? To sink your
opponent's ships you have to guess where the ships lie on a
grid of numbers and letters. It isn't easy to sink a
battleship just by guessing, even in a game.
Well, what if you already knew that your battleship had
sunk, but had to guess who sank it? That is what happened to
the United States on February 15, 1898, when an explosion
sank the U.S.S. Maine in Havana, Cuba.
The U.S.S. Maine was one of the first American battleships
and cost more than $2 million to build. The ship had been
sent to Cuba after riots broke out in Havana. The Maine was
sent to protect American interests there. Americans were
shocked when the ship exploded and sank and 266 of the
354-crew members were killed.
After an official investigation, the U.S. Navy reported that
the ship had been blown up by a mine. The Navy did not blame
any person or country for the explosion. Who was to blame?
Spain controlled Cuba at the time. So, was it Cuba, or
Spain, or was it an accident? Many people in the United
States blamed Spain (Today, however, many historians believe
a malfunction in the ship caused the explosion). The
relationship between Spain and the U.S. became so strained
that they could no longer discuss the situation. By the end
of April, the Spanish-American War had begun. |
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Who Sank the Maine?
June 10, 1898 -
U.S. Marines Land at Guantanamo Bay
Have you ever been to Miami, Florida? If you have, you may
have eaten Cuban food or heard Cuban music. Located just 90
miles off the coast of Florida, Cuba is an island of
Spanish-speaking people, palm trees, and white-sand beaches.
Like many other European nations, Spain once had an empire
of colonies that spread beyond its current borders. About
100 years ago, Cuba was one of those colonies.
In 1898, an independence movement in Cuba led to conflict
between Cubans and their Spanish rulers. The U.S. demanded
that Spain withdraw from Cuba and allow the islanders to
rule themselves, but Spain refused and declared war on the
U.S. This war would result in the end of Spanish colonial
rule in the Western Hemisphere.
In February 1898, the U.S.S. Maine sank off the coast of
Cuba. Four months later, on June 10, U.S. Marines landed at
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and joined Cuban rebels to fight a
land war against Spanish soldiers. Unprepared to fight a
battle so far from home, Spain surrendered to the U.S. at
Santiago about five weeks later. |
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Rough Riders on the Attack
July 1, 1898 -
Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders
Before becoming President of the United States, Theodore
Roosevelt was the Assistant Secretary of the Navy. He
resigned in 1898 to organize the Rough Riders, the first
voluntary cavalry in the Spanish-American War. The U.S. was
fighting against Spain over Spain's colonial policies with
Cuba. Roosevelt recruited a diverse group of cowboys,
miners, law enforcement officials, and Native Americans to
join the Rough Riders. They participated in the capture of
Kettle Hill, and then charged across a valley to assist in
the seizure of San Juan Ridge, the highest point of which is
San Juan Hill.
The Rough Riders are best remembered for their charge up San
Juan Hill on July 1, 1898.
Roosevelt and his Rough Riders were a colorful group of
characters. During the war, they received the most publicity
of any unit in the army. Have you seen any of those old
Westerns where the posse rides after the bad guys in a cloud
of dust? That's pretty much how the Rough Riders were
portrayed. Of course, the reality was that the Rough Riders
didn't win the war on their own. There were many soldiers
and cavalry units who fought and died in the war.
A few days after the Rough Riders' charge up San Juan Hill,
the Spanish fleet fled Cuba. It was just a matter of weeks
before the war had ended and the U.S. was victorious. |
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Good-Bye Spain, Hello America
October 18, 1898 -
U.S. Raised the Flag in Puerto Rico
Did you know that Puerto Rico is a commonwealth territory of
the United States, even today? On October 18, 1898, American
troops fighting the Spanish-American War raised the United
States flag in Puerto Rico, and the U.S. officially took
control of the former Spanish colony.
Puerto Rico has a long history of invasions. Spanish
exploration of the island began in 1493, when Christopher
Columbus visited there. In 1508, the Spanish established
their first settlement in the town of Caparra.
Carib Indians frequently raided Puerto Rico; later, French,
British, and Dutch pirates did the same. In 1533, the
Spanish began construction of El Morro, a walled fort that
would protect the narrow entrance to the harbor of San Juan.
After 1830, sugar, coffee, and tobacco plantations
flourished in the colony. The island's population jumped
from just 45,000 in 1765 to 155,426 in 1800; some 13,000 of
these people were slaves. By 1900, nearly a million people
lived on the 3,435 square miles of Puerto Rico.
Puerto Ricans had reached their goal of independence from
Spain just a year before the United States arrived. Puerto
Ricans gained full U.S. citizenship in 1917, when the island
became a U.S. territory. Much of the population moved from
rural areas to the cities, as the importance of industry
grew. Starting in the 1920s, Puerto Ricans began traveling
to cities such as New York looking for employment.
Currently, the future of Puerto Rico is hotly debated. Will
it become a state? Gain independence? Remain a commonwealth?
What do you think is the best option for Puerto Rico? |
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The Rainier Time Machine
March 2, 1899 -
Mount Rainier in Central Washington
Became a National Park
Do you recognize this beautiful natural landmark? This is
Mount Rainier in central Washington, a 14,410-foot volcanic
peak, surrounded by pristine forests and spectacular alpine
scenery. It is also, in a way, a timepiece. It looks very
much as it did 200 years ago. On March 2, 1899, President
William McKinley signed legislation creating Mount Rainier
National Park. It was the fifth national park designated by
Congress. Do you know who made the area near the mountain
their home 200 years ago?
