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Tuesday, March 03, 2015

March 3, 1923

I hope that you're ready for the first installment of the Tuesday Timeline for March 2015!  And on the third day of the third month, I have another entry filled with facts, trivia, and secrets about a particular subject in pop culture past.

Of course, you all know the drill.  Before we can get to the main feature presentation, we have to talk about what else happened on March third.

So, what did happen on March 3 throughout history?  Lots of things!

1776 - The Battle of Nassau begins during the American Revolution

1820 - U.S. Congress passes The Missouri Compromise

1845 - Florida becomes the twenty-seventh state to join the United States of America

1873 - The Comstock Law is enacted by the United States Congress, making it illegal to send books that have obscene or lewd content through the mail

1875 - The opera "Carmen" debuts in Paris, France on the same day that the very first indoor hockey game is played in Montreal, Quebec, Canada

1885 - AT&T is incorporated in New York City

1911 - Actress Jean Harlow (d. 1937) is born in Kansas City, Missouri

1913 - In Washington, D.C., thousands of women march in a suffrage parade

1920 - Actor James Doohan (d. 2005) is born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

1931 - The United States officially adopts "The Star-Spangled Banner" as its national anthem

1940 - Fashion designer Perry Ellis (d. 1986) is born in Portsmouth, Virginia

1942 - Ten Japanese warplanes raid the community of Broome, Western Australia, leaving 100 dead

1959 - Comedian Lou Costello dies at the age of 52

1966 - Actor William Frawley dies at the age of 79

1969 - NASA launches Apollo 9 to test the lunar module

1985 - Almost one million people are left homeless after a devastating 8.3 earthquake occurs in Chile

1991 - Rodney King is beaten up by Los Angeles police officers which is the event that would lead up to the Los Angeles Riots of 1992

2005 - Steve Fossett becomes the first person in the world to fly a plane non-stop around the world solo without having to refuel

2009 - The Historical Archive of the City of Cologne, Germany collapses

And here is a list of all of the famous people who are celebrating a birthday today; Lee Radziwell, George Miller, Hattie Winston, Jennifer Warnes, Snowy White, Gloria Hendry, Tim Kazurinsky, John Lilley, Darnell Williams, Miranda Richardson, Ira Glass, Mary Page Keller, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Herschel Walker, Laura Harring, Tone Loc, Heidi Swedberg, Julie Bowen, Tyler Florence, Alison King, Matthew Marsden, David Faustino, Ronan Keating, Barret Swatek, Buddy Valastro, Jessica Biel, Stacie Orrico, Hayley Marie Norman, and Jordy Lucas.

So, what date are we going back in TIME this week?  After all, this is the Tuesday TIMEline.



Yes...the TIME is...March 3, 1923.  And, I think it's TIME that I come clean about this entry before I run out of TIME.

You see...this entry is all about TIME.

Well...TIME Magazine, that is.

It seems hard to believe, but the very first issue of TIME magazine was released on March 3, 1923.  And here was the very first issue.



I know, I know.  The cover of the first TIME wasn't flashy or eye-catching.  But that was the beauty of TIME magazine.  It didn't need to be.

Created by Briton Hadden and Henry Luce, TIME was the very first weekly news magazine ever published in the United States.  And over the course of the last 92 years, TIME has grown to have a readership of over 25,000,000, making it the most successful news magazine in the world.

And while TIME Magazine prided itself on providing news coverage by the people for the people, it was also subject to some controversy as well.

And, while I could go on and write about what TIME Magazine is all about...well, maybe it would be better to just tell the story of TIME magazine through the thousands of covers that have been printed throughout...well, TIME.



Charles Lindbergh became the very first person to be named TIME's "Man of the Year".  The annual feature began in 1927 when TIME editors sat down to go over who were the biggest news makers of the whole year.  Initially, the TIME editorial staff planned to make Lindbergh the cover story after failing to include him on the cover when he performed his historic trans-Atlantic flight.  The feature took off, and every year since 1927, TIME has chosen a man, woman, or object to feature as its "Man of the Year".  The honour was later changed to "Person of the Year" in 1999 to accommodate both sexes, although prior to the change, four women had been bestowed the honour - Wallis Simpson, Soong May-ling, Queen Elizabeth II, and Corazon Aquino.

Of course, part of the criteria for choosing the "Person of the Year" was that they had to be a significant news maker for the year.  This meant that while mostly heroes and inspirational people were chosen for the honour, not all the selections were positive role models.



See Adolf Hitler in 1938 or Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979 for examples of this.



And, again...not always were the selections "human" in nature.  The personal computer was chosen for the honour in 1982!

Basically, TIME Magazine was a celebration of all news stories, good or bad.  To conclude this Tuesday TIMEline, a selection of covers from news events that shaped our world forever.



Happy birthday, TIME.

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