A Brief History On November 18, 1963, Bell Telephone introduced a new way to dial a telephone, something referred to as “dual-tone multi-frequency” (DTMF) technology, or Touch-Tone (the trademarked name) dialing. Also known as push button phones, these would go on to replace the old rotary dial type of telephone (also known as “pulse dialing”) so that today it is rare to even see an old fashioned dial type phone. Digging Deeper Making a lot of calls in the old days was tedious, and tired, sloppy fingers would often slip out of the little round fingertip receptacles causing the caller…
Author: Major Dan
Major Dan
Major Daniel Zar is a retired veteran of the United States Marine Corps. He served during the Cold War and has traveled to many countries around the world. Prior to his military service, he graduated from Cleveland State University, having majored in sociology. Following his military service, he worked as a police officer eventually earning the rank of captain prior to his retirement.
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A Brief History On November 17, 2005, the puppy that came to be known as Giant George was born in Arizona, a puppy that would become the tallest living dog in the world and as far as we know, the tallest dog ever at that time. Digging Deeper A Great Dane, Giant George grew to a height of 43 inches (110 centimeters) which bested the previous record holder, Titan (another Great Dane) by ¾ of an inch, a clear margin. Note: Dogs are measured at “the withers” to establish their height. (withers- the ridge between the shoulder bones, used to…
A Brief History On May 23, 1901, the Attorney General of Paris, France, received an anonymous note that a woman was being kept prisoner by her own mother. Police were dispatched to investigate and found a skeletal Blanche Monnier locked up in a small, windowless room in appalling mental and physical condition. Digging Deeper Blanche had been locked up in the tiny room since 1876, when her mother disapproved of Blanche’s choice for a husband (a lawyer, so perhaps the mom had reasonable cause…) and prevented the marriage by keeping Blanche prisoner. Of course, the mother was arrested, but died…
A Brief History On November 15, 1914, the pre-National Football League professional football world was saddened by the death of a seasoned pro, Center Harry Turner of the Canton Professionals (now there is a catchy name) of the Ohio League. Turner was playing in a game against Akron Indians when he suffered a broken back, completely severing his spinal cord. Digging Deeper When Turner died soon afterwards in the hospital, he became the first fatality caused by injury playing in a professional football game. Appropriately, Turner was from Canton, Ohio, the birthplace of pro football. A real home town guy,…
A Brief History On November 14, 1967, physicist Theodore Maiman, an American working for Hughes Research Laboratories, was finally granted a patent for the “optical maser” (maser: microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) device he called the Laser (laser: light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation), once the stuff of science fiction and now an everyday common electronic device. Digging Deeper Using a synthetic ruby to focus light pumped from a high energy source (the scientific details hurt my liberal arts head), the laser was featured in the James Bond film, Goldfinger (1964) demonstrating the powerful light’s ability to…