Generations of Northwest Native Americans made their home at
the base of Rainier. They called their mountain Tacoma (or
Tahoma) and viewed it as a symbol of power. English explorer
George Vancouver saw the huge mountain when he sailed into
Puget Sound in 1792. He named it Rainier to honor his
friend, Rear Admiral Peter Rainier. The famed naturalist
John Muir visited the Rainier region more than a century
later. He first recommended that the area be preserved as a
park.
Muir was particularly impressed with the magnificent,
colorful wildflowers that blanket the mountain during the
warm months. The park today encompasses 400 square miles
around Mount Rainier, which is actually an active volcano.
It was one of the first parks to have nature guides, park
rangers, a museum, and designated "roadless areas." Rich in
resources of all kinds, the rocks, glaciers, water, plants,
and animals have come to mean so much--beauty, challenge,
renewal, and enjoyment. In 1899, 200 people visited Mount
Rainier National Park. Today, nearly 2 million visit each
year. Would you like to be one of them? |
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St. Louis Super Hero
March 28, 1899 -
August Anheuser Busch Was Born
In 1953, St. Louis baseball fans almost lost their beloved
team to Milwaukee or Houston. The Cardinals would have moved
to either of those cities if a man, better known for beer
than for baseball, had not rescued the team. Born on March
28, 1899, August Anheuser Busch Jr. rode in and saved the
day by purchasing the St. Louis Cardinals. Although he
didn't really ride in behind a team of horses on that day,
he would later on.
Born in St. Louis, Missouri, August Anheuser Busch Jr. was
the Chairman of the Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc. and may
well have been a St. Louis Cardinals fan from childhood; the
Cardinals began playing in the National League the same year
he was born. After he became the owner of the St. Louis
Cardinals, Busch liked to ride into the Busch Memorial
stadium behind a team of his brewing company's famous
Clydesdale horses. Even if you weren't a St. Louis Cardinals
fan, it would have been hard not to cheer at the sight. |
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Going to the movies in 1899
April 28, 1899 -
"Billy" Bitzer films Stealing a
Dinner
If you wanted to see a movie back in 1899, you could go see
the short film Stealing a Dinner, filmed on this day, April
28, 1899 by cameraman G.W. "Billy" Bitzer. The comedy
featured Professor Leonidas and his troupe of dogs and cats.
This is the story:
One of the dogs steals Professor Leonidas's dinner from the
table when he leaves. In order to cover up his crime, the
dog places a cat on the table. The professor finds the cat
and in a rage shoots her (not for real, of course), but is
promptly arrested by a large dog dressed in policeman's
clothes.
This short comedy was one of the first motion pictures
filmed by Bitzer for the American Mutoscope and Biograph
Company. The mutoscope was a peephole motion picture device
run by hand. The frames for the mutoscope were on cards
(instead of film)-mounted on a rotating drum. When turned
very quickly, it created the illusion of movement. Have you
ever drawn pictures on the corner of a pad of paper and
flipped through it quickly? The pictures seem to move! That
was the basis of these early movies, until the projector
came along and changed everything. |
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Parading Police!
June 1, 1899 -
New York City Police Parade
On June 1, 1899, a cameraman filmed New York City police
officers marching through the city's streets during their
annual parade. The parade was a celebration of the officers
and their hard work dealing with crime in the growing
metropolis. At the turn of the 20th century, the city was
growing rapidly, and New York's police department had to
grow to match the surging population.
By the time this parade took place, the department had hired
its first woman officers and had opened up to ethnic
minorities. Have you ever been to New York? You probably
know that it's America's largest city and one of the world's
biggest cities. Even back in 1899, when women wore long
skirts, men wore hats whenever they went outdoors, and
horses were the main method of transportation, New York was
made up of people from all over the world.
More than most cities, police in New York have needed to be
able to speak lots of languages and work with many different
kinds of people. Do police in your city ever ride horses? Do
they speak more than one language? Serving the public in New
York has for many years meant serving a diverse population. |
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The Old Man and the Sea
July 21, 1899 -
Ernest Hemingway Was Born
There are some books--considered classics--that just about
everyone reads in school. Sometimes a book is so good it
becomes a classic almost as soon as it's written. One such
book is The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. When
Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899, his father, Dr.
Clarence Hemingway, must have known he had a special son
because he stepped out onto the porch of their home in Oak
Park, Illinois, and blew his cornet.
Ernest Hemingway grew up to become one of America's most
respected writers, known for his sense of adventure as well
as his unique writing style--spare dialogue and short,
simple sentences.
After high school, Hemingway worked as a reporter for the
Kansas City Star before signing up to fight in World War I.
Unable to take up regular military duty because of a bad
eye, he worked as an ambulance driver for the Red Cross in
Italy. After he was badly injured, he stayed in a Milan
hospital where he fell in love with his nurse, and wrote A
Farewell to Arms (1929). Do you know the titles for any of
Hemingway's other books?
