December 20, 1803

A really big real-estate deal

December 20, 1803, saw the U.S. and French governments put the finishing touches on a land transaction known as the Louisiana Purchase. For the relatively paltry price tag of $15 million, the U.S. acquired an area that effectively doubled the size of the nation. The bargain price reflected French fears that their army, already occupied with the Napoleonic Wars, would not be able to stave off revolutionaries in New Orleans. U.S. officials, meanwhile, coveted New Orleans as a duty-free port for American goods that were about to be shipped. Of course, the resulting deal provided the U.S. with much more than a port; indeed, the nation now owned the land that would become Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, the Dakotas, as well as chunks of Minnesota, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and of course, Louisiana.

December 20, 1820

State puts price on bachelorhood

Who says single men have all the fun? On this day in 1820, Missouri put a price on bachelorhood, instituting legislation that forced single men between the ages of twenty-one and fifty to hand over an annual tax of one dollar.

December 20, 1968

Treasury secretary's reign ends

December 20, 1968, marked Henry Fowler's last day as the Secretary of the Treasury. A Yale Law School grad and government servant since the mid-1930s, Fowler apprenticed as the Under Secretary of the Treasury for three years before rising to the department's top spot on April 1, 1965. During his tenure, Fowler helped give birth to a new international monetary reserve system, alternately known as "Special Drawing Rights." President Lyndon Johnson gave a special nod to Fowler's work on SDR, hailing the Secretary as "...the grand architect of the most significant reforms in the international monetary system since Bretton Woods." Fowler also helped establish a "two-tier" gold system, which was unveiled in 1968.

Treasury secretary steps down

December 31 brought the end of William Woodin's brief but action-packed term as the 51st secretary of the Treasury. A high-profile industrialist and businessman, Woodin helped guide a bank, manufacturing plant, and shipping firm before being tabbed by President Franklin Roosevelt for the Treasury post in March of 1933. Woodin stepped into office while America was deep in the throes of the Great Depression and was charged with reviving the nation's faith in the economy. Woodin and Roosevelt wasted little time taking action: just four days into the secretary's term, Roosevelt closed the nation's banks to mete out a new series of fiscal regulations. Ten days later, the president lifted the so-called "banking holiday" and handed Woodin the responsibility of steering banks along a strict and sound financial course. The secretary was also charged with infusing the economy with a hefty batch of Federal Reserve notes, as well as helping the newly elected president kick start the New Deal program of economic initiatives. However, the strain of guiding the nation back to prosperity took a fast and severe toll on Woodin; he suffered a breakdown in December of '33 and was forced to step down after less than a year on the job. Woodin passed away in the spring of 1934.

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December 31, 1955

GM earnings exceed $1 billion

Executives at General Motors had reason to celebrate, as the company announced on this day that it had hauled in $1,189,477,082 during the past year, making the auto giant the first U.S. corporation to push its earnings past the billion-dollar mark.

January 3, 1916

"Lady from Westinghouse" is born

This day marks the birthday of actress turned consumer activist Betty Furness. Born in 1916, Furness churned out a host of films, mostly B-movies, throughout the 1930s and 1940s. By the 1950s, she was a fixture on the small screen, starring as the "Lady from Westinghouse" in an enormously successful series of commercials for the home appliance giant. Furness's highlight as a pitchwoman was her live appearances during the 1952 and 1956 political conventions, where, decked out in an ever rotating series of outfits, she sealed her fame while sending Westinghouse's sales through the roof. The 1960s and 1970s saw Furness lend her celebrity to the burgeoning consumer rights movement: following a stint as the chair of Lyndon Johnson's Committee on Consumer Affairs, Furness became a consumer reporter for NBC News.

January 3, 1949

A dark day for labor

January 3, 1949, was a dark day for the nation's labor movement, as the Supreme Court ruled that states held the right to outlaw the closed shop. This provision, originally passed as part of the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947, handed states the power to limit one of labor's most potent bargaining tactics. As such, the ruling effectively altered the course of the labor movement during the twentieth century, not only by increasing management's leverage, but by curtailing labor's power, as well as its political legitimacy.

