Headline of the Day -100: “Russians Held in Leash.” Didn’t know they were into the kinky stuff.
Headline of the Day -100: “Monster Protest on Literacy Test.” At Cooper Union, an audience of monsters protested the literacy requirement in the immigration bill and, like other such meetings all over the country, demands Wilson veto the bill, which it calls “un-American and inhuman.” You’d think “inhuman” would encompass “un-American,” but I guess that would explain the protesting monsters and ok I’ll stop it now.
Switzerland bans the export of chocolate. (And now, we can't get proper Cadbury's in the US. It's just like history is repeating itself.)
The Supreme Court rules that employers have the right to require employees to quit unions as a condition of employment. That doesn’t require employees to give up their constitutional freedom, the court says; they are “free to decline employment on such terms”.
The transcontinental telephone line opens. The first transcontinental telephone call, like the first phone call in 1876, is between Alexander Graham Bell, this time in New York, and Thomas Watson in San Francisco. Bell repeats, “Mr. Watson, come here, I want you” and Watson replies, “It would take me a week to get to you this time.” Such a phone call would cost $20.70 for the first three minutes and $6.75 for each minute thereafter. It will take about ten minutes to put the call through. (While phone call rates have gone down, a smallish one-bedroom condo in 333 Grant Ave, the SF building where Watson took the call, now goes for $779,000). Bell also speaks to Woodrow Wilson in DC.
Bell, I notice, is sticking with “Ahoy” instead of hello, just like Mr. Burns.
Judging by the picture it must have been one of the earliest speakerphones, too
ReplyDeleteOne guy's playing with his phone, keeping everyone else in the room standing around, playing with their copious facial hair, so it could be an early cell-phone. Worse, he's not even making a call anymore, he's just playing Candy Crush.
ReplyDelete