Hemingway lived in Europe for many years. He traveled to
Spain often and became a passionate fan of bull-fighting. He
also wrote about bull-fighting. In 1953 The Old Man and the
Sea, the story of a fisherman in a battle with a giant fish,
won the Pulitzer Prize in fiction and in 1954 Hemingway won
the Nobel Prize for Literature. |
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Art That Moves
July 22, 1899 -
Alexander Calder Was Born
What did painter and sculptor Alexander Calder mean when he
said "I think best in wire?" Born on July 22, 1898, in
Lawnton, Pennsylvania, Calder revolutionized sculpture with
his unique wire structures and mobiles--objects hanging from
wires in midair. Before Calder, no one had created this type
of art. The child of a well-known painter and sculptor, he
started his career as a mechanical engineer and worked in
that field for several years. In 1923, he began taking
drawing lessons and eventually became a commercial artist
covering prize fights and the circus for the National Police
Gazette. In 1926 he moved to Paris, and in the winter of
1931-32, Calder made his first mobile.
Alexander Calder made mobiles that were motor-driven and
some that moved with a breeze. These were called kinetic
(moving) sculptures. Looking at Calder's art, you see he
created objects in biomorphic or abstract shapes that remind
you of natural things such as animals, plants, or parts of
people.
Calder's work is very colorful, and even in his paintings,
he tried to create the illusion of the canvas moving.
Calder's art appeals to the imagination. What do you see
when you look at these works of art?
You can probably see Calder's work at your local modern art
museum. In the meantime, try creating your own wire
sculpture or mobile. |
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Ruger's Cartography
November 12, 1899 -
Panoramic Map Artist Albert Ruger
Died
Have you ever tried to find your way around a strange town
without a good map? In the 19th century with the United
States expanding to the West, mapping new territories was
extremely important. As cities grew and spread across the
nation, a different kind of map--the panoramic map--became
necessary and popular.
Pioneering panoramic-map artist Albert Ruger died on
November 12, 1899, in Akron, Ohio. During his lifetime,
Ruger helped develop this new form of cartography
(mapmaking), producing maps of towns and cities in 22 states
from New Hampshire to Minnesota, and as far south as
Alabama. What is a panoramic map?
Panoramic maps were also called "bird's-eye-view maps"
because towns and cities were drawn as if viewed from above
at a slanted angle, much like a bird might see from a half
mile away as it flew by the town. Panoramic cartographers
didn't worry so much about the exact scale of their
drawings; they concentrated instead on illustrating street
patterns, individual buildings, and major landscape features
in perspective. This map of Guttenberg, Iowa, is a good
example.
Ruger formed Merchants Lithographing Company with a partner
in the late 1860s, producing many of these popular maps.
Aerial photographs and earth-orbiting satellite mapping
techniques of today have made Ruger's panoramic map-making
techniques somewhat outdated, but his panoramic maps can
give us a glimpse into the past of America's towns and
cities. |
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The Underwater Boat
April 11, 1900 -
U.S. Navy Acquired First Submarine
Can you imagine traveling beneath the surface of the ocean?
The modern submarine made this possible. On April 11, 1900,
the U.S. Navy acquired its first submarine, a 53-foot craft
named after its designer, Irish immigrant John P. Holland
(1840-1914). The Holland served as a blueprint for modern
submarine design. Gasoline propelled it on the surface, and
electricity propelled it when it was submerged. By World War
I, Holland-inspired vessels were a part of large naval
fleets throughout the world. However, the idea for a boat
that could travel underwater goes back long before that.
Designs for underwater boats date back to the 1500s. In the
19th century, the first useful submarines began to appear.
During the Civil War, the Confederates built the H.L. Hunley,
a submarine that sank a Union ship, the U.S.S. Housatonic,
in 1864. But it wasn't until World War I that the first
truly practical submarines emerged. Have you ever been on a
submarine? Ask your family if they have and what it's like. |
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The Mystery of Yellow Fever
August 27, 1900 -
U.S. Army Physicians Discovered the
Cause of Yellow Fever
No one knew what caused the often-deadly yellow fever, but
it occurred in epidemic proportions, with one person after
another in a given area becoming sick. People feared the
mysterious disease, until U.S. Army physician James Carroll
endangered his own health in the name of science. On August
27, 1900, Carroll allowed an infected mosquito to feed on
him. He developed a severe case of yellow fever but helped
his colleague, Walter Reed, prove that mosquitoes
transmitted the feared disease.
Prior to this experiment, epidemics of yellow fever were
common in the American South. Not knowing how the disease
was transmitted, many people would leave the South for the
summer, when epidemics were most common. In an 1888 yellow
fever epidemic in Jacksonville, Florida, terrified citizens
packed themselves onto trains leaving town. Some were so
panicked, they left fires burning and the doors of their
houses wide open. The Mayflower Hotel, where the epidemic
started, was condemned and ordered burned to the ground.
With doctors at a loss as to how to stop the spread of
yellow fever, people tried all sorts of strange remedies.
They burned barrels of tar in the street to disinfect the
air. They sprayed sulfur and lime mixtures into homes of the
infected. Assuming the disease was contagious, they isolated
the sick. After Doctors Reed and Carroll's discovery,
effective ways were found to combat mosquitoes and the
disease they transmitted. Can you think of other diseases in
history that people feared because the cause was unknown at
first? |
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Composer Scores!
November 14, 1900 -
Composer Aaron Copland Was Born in
Brooklyn, New York
Some people don't know what they want to be when they grow
up until they are grown up. Others know when they are very
young. When he was just 15, Aaron Copland decided to become
a composer. Born on November 14, 1900, in Brooklyn, New
York, to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents, Copland would
become a famous American composer of operas, ballets,
orchestral music, band music, chamber music, choral music,
and film scores. How did he make his dream a reality?
An older sister taught Copland how to play the piano while
he attended public high school. Then, as a first step to
becoming a conductor, he tried to learn harmony through a
correspondence course.
