Cronin & Company

The Quotable Mr. Clemens

Samuel Langhorn Clemens, best known by his pen-name, Mark Twain, was born on this date in 1835. The one-time riverboat captain is famouse for writing, Tom Sawyer and Adventures Huckleberry Finn, the latter is often referred to as "The Great American Novel".

A great humorist, Twain is still frequently quoted today - even for things he never said. He is credited with saying, "Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it", which was actually said and published by the editor of the Hartford Courant.

 

Glenn's Second Trip into Space

October 29 marks the anniversary of astronaut John Glenn's second trip into space, made aboard the shuttle Discovery when Glenn was 77 years old. His second trip was nearly forty years after he became the first American to orbit the earth, and made Glenn the oldest human to travel in space. During his nine-day mission, he served as part of the NASA study on health problems associated with aging.

Highway Beautification Act

On October 22, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Highway Beautification Act, a project long supported by Lady Bird Johnson, the first lady. She believed that cleaning up America's interstate highways by getting rid of ugly outdoor advertising, screening junkyards from view and planting flowers would make the nation both a better place to look at and a better place to live.

The bill was opposed by a number of business groups, but was supported by activists and a number of groups who were beginning to think seriously about the nation's poor environmental stewardship. (The Environmental Protection Agency was established in 1970 by President Richard Nixon.) Although the bill's enforcement was weak, it established the idea that nature, even along the roadside, was worth preserving. 

I think that I shall never see
A billboard lovely as a tree
And unless the billboards fall
I'll never see a tree at all.
-Ogden Nash

Leo Burnett - Character Creator

Leo Burnett, the creator of some of the best-known advertising icons in America, was born October 21, 1891 in St. John's, Michigan. His career was centered in the Midwest, from his first job at the Peoria Journal Star to his own ad agency in Chicago. His ads reflected a Midwestern homeyness rather than the East Coast sophistication typical of New York's Madison Avenue agencies.

Burnett's most famous characters became a part of the American vernacular. They included the Jolly Green Giant, Morris the Cat, the Pillsbury Doughboy, the Marlboro Man and Tony the Tiger. Many of his advertising characters are still at work today.

"I  have learned that any fool can write a bad ad, but that it takes a real genius to keep his hands off a good one." -Leo Burnett 

The first information revolution courtesy of Gutenberg

September 30, 1452 is often cited as the date that Johannes Gutenberg published the first Bible printed using movable type. His new printing technology was a vast improvement over handwritten manuscripts or woodblock type and revolutionized European book making. It made the mass production of books possible and promoted the spread of litereacy. With the ability to read and direct access to books, people were able to access information for themselves and draw their own conclusions, rather than relying on a small class of literate elite to do the interpretation.

Nutt Day

It's a day to honor the first woman telephone operator, Emma M. Nutt, who reportedly began her professional career in Boston on September 1, 1878, and continued working as a telephone operator for 33 years.

Columbia Records commits to vinyl

June 21, 1948, is cited as the date that Columbia Records committed to the 33 1/3 RPM Long Playing record, which would soon replace the 78 RPM format and become the standard for the music industry for the next 50 years. The change was motivated in part by the desire of Columbia's president, Ted Wallerstein, to hear an entire movement of a symphony on one side of an album.

Some of the early LPs featured artists such as Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra, and Bruno Walter and the New York Philharmonic. But Columbia's most popular release was the first pop album in the new format - the LP reissue of The Voice of Frank Sinatra, originally recorded in 1946.

Flag Day

On June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress adopted a resolution stating that the flag of the new nation would have 13 alternate stripes of red and white and thirteen stars in a blue field. The flag was based on the "Grand Union" banner carried by the the Continenal Army in 1776. According to legend, Betsy Ross designed the circle of 13 stars on a background of blue at the request of George Washington.

As new states were added to the union, new stars and stripes were added. However, in 1818 Congress reduced the number of stripes back to the original 13, and only stars were added for new states. On June 14, 1877, the first Flag Day observance was held in honor of the 100th anniversary of the American Flag. In 1949, Congress designated Flag Day as a national day of observance.

Before There Were Big Mac Attacks

On April 15, 1955 in Des Plaines, IL, Ray Kroc opened the first franchised McDonald's. He had gotten the idea from a hamburger stand in San Bernardino run by the McDonald brothers. On opening day, a hamburger was 15 cents. The Bic Mac was introduced in 1968, selling for 49 cents. The Quarter Pounder followed in 1971 and sold for 53 cents. There are now more that 31,000 McDonald's in 119 countries. Source: Chases Calendar of Events.

Happy Old New Year's Day

Through 1751, March 25 marked the beginning of the New Year in Great Britain and its North American colonies. With the adoption of the Gregorian calendar in 1752, the beginning of the year was changed to January 1.

By the time the Gregorian calendar was introduced in 1582, the Julian calendar that it replaced was ten days out of alignment with the seasons. However the acceptance of the new calendar worldwide took several centuries. Because the calendar had been developed under the sponsorship of Pope Gregory XIII, many Eastern Orthodox and Protestant countries were wary of the new system. The last Eastern Orthodox country to adopt the new calendar was Greece in 1923.