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Using my all-access pass to The New York Times archives, I’ve once again pulled up the first mentions of newsworthy topics. (Here’s the first installment.) Many of today’s items were requested last time around. You best believe this will become a trilogy, so keep those requests coming.
Donald Trump
January 28, 1973
The big change in Fred Trump’s operations in recent years is the advent of his son, Donald….Donald, who was graduated first in his class from the Wharton School of Finance of the University of Pennsylvania in 1968, joined his father about five years ago. He has what his father calls “drive.” He also possesses, in his father’s judgment, business acumen. “Donald is the smartest person I know,” he remarked admirably. “Everything he touches turns to gold.”
Hillary Clinton (Hillary Rodham)
June 15, 1969
A student spokesman at Wellesley responded with anger when Senator Edward Brooke called it foolish “to propound demands for social change in a vacuum, oblivious to the substantial changes already in progress.”
“We feel,” said Hillary D. Rodham, president of the Wellesley College Government Association, “that for too long our leaders have used politics as the art of the possible. And the challenge is to practice politics as the art of making what appears impossible, the possible.”
Wikipedia
September 20, 2001
For all the human traffic that the Web attracts, most sites remain fairly solitary destinations. People shop by themselves, retrieve information alone and post messages that they hope others will eventually notice. But some sites are looking for ways to enable visitors not only to interact but even to collaborate to change the sites themselves. Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.com) is one such site, a place where 100 or so volunteers have been working since January to compile a free encyclopedia. Using a relatively unknown and simple software tool called Wiki, they are involved in a kind of virtual barn-raising.
AIDS
December 10, 1982
The Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta reported yesterday that an infant who had received blood transfusions developed a serious immune-deficiency disease that has principally afflicted homosexuals.
The child had received multiple transfusions of blood and blood products, including a transfusion from a man who later proved to have acquired immune deficiency syndrome, called AIDS, The disorder has been linked primarily to homosexual men. The child died at the age of 20 months from infections related to the immune deficiency.
Starbucks
June 22, 1977
The Starbucks Coffee Company, Washington State’s largest coffee roaster, announced a retail price cut of 50 cents a pound on all its coffee. Jerry Baldwin, president, said it was also reducing its price to wholesale customers by 30 cents a pound. Starbucks supplies specialty stores, restaurants and food cooperatives throughout the Western states.
Global Warming
December 21, 1969
Scientists have warned the human race that it is running the risk of allowing pollution to destroy life in the oceans and to alter the earth’s climate by raising temperatures….J.O. Fletcher, a physical scientist for the Rand Corporation in Santa Monica, California, said that man had “only a few decades to solve the problem” of global warming caused by pollution.
Nintendo
October 8, 1955
Among the notices of trademark applications published this week is one from the Nintendo Playing Card Company, Ltd., Kyoto City, Japan. The notice explains that one of the Japanese characters in the mark means “happiness, fortune or wealth.” Three other characters, pronounced “nintendo,” are harder to translate. They constitute a fanciful expression having no precise dictionary meaning either in Japanese or English, but the application gives them the approximate sense of “a corporation whose fortune or prosperity should be left to the mercy of heaven.” Evidently heaven has smiled on the Nintendo Company, because it has been using the mark since 1887.
McDonald’s
October 6, 1963
The lure to the individual or small businessman is that by investing a little money and lots of time, he can derive the benefits of a widely known name, cooperative advertising, “protected” territories and a cram course on how to run the business. A coast-to-coast chain, McDonald’s Hamburgers, gives its franchisees a three-week course in everything from advertising to janitoring.
Want complete access to The New York Times archives, which go all the way back to 1851? Become an NYT subscriber.
MTV, the electric guitar, Warren Buffet, ESPN, bling
posted by Joanna on 7-18-2007 at 4:24 pm
Have you ever seen the playing cards Nintendo used to make? They were called Hanafuda decks and consisted of 12 suits (one for each season) of 4 cards each, for a total of 48 cards. The games are pretty complex with the number of combinations that can be made to score points…
I think it’s pretty cool to se how far they’ve come from their roots…
Here’s some more requests for your series…
SUV
CNN
JFK
Rap
Nuclear Power
posted by Jason! on 7-18-2007 at 5:16 pm
blogs
energy drinks
bin laden
posted by katie on 7-18-2007 at 5:28 pm
More suggestions:
internet
mobile phones
microwaves
posted by d on 7-18-2007 at 8:43 pm
Hitler
Kwanzaa
Israeli nuclear weapons
Saddam Hussein
hippies
Prohibition
semiconductors
airplane
The phrase “All the news that’s fit to print.”
posted by exile38 on 7-18-2007 at 8:44 pm
Here’s some potentially interesting ones…
*al Qaeda (or original spelling)
*data
*Humvee
*Space Shuttle
posted by Johnny Cat on 7-18-2007 at 10:09 pm
I’m curious about the first mention of microwaves because there was a time that a relative of mine was considering buying a microwave oven. It was when he was building a new house, at that time they had to be built into the house, they ran on 220 volts, and cost as much as a new car. It was my grandfather and the year was 1948.
posted by Tdave on 7-19-2007 at 1:14 am
birth control
abstinence only sex ed
ziploc bags
post-it notes
“inherently unequal” or Brown v. the BoE of Topeka -I’m curious when people outside of Kansas started paying attention to that landmark case.
psychology
chemotherapy
plexi-glass
asbestos
electric cars
posted by Liz on 7-19-2007 at 8:40 am
If you want to look up the first time AIDs was really mentioned (in subject not name) look up GRIDs. Before it became more widespread AIDs was considered something that only happened to gay men, thus the name, Gay Related Immuno-Deficiency.
posted by Sally on 7-19-2007 at 9:15 am
GRID was first mentioned on May 11, 1982 (and not mentioned again until 1987):
A serious disorder of the immune system that has been known to doctors for less than a year – a disorder that appears to affect primarily male homosexuals – has now afflicted at least 335 people, of whom it has killed 136, officials of the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta said yesterday. Federal health officials are concerned that tens of thousands more homosexual men may be silently affected and therefore vulnerable to potentially grave ailments.
The cause of the disorder is unknown. Researchers call it A.I.D., for acquired immunodeficiency disease, or GRID, for gay-related immunodeficiency. It has been reported in 20 states and seven countries. But the overwhelming majority of cases have been in New York City (158), elsewhere in New York State (10), New Jersey (14) and California (71).
Thirteen of those affected have been heterosexual women. Some male victims are believed to have been heterosexual, and to have been chiefly users of heroin and other drugs by injection into their veins. But most cases have occurred among homosexual men, in particular those who have had numerous sexual partners, often anonymous partners whose identity remains unknown.
posted by Jason on 7-19-2007 at 9:26 am
This is a great series. Continue it, please! I am utterly fascinated by the “first time” any particular subject cropped up in the NYTimes.
posted by Sabrina on 7-19-2007 at 10:27 am
Ah, thank you for some of your infinite wisdom.
posted by Sally on 7-19-2007 at 11:28 am
Thanks for the intersting article.
How about:
Heavy Metal Music
Skateboards
Surfing
Electric Cars
Xerox
The Smurfs
Rolling Stone magazine, “All the news that fits”
posted by Dusty on 7-19-2007 at 12:43 pm
Jackie Kennedy
posted by Rachel on 7-19-2007 at 6:13 pm
How about the first large multiple birth-like quints or sextuplets?
posted by Sarah on 9-27-2007 at 1:33 pm