There were technical advances on this date that show the transformation of society. In 1882 the Pearl Street Station in New York City became the first power plant to supply electricity for paying customers. We all take electricity for granted, but it wasn’t always so. Six years later, in 1888, George Eastman registered the trademark Kodak and received a patent for his roll film camera. When was the last time you took (or have you ever taken) a roll of film to get it developed? Digital photography is the norm today and aren’t we all glad? But there was a time when photography itself did not exist.
And do you remember combing through the card catalog or hunting down a reference librarian to answer a research question? In 1998 two students at Stanford University founded Google, and it is so ubiquitous today that it has become a common verb – “google it” – like Kleenex or BandAid. Yet it and the whole internet did not exist as recently as when I was in college (okay, that was decades ago:) ).
Of course, those of us with decades of memories will remember the antics of DIck York of Bewitched born this day in 1928,, mourn the loss of Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter in 2006, and relish the creations – like ” In the Hall of the Mountain King” or “Peer Gynt Suite” by Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg, who died in 1907.
And realize the oddity of today being Newspaper Carrier Day (US) when most newspaper publication is online.
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