Debate continues over greenbacks

By 1875, the United States was involved in a roiling debate over greenbacks, the paper currency issued during the Civil War. So-called "soft money" supporters had taken up the cause of the greenback and successfully pushed for the paper notes to stay in circulation following the close of the war. However, "hard money" forces in the House fired back, and on January 14, they engineered the passage of the Specie Resumption Act, a legislative salvo against paper currency. The bill directed the Treasury to begin exchanging legal tender for gold on January 1, 1879; it also mandated that the number of greenbacks in circulation be trimmed down to $300 million. Treasury Secretary John Sherman stocked up on gold and, by the dawn of 1879, the specie exchange program was up and running. But, at the same time, greenbacks had become just as valuable as gold on the exchange market; the public was reluctant to swap their paper currency for coinage and the exchange program turned out to be a flop.

January 14, 1949

Justice Department pursues AT&T

The Department of Justice went trust busting on January 14 and filed an anti-trust suit against AT&T. The suit was designed to break AT&T's choke hold over the industry by forcing the company to relinquish ownership of Western Electric, a potent manufacturing concern. After much wrangling, the suit was settled in 1956, when AT&T consented to limit the scope of its business to the national phone network and government jobs.

January 24, 1916

Top court defends federal income tax

Although the Constitution explicitly forbade direct taxation of citizens, the United States flirted with the notion of an income tax during the latter half of the nineteenth century. In fact, the government briefly instituted a tax during the Civil War. This tax was repealed in 1872, but legislators, casting about for ways to raise federal funds, continued to push for an income tax. Congress gave the green light to a income tax bill in 1894, only to watch as the Supreme Court deemed the tax unconstitutional on the grounds that it failed to raise revenues that were commensurate with the various populations of AmericaÝs states. Undeterred, Congress passed the Sixteenth Amendment in 1909 that, after state ratification in 1913, effectively granted the federal government constitutional authority to levy an income tax. Again, the legislation was taken before the Supreme Court for review. On January 24, 1916, the Court handed down a decision that no doubt still causes some Americans deep anguish, ruling in favor of the amendment and paving the way for the federal income tax.

January 24, 1994

The ax falls at Nynex

With the wave of deregulation in the 1980s, competition in the telecommunications industry heated up and profit-conscious companies moved to contain costs by slashing their employment rolls. On January 24, 1994, the Nynex Corporation, one of New York's leading phone providers, announced that it was laying off 16,800 workers over the next three years. Along with the cuts, which represented 20% of Nynex's work force, the company reported that it would take a hefty $1.6 billion charge for the year. Although these moves partially stemmed from the company's disappointing fourth quarter performance, they also reflected Nynex's drive to protect its stake in one of the nation's prime communication markets. Company chairman and CEO, William C. Ferguson conceded that the layoffs were "painful," although he tended to focus more on the bottom line than on the human consequences. "This is a significant step," he reasoned. "[W]e have to this to be a viable company moving forward."

January 28, 1791

Hamilton announces plan for national mint

The dawn of the 1780s found America a nation in need of a standard currency. Following the Revolutionary War, the U.S. seemed as though as it would adopt copper as its coin of choice. However, various efforts to produce and standardize copper proved futile. Congress pushed on and, in 1786, signed off on Thomas Jefferson's proposal for a dollar-driven currency. Of course, the nation also needed to develop a means for producing this currency and on this day in 1791, Secretary of Treasury Alexander Hamilton stepped before the House to deliver a report on the establishment of a national mint. Hamilton's work helped pave the way for the authorization of the United States Mint on April 2, 1792.

January 28, 1902

Carnegie Institution established

Andrew Carnegie spent a good chunk of his life building a chokehold over the steel industry. However, after years at the lead of the second Industrial Revolution, he decided to cash in his chips in 1901 and sold his stake in the mighty Carnegie Steel concern then worth roughly $40 million to the United States Steel Corporation for $250 million. Rather than retire and play with his riches, Carnegie followed his belief that a "man who dies rich dies disgraced" and set to doling out his fortune to various philanthropic causes. All told, Carnegie donated $350 million, $10 million of which he handed over on this day in 1902 to establish the Carnegie Institution in Washington, D.C. According to Carnegie, the Institution was designed "to encourage, in the broadest and most liberal manner, investigation, research, and discovery, and the application of knowledge to the improvement of mankind." Carnegie's lofty mission translated into an organization dedicated to research and education in "biology, astronomy, and the earth sciences."

