Uncategorized – Page 3 – Sharing History

Michelin: The Brothers, the Tires, the Restaurants

January 16, 2024January 15, 2024UncategorizedLeave a Comment

On January 16, 1853, André Michelin was born in Paris. Six years later, his brother Édouard was born. The two brothers would go on to run the company Michelin and Co., inventing the modern pneumatic tire and becoming one of the largest purveyors of tires in the world. The Michelin brothers are also responsible for creating the Michelin Guide, which has gone on to become of the most prestigious awards given to restaurants around the world. How does a tire company relate to fine cuisine? We’re glad you asked.

Michelin and Co. began long before André and Édouard were born. Their great-aunt and uncle, Elisabeth Pugh-Barker and Édouard Daubrée began making rubber bouncy balls in their Clermont Ferrand home in 1829. Daubrée realized that rubber had a more practical application in the production of farm machinery. He joined forces with his cousin, Aristide Barbier, and the two started a successful company selling farm machinery equipped with rubber hoses and valves. When Barbier died, the company fell on hard times. Her grandsons, André and Édouard Michelin took over the company and looked for ways to bolster the company’s portfolio. In 1889, a cyclist approached the brothers and asked them to look into creating a bicycle tire that was easier to replace than the tires of the time, which were glued to the rim. In 1891, the Michelin brothers filed a patent for their detachable pneumatic bicycle tire. It wasn’t long before they had applied the same concept to automobile tires.

At this point, cars were not very widely used in France. In order to drum up business for their tire company, the Michelin brothers needed to convince more people to purchase cars and use them for travel. In pursuit of this, the brothers created the Michelin Guide. Published for the first time in 1900, the guide listed French towns alphabetically and gave suggestions for lodging, restaurants, car repair shops, museums, and other points of interest. In 1926, the Michelin guide began putting a single star next to restaurants considered “fine-dining” establishments. In 1931, the three-star system that exists today was created. In 1936, the official judging criteria for the system was released. Today, the Michelin star is one of the most impressive designations a restaurant can receive. The Michelin Guide today covers 37 countries and there are approximately 2,800 Michelin Star restaurants worldwide.

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“Smoking and Health:” America’s Fight Against Cigarettes

January 12, 2024January 11, 2024Uncategorized, US HistoryLeave a Comment

60 years ago, on January 11, 1964, the U.S. Surgeon General’s office released a report entitled “Smoking and Health: Report of the Advisory Committee to the Surgeon General.” It reported that smoking was a direct cause of lung cancer, emphysema, and heart disease. It stated that people who smoked had a 70% increase in mortality rate over those who did not smoke. This report led directly to public policy put in place to reduce smoking. It also had an enormous impact on Americans’ perspective on smoking.

For 30 years before the report on smoking and health was issued, physicians, scientists, and researchers were gathering evidence of the ill effects smoking had on health. In 1961, the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, the National Tuberculosis Association, and the American Public Health Association banded together and wrote a letter to President Kennedy asking him to form a national commission to research the effects of smoking on Americans. In 1962, the government responded, and Surgeon General Luther Terry put together a committee to research and put together a report on their findings. The committee chosen included members of the four organization who had sent the letter as well as members of the Food and Drug Administration, the Federal Trade Commission, the American Medical Association, and the Tobacco Institute. The final committee of ten members reviewed over 7,000 scientific articles before writing the report that was released in 1964.

As a direct result of these findings, the U.S. Congress passed the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act of 1965 and the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act of 1969. The Labeling and Advertising Act required cigarette manufacturers to include a health warning on packages of cigarettes and banned cigarette companies from advertising on television and radio. The Smoking Act required an annual report to be written on the negative consequences of smoking cigarettes. California was the first state to ban smoking indoors, and many have followed suit.