In the summer of 1921, Copland attended a newly founded
school for Americans in France, where he came under the
influence of a brilliant teacher, Nadia Boulanger. After
three years in Paris, Copland returned to New York,
composing an organ symphony for his teacher to perform at
Carnegie Hall in New York. His career had begun.
Copland was very aware of the trends of his time,
experimenting with jazz rhythms and new forms. He realized
that radio, phonographs, and film were creating a new
audience for modern music. Copland created scores that
simplified music and expressed the American experience. Most
important of these were the three ballets based on American
folk material: Billy the Kid (1938), Rodeo (1942), and
Appalachian Spring (1944), which was choreographed and
performed by dancer Martha Graham. While Copland and Graham
were collaborating on the creation of the ballet, she wrote
to him, saying, "I have been working on your music. It is so
beautiful and so wonderfully made. I have become obsessed by
it." The Library of Congress commissioned the work where it
was also performed for the first time.
Copland wrote scores for many early films, including
adaptations of Thornton Wilder's play Our Town (1940) and
John Steinbeck's short novels Of Mice and Men (1939), and
The Red Pony (1948). Not only a gifted composer, Copland
became a teacher, an author of books and articles on music,
an organizer of musical events, and a much sought-after
conductor. He received more than 30 honorary degrees and
many awards. For many people, Copland's music uniquely
captures the American spirit. He did what he set out to do
when he was only 15. If you haven't before, try listening to
Copland's Appalachian Spring. Close your eyes while you
listen. See if the music makes you feel the energy that
bursts forth in nature each spring. |
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Giving Back a Fortune
March 12, 1901 -
Carnegie Gives Money to Build
Libraries
Carnegie devoted the rest of his life to writing and using
his vast wealth to give back to society. Carnegie founded
2,509 libraries in the English-speaking world, including
ones in Michigan, Ohio, Vermont, Alabama and Washington,
D.C. He also helped found Carnegie Mellon University. At the
time of his death in 1919, he had given away over $350
million. If you made a fortune would you give it away to
charity? To what cause would you give your money?
Born in 1835, Carnegie immigrated to the United States with
his parents in 1848. Working in American industry and making
smart investments, he had already made a fortune before the
age of 30. In the 1870s, he saw the potential of the steel
industry and founded his own steel mill. The company boomed.
Here, the employees of the Carnegie Steel Company pose for a
picture at a company picnic. In 1901, Carnegie sold the
company for $250 million. It was time for Carnegie to
retire. To what did he devote the rest of his life?
Carnegie devoted the rest of his life to writing and using
his vast wealth to give back to society. Carnegie founded
2,509 libraries in the English-speaking world, including
ones in Michigan, Ohio, Vermont, Alabama and Washington,
D.C. He also helped found Carnegie Mellon University. At the
time of his death in 1919, he had given away over $350
million. If you made a fortune would you give it away to
charity? To what cause would you give your money? |
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Scat! Jazz Man, Scat!
August 4, 1901 -
Jazz Giant Louis Armstrong Was Born
Louis Armstrong, was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on
August 4, 1901 (according to the most recent research), in
the poorest section of town. He overcame poverty to become
one of the most important people in the history of music.
Louis Armstrong was called "the single most important figure
in the history of jazz" by Billboard magazine, a publication
that tracks the recording industry. The jazz magazine Down
Beat agreed. Why is Armstrong so important in the history of
this American musical art form called jazz?
No one before Armstrong had ever played the trumpet the way
that he did. He was one of the first great soloists of jazz
music. The solos he played were as interesting and
innovative as any music written at the time. Rather than
follow notes on a page, he improvised, playing what was in
his head instead. This type of playing laid the foundation
for all jazz to come.
Armstrong also pioneered a type of singing. Do you know what
it was called?
The new style of singing that Louis Armstrong pioneered was
called "scat." Scat singing is a lot like improvising on a
musical instrument. Instead of singing real words, with scat
one sings nonsense words to the melody. Armstrong became as
famous for his scat singing and gravelly voice as his
trumpet playing. He recorded many songs with another jazz
great and scat singer, Ella Fitzgerald.
In addition to all of his accomplishments, Louis Armstrong
holds the record for being the oldest artist ever to have a
Number 1 record. He accomplished this when he was 63 years
old with his version of the song "Hello, Dolly," from the
musical of the same name. What is even more extraordinary is
that he reached Number 1 in 1964 by toppling the Beatles
from the top of the charts! Louis Armstrong had come a long
way from his poor Louisiana beginnings. |
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Grandma's Stories Inspired a Writer
February 1, 1902 -
Langston Hughes Was Born
Do members of your family like to tell stories? The
tradition of storytelling inspired poet and writer Langston
Hughes, who was born in Joplin, Missouri, on February 1,
1902. Hughes spent much of his childhood with his
grandmother, who filled his imagination with stories of the
past. As a result, Hughes developed a deep interest in
African American culture and history that he later wrote
into his many stories, autobiographies, histories, and
poems.
Hughes wrote the poem "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" the
summer after he graduated from high school. It starts like
this:
I've known rivers:
I've known rivers ancient as the world and older
Than the flow of human blood in human veins. My soul has
grown deep like the rivers.