January 28, 1986

Challenger explodes

At 11:38 a.m. EST, on January 28, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger lifts off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and Christa McAuliffe is on her way to becoming the first ordinary U.S. civilian to travel into space. McAuliffe, a 37-year-old high school social studies teacher from New Hampshire, won a competition that earned her a place among the seven-member crew of the Challenger. She underwent months of shuttle training but then, beginning January 23, was forced to wait six long days as the Challenger's launch countdown was repeatedly delayed because of weather and technical problems. Finally, on January 28, the shuttle lifted off.

Seventy-three seconds later, hundreds on the ground, including Christa's family, stared in disbelief as the shuttle exploded in a forking plume of smoke and fire. Millions more watched the wrenching tragedy unfold on live television. There were no survivors.

In 1976, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) unveiled the world's first reusable manned spacecraft, the Enterprise. Five years later, space flights of the shuttle began when Columbia traveled into space on a 54-hour mission. Launched by two solid-rocket boosters and an external tank, only the aircraft-like shuttle entered into orbit around Earth. When the mission was completed, the shuttle fired engines to reduce speed and, after descending through the atmosphere, landed like a glider. Early shuttles took satellite equipment into space and carried out various scientific experiments. The Challenger disaster was the first major shuttle accident.

In the aftermath of the explosion, President Ronald Reagan appointed a special commission to determine what went wrong with Challenger and to develop future corrective measures. The presidential commission was headed by former secretary of state William Rogers, and included former astronaut Neil Armstrong and former test pilot Chuck Yeager. The investigation determined that the explosion was caused by the failure of an "O-ring" seal in one of the two solid-fuel rockets. The elastic O-ring did not respond as expected because of the cold temperature at launch time, which began a chain of events that resulted in the massive explosion. As a result of the explosion, NASA did not send astronauts into space for more than two years as it redesigned a number of features of the space shuttle.

In September 1988, space shuttle flights resumed with the successful launching of the Discovery. Since then, the space shuttle has carried out numerous important missions, such as the repair and maintenance of the Hubble Space Telescope and the construction of the International Space Station.

On February 1, 2003, a second space-shuttle disaster rocked the United States when Columbia disintegrated upon reentry of the Earth's atmosphere. All aboard were killed. Despite fears that the problems that downed Columbia had not been satisfactorily addressed, space-shuttle flights resumed on July 26, 2005, when Discovery was again put into orbit.

February 1, 1809

Debate over Embargo Act heats up

In the winter of 1807, the U.S. was thrust into the middle of the Napoleonic wars, as the British and French hassled American merchant ships in hopes of gaining a strategic edge in their ongoing battles. However, in an attempt to keep the nation out of another bloody and costly conflict, President Thomas Jefferson quickly pushed the Embargo Act through the legislative chain. But, the legislation, which effectively sealed U.S. ports, backfired: intended as a nonviolent, fiscal response to the British and French attacks, the act instead served to aid foreign merchants at the expense of American interests. Mercantilists in New England and New York suffered mightily and, in some instances, resorted to smuggling and other underhanded tactics to elude the crippling grip of the Embargo Act. In January of 1809, the Federal government passed the Enforcement Act, which called for severe penalties against illegal trading. Infuriated by the latest round of legislation, anti-embargo forces mounted a strong drive to nullify the acts. On February 1, Massachusetts Senator Thomas Pickering stepped into the fray and convened an assembly in New England that demanded the demise of the Embargo Act. An ardent Federalist, as well as a strong British ally and staunch opponent of Jefferson's policies, Pickering helped force the president's hand. With but a few days remaining in his second term, Jefferson signed the Non-Intercourse Act on March 1, 1809; the legislation reopened U.S. ports, save for trading with the British and French.

February 1, 1898

Travelers sells first auto insurance policy

Just two years after Henry Ford unveiled his four horsepower automobile, the Travelers Insurance Company sold the first auto insurance policy. The Hartford, CT-based insurance concern issued the policy to Dr. Truman Martin of Buffalo, NY, who paid $11.25 for $5,000 worth of liability coverage.

