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Posted by: Donna Scanlon
Our guest author today is Ellen Terrell, Business Reference Specialist. According to the U.S. Census in their report Americans with Disabilities: 2005, there are roughly 54 million Americans with a disability. 11 million people age 6 and older need personal assistance with everyday activities and 46% of the people ages 21 to 64 having some …
Posted in: Business, Heritage Months, Holidays, and Today in History, Labor
Posted by: Donna Scanlon
Disneyland opened in Anaheim, CA on this date in 1955. Having worked for The Walt Disney Company at various points in my career, I have a special fondness for all things Disney. A recent vacation took me to Germany where I was able to visit Neuschwanstein, a castle that was “a tremendous inspiration to Walt …
Posted in: Business, Heritage Months, Holidays, and Today in History
Posted by: Donna Scanlon
On today’s date in 1785 the Continental Congress set the dollar as the official currency of the new United States. Also on this date it was Resolved “That the several pieces shall increase in a decimal ratio.” As a side note Thomas Jefferson wrote on this very topic in “Notes on the establisment[!] of a …
Posted in: Business, Heritage Months, Holidays, and Today in History, Money
Posted by: Donna Scanlon
234 years ago the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence announcing the colonies’ separation from Great Britain. It has been estimated that there were approximately 2.5 million people in this new nation at that time. [1] Today a celebration of our independence takes place every year on the anniversary of the signing of …
Posted in: Business, Heritage Months, Holidays, and Today in History
Posted by: Donna Scanlon
Our guest author today is Ellen Terrell, Business Reference Specialist. In a letter to Samuel H. Smith offering his collection to Congress to re-establish the Library after it was burned in 1814, Thomas Jefferson wrote “I do not know that it contains any branch of science which Congress would wish to exclude from this collection …
Posted in: Business, Presidents
Posted by: Donna Scanlon
Child labor in one form or another has existed in America from our beginning. As the country was mostly agricultural, much of the work involved a family’s farm, or in the case of slaves, on plantations. With the advent of industrialization that began to change. In the early part of the 20th century when the …
Posted in: Business, Heritage Months, Holidays, and Today in History
Posted by: Donna Scanlon
Our guest author today is Ellen Terrell, Business Reference Specialist, with another in our “Favorites from the Fifth Floor.” We get many questions about business from around the country and often we utilize credit reference books. The most well known, and one I have previously written about, is Dun & Bradstreet. This title has gone …
Posted in: Business, Favorites From the Fifth Floor
Posted by: Donna Scanlon
Masking tape, transparent (cellophane) tape, duct (or duck) tape… we use tape when we paint, wrap gifts, mend things, and create clothing. Yes clothing! My daughter made a dress from duck tape for her junior prom – it is quite the competition. Where did it all begin? An engineer by the name of Richard Drew …
Posted in: Business, Heritage Months, Holidays, and Today in History, Inventions
Posted by: Donna Scanlon
The 2010 calendar in my office is from The Economist. It is quite colorful and full of little tidbits of information and has, on more than one occasion, provided me with ideas for this blog. The entry on the calendar for today is “1st McDonald’s Opens, San Bernardino, California, 1940.” Those of you who may …
Posted in: Business, Heritage Months, Holidays, and Today in History