In addition to prompting public policy, the report changed the way Americans viewed smoking. At the time of the report, it was estimated that approximately 52% of men and 35% of women in the U.S. were regular smokers. Surveys taken in 1958 showed that only 44% of Americans believed that smoking could cause cancer. In 1968, that number rose to 78%. Thanks to this shift, adult smoking rates have decreased from 43% in 1965 to 18% in 2014. Unfortunately, thanks to the advent of e-cigarettes and the branding around them, youth smoking rates have increased 900% from 2011 to 2015. This is, perhaps, the next hurdle in this long campaign begun over 60 years ago.

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The Queen of Existentialism

January 9, 2024January 8, 2024UncategorizedLeave a Comment

On January 9, 1908, Simone de Beauvoir was born in Paris. de Beauvoir would go on to become an award-winning author, a feminist icon, and a prolific existentialist philosopher. She lived her life by the philosophy she espoused: “One’s life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others by means of love, friendship, indignation, and compassion.” She remains a significant influence in the feminist and philosophic spheres.

From an early age, de Beauvoir was interested in in education, philosophy, and writing. She studied philosophy at the Sorbonne, becoming the youngest person to pass the extremely competitive agrégation exam, a series of test and interviews to become a teacher. Her score was second only to that of classmate Jean-Paul Sartre, who became de Beauvoir’s lifelong intellectual companion and lover. For many years, de Beauvoir was a philosophy teacher, but she lost her job upon the occupation of Paris by the Nazis in 1940. It was then that she began writing. Over the next 10 years, de Beauvoir penned a number of influential works, including The Ethics of Ambiguity, America Day by Day, and perhaps her most notable work, The Second Sex.

The Second Sex has been named one of the most important works of literature of the 20^th century. It was a major influence of the Second Wave Feminist movement in the U.S., and many notable feminists, including Betty Friedan, were inspired by de Beauvoir’s work. It was, in fact, de Beauvoir’s studies in philosophy that led her to assert that women owed it to themselves to transcend the limits that the world placed on them and become what their hearts led them to be. This individualism is a main tenant of existentialism. Existentialists believe that every individual’s purpose is created by themselves rather than by the societal structures around them. As a philosopher, de Beauvoir was often written off as merely Sartre’s disciple. However, after her death, studies of her personal journals and correspondences with Sartre prove that the two exchanges ideas equally, de Beauvoir’s as original as those of Sartre. de Beauvoir is admired worldwide for those contributions and her writings are still incredibly popular.

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The First Female Governor

January 5, 2024January 4, 2024Uncategorized, US HistoryLeave a Comment

On January 5, 1925, Nellie Tayloe Ross was inaugurated as the Governor of Wyoming, making her the first female to hold the office in the history of the United States. After her term as Governor, Ross spent the rest of her career in politics, becoming a director for the National Democratic Committee and the Director of the U.S. Mint. Her ambition and desire to do good is still an inspiration for women in politics today.

Nellie Tayloe Ross was born and raised in Missouri and attended a teaching college before teaching kindergarten. She met William Ross, a lawyer, and after their marriage, the two moved to Cheyenne. William ran for Governor of Wyoming in 1922 and won. The two moved into the Governor’s Mansion with their three sons. Almost two years later, two months before William was slated to run for reelection, he passed away suddenly from appendicitis.

Upon his death, the Democratic Party of Wyoming approached Nellie about running in her husband’s place. She did so, won, and was inaugurated in January 1925. For her first term, Nellie outlined 11 proposals she wanted the state legislature to pass, including giving state loans to farmers and ranchers, requiring budgets for cities and counties, designating more funds to the state university, and earmarking industrial jobs for women. She was able to get five of her 11 proposals passed. Ross ran for reelection in 1926 but did not win.

In 1932, Ross was given the job as Director of the Women’s Division of the National Democratic Committee. As such, she had a major hand in the campaign of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was elected that year. Shortly after his election, Roosevelt gave Nellie the job as Director of the U.S. Mint. She served as director for 20 years. Her outlook on politics throughout her career is perhaps best summarized in a quote she gave to the New York Times in 1925: “Men and women, we are all alike citizens, moved by the same love of country and entertaining the hopes and fears for its future. Conditions that affect one, affect all. Just as in the family the prosperity of the group is reflected upon each of its members, so it is in the State, and in so far as our activities promote the general welfare, in exactly so far do they promote that of both men and women. Both have the same responsibilities, and there is no plea for good citizenship that cannot and should not be made to both alike.”