February 1, 2003

Columbia mission ends in disaster

On this day in 2003, the space shuttle Columbia breaks up while entering the atmosphere over Texas, killing all seven crew members on board.

The Columbia’s 28th space mission, designated STS-107, was originally scheduled to launch on January 11, 2001, but was delayed numerous times for a variety of reasons over nearly two years. Columbia finally launched on January 16, 2003, with a crew of seven. Eighty seconds into the launch, a piece of foam insulation broke off from the shuttle’s propellant tank and hit the edge of the shuttle’s left wing.

Cameras focused on the launch sequence revealed the foam collision but engineers could not pinpoint the location and extent of the damage. Although similar incidents had occurred on three prior shuttle launches without causing critical damage, some engineers at the space agency believed that the damage to the wing could cause a catastrophic failure. Their concerns were not addressed in the two weeks that Columbia spent in orbit because NASA management believed that even if major damage had been caused, there was little that could be done to remedy the situation.

Columbia reentered the earth’s atmosphere on the morning of February 1. It wasn’t until 10 minutes later, at 8:53 a.m.--as the shuttle was 231,000 feet above the California coastline traveling at 23 times the speed of sound--that the first indications of trouble began. Because the heat-resistant tiles covering the left wing’s leading edge had been damaged or were missing, wind and heat entered the wing and blew it apart.

The first debris began falling to the ground in west Texas near Lubbock at 8:58 a.m. One minute later, the last communication from the crew was heard, and at 9 a.m. the shuttle disintegrated over southeast Texas, near Dallas. Residents in the area heard a loud boom and saw streaks of smoke in the sky. Debris and the remains of the crew were found in more than 2,000 locations across East Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana. Making the tragedy even worse, two pilots aboard a search helicopter were killed in a crash while looking for debris. Strangely, worms that the crew had used in a study that were stored in a canister aboard the Columbia did survive.

In August 2003, an investigation board issued a report that revealed that it in fact would have been possible either for the Columbia crew to repair the damage to the wing or for the crew to be rescued from the shuttle. The Columbia could have stayed in orbit until February 15 and the already planned launch of the shuttle Atlantis could have been moved up as early as February 10, leaving a short window for repairing the wing or getting the crew off of the Columbia.

In the aftermath of the Columbia disaster, the space shuttle program was grounded until July 16, 2005, when the space shuttle Discovery was put into orbit.

February 6, 1919

Shutdown in Seattle

Nineteen-nineteen looked to be a good year for the American labor movement: World War I had swelled the ranks of the nation's unions, while the Marxist revolution in Russia raised hopes of deliverance for the world's workers. On February 6, 1919, a heady display of labor's growing power concluded when a general strike was called off in Seattle, Washington. In the days before the war, a strong alliance of craft unions enabled Seattle's 35,000 dockworkers to gain some of the highest wages in the nation. With the outbreak of war, the government placed constraints on the shipyard worker's wages, in hopes of rolling their earnings back in line with the rest of the country. In January, the dockworkers retaliated by walking off the job, and on February 1, 25,000 of Seattle's other workers joined the dockworkers on the picket line. The five-day strike effectively shut down Seattle: factories, shops and the waterfront all sat dormant, waiting for a resolution to the dispute. A General Strike Committee swiftly stepped in and established temporary systems for feeding and protecting Seattle's citizens. Although the strike was peaceful, and the Committee judged that people were rapidly "learning to manage" the city's daily operations, local government and business chiefs threatened action against the country's unions. Feeling the fire of a potential legal or political nightmare, national labor leaders stepped in and urged Seattle's workers to end their strike. Seattle's strikers had not yet gained ground on their wage demands, but they heeded the call and headed back to work, releasing the city from their grip on this day in 1919

