May 1, 1931: President Herbert Hoover officially dedicates New York City’s Empire State Building, pressing a button from the White House that turns on the building’s lights. Hoover’s gesture, of course, was symbolic; while the president remained in Washington, D.C., someone else flicked the switches in New York.
The idea for the Empire State Building is [...]

In 1883, a company that would build the first U.S. three-wire central station for incandescent lighting – the Edison Electric Illuminating Co. was incorporated. The plant was a simple wooden structure erected in Sunbury, Pennsylvania. The station began service on 4 Jul 1883. An Armington & Sims steam engine drove two 110-volt direct-current generators. The [...]

April 26, 1954: The Salk polio vaccine field trials, involving 1.8 million children, begin at the Franklin Sherman Elementary School in McLean, Virginia. Children in the United States, Canada and Finland participated in the trials, which used for the first time the now-standard double-blind method, whereby neither the patient nor attending doctor knew if the [...]

We hear a lot of stories about America’s founding fathers, and many of them are about Benjamin Franklin’s inventions and exploits. One of the most famous legends about Franklin is that he discovered electricity with a kite and a key in a storm. The story goes that he went outside on a stormy night with [...]

I once read that one of Steve Jobs’s favorite quotations is by Wayne Gretzky: “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it’s been.”
I’ve been thinking about that notion a lot lately. Watching old videos of Jobs presenting before Apple employees in 1997 following his return to the company confirms he [...]

In 1984, Steve Jobs unveiled the first Macintosh.
Watching this video, you will feel the audience’s excitement as Steve Jobs inserts the floppy disk, and it feels like they are cheering in a small room, not an auditorium. The computer goes on to displays the visual power of his innovation; this was the defining moment in [...]

In the early 1950s, Americans were enjoying peace and prosperity. World War II was over, the baby boom was drawing to a close, and our love affair with the road was speeding up…literally. Manufacturers had been experimenting with sports cars for years, but 1953 brought us the Chevrolet Corvette, and it changed everything. It was [...]

One of the most notable things which makes America exceptional is that the American dream is accessible to everyone. In 1907, Henry Ford was determined to do this by creating “a motor car for the great multitude.” This would require completely reinventing mass production, moving away from the expensive custom-made vehicles that had come before.
In [...]

The story of American exceptionalism is one of creativity, innovation, and overcoming seemingly insurmountable obstacles. In this series, we’ll be taking a look at how this can be illustrated through the American automobile industry. What better place to start than with Henry Ford’s first vehicle, the Ford Quadricycle?
For something to be the exception, it must [...]