1831 Pittsburg, Technology: The first coal burning locomotive in the United States made a trial run in Pittsburgh. Ah, King Coal was much more efficient and effective than wood for steam power. We are still burning coal, as many still smoke cigarettes.
1861 St Petersburg, Politics: Russian Tsar Alexander II abolished serfdom in all-Russia. There were many qualifications and exceptions, and no enforcement.
1878 Menlo Park (New Jersey), Technology: Thomas Alva Edison patented (# 200,521) a phonograph to record and play back sound. At the time Edison thought of the device as recording words, not music. Hence the name ‘gramo-phone’ and not muso-phone.
1906 Battle Creek (Michigan), Food: Will Kellogg and others founded the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company. Still to be found on supermarket shelves.
1919 Paris, Politics: W. E. B. Du Bois hosted the first Pan-African Congress. He had some informal assistance from the U.S. State Department for this inaugural conference. There were fifty-seven delegates from fifteen countries. The aim of this the first conference was to petition the Versailles Peace Conference to reform colonial rule and speed self-rule consistent with Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points. Good thing his typewriter ribbon fouled or there would have been more points. Woody did not know when to quit. Six later congresses followed.
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