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Today is the summer solstice, the first day of summer on the official calendar, and the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. At my latitude, daylight will last for 14 hours and 2 minutes.

Today also happens to be Father's Day. Though the curmudgeons among us think these holidays were invented by greeting card companies, Father's Day started with the sincere gratitude of a woman who was raised by her widowed father.

President Wilson was the first to celebrate a nationwide Father's Day in 1916. The holiday is now observed in quite a few countries, though not all on the third Sunday in June.

http://www.ideafinder.com/guest/calendar/fathersday.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father%27s_Day" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Whether he was a hero or a shiftless hound dog, none of us would be here without a father.

1633 - Galileo was forced under torture to deny the Copernican theory.

1788 - New Hampshire ratified the U.S. Constitution. It was the ninth state to do so, putting the new Constitution into legal effect. The vote in the legislature was 57 to 47. It's scary how close these decisions are sometimes.

http://www.usconstitution.net/consttop_faf.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

1834 - Cyrus Hall McCormick patented the mechanical reaper.

He went on to establish a company in Chicago that became International Harvester. This company's products, along with John Deere and others, revolutionized agriculture and altered the American way of life, which shifted from mostly rural to mostly urban by the year 1900.

Rumors that a slave that McCormick owned actually invented the machine have never been thoroughly verified or debunked.

1879 - F. W. Woolworth opened his first dime store. It sold dry goods at low prices and was one of the first to allow "self service." That store soon folded, but Woolworth went on to establish a chain that was a fixture of American life in the middle of the 20th century.

The chain was eventually driven out of business or absorbed by Wal-Mart, but Foot Locker is a direct corporate successor of the original Woolworth. (I didn't know that until today.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._W._Woolworth_Company" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

1932 - Max Schmeling lost a fight to Jack Sharkey in a controversial judges' decision, leading Schmeling's manager, Joe Jacobs utter the immortal line, "We was robbed!"

1939 - The news that Lou Gehrig had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis became public.

1945 - The Japanese surrendered Okinawa.

- Jim

Today is the summer solstice, the first day of summer on the official calendar, and the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere.

1788 - New Hampshire ratified the U.S. Constitution. It was the ninth state to do so, putting the new Constitution into legal effect. The vote in the legislature was 57 to 47. It's scary how close these decisions are sometimes.

http://www.usconstitution.net/consttop_faf.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

- Jim

1879 - F. W. Woolworth opened his first dime store. It sold dry goods at low prices and was one of the first to allow "self service." That store soon folded, but Woolworth went on to establish a chain that was a fixture of American life in the middle of the 20th century. The chain was eventually driven out of business or absorbed by Wal-Mart, but Foot Locker is a direct corporate successor of the original Woolworth. (I didn't know that until today.)

I remember as a young boy, my Mom taking me to downtown Woolworth's. It was huge. It had one of those department store cafe areas, complete with a counter you sit at an a full fledged soda fountain. It had 3 stories, with the basement having all the close out items, Guess that's where the term "bargain basement" was born.

And I didn't know about the Foot Locker connection either! Good stuff Jim! Thanks!

Those old department stores were literally "temples" or "palaces" of commerce.

I remember Marshall Field in downtown Chicago in the 1960s. They sold things that you could not find anywhere else -- including chocolate-covered ants (they taste like chocolate-covered raisins, but somewhat bitter). They had a hunting department with mounted African game and rifles and shotguns that you can hardly find anywhere today. I don't remember how many restaurants and snack bars they had.

It's a Macy's store now, since the idiot heirs couldn't keep their act together:
http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/No ... -BR-1.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_F ... y_Building" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

At least it's still standing. None of these photographs do it justice.

- Jim