Imagine it’s World War II, and while men and women are overseas fighting, there are companies attempting to fill those positions left behind. You might be a factory owner, or run a banking office and suddenly you’re running your company at less than half of your normal capacity. Where in the world will you get […]
THROWBACK THURSDAY: Debut of “The Simpsons”
The Simpsons is an American animated television sitcom starring the animated Simpson family, created by Matt Groening. It has been on the air for 31 years, including the shorts that debuted on April 19, 1987 on The Tracey Ullman Show. After a three-season run there, the sketch was developed into a half-hour prime time show […]
THROWBACK THURSDAY: Brief History of Shorthand
Shorthand wasn’t always just for secretaries and court reporters, according to Leah Price, author of an essay about the subject in the London Review of Books. Before the 1870s, it was used more for writing down one’s own thoughts or discreetly noting the conversation of others. Samuel Pepys, Isaac Newton and Charles Dickens used it, […]
THROWBACK THURSDAY: Interesting Facts About St. Patrick
10. March 17 is not his birthdate, but the day he died. Saint Patrick is a saint of the Catholic Church, and his holy day is the day of his death, and subsequent entrance to heaven, rather than the day of his physical birth. After spending most of his adult life converting the pagans of […]
THROWBACK THURSDAY: First International Wome’s Day Celebrated in 1909
{excerpted from the United Nations website} International Women’s Day is celebrated in many countries around the world on March 8, when women are recognized for their achievements without regard to divisions, whether national, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic or political. International Women’s Day first emerged from the activities of labor movements at the turn of the […]
THROWBACK THURSDAY: Debut of Teddy’s Bear
{From “This Day in History” at History.com} On February 15, 1903, toy store owner and inventor Morris Michtom placed two stuffed bears in his shop window, advertising them as Teddy bears. Michtom had earlier petitioned President Theodore Roosevelt for permission to use his nickname, Teddy. The president agreed and, before long, other toy manufacturers began […]
THROWBACK THURSDAY: First Coast-to-Coast Radio Broadcast Sent
On this date in 1924, John Joseph Carty, vice-president and chief of research at Bell Telephone, delivered the first coast-to-coast radio broadcast – a speech at the Bond Men’s Club at the Congress Hotel in Chicago – which was heard by 50,000,000 people across the country. Exactly four years later, in 1928, the first continent-to-continent […]
THROWBACK THURSDAY: Two Computer-Related Firsts on the Same Day, 36 Years Apart
On January 24, 1948, the “first true computer,” the IBM SSEC (Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator) was introduced. The machine included 13,500 vacuum tubes and 21,000 electronic relays and was the first device capable of handling both data and instructions. It occupied a space one-half the size of a football field, at IBM headquarters in Manhattan. […]
THROWBACK THURSDAY: Invention of the QWERTY Keyboard
{Excerpted from CNET News online} On July 1, 1874, the Remington typewriter hit the market, with the earliest version of what would become the keyboard layout we still use today.There’s an old legend about the QWERTY keyboard: It “probably would have been chosen if the objective was to find the least efficient character arrangement.” In […]
THROWBACK THURSDAY: First Female White House Staffer
President Benjamin Harrison welcomed Alice Sanger as the first female White House staffer on this day in 1890. She was hired as a stenographer. During an otherwise uneventful presidency remarkable only for allowing Congress a free-for-all in spending public funds, Alice Sanger’s appointment may have been an olive branch to the growing women’s suffrage movement […]