Americus F. Callahan of Chicago, Illinois received the first patent for
a windowed business or commercial envelope. It was originally called
the "outlook envelop", with the patent calling for the use of thin rice
paper as the transparent material forming the window, though this
material has since been replaced by clear plastics. The design has
otherwise remained nearly unchanged.

US Patent 701,839 for a windowed envelope

      Ernie K-Doe (Ernest Kador, Jr.) (February 22, 1936 – July 5, 2001)

"Mother-in-Law" was written and produced by Allen Toussaint (below) who 
also played the piano solo. After several unsuccessful takes, a discouraged
Toussaint balled the composition up and threw it away as he was leaving the
studio. One of the backup singers, Willie Hopper, thought that it was such a
good song that he convinced K-Doe to calm down and give it one more try.

Allen Toussaint turned 75 in January

Xerox 914

The Xerox 914, invented by Chester Carlson (below), was the first successful  
commercial plain paper copier. It was first introduced to the public on September
16, 1959 and revolutionized the document-copying industry. The original machine
was presented to the Smithsonian Institute’s Museum of American History.

Physicist and Inventor Chester Floyd Carlson was born
in Seattle, Washington in 1906

Six-month-old Lisa Harap of Queens Village, NY became
the youngest living person to be featured on a cover of
”Time” magazine.

Today, we celebrate National Dollar Day. It was 226 years ago today (1786)
that the Continental Congress established the monetary system.