February 6, 1952

Elizabeth becomes queen

On this day in 1952, after a long illness, King George VI of Great Britain and Northern Ireland dies in his sleep at the royal estate at Sandringham. Princess Elizabeth, the oldest of the king's two daughters and next in line to succeed him, was in Kenya at the time of her father's death; she was crowned Queen Elizabeth II on June 2, 1953, at age 27.
King George VI, the second son of King George V, ascended to the throne in 1936 after his older brother, King Edward VIII, voluntarily abdicated to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson. During World War II, George worked to rally the spirits of the British people by touring war zones, making a series of morale-boosting radio broadcasts (for which he overcame a speech impediment) and shunning the safety of the countryside to remain with his wife in bomb-damaged Buckingham Palace. The king's health deteriorated in 1949, but he continued to perform state duties until his death in 1952.
Queen Elizabeth, born on April 21, 1926, and known to her family as Lilibet, was groomed as a girl to succeed her father. She married a distant cousin, Philip Mountbatten, on November 20, 1947, at London's Westminster Abbey. The first of Elizabeth’s four children, Prince Charles, was born in 1948.
From the start of her reign, Elizabeth understood the value of public relations and allowed her 1953 coronation to be televised, despite objections from Prime Minister Winston Churchill and others who felt it would cheapen the ceremony. Elizabeth, the 40th British monarch since William the Conqueror, has worked hard at her royal duties and become a popular figure around the world. In 2003, she celebrated 50 years on the throne, only the fifth British monarch to do so.
The queen's reign, however, has not been without controversy. She was seen as cold and out-of-touch following the 1996 divorce of her son, Prince Charles, and Princess Diana, and again after Diana's 1997 death in a car crash. Additionally, the role in modern times of the monarchy, which is largely ceremonial, has come into question as British taxpayers have complained about covering the royal family's travel expenses and palace upkeep. Still, the royals are effective world ambassadors for Britain and a huge tourism draw. Today, the queen, an avid horsewoman and Corgi dog lover, is one of the world's wealthiest women, with extensive real-estate holdings and art and jewelry collections.

February 8, 1895

U.S. gold supply running dry

The early 1890s were not kind to America's gold reserves. The nation's supplies of the precious metal swooned under the strain of the recently passed Sherman Silver Act as European investors, fearful that America was chucking gold for silver, increasingly sold their gold supplies overseas. Coupled with declining revenues triggered by various protective tariffs, the reserves plummeted, taking a severe toll on the economy. In 1893, the falling gold supply helped spark a debilitating financial crisis. Although President Grover Cleveland had long been urging Congress to abolish the Sherman Act, legislators only moved to kill the law after the crash. In the short term, the repeal did little to solve the nation's fiscal wounds, or to replenish the gold supply. By February 8, 1895, the gold supplies had thinned out to a paltry $41 million. With the U.S. Treasury teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, Cleveland intervened, and using a syndicate led by J.P. Morgan as an intermediary and U.S. bonds as bait, attempted to buy back gold from foreign investors. Cleveland sold roughly sixty-two million dollars worth of bonds, valued at 3.75 percent, to Morgan's syndicate. Morgan and company in turn shopped the issues to foreign parties for a handsome profit. Although clearly borne of desperation, the deal nonetheless provided some badly needed relief: it briefly spelled the gold crunch and saved the Treasury from disaster. However, the public paid no mind to these benefits and howled in protest at Cleveland's seeming willingness to hop into bed with Big Business.

February 8, 1934

Feds dive into international finance

On this day in 1934, the federal government stepped up its involvement in international finance by authorizing the Export-Import Bank. One of the many initiatives unveiled as part of President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal legislation, the "Ex-Im Bank" was charged with propping up the nation's sagging export business. Indeed, the Great Depression had ruined the financial institutions that once served as the backbone of America's overseas trade. In order to fill this fiscal void, the Ex-Im Bank was equipped with various lending powers, as well as the license to issue insurance and guarantees. The Ex-Im Bank survived well beyond the Depression and New Deal: the bank's ability to offer a raft of credits, including loans to cash-strapped countries who conduct trade with the U.S. partners, quickly transformed it into a key instrument of the American government's international development efforts.

February 8, 1985

"The Millionaire" passes

This day marks the passing of Marvin Miller, who starred in the classic television drama, The Millionaire. Miller played Michael Anthony, the dutiful right hand man of John Beresford Tipton, a fabulously wealthy philanthro[censored]t. Anthony helped the mysterious multibillionaire, who was heard but never seen, dole out million-dollar-checks to needy strangers. The money came tax-free and with few strings attached, save for the simple provision that, outside of their spouses, recipients were never to reveal the details of their newfound wealth to anyone. It was an undeniably appealing fantasy and struck a chord with viewers: the series ran on CBS for five years from 1955 to 1960 and won Miller a small legion of fans. Viewers often wrote to the actor and requested their own million dollar checks; Miller would reply with a "check" worth "a million dollars of good luck."

