What they saw...

My father was born in 1914. He died in 1996 at age 81. I can't begin to imagine what someone who lived in that time period saw – but I am going to try. I always say that knowing what my father saw in his life, I can't imagine what my grandchildren (as yet unborn) will see in their lifetimes.

In 1914, the year my father was born, Ford Motor Company introduced the eight hour work day and a minimum wage for a day's labor was $5! The 19th amendment wouldn't give women the right to vote for another six years (although Wyoming had granted suffrage in 1869). The president, Woodrow Wilson, signed the Mother's Day proclamation, creating a day on which Americans could display the flag in honor of those mothers who had sons that had died in war.
On June 28th, Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated. Within a month, Austria-Hungary would declare war on Serbia, marking the beginning of World War I. Of course they didn't call it World War I because they didn't know there would be a World War II. Back then it was known as the Great War or the War to End All Wars. Perspective.

Babe Ruth debuted with the Boston Red Sox, playing five games. He didn't quite cut it, so they sent him to the minor leagues. Guess he showed them, eh? The Braves (now in Atlanta) were in Boston too, oh, and by the way, blacks couldn't play. They couldn't do a lot of things that white people could do. But more about that later.

The Panama Canal opened that year. It is 48 miles long. Nearly 28 thousand men died in the process. The Federal Trade Commission was created, and JFK's parents got married. The Federal Reserve Bank began operations. Mussolini was expelled from the Italian Socialist Party. He would pop later. Jonas Salk was born. How many people would suffer and die from polio prior to his development of a vaccine 41 years later in 1955? The Nobel Prize in Physics that year went to Max von Laue for his discovery of the X-ray.

Sliced bread wouldn't be invented for another 14 years. For seven long weeks in 1943 it was outlawed in the United States. A year earlier, the Federal Income Tax and direct election of US Senators became law as a result of the enactment of the 16th and 17th amendments. The equivalent of a 1914 dollar would be nearly $21 in 2008. The federal government spent $730 million. The Consumer Price Index was 10. Unemployment was 7.9% and a stamp cost 2 cents. The U.S. population was just under 100 million. World population wouldn't hit 2 billion for another 13 years.

How much history would happen in his life? How many inventions, discoveries, and developments would come about? I think that is just the tip of the iceberg so to speak (or write). I will come back to this topic from time to time.