This Day in History

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On March 1, 1966, in Dearborn, Michigan, the Ford Motor Company celebrated the production of its one millionth Mustang, which was a white convertible.

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To say people were excited about the Ford Mustang would be an understatement, as 22,000 units were sold on the first day. When the pony car made its debut on April 17, 1964, the base price was just $2,368. Ford’s original sales forecast for the Mustang in the first year was about 100,000. Instead, Ford sold 400,000 within the first 12 months of production and more than 1 million units were sold by March 1966. Since its debut, this iconic car has sold more than 9 million.

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But but but it's a bus!

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But better than your average bus.

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The first issue of Time magazine made its debut on March. 3, 1923, and had the now-obscure Joseph G. Cannon (the former House Speaker) on the cover.

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Richard Nixon has appeared on the cover of Time magazine 55 times, more than any other individual since the weekly publication began. He first graced the cover in August, 1952, three months before his election as Dwight Eisenhower's vice president.

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On March 4, 1918, the first cases were reported of the historic influenza pandemic of 1918, later known as Spanish flu. The flu would eventually kill 675,000 Americans and an estimated 20 million to 50 million people around the world,

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There have been debates over the years on where the Spanish Flu originated. There are multiple origin theories including the Western Front in Northern France, China, and Kansas, where the outbreak first happened in the United States. It may have begun as early as 1916, and only reached full strength in the final year of the First World War.

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On March 5, 1963, the Hula-Hoop, a hip-swiveling toy that became a huge fad across America was patented by Wham-O co-founder, Arthur “Spud” Melin.

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The Hula Hoop was one of the biggest toy fads in history. It’s estimated that 40 million hoop toys were sold in 1958 alone. But like all fads, the Hula Hoop craze ended abruptly. Rich Knerr, co-founder of WHAM-O said, “It was born in January and dead as a doornail by October.” Knerr and Melin found themselves stuck with an enormous mountain of inventory with few buyers. Surprisingly enough, they only made $10,000 in profit off of the countrywide craze. This was a direct result of business inexperience and millions of unsold hoops. “We completely lost control,” Mr. Knerr told Forbes magazine in 1982.

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Happy National Oreo Cookie Day folks! On March 6, 1912, Oreo sandwich cookies were introduced to the public in a grocery store in Hoboken, New Jersey.

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[ATSince they were invented in 1912, over 500 billion Oreo cookies have been enjoyed around the world. If all the Oreos ever sold were laid end to end, they would circle the earth 381 times. Put in a different perspective, if all of the Oreos ever manufactured in the world were stacked on top of each other, they would reach the moon and back more than five times.

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On March 7, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell was granted a U.S. patent for his invention of the telephone

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Italian inventor Antonio Meucci had filed his own patent caveat for a telephone device in December of 1871. However, he didn't renew the caveat after 1874, giving Bell the chance to be granted the patent in March 1876. That said, many scholars regard Meucci as the true inventor of the telephone.

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On March 8, 1950, the VW bus went into production. Known officially as the Volkswagen Type 2 (the Beetle was the Type 1), the bus was a favorite mode of transportation for hippies during the 1960s and became an icon of the American counterculture movement.

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It’s official: The VW Bus is back, and it’s electric. Volkswagen announced a new electric Microbus in 2023, based on their concept vehicle, the ID. Buzz. Originally planned for release in 2022, the delay is due to a factory retooling in Hamburg, Germany. The Volkswagen Buzz will hold up to eight passenger vehicle with 162.5 cubic feet of cargo space. The Buzz will cost north of $40,000.

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Today is March 14th, and that makes it the birthday of Albert Einstein.

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After Einstein's death in 1955 from an abdominal aneurysm rupture, an autopsy and several studies were conducted on Einstein's brain. Two interesting discoveries were made: first, Einstein's brain weighed notably less than the average human brain. His weighed 1,230 grams, while the average is 1,400 grams. Second, his parietal lobe (where mathematic thought resides) was 15 percent larger. The pathologist who conducted the autopsy later stole Einstein's brain and was fired from Princeton when he refused to return it (he later did bring it back, but not until 1998).