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This Day in History

May 17, 2004
First Gay Marriage in U.S.

Last week President Barack Obama came out in favor of gay marriage so it is important to note that only eight years ago this week the first same-sex marriage in the United States took place in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

May 18, 1896
Ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson

In 1896 the Supreme Court struck a major blow against integration, ruling that the Louisiana law that provided “equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races” on railroad cars was constitutional. The ruling provided that long as equal accommodations were provided, segregation was not discrimination. The case was eventually used to justify segregating all public facilities, including railroad cars, restaurants, hospitals, and schools. Not until 1954 with Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka was Plessy v. Ferguson struck down.

 

Election Day: An American Holiday, An American History

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Auto Sales Stimulus: 1909

“Transcontinental Car Contest Underway” is not a headline that would grab much attention in 2009, but with a dateline of June 23, 1909, it is a very different story. The trip from New York to Seattle across largely unpaved roads in automobiles that traveled at less then 20 miles per hour took 23 days and was filled with unexpected adventures.

In 1909 mining heir Robert Guggenheim, 24, decided to sponsor a cross-country auto race, ostensibly to encourage the building of better roads. (Roads at that time were like driving over washboards, and people still needed horses and sleighs if there was snow.) He wanted to conclude the race in Seattle, so he coordinated his event with that city’s opening of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, a world’s fair to encourage development of the Pacific Northwest (much as the 1908 Democratic Convention in Denver had opened up the Rocky Mountain area to easterners) Guggenheim had hoped for as many as 30 entrants, and in August of ’08 The New York Times (8-23-08) noted that nine cars had already registered with five more expected, but the race became mired in controversy. In 1907, 324 people had been killed by automobiles, so the Manufacturers’ Contest Association refused to sanction a “race” across the country because it seemed to promote danger.

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Now that We Own a Little of GM

Hearing that we, the American taxpayers, are now the majority stakeholders in General Motors is a bit like hearing we’ve just inherited a general store from an uncle we never knew in a town we’ve never visited. There’s already a shopkeeper in place, so we don’t really have to “do” anything, but it might be… continue reading ->

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