Tag: history

In 1918 the Representation of the People Act was passed which allowed women over the age of 30 who met a property qualification to vote. Although 8.5 million women met this criteria, it was only about two-thirds of the total population of women in the UK.

The White Star Line was one of Great Britain's largest shipping companies and commissioned the construction of the Titanic. The Titanic, and her sister ships, Olympic and Britannic, were conceived as White Star's response to the newly launched Cunard Line vessels, Lusitania and Mauretania.

Henry Ford is one of those rare entrepreneurs who revolutionized the way people live. Many historians of the American industry rank him as the most important inventor of the 20th century. His automobile not only altered transportation but changed the American factory system. I908, the Model T, or 'Tin Lizzie', became an instant hit. He needed to shift away from producing race cars and luxury cars in favor of building for the general public. The Model T remained in continual production - with over 15 million made - until 1927. The design worked because it was simple, increasingly affordable, and famously came in one color - black.

The average age of those who died during the 1918 Influenza Pandemic in the US and Canada was 28 years old. Globally, those between the ages of 20 and 40 were particularly susceptible but the reasons for this remain a mystery. Normally, influenza hits infants and the elderly the hardest, as well as those with compromised immune systems and pregnant women. Theories for the odd behavior of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic are that the elderly may have had antibodies from past outbreaks, and that the massive crowding of soldiers during World War I, especially on troop transports, might have been factors.

Clarence Birdseye is credited with inventing in 1924 the quick freezing method, which produces the type of frozen foods that we know today.

In 1913, Henry Ford created the first moving assembly line, whereby each worker specialized and built or assembled only one part of a car as it moved by them. It was like a series of jigsaw puzzles where each worker was assigned a different spatial area, and in the end, the entire puzzle was completed though no one person had worked on the entire form.

The 1918 Influenza Pandemic had previously surfaced in the United States and France (where it was known by the code name disease XI), but as both were fighting in World War I, it was kept quiet. Spain, which was neutral, had a free press and so was the first to report the existence of the pandemic.

The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and completed in 1931. The building has a roof height of 1,250 feet and stands a total of 1,454 feet tall, including its antenna.

Penicillin was discovered in 1928 by Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming. There are several enhanced penicillin families which are effective against additional bacteria; these include the antistaphylococcal penicillins, aminopenicillins, and the antipseudomonal penicillins. They are derived from Penicillium fungi.

More people died during the 1918 Influenza Pandemic than the total number of military and civilian deaths in World War I.