It's six days into the new year. Since I lived one-half of my life in the 20th century, I'm still struggling a bit to accept that now I live in a different century. I decided to go back into history and find a list of 'what happened' one hundred years ago in 1913, and think about the impact of those events on 2013. I discovered that there were major floods, fires and storms, and that it was really dangerous in 1913 to be a coal miner - lots of major coal mine explosions. Additionally, there were lots of political events - treaties, conferences, elections, and revolutions. What I looked for were things that resonated with me. These are the ones that just jumped out of the list I found in http://www.hisdates.com/years/1913-historical-events.html
- The income tax amendment to the US Constitution (the 16th) was ratified, and the first Federal income taxes are collected by the Internal Revenue Service - at the rate of 1%.
- The the first minimum wage law is instituted in Oregon.
- Woodrow Wilson holds the first presidential press conference;
- Ebbets fields opens in Brooklyn (April 9th the date of my anniversary).
- The ballet, The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky, premiers in Paris and the audience comes to blows, with punches being thrown by the end of the first act, on account of the avant garde nature of the music and choreography.
- The first Balkan war ends and the second begins with lots of side conflicts throughout the region.
- Arabs attack a Jewish community in Palestine. (Sigh.....)
- The first pilot parachutes from an airplane as well as several other aerial 'tricks' (like the loop to loop) first happen in this year.
- Stainless steel is invented. (Oh, this is a biggie - look around your house.)
- Lincoln Highway opens - the first paved coast to coast road in the US. (We've actually driven on this.)
- Henry Ford begins the first moving assembly line in his auto plant.
- The modern elastic brassiere is patented. (Love/hate relationship for most women)
- The first drive up gasoline station opens in Pittsburgh
- The first crossword puzzle (with 32 clues) is printed in the New York World.
- There are suffragette marches and protests throughout England and the United States - the English suffragettes are much more militant than their American sisters. (My Grandmother Sartor was a suffragette, and actually 'marched' for the vote.)
If you look over the list, there are several portends (signs of the momentous). These are the ones that jumped out at me:
- The gasoline combustion engine as represented by cars, a burgeoning distribution system, and infrastructure direction is definitely starting in 1913.
- A region in the world that is in continuous conflict can spawn the unthinkable: World War I starts in the tumultuous Balkans
- As changes appear challenging the customary; violence often follows as a backlash. People feel threatened by ideas that challenge long held societal opinions.
- What we accept as the commonplace was once a new invention.
Hop back another 100 years to 1813, and once again, you can spot the portends:
- Pineapples are planted for the first time in Hawaii
- First raw cotton to cloth mill opens in Massachusetts
- Steamboats begin to carry US mail
- Rubber is patented (Another biggie.)
- Pride and Prejudice is published.
Every year there are thousands of notable events; it's fairly easy to look back 100 years and pick out the important ones. However, since it's not so easy to spot the portends as they are happening, I think I'm going to adopt the word copacetic as my watchword for 2013 because in truth, life ticks on both for the good and for the bad. The only judge of how copacetic 2013 is going to be will be in the hands of the historians. (Yes, if you want the definition of the watchword, you're going to have to go look it up!) Happy New Year.
