If you’re like some of us here of a certain age *ahem*, you may have spent the ’80s wanting your MTV. And if it hadn’t been for folks like Lawrence Welk, you may never have gotten it. Yep. It’s true. Although we tend to think of music videos as a rather modern innovation, the idea…
And on this day in 1936, that’s exactly what they did. The first oval stock car race was held on what was then known as the Daytona Beach Road Course. It was a big deal for several reasons. First? Well, Daytona – enough said. But even more importantly, that course had a great deal to…
You’re reading this, so chances are you’re more than a little familiar with a keyboard. Even if you belong to the hunt-and-peck school of typistry, you probably know your way around those keys (you just do it at a more leisurely pace, right? Right!). If you’re past a certain age there’s a strong possibility that…
On this day in 1951, the Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified. And if, like us, you need a little refresher, we’re happy to accommodate you: that amendment limited all future presidents to two terms in office. Aside from the pure joy of injecting a little history into your day, we do…
January 23 is National Pie Day. We can dig that (though we’ve got a bit of a mathematical bent, so we prefer Pi Day on March 14th). Nevertheless, we’ll get behind anything that brightens up mid-winter, especially if it involves sugary goodness! It also happens to birthday of the Frisbee (inventor Walter Frederick Morrison sold the…
Post-holiday blues got you down? Well, we’ve got something to cheer you *ahem* up. On January 7, 1785, Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries were the first to cross the English channel in a gas balloon. At the time, hot air balloons were the only way to fly … literally! The inaugural manned balloon flight had occurred…
A few of us here at Paper Shop were pretty excited about being plunged into antiquity last night – 1922, to be exact. If you’re a fan of PBS’s Downton Abbey, you’re in good company; a number of us in this office tune in every Sunday night. One of the rather interesting themes going into…
With our weekly deadline, we’re all about the countdowns here. So we’d like to think we’re rather well-rehearsed for the biggest deadline of the year: midnight on December 31. While it’s an exciting time no matter where you are, the most famous of New Year’s Eve parties is, of course, in the Big Apple. And…
On December 19, 1732, Benjamin Franklin began to publish Poor Richard’s Almanack. And while Old Ben’s almanac is one of the most famous, it was by no means the first. It wasn’t first in America, and it wasn’t even the first such thing to be published by a member of the Franklin clan: Ben’s older…
On this day in 1958, something pretty special took to the air. Quite literally, in fact: the first communications satellite, called SCORE (Signal Communications by Orbiting Relay Equipment), was launched. While orbiting, the satellite broadcast a Christmas message from President Dwight D. Eisenhower via short wave radio. It proved for the first time that such…