Hughes loved to write and was determined to make his work
known. In 1925, while working as a busboy at a hotel in
Washington D.C., he slipped three poems into the shoulder
bag of guest Vachel Lindsay, who was famous for his
performances of poetry. Lindsay liked the poems and as a
result, Hughes received a scholarship to Lincoln University
in Pennsylvania. There he earned his degree and published
collections of poetry and stories. Hughes was part of the
Harlem Renaissance, a flourishing of artistic expression by
African Americans centered in the community of Harlem in New
York City in the 1920s.
In 1941, Hughes wrote the poem "The Ballad of Booker T"
about the controversial educator, Booker T. Washington. A
freed slave, Washington became a political leader for
African Americans in 1881. Some people believe he was too
cooperative with the white leaders. Hughes understood
Booker's situation and explained it in the poem:
Sometimes he had
Compromise in his talk-
For a man must crawl
Before he can walk-
And in Alabama in '85
A joker was lucky
To be alive.
Ask your family if anyone has read poetry or stories by
Langston Hughes. And while you're at it, ask your parents
and grandparents to tell some stories about the past. Maybe
they will inspire you. |
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Monopoly With Real Money
February 11, 1903 -
The Expedition Act Was Passed
If you've ever played the board game Monopoly, you know that
the goal is to collect real estate or control railroads. If
you have hotels on Park Place and Boardwalk, you're in good
shape, but if you don't, then they're expensive places to
land. During the late 1800s, life was becoming a bit like a
Monopoly game. A person or company would merge businesses
with related industries, making it possible to control
production and prices. One example was J.P. Morgan's U.S.
Steel Corporation. This company controlled all the stages of
steel production, from iron-ore mining to steel
manufacturing. When one company has such strong control over
an industry, it makes it difficult for others to compete.
This is called a monopoly. Having a monopoly makes it easier
for the company to keep prices high and wages low because it
has few competitors. What do you think was done about
companies like this?
Critics of companies like J.P. Morgan's U.S. Steel
Corporation said that allowing a company to control so many
aspects of an industry hurt the general public. By 1902,
there was such concern about huge "trusts" such as U.S.
Steel that President Theodore Roosevelt ordered the Justice
Department to use "antitrust" laws to prosecute not only the
steel industry trust but also the meatpacking, oil, and
railroad trusts. He said that these industries took
advantage of the public by limiting competition. As a
result, the Expedition Act was passed on February 11, 1903,
making the antitrust suits a high priority in the nation's
legal system. Roosevelt quickly gained a reputation for
breaking up trusts. What nickname do you think he was given?
Roosevelt became known as a "trustbuster," but that didn't
mean that he thought all business combinations were bad. He
made the distinction between good trusts that streamlined
business production, and bad trusts that used their position
to keep prices high. Roosevelt continued to fight against
"Big Business," and he led a successful crusade to break up
the Standard Oil monopoly in 1907. Roosevelt's actions were
popular with the public, but some historians have argued
that his trust-busting behavior was motivated by politics as
much as by the government's desire to control corporate
America. What do you think? |
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Look Ma, No Hands
December 17, 1903 -
Wilbur and Orville Wright's First
Flight
"For some years, I have been afflicted with the belief that
flight is possible to man. My disease has increased in
severity and I feel that it will soon cost me an increased
amount of money if not my life." Three years after Wilbur
Wright wrote those words, he and his brother Orville put
their belief in flight to the test in Kill Devil Hills,
North Carolina.
Did their attempt to fly an airplane they had built in
sections in the back room of their Dayton, Ohio bicycle shop
cost Wilbur his life?
Orville piloted the first flight, which lasted just 12
seconds. On the fourth and final flight of the day, Wilbur
flew for 59 seconds. Both brothers survived that morning,
December 17, 1903. That day they became the first people to
demonstrate sustained flight of a heavier-than-air machine
under the complete control of the pilot. What did the
brothers do after their exciting success?
Orville and Wilbur Wright walked four miles to Kitty Hawk
and sent a telegram to their father: "Success four flights
Thursday morning all against twenty one mile wind started
from level with engine power alone average speed through air
thirty one miles longest 57 seconds inform Press home
Christmas."
The world was about to change forever.
The announcement of the Wright brothers' successful flight
ignited the world's passion for flying. Engineers designed
their own flying machines, people of all ages wanted to see
the flights, and others wanted to sit behind the controls
and fly. The brothers continued to make longer and faster
flights.
The U.S. Army, seeing potential in the new technology,
signed a contract with the Wright brothers in 1908 for the
purchase of a machine that could travel with a passenger at
a speed of 40 miles per hour. Today's commercial jet
airplanes routinely travel at 600 miles per hour. |
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Crossing the East River
December 19, 1903 -
New Yorkers Celebrated the Opening of
the Williamsburg Bridge
Have you ever ridden in a horse-drawn carriage? Can you
imagine what it would be like to cross a bridge during rush
hour with everyone in a carriage instead of an automobile?
The Williamsburg Bridge was one of the last major bridges
built for the horse and carriage, as well as for pedestrians
and bicyclists. On December 19, 1903, New Yorkers celebrated
the opening of the Williamsburg Bridge, the second
suspension bridge to span the East River. (The Brooklyn
Bridge was the first.) How is the bridge used today?