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“North to the Future”

January 2, 2024January 1, 2024Uncategorized, US HistoryLeave a Comment

On January 3, 1959, Alaska was officially made the 49^th state in the United States of America. This declaration came almost 100 years after the U.S.’s original acquisition of the area from Russia and after decades of campaigning by its residents. Though the purchase was originally seen as senseless, Alaska has enriched the U.S. with its abundance of natural resources.

1843 was the first time anyone in the United States government inquired about the purchase of the Alaska territory. It was a colony of Russia at the time, and the Russian government was not interested in the overtures made by the U.S. Secretary of State. However, after the Crimean War, Russia found itself in a precarious financial situation. In 1867, Russia approached Secretary of State William Seward about selling the Alaskan territory. On March 30, 1867, the U.S. purchased the land from Russia for $7.2 million, equating to about 2¢ per acre. At the time, Americans found the purchase silly. They called it “Seward’s Folly,” “Seward’s Icebox,” and President Johnson’s “polar bear garden.”

Upon the acquisition of the land, Alaska was called the Department of Alaska, and control of the territory was passed around among federal departments, including the U.S. Army and Treasury Department. It was not until 1884 that the District of Alaska was created, and a local government was installed. Meanwhile, Alaska experienced a boom in population thanks to the discovery of several large veins of gold. By 1906, Alaskan residents were looking toward statehood. Congress allowed them to elect a representative, but he had no official vote in the House. In 1946, Alaskans began campaigning in earnest. Congress agreed to hear a bill on the matter, but the topic was deferred due to the beginning of the Korean War. After the war’s end, in 1958, Congress passed the Alaska Statehood Bill, and on January 3, 1959, Alaska officially became part of the United States.

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Texas Becomes a State

December 29, 2023December 28, 2023Uncategorized, US HistoryLeave a Comment

On December 29, 1845, Texas was officially annexed by the United States of America. The annexation followed nine years of lobbying by the citizens of Texas to join the union. Texas was the 28^th state to join the Union.

In April 1836, the Republic of Texas won its independence from Mexico in the Battle of San Jacinto. The citizens of Texas voted in Sam Houston as their president and immediately began looking to join the United States. However, disputes about Texas joining the U.S. as a state that legalized slavery caused disputes in Congress. Additionally, Mexico had threatened to wage war against the U.S. if they annexed Texas. When President James Polk took office, one of his main objectives was to accomplish “Manifest Destiny,” which is the idea that the U.S. was destined to stretch from coast to coast. Shortly after his election, Congress agreed to annex the state of Texas.

When Texas joined the Union, about 30,000 of its 125,000 residents were enslaved people. Only 16 years after becoming a state, Texas voted to secede from the United States and joined the Confederacy over the cause of slavery.

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What is Boxing Day?

December 26, 2023December 25, 2023UncategorizedLeave a Comment

On December 26, countries around the world, including the UK, Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, celebrate Boxing Day. While the origins of the name Boxing Day are not absolutely known, it is widely believed that beginning in the early 19th century, employers who expected their servants to work in their home on Christmas Day (think of Mr. Carson and Mrs. Patmore serving Christmas dinner to the Granthams) would give them the following day off to celebrate with their own families. They would often send the employees home with a box of gifts or money, leading to the term Boxing Day.

These days, Boxing Day is celebrated as an extension of the Christmas holidays. In the UK, the Boxing Day sales are the equivalent to America’s Black Friday, with sales reaching over £3 billion. Some Americans have suggested the US adopt Boxing Day as a sort of holiday from the holidays—a chance to relax after the hustle and bustle of Christmas and enjoy time together with family and friends.

