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History of Skid Row
The term “Skid Row” derives from Seattle. Washington, where “skid roads” were the places that loggers slid their cut timber to the ports for shipment. By the 1930’s the term referred to the rundown areas of cities, characterized by bars, brothels and the like originally attracted by loggers, and began to include the presence of homeless and other extremely low income populations.
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IBM’s Launch of Personal Computer Model 5150
Researching the history of the personal computer reveals how far along we have come, since IBM launched its first personal computer, model 5150, on August 12, 1981. It was an extravagant affair held at the New York Waldorf Astoria Hotel. The New York Times’ article in August of 1981, NEXT, A COMPUTER ON EVERY DESK, boasted of a “second generation of machines” with the ability to, “…use microprocessors capable of handling 16 ”bits,” or units of information, at the same time, twice the processing power of existing 8-bit machines. ” At 21 pounds and costing $1,565 the 5150 was a great success having much to do with a big advertising push that moved the…
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King Tut
History of the Egyptian King started when Tut, full name being Tutankhaten, meaning “the living image of Aten“, was born approximately 1343 B.C. , or cited elsewhere as circa 1341 B.C.E, though no one knows for certain his exact date of birth. His coming of age was during the reign of Akhenaten. He lived in what was then the almost 2000 year old country of Egypt; a barren dessert land on the North coast of Africa facing toward the Mediterranean Sea and split in half by the Nile. It is thought, though as with his birth the timeline is uncertain, to have become king at age 9, and ruled until he died at the age of 19…
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1951 Historic Flooding in Kansas
History making flood devastates Kansas on July 13, 1951. 500,000 people were left homeless and 24 people died. The Midwestern United States had not seen such destruction from flooding as great as this, since record taking had begun. It was on the unluckiest of days, Friday the 13th, that some call Black Friday, when the flood swept down the Kansas River valley and into the Missouri River basin. Above-average rainfall beginning in June and lasting through July 13th brought well over 25 inches to towns in eastern Kansas. Most affected major towns were Manhattan, Topeka and Lawrence. Also, 10,000 farms were destroyed as well. The crest of the flood exceeded…
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Benjamin Franklin’s Electrical Kite
We have all heard the story about Franklin flying a kite in a thunderstorm and proving that lightening is electric and the charge it creates can be collected in a Leyden jar. History purports that this experiment by Franklin took place on June 10, 1752, but there are those who question if Franklin actually ever said that he did the experiment and that instead it may have been more of a thought experiment than a practical test he enacted in reality. To learn more and decide for yourself read the 2003 New Yorker book review American Electric Did Franklin fly that kite?