The 1,600-foot Williamsburg Bridge connects Manhattan to the
Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. Until the 1920s, the
Williamsburg was the world's longest suspension bridge. As
times changed, the bridge became a route for trolley cars
and trains. Today, cars and buses have replaced the trolley
cars. Instead of a train, more than 90,000 riders a day
cross the bridge on the subway. Although the horse-drawn
carriage has been relegated to the past, you can still
bicycle or walk across the Williamsburg Bridge just as New
Yorkers did more than 100 years ago. |
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Two Scoops, Please
1904 - Ice Cream
Cone Makes Appearance at World's Fair
Would you rather eat delicious, creamy ice cream from a bowl or a cone? Over
time, several inventors around the world developed ideas of filling pastry
cones with ice cream, and versions of the ice cream cone were invented. The
walk-away cone made its debut World's Fair debut in St. Louis in 1904. Of
course, before the cone, someone had to invent ice cream. Do you know when
ice cream was invented?
The origins of ice cream go way back to the 4th century B.C. when the Roman
emperor Nero ordered ice to be brought from the mountains and combined it
with fruit toppings. In the 13th century, Marco Polo learned of the Chinese
method of creating ice and milk mixtures and brought it back to Europe. Over
time, people created recipes for ices, sherbets, and milk ices. It became a
fashionable treat in Italy and France, and once imported to the United
States, ice cream was served by George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and
Dolley Madison. Jefferson's favorite flavor was vanilla. What's yours?
Whatever flavor ice cream you like best, you can make it by mixing cream,
sugar, and flavorings (like chocolate or strawberry) and then carefully
lowering the mixture's temperature until it sets. The discovery of using
salt to control the temperature of the ingredients, along with the invention
of the wooden bucket freezer with rotary paddles, were major breakthroughs
in the creation of ice cream as we know it. A Baltimore company was the
first to sell it to stores in 1851. Finally, with the introduction of
refrigerator-freezers came the ice cream shop, which has become a symbol of
American culture. Do you scream for ice cream? |
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New York Goes Underground
October 27, 1904 -
New York Subway System Opened for
Business
In London, it's "the Tube"; in Paris, it's the Metro; and in
New York City, it's the subway. On Thursday afternoon,
October 27, 1904, the mayor of New York City, George B.
McClellan, officially opened the New York City subway
system. The first subway train left City Hall station with
the mayor at the controls, and 26 minutes later arrived at
145th Street. The subway opened to the general public at 7
p.m. that evening, and before the night was over, more than
110,000 passengers had ridden the trains through the
underground tunnels.
If you have ever been to New York or seen it in movies or on
TV, you have seen the streets full of cars and pedestrian
traffic. New York City, even at the turn of the 20th
century, had been in desperate need of a transportation
system for years to help ease the congestion of pedestrians,
horses, wagons, and carriages.
Finally overcoming legal, political, and financial problems,
the Rapid Transit Subway Construction Company was formed and
started construction on New York City's famous subway in
March 1900. You and your family can see the subway in action
only seven months after it opened. Watch the 1904 movie made
by cameraman G.W. "Billy" Bitzer. |
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Shake and Quake
April 18, 1906 -
The Great San Francisco Earthquake
What wakes you up in the morning? An alarm clock? Your
parents? What about an earthquake? That's what woke up the
city of San Francisco at 5:12 a.m. on April 18,1906. The 8.3
magnitude earthquake collapsed many buildings, but it wasn't
just the shaking ground that nearly destroyed the city.
Fires that started as a result of the quake raged through
San Francisco for three days. Closely-built wooden homes and
broken water mains made it difficult to fight the fires.
More than 3,000 people are estimated to have died.
For a few weeks, survivors slept in tents and parks. They
cooked outdoors to avoid the chance that any more buildings
would be burned. Then they got busy rebuilding their city
and homes and hoped never to be awakened by a devastating
earthquake again. |
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The Best Baseball Pitcher Ever?
July 7, 1906 -
Leroy Robert "Satchel" Paige Was Born
How old is "too old" to play professional baseball? At the
age of fifty-nine, Satchel Paige became the oldest player in
the major leagues. He may also have been the best pitcher in
baseball ever.
Leroy Robert "Satchel" Paige was born on July 7, 1906. He
earned his nickname, Satchel, when he was a young boy
carrying bags (and satchels) at railroad stations for
passengers. Initially barred from the major leagues because
he was African American, Paige played in what was referred
to as "the Negro Leagues." Paige's pitching took the Kansas
City Monarchs to five Negro American League pennants. He
also showcased his skills by barnstorming across the
country. What is barnstorming?
In barnstorming, a player traveled across the country and
pitched for any team willing to meet his price. (Teams also
barnstormed around the U.S. and played against local teams.)
Paige sometimes traveled as many as 30,000 miles a year and
in one streak pitched twenty-nine days in a row! He played
in exhibition games against the best players of the day,
black or white. Huge crowds came to watch him.
"I liked playing against Negro League teams," Paige was
quoted as saying, "but I loved barnstorming. It gave us a
chance to play everybody and go everywhere . . ."
Paige finally got his chance to play in the major leagues as
a Cleveland Indian in 1948. That was one year after Jackie
Robinson broke the color barrier in major league baseball
and went to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers. |
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Motion Pictures Reach New Heights
November 8, 1906 -
Cameraman Fred A. Dobson Began
Filming "The Skyscrapers of New York"
Don't look down, Dobson! On November 8, 1906, cameraman Fred
A. Dobson began filming "The Skyscrapers of New York" atop
an uncompleted skyscraper at Broadway and 12th Street. The
American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, an early rival of
Thomas Edison's motion picture company, sponsored this
stunt-filled melodrama. The movie tells the story of a
construction foreman who fires a crew member for fighting.
The angry employee turns to stealing.
