Posts Tagged ‘TRANSPORTATION-TELEPHONE GENERATION’
Court Packing: How Franklin D. Roosevelt Reshaped the U.S. Supreme Court
TweetShareShareIn 1937 nobody was more popular than Franklin D. Roosevelt. His “New Deal”–hinged to Social Security and unemployment benefits–catapulted FDR to a 523-8 electoral landslide (60.8% of the popular vote) to a second term in 1936. Only Ronald Reagan would come close to that margin of victory in 1984 with 525-13 electoral votes (58.8% popular…
Read MoreThe Day Teddy Made America a New Global Nation
TweetShareShare In our global culture and shrinking world–thanks to cyber communications–it’s hard to believe there was a time (120 years ago) when few people ventured more than a day’s walk (20 miles) from home. That was the significance of this day in 1906. It was the first time a U.S. President visited another country…not…
Read MoreThe Model T Defined an Era
TweetShareShareThe Model T was not Henry Ford’s first car, but it might’ve been his best. Also known as the “Tin Lizzie” or “Leaping Lena” or “Jitney” or “Flivver,” the Model T was the first truly affordable automobile. In 1999, it was honored as the “most influential car of the 20th century.” Manufactured between 1908 and…
Read MoreWhat Hath God Wrought? The Birth of Telecommunications
TweetShareShareSamuel Morse is where telecommunications all began. He invented the telegraph and created the Morse code. An 1810 graduate of Yale, Morse was also an accomplished artist who founded and presided over the National Academy of Design for two decades. But he’s best know for the telegraph. Initially, Morse had little interest–or financial backing–for his…
Read MoreAmerica Embraces Debt
TweetShareShare“Put it on my card!” It’s the American way. We buy now, pay later. The history for card purchases is nothing new. In fact, it was first described in an Edward Bellamy utopian work titled Looking Backward (1887). Bellamy employed the term “credit card” in his work as a way for a person to spend…
Read MoreThe Hindenburg Disaster
TweetShareShare Nobody knew it at the time, but the Hindenberg disaster was the beginning of the end for air travel by blimp. For decades, the rich used blimps to travel to new locales, still somewhat faster than the automobile of that day. But as the airplane–a new air tech–found its wings, old-school blimps no longer…
Read MoreThe Generational Impact of COVID-19
TweetShareShare Everybody is talking about COVID-19. And right we should. This is our Great Depression-Pearl Harbor-WW2 all rolled into one. It has done what neither 9-11-01 or the Great Recession could do: shut down America. Did you see that Vegas’ Caesar Palace is closed…for the first time in its long history? Only COVID-19 could do…
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