A 29-year-old Alexander Graham Bell was granted U.S.
Patent No. 174,465 for the telephone on March 7, 1876.
The patent, often called the most valuable in U.S. history,
was filed on February 14, 1876—just hours before a similar
caveat by Elisha Gray—securing Bell the rights to the
invention.
Three days later, on March 10, 1876, Bell made the first
successful telephone call to his assistant…Thomas
Watson.
The German company Bayer patents aspirin on March 6,
1899. Now the most common drug in household medicine
cabinets, acetylsalicylic acid was originally made from a
chemical found in the bark of willow trees.
In its primitive form, the active ingredient, salicin, was used
for centuries in folk medicine, beginning in ancient Greece
when Hippocrates used it to relieve pain and fever.
Known to doctors since the mid-19th century, it was used
sparingly due to its unpleasant taste and tendency to
damage the stomach.
Aspirin was made available in tablet form and without a
prescription in 1915.
German chemist professor Felix Hoffman, the father of aspirin.
The Life of Riley is a radio situation comedy series of the 1940s
that was adapted into a 1949 feature film, as well as two different television series, and a comic book.
The radio program initially aired on the Blue Network (later
known as ABC) from January 16, 1944, to July 8, 1945,
it then moved to NBC,where it was broadcast from
September 8, 1945, to June 29, 1951.
MIKE GRACIA
Just before breakfast on the morning of March 4, Private
Albert Gitchell of the U.S. Army reports to the hospital at
Fort Riley, Kansas, complaining of the cold-like symptoms
of sore throat, fever and headache.
Soon after, over 100 of his fellow soldiers had reported
similar symptoms, marking what are believed to be the
first cases in the historic influenza pandemic of 1918.
later known as Spanish flu. The flu would eventually kill
675,000 Americans and an estimated 20 million to 50
million people around the world, proving to be a far
deadlier force than even the First World War.
Meanwhile, the flu was spreading fast beyond the borders
of Western Europe, due to its exceptionally high rate of
virulence and the massive transport of men on land and
aboard ship due to the war effort.
By the end of the summer, numerous cases had been
reported in Russia, North Africa and India; China, Japan,
the Philippines and even New Zealand would eventually
fall victim as well.