The storyline weaves in and around the actual construction
of a New York skyscraper. With the use of steel girders and
the invention of the safety elevator, skyscrapers were just
starting to be built in big cities around the U.S. A
fascinating record of early-20th century building
techniques, "Skyscrapers" captures brick masons in action,
workers maneuvering a steel girder into place, and a group
of men descending a line suspended by a crane. And this was
before they had hard hats and many modern safety features!
Can you imagine working at those heights? |
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Her Truth Is Marching On
January 28, 1908 -
Julia Ward Howe Elected to American
Academy of Arts and Letters
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath
are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightnings of His terrible swift
sword:
His Truth is marching on.
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Name that tune's writer. It's "The Battle Hymn of the
Republic," written by author and activist Julia Ward Howe.
Howe became the first woman elected to the prestigious
American Academy of Arts and Letters on January 28, 1908.
Born in New York City in 1819, Howe, and her husband, social
activist Samuel Gridley Howe, embraced the abolitionist
(freedom from slavery) movement. This dedication, as well as
Mr. Howe's training as a doctor, led to his appointment to
the U.S. Sanitary Commission. As a result of Mr. Howe's work
with the Commission, the couple was invited to Washington,
D.C., to review the attitudes of Union troops after the
First Battle of Bull Run in the Civil War in 1861. Mrs. Howe
wrote her "Battle Hymn" soon after, inspired by seeing a
real battle.
On November 18, 1861, Howe witnessed a Confederate attack on
Union troops in Virginia. She wrote the poem "The Battle
Hymn of the Republic," set to the tune of "John Brown's
Body," a marching song popular among Union soldiers. It was
published in the Atlantic Monthly in 1862, and she received
just $5 dollars for the piece. It became very popular in the
North, commonly sung at public gatherings. After the war,
Howe worked for women's rights, prison reform, and sex
education, fighting battles for causes she believed in until
her death in 1910. |
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The Queen of Gospel
October 26, 1911 -
Gospel Singer, Mahalia Jackson Was
Born
Mahalia Jackson spent a lifetime singing the sacred songs
that she loved. "The Queen of Gospel Song" was born on
October 26, 1911, in New Orleans, Louisiana. Jackson grew up
singing gospel at the Plymouth Rock Baptist Church, where
her father was a preacher. At 16, she moved to Chicago, as
many African Americans did around that time, and supported
herself doing housekeeping and odd jobs. But she never
stopped singing.
In Chicago, Jackson joined the Greater Salem Baptist Church
and began touring with a gospel quintet. Jackson only sang
gospel, refusing to sing secular (non-religious) music,
because, she said, "When you sing gospel you have a feeling
there is a cure for what's wrong." She made her first solo
recordings in the mid-1930s and eventually signed with
Columbia Records in 1954. Jackson collaborated with the
"Father of Gospel Music," Thomas Dorsey. She recorded with
jazz great Duke Ellington, packed Carnegie Hall in New York
City on a number of occasions, had a radio show, and sang
for four presidents. Besides being a great singer, she was a
highly successful businesswoman.
With the power of her music, Mahalia Jackson participated in
the civil rights movement and became a prominent figure in
the struggle. Jackson has influenced many singers of today,
such as Aretha Franklin. Martin Luther King Jr. said of her,
"A voice like this comes, not once in a century, but once in
a millennium." Ask your parents and grandparents if they
have heard the gospel songs of Mahalia Jackson. Have you
ever heard gospel music? |
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Train Across the Ocean
January 22, 1912 -
Railway to the Keys
How would you get to an island 128 miles away? By boat? By
plane? Well, in the early 1900s Henry M. Flagler, a Florida
developer, decided a train would be a practical way for
people to get to the island of Key West, Florida.
To complete the railway, 42 bridges had to be constructed.
The length of track connected mainland Florida to the
southernmost settlement in the United States and the keys
(islands) in between. On January 22, 1912, Flagler boarded
the first train of the Florida East Coast Railway bound for
Key West.
Twenty thousand people lived on the small island of Key West
in 1912. On January 22, 1912, almost every one of them
showed up to watch Henry Flagler and the train arrive in
their city.
In 1935, a hurricane destroyed the railway. By 1938, it was
replaced by the world's longest over-water road, called the
Overseas Highway. If you happen to find yourself in Florida,
driving across today's ocean highway to Key West, wouldn't
it be fun to think of getting there by train? |
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Who Planted the Cherry Trees?
March 27, 1912 -
Cherry Trees Planted in Washington,
D.C.
Today, when we think of Washington, D.C., in the springtime,
one of the first images that comes to mind is the cherry
trees in full bloom. These trees have become one of the most
impressive tourist attractions in the city. On March 27,
1912, First Lady Helen Herron Taft and the wife of the
Japanese ambassador, Viscountess Chinda, planted two Yoshino
cherry trees on the northern bank of the Potomac Tidal Basin
in Washington. How many more cherry trees do you think were
planted at that time?
When First Lady Taft and the Viscountess Chinda planted
those cherry trees, they were only a small part of a gift of
3,000 trees given to the U.S. by the Japanese government.
The trees were planted along the Potomac Tidal Basin near
the Jefferson Memorial, in East Potomac Park, and on the
White House grounds. Why do you think the Japanese gave the
cherry trees to the U.S.?
Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore, a travel writer and photographer,
had the idea of planting cherry trees in Washington after
she returned from a trip to Japan in 1885. She recommended
that the city purchase the trees, but the government ignored
her request. Finally, in 1909, she decided to raise money
and purchase them herself. She wrote to First Lady Helen
Herron Taft and told her of her plans. The first lady was
enthusiastic about the idea and decided to take up the
matter. Once the Japanese consul in New York heard of the
first lady's plans, he suggested that his government make a
gift of the trees to the U.S. government. |
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Fly Like an Eagle, Scout!
August 21, 1912 -
The First Eagle Scout, Arthur R.
Eldred
Are you a member of the Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts of
America, or have you ever wondered what they're all about? A
Boy Scout might hope to someday achieve the award of Eagle
Scout, the highest rank in the Boy Scouts of America.
On August 21, 1912, Arthur R. Eldred of Oceanside, New York,
became the first young man in America to earn the Eagle
Scout award. More than one million Boy Scouts have now
earned the rank since 1911, including former President
Gerald Ford and film director Steven Spielberg. Do you know
how many merit badges it takes to become an Eagle Scout?
It takes 21 merit badges to become an Eagle Scout, and 12 of
those awards are required, such as First Aid and Citizenship
of the World. The Boy Scout movement began with the 1908
publication of Scouting for Boys by British Lieutenant
General Robert Baden-Powell. He suggested turning existing
boys' groups into scout patrols. Americans at that time had
a popular fascination with outdoor recreation as a means of
developing a person's character.
The Boy Scouts of America was founded in 1910 with President
William Howard Taft as honorary president. By 1912, every
state could claim a band of troops. In 1916, the government
granted Scouts the right to wear a uniform similar to a U.S.
armed services uniform.
Boys weren't the only ones who enjoyed Scouting. In 1912,
Juliette Gordon Low started the Girl Guides in Savannah,
Georgia, and by 1915 had established a national organization
called the Girl Scouts of America. They established their
headquarters in Washington, D.C. In 1936 they started baking
and selling their famous cookies nationwide. But Girl
Scouting is about much more than cookies and uniforms. The
activities are designed to build character, to promote good
citizenship, and to develop personal fitness. How many
Scouts do you know? |
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The Father of the Blues
September 28, 1912 -
William Christopher Handy's "Memphis
Blues" Was Published
Do you listen to the blues? If you haven't, you've
definitely heard music influenced by the blues (a song of
sadness in which the second line often repeats the words of
the first). Artists such as John Lee Hooker, B.B. King, and
Koko Taylor have made that sultry blues sound legendary, but
before them, William Christopher Handy, the "Father of the
Blues," brought the African-American folk tradition into
mainstream music. The publication of his song "The Memphis
Blues" on September 28, 1912, changed the course of American
popular song.
By the 1960s, the blues sound had significantly influenced
the development of jazz, classical music, and the rock and
roll of such performers as Aretha Franklin and the Rolling
Stones. Do the blues influence any of your favorite songs?
Born in Alabama in 1873, W.C. Handy found his true calling
when he began playing cornet with dance bands traveling the
Mississippi Delta. Along the road, Handy wrote down and
collected blues songs he heard in the 1890s. Audiences,
however, wanted to hear ragtime dance tunes, the lively and
popular music of the day, so that's what he played. When he
settled in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1909, Handy found a
sophisticated population with a limitless appetite for
music. Music was so popular in Memphis that an aspiring
mayor, E.H. Crump, hired Handy as the bandleader for his
campaign.
Handy's original tune, titled "Mr. Crump," merged the blues
sound with popular ragtime style. Overwhelmingly popular,
the song led Crump to the mayor's office and Handy to
musical success. Changing the song's name to "The Memphis
Blues," he watched the sheet music go on sale in department
stores on September 28, 1912. The first thousand copies sold
out in just three days. But Handy's publisher deceived him
and told him that the song had flopped, offering him just
$50 to buy the rights. The composer agreed. Though cheated
out of his first big hit, Handy went on to produce many
other popular works, such as the "Yellow Dog Rag." W.C.
Handy became recognized around the world as the "Father of
the Blues." What other blues musicians do you know? |
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The Day to Pay
April 15, 1913 -
Tax Day
Uh oh, it's April 15. Even if you don't know what that
means, your parents probably do--it's Tax Day. Income taxes
are usually due on this day from all employed Americans.
Income taxes have become such a common part of our lives,
that it is hard to imagine that, at one time, there was no
income tax in the U.S.
From its beginning, this country has been very expensive to
run, and the government has been responsible for raising the
money to pay those expenses. Before the Revolutionary War,
whiskey and tobacco taxes provided most of the revenue.
After the war, however, the government needed more money.
When the country was young, it struggled to raise funds from
the 13 original states--$15 million from each state in 1779
and more in following years. The government collected the
first income tax during the Civil War, but only temporarily.
President Grover Cleveland tried to start up regular yearly
income taxes in 1894, but the Supreme Court ruled it
unconstitutional. For supporters of the income tax, that
meant amending the Constitution, which the government
finally did in 1913 with the 16th Amendment. From that point
on, Congress could legally collect taxes on incomes.
Homer S. Cummings, Chairman of the Democratic National
Committee during the administration of President Woodrow
Wilson, counted the income tax as among the most notable
accomplishments of the Democratic Party. The funds raised
from it have been used for running many parts of the
government. How much one pays depends on yearly earnings and
certain deductions. Collecting and figuring taxes employs
many people such as the staff of the Internal Revenue
Service (IRS), accountants, and this public tax worker, who
was working hard back in 1936.
Ask your parents how they file their income tax return. But
you might want to wait a day or two--they may be busy trying
to make the deadline! |
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