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Wynne’s Crossword

December 22, 2023December 21, 2023Uncategorized, US HistoryLeave a Comment

On December 21, 1913, the New York World newspaper printed the first published crossword puzzle. The puzzle was created by Arthur Wynne, a journalist who hailed from Liverpool, England. Though the word puzzle was not an entirely original idea, Wynne’s version was the first to be published and made available to a large audience. Though the puzzle was an instant phenomenon, it was not until the publishing group Simon & Schuster published a book of crossword puzzles in 1924 that the game became popular throughout the country.

When Wynne’s first puzzle was published, the New York Times published an opinion article that referred to crossword puzzles as “a primitive sort of mental exercise” and a “sinful waste” of time. They suggested its popularity was of a fleeting sort. Ironically, the Times’ crossword is now the most famous crossword in the country. It was actually the bombing of Pearl Harbor that led to the New York Times changing its tune. After Pearl Harbor, the Sunday Times editor wrote to the publisher: “We ought to proceed with the puzzle, especially in view of the fact it is possible there will now be bleak blackout hours—or if not that then certainly a need for relaxation of some kind or other.” On February 15, 1942, the New York Times published their first crossword puzzle. Now, over 500,000 people subscribe to the Times crossword and crossword books are sold in their thousands each year in every bookstore around.

Though today’s puzzles might look different than the first one published in 1913, can you solve Wynne’s famous diamond game?

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Poor Richard’s Almanack

December 19, 2023December 12, 2023Uncategorized, US HistoryLeave a Comment

On December 19, 1732, the first edition of Poor Richard’s Almanack was published. While the almanac was centuries old by this point, this version, written and printed by Benjamin Franklin, became one of the best-selling books in the American colonies. While primarily used as a calendar, Poor Richard’s Almanack introduced countless adages that have become common colloquialisms in American English.

After 1732, Poor Richard’s Almanack was published yearly by Benjamin Franklin for 25 years. Franklin wrote under a pseudonym, “Richard Saunders,” or “Poor Richard.” Historians suggest that Franklin did so to better appeal to the common man. The almanac included the times of sunrises and sunsets, weather predictions, astrological charts, jokes, and aphorisms. Many of these aphorisms are commonly used today, including:

“Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”

“Fish and visitors stink in three days.”

“God helps them that help themselves.”

“To err is human, to repent divine, to persist devilish.”

“No gains without pains.”

The publishing of the almanacs was one of Franklin’s greatest business successes. However, it was also an incredible vehicle for Franklin to spread his political beliefs and encourage revolutionary sentiments. He wrote, “The King’s Cheese is half wasted in pairings; but no matter, ‘tis made of the people’s milk.”

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A Common Currency

December 15, 2023December 11, 2023UncategorizedLeave a Comment

On December 15 and 16, 1995 members of the European Council met together to discuss their plans for introducing a standardized currency to their countries. A decision that started with the Treaty of Paris, signed in 1951 after the Second World War, the European Council agreed to roll out the new currency between the years of 1999 and 2002.

In the aftermath of WWII, European nations were eager to ensure that the economic devastation that affected Germany after WWI would not repeat itself after WWII. They felt that the best course of action was to act together, getting rid of trade customs between their countries and uniting the production of common materials such as coal and steel. In the 70s, it was suggested that a common currency would provide further economic stability. In 1992, the Maastricht Treaty was signed, which officially formed the European Union and outlined plans for the introduction of a common currency.

When the European Council met in 1995, they wrote that during their meetings the council “adopted the scenario for the changeover to the single currency, confirming unequivocally that this stage will commence on 1 January 1999.” They also chose a name for the currency. Their criteria were that “the name of the currency must be the same in all the official languages of the European Union, taking into account the existence of different alphabets; it must be simple and symbolize Europe.” The name “Euro” was suggested by Belgian professor, Germain Pirlot and was adopted by the council. The European Council made plans to introduce the currency in stages. On January 1, 1999, the Euro began to be used for electronic banking and transfers. In 2002, they began circulating the paper bills and coins. Today, 20 European Union countries use the Euro.

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