Wednesday, March 1, 2006

 

Spotlight: The first US Census was authorized by Congress on this date in 1790. Mandated by the US Constitution, the census results help to determine the number of congressional seats allotted and the amount of federal money to be allocated to a particular region. Taken every ten years, the first census began on August 2, 1790. The latest survey was taken in 2000. Herman Hollerith, whose firm later was part of a merger to form IBM, developed the first automatic census tabulator, used for the first time to tabulate the 1890 census results.

Quote: "The true test of civilization is, not the census, nor the size of the cities, nor the crops, but the kind of man that the country turns out." – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Word of the day: punch card: a card with punched holes, on which data is stored; Hollerith developed punch cards, and used them in his census tabulator. (© )

Holiday: Ash Wednesday

Women's History Month begins (US)

Today's News:

• bird flu: strikes a cat in German island of Rugen (story)
• AOL: files suit against phishers (story)
• Ken Livingstone: London mayor's 4-week suspension for being "insensitive" is frozen pending appeal (story)

Today's History:

• Ohio and Nebraska: the Buckeye State became No. 17 (1803); the Cornhusker State became No. 37 (1867)
• Yellowstone: world's first national park was established (1872)
• Lindbergh kidnapping: Lucky Lindy's child was abducted, leading to the Lindbergh Act (1932)

Today's Birthdays:

• Frederic Chopin: romantic composer for piano (1810-1849)
• Yitzhak Rabin: assassinated Israeli prime minister (1922-1995)
• Ron Howard: actor, director, producer (52)