Three Tidbits for Today

This Day in History: February 21, 1878, 1947, 1965

1878…Residents of New Haven, Connecticut received copies of the first telephone directory issued in the U.S. It contained only 50 names on a single page. There were no numbers listed for at this time all calls were connected by an operator. It contained four headings - residential, professional, miscellaneous and essential service.

 The District Telephone Company of New Haven went into operation with only twenty-one subscribers, who paid $1.50 per month. By February 21, 1878, however, when the first telephone directory was published by the company, fifty subscribers were listed. Most of these businesses and listings such as physicians, the police, and the post office; only eleven residences were listed, four of which were for persons associated with the company. On 21 February

 

1947…In New York City at a gathering of the Optical Society of America, Edwin Land demonstrated the Polaroid Land Camera, the first camera to take, develop and print a black & white picture on photo paper, all in about 60 seconds. The camera went on sale the following year.
 

Land displays a one-minute photo of himself, April 1947.

On 21 February 1947, Edwin Land demonstrated his one-step instant camera and film at a meeting of the Optical Society of America. Less than two years later the Polaroid Camera Model 95 and Type 40 Land film were on sale at the Jordan Marsh department store in downtown Boston at a cost of $89.75: it weighed 4 lb.

Compared to today's price and weight: Today one can buy a Polaroid 635 CL Instant Camera for $49.22; Twin pack, 2 x 10 colour prints cost $25.45. The battery for powering the camera and its flash lamp are included in the film pack. The weight of the camera when loaded is 1.5 lb.

1965…Black activist Malcolm X was fatally shot by Nation of Islam assassins as he was about to address a rally at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City. He was 39. 

 

Malcolm X speaking in 1964, the year
he broke away from the Nation of Islam.
Photograph: Robert Parent/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Image

None among the conspirators in the Nation of Islam (NOL), who spent months plotting his demise, could have predicted that anyone would be talking about Malcolm X 46 years on (now 49). Neither could the FBI, whose operatives listened in on his conversations. Who knew that the man they viewed as the most dangerous in America could enjoy such longevity?
Source: Malcolm X: the man behind the myth

Such is only a small portion of what happened on This Day in History...

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