It cost a lot more than sending an e-mail, but the first postcards achieved instant success by costing only half as much as the price of a stamp for a letter. The first postcards were issued by the Austrian postal system on this date, other countries followed suit slowly amid fears that the lack of privacy would become a problem. Another product that would go on to break sales records hit the street today, literally. The first Model T was delivered by the Ford Motor Company.
Everyone knows that T. E. Lawrence led the Bedouin Arabs during the First World War, so the common sources all say that it was Lawrence of Arabia that rode victorious into the city of Damascus on this day. Given Lawrence's sense of drama he probably did make a grand entrance, and he did remain in the city as governor. But Australian cavalry actually captured the city from the crumbling Ottoman Empire.
We also have a popular uprising against the Fugitive Slave Act, the first glorious Soviet Five-Year Plan, quotes on the subject of plans, a ritual installation of public officials in San Marino, independence for a tiny nation, and the birth of one of the Depression's favorite outlaws.
1851 - William "Jerry" Henry, a fugitive slave from Missouri who had been living and working as a craftsman at Syracuse, New York, was freed from jail by a bi-racial crowd of some ten thousand. He had been arrested by federal marshals and was being held by the sheriff pending return to his owners, he was spirited into Canada in defiance of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law.
1869 - The first postcards were sold and carried by the Austrian postal system, a simple card with printed stamp on one side and an exposed message on the reverse, mailed at half the rate of an envelope. In the first month 1.4 million were sold, one year later England's Royal Mail introduced a similar card, at six pence for a dozen it was also mailed for half the price of a letter.
1908 - The first Ford Model T was delivered. The car sold for $825, featured a 20 HP four-cylinder engine, two-speed transmission, and black paint. The "Tin Lizzie" set auto-industry record with 10,000 cars sold in the first year, over 15 million spanning two decades, and gave Ford 48% of the market in 1914.
1918 - Damascus, the Ottoman capital of Syria, fell to Arabs led by King Faisal; T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) was deputized to govern the city. The Ottoman Turks had mostly abandoned the city the night before, but Lawrence took credit for the conquest, and some Arab sources today minimize the British role, despite the historical record that the Third Australian Light Horse Brigade actually took the city at dawn, hours before Lawrence and the Arabs arrived.
1928 - Joseph Stalin's first Five-Year Plan went into effect in the Soviet Union. The economy grew by 48% during the plan, but heavy industry was the primary focus, consumer goods production rose only 1% and livestock production declined 58% when the Kulaks preferred to destroy their tools rather than sell at the plan's prices. A half million workers at Gosplan set standards for every factory, workers were not allowed to change jobs, absence from work became a crime, managers who failed to meet goals were shot. Glowing reports were issued in Moscow.
Captain Regents Day, San Marino - Day for the installation for government officials, "Capitani Regginti," twice each year.
Tuvalu Day, Tuvalu - The nine islands that make up the nation of Tuvalu, none of which is taller than 4.6 meters above sea level and all of which total only 26 square kilometers, were formerly called the Ellice Islands. The nation was granted independence from the United Kingdom on this day in 1978. Hourly wages for labor average fifty cents Australian per hour, but the tiny nation hit the internet jackpot by licensing their .TV domain for $50 millions US.
1910 - Bonnie Parker, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Chestnut Barrow, Depression-era outlaws. Americans thrilled to the lovers' "Robin Hood" adventures during the two years they terrorized banks and store owners in five states - Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Louisiana, and New Mexico. Ratted out by the father of a friend in exchange for leniency, the couple died in a hail of bullets in ambush in Shreveport Louisiana on 23 May 1934.
Fantasies are more than substitutes for unpleasant reality; they are
also dress rehearsals, plans. All acts performed in the world begin in
the imagination.
- Barbara Grizzuti Harrison
Man plans and God laughs.
- Hebrew proverb
Life is what happens while you are making other plans.
- John Lennon
I have no plans, and no plans to plan.
- Mario Cuomo
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Copyright 2000 G. Armour Van Horn, all rights reserved. This document may be distributed freely. Please forward the complete message including this copyright notice.