One Hundred Years Ago -- 1911

Time seems to be accelerating, advancing humanity at an exponential rate.

A hundred years ago, 1911, in the USA the average annual income was $520, which was adequate since a pound of butter was 34 cents, a half gallon of milk was 17 cents, a pound of round steak was 18 cents, a pound of potatoes was 22 cents and a brand new car was $750.

The following events took place in 1911:

Jan 10 -- The first bombs ever dropped from airplanes took place when U.S. Army aviators were used to preserve the neutrality of the Rio Grande during the Mexican Revolution

Jan 27 -- Fingerprints were accepted as evidence for the first time in a U.S. courtroom

Feb 8 -- The USA helped to overthrow the president of Honduras

Feb 22 -- The Canadian Parliament voted to preserve the union with the British Empire

Mar 7 -- The USA sent 20,000 troops to the Mexican border during the Mexican Revolution

Mar 11 -- General Motors Cadillac Division presented the first electric self-starter

Mar 30 -- The Yangtze River in China overflowed killing 100,000 people

Apr 14 -- The Mona Lisa painting was stolen from the Louvre in Paris

May 8 -- England and China signed a treaty making opium the leading trading commodity

May 15 -- The U.S. Supreme Court ordered the break-up of the Standard Oil Company owned by John D. Rockefeller, in violation of anti-trust laws, forming 34 new companies, including Exxon, Mobil, Chevron, Arco, Conoco

May 16 -- The remains of a Neanderthal man were discovered in New Jersey

May 30 -- The first long-distance auto race in Indianapolis -- average speed was 74.4 mph and one driver was killed.

Jun 6 -- The U.S. Navy acquired its first airplane

Jun 22 -- The first white line down the center of a roadway was created in Michigan

Jul 15 -- Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud visited New York City prior to their lectures at Clark University

Jul 23 -- A volcano in the Philippines killed 1,335 people

Aug 15 -- Proctor & Gamble introduced Crisco shortening

Aug 22 -- President William Taft vetoed a joint resolution granting statehood to Arizona because the state constitution authorized the recall of judges -- the offending clause was removed, Arizona was admitted to statehood and soon thereafter the offending clause was restored into the state constitution

Sep 17 -- Calbraith Rodgers attempted to fly an aircraft across the continental United States (4,321 miles) from New York to California within 30 days to collect a $50,000 prize -- it took 84 days, involving 70 crash landings

Sep 25 -- Italy declared war on Turkey

Sep 27 -- Henry Ford reduced the retail price of the Model T to $690

Oct 4 -- The first public elevator began operation in London, England

Oct 10 -- A bomb explosion in China triggered a revolution whereby the Manchu Dynasty was overthrown

Oct 11 -- The Philadelphia Athletics won the Baseball World Series over the New York Giants

Oct 16 -- Goodyear began flying blimps

Nov 10 -- President Taft ended a 57-day speaking tour

Nov 11 -- California granted women the right to vote, the sixth state in the Union to do so

Dec 2 -- Louis Chevrolet established the Chevrolet Motor Company

Dec 14 -- Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen became the first person to reach the South Pole

Dec 16 -- Chinese men stopped shaving their heads and wearing braids, a style under the order of the emperor since 1644

Dec 31 -- Russia exported 13.7 million tons of grain while 30 million of its peasants suffered from famine

Dec 31 -- The most popular song in 1911 was "Oh, you Beautiful Doll"

Those born in 1911 -- John Sturges (movie director), Jay Hanna "Dizzy" Dean (baseball player), Ronald Reagan (actor, U.S. President), Merle Oberon (actress), Jean Harlow (actress), L. Ron Hubbard (founder of Scientology), Melvin Calvin (chemist, Nobel Prize 1961), Hubert Humphrey (U.S. Vice President), Maureen O'Sullivan (actress), Vincent Price (actor), Luis W. Alvarez (physicist, Nobel Prize 1968), Albert Hirschfield (illustrator), Robert Johnson (blues musician), George Pompidou (Prime Minister of France), Terry Thomas (actor), Ginger Rogers (actress), Hume Cronyn (actor), Marshall McLuhan (professor, writer), Joseph Vernon "Big Joe" Turner (blues musician), Lucille Ball (actress), Cantinflas (actor), Bill Monroe (father of Bluegrass music), William Golding (novelist, Nobel Prize 1983), Sonny Terry (musician), Will Rogers, Jr. (actor), Mahalia Jackson (gospel singer), Roy Rogers (singing cowboy actor), Chester "Chet" Huntley (broadcast journalist), Joshua "Josh" Gibson (baseball player).

Those who control the present control the past, those who control the past control the future -- those in control tend to deviate from the truth to reflect positively in themselves and the actual past becomes a pile of ashes.

In two days, tomorrow will be yesterday.
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Quote for the Day -- "It ain't bragging if you can do it." Dizzy Dean
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Bret Burquest is an award-winning columnist and author of four novels. He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a dog named Buddy Lee and where time moves at the speed of slow. His blogs appear on several websites, including www.myspace.com/bret1111
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