February 12, 1837

Presentiment of a panic

On this day in 1837, an irate group of unemployed New Yorkers gathered to protest skyrocketing food and fuel prices, as well as the city's rapidly escalating rents. The demonstration quickly degenerated into violence, as the workers turned their anger on a flour warehouse. For the city, as well as the rest of the nation, the outburst was a strong indicator of the fiscal troubles that would bubble over later that year. Come that May, a host of events, including a wave of bank failures and a brewing recession, both of which stemmed from President Andrew Jackson's decision to yank all Federal deposits from the second Bank of the United States, signaled the onset of the Panic of 1837. The panic hung over America for the next seven years, debilitating the nation's economy and triggering rampant unemployment.

February 12, 1880

Birth of a labor leader

Along with ruling over one of the nation's landmark unions, the United Mine Workers Association (UMWA), for forty years, John L. Lewis was a frequent lightning rod for controversy, as well as a target of periodic blasts of public and political scorn. Born in Iowa on this day in 1880, Lewis had hardly hit puberty when he went to work in the coal mines of Illinois. The job set Lewis on a steady track to power and prominence: by 1911, he was an organizer for the mine union's parent organization, the American Federation of Labor (A.F. of L.). Eight years later, Lewis was the president of the UMWA, America's biggest and most powerful trade union. In one of his earliest moves in office, Lewis led the organization's members in a triumphant, nationwide strike. However, this moment of glory quickly faded: the economy slumped in the wake of World War I, which hurt coal prices and threatened mine worker's wages and jobs. Lewis responded with a drive to nationalize the coal industry, but his proposal was roundly dismissed. Non-unionized coal mines rose in prominence throughout the 1920s, siphoning off the UMWA's membership and gradually wresting control of a majority of the nation's coal production. Though some within the union challenged Lewis's authority, he survived the crisis of the '20s and managed to expand his power during the next few decades. He organized the Congress of Industrial Organizations, a potent group of eight unions, including the UMWA, which, though initially affiliated with the A.F. of L., later in the decade became a powerful and independent entity in its own right. And, though a staunch Republican, Lewis found a powerful new ally in President Franklin Roosevelt. Indeed, Lewis viewed Roosevelt's New Deal legislation as a tremendous boon for labor and unabashedly pushed the movement to walk in lockstep with the White House. However, Lewis was something of an autocrat and fiercely protected his place atop the labor movement. When Roosevelt won a third term in office, Lewis, fearing that the increasingly powerful president would wrest control of the unions, pulled the UMWA out of the pro-White House CIO. Throughout the rest of the 1940s, Lewis led the coal workers in a number of high- profile walkouts. However, the seeming profusion of strikes emboldened anti-union forces, who soured public support for labor and successfully pushed for the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act (1947), which restricted labor's ability to call for the closed shop. These moves prompted Lewis to adopt more conciliatory tactics during the 1950s. In 1960, Lewis finally unleashed his grip on the UMWA's top spot. He remained involved in the organization until he died in 1969.

February 12, 1987

The case against Texaco

During the mid-1980s, two of the nation's oil giants, Texaco and Penzoil, engaged in a nasty, protracted battle to acquire a plum prize--Getty Oil. When Getty first went on the block, Penzoil made a handsome $5.3 billion offer; Getty accepted the bid and Penzoil's purchase was duly celebrated by both sides. However, the deal was never sealed with a written contract, opening the door for Texaco to make a bid that doubled Penzoil's offer. Smelling pay dirt, Getty shunned its original suitor and brokered a deal with Texaco, who wisely confirmed the acquisition with a written contract. But, Penzoil battled back, suing Texaco for proffering an illegal takeover bid. In 1985, a Texas court ruled that, despite never signing a formal contract, Penzoil and Getty had nonetheless consented to a binding deal, and Texaco was slapped with a whopping $10.5 billion fine. Texaco responded with a counter-suit, but the company's efforts ultimately proved futile: on this day in 1987, a Texas court upheld the initial decision in the case, preserving the hefty fine against Texaco.