This day in history - April 14

[seamusTX]

1828 - The first edition of Noah Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language was published.

This dictionary was the first to document such uniquely American words as skunk and hickory. Webster also promoted spelling reform. It is largely because of him that we spell words like color, honor, and center as we do, rather than colour, honour, and centre.

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1865 - President Lincoln was shot. He died the next day.

1902 - J.C. Penney opened his first store. The company grew to 1400 stores by 1929 and was a fixture in small towns before shopping malls were imagined.

1912 - Titanic collided with an iceberg, causing it to sink the next morning.

1939 - The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck was published.

1956 - The first videotape recorder available for sale was demonstrated.

In half a century it went from hugely expensive studio fixture to ubiquitous home appliance to obsolete.

- Jim

[kd5zex]

1956 - The first videotape recorder available for sale was demonstrated.

In half a century it went from hugely expensive studio fixture to ubiquitous home appliance to obsolete.

And somewhere in between managed to spawn one of the most horrific television shows currently known to man...

America's Funniest Home Videos...

[seamusTX]

I won't argue with that. (Though any show with talking animals, especially apes, sent me looking for something better to do.)

However, the videotape recorder and compact video cameras democratized video. It used to take a serious investment in equipment and training to create video. Now any idiot can do it, and many do.

OTOH, people with creative talent now have an outlet that is not controlled by the broadcast and movie establishment. Maybe the next Steven Spielberg or Stanley Kubrick is a kid in Des Moines or Saigon, putting his work on YouTube.

- Jim

[DoubleJ]

Now any idiot can do it, and many do.

- Jim