| Thursday, June 18, 2009 |
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| Playing Vinyl |
SpotlightRemember vinyl records? How about cassette tapes? Eight-tracks? Reel-to-reel? Have you ever used an actual dial phone? Remember when there was no remote control and you had to get up and change the channel on your television? On this date in 1948, Columbia Records unveiled its new 12-inch long-playing 33⅓ rpm phonograph record made of vinyl. The innovation meant that an album could hold more than one or two songs per side, thus revolutionizing the record industry. It became the industry standard for the next fifty years, until CDs and MP3s began to make vinyl records obsolete.
Question of the DayWhat year did the first record album come out?
You have to go back to the earliest recordings of musical works that would not fit on one record. For a while they were sold separately, but record stores also sold blank albums that had pockets for a dozen records or so. By 1925 the Victor Talking Machine Co. was selling large works like symphonies in specially printed albums, but the practice may be earlier than that date. When the vinyl LP was first marketed in 1948, Columbia wanted to avoid the notion that a single record wasn't worth four or five times as much as the usual records, so they referred to LPs as "albums" and the word stuck forever. You may be thinking of vinyl LPs, but actually large works like operas were marketed in albums with pockets just as the old records were.
Word of the dayrecessionista
Recessionista is a blend of the words Fashionista and recession that describes a person who strives to remain fashionable on a minimal budget. The term originated in the United States during the economic difficulties of 2008.
Last week, on June 10, English was supposed to have passed the one-million-word mark, according to this story by the Global Language Monitor. The word neologism, or "new word," was coined at the start of the 19th century, making it a neologism at the time. This week let's take a look at some newer neologisms.
Today's History
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| Sally Ride |
- War of 1812: US President James Madison declared war on Great Britain (1812)
- Battle of Waterloo: Napoleon was defeated by the Duke of Wellington (1815)
- Susan B. Anthony: was fined $100 for her attempt to vote in the 1872 US presidential election; she did not, however, pay it (1873)
- Amelia Earhart: became the first woman to fly transatlantically; she went from Newfoundland to Wales (1928)
- "This was their finest hour": address delivered by PM Winston Churchill to the House of Commons to inspire his embattled nation during WWII (1940)
- Egypt: republic was declared; monarchy abolished (1953)
- Sally Ride: became the first American woman in space, aboard the space shuttle Challenger (1983)
Today's Birthdays
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| Sir Paul McCartney |
- Bartolommeo Ammannati (1511-1592): sculptor and architect
- Anastasia (1901-1918): youngest daughter of Czar Nicholas II of Russia
- Red Adair (1915-2004): renowned innovator in firefighting
- Roger Ebert (67): film critic who was the first to receive a Pulitzer Prize in his field
- Sir Paul McCartney (67): singer/composer/guitarist with The Beatles and the world's most commercially successful pop musician; lyricist Sammy Cahn (1913-1993) shared this birth date
- Isabella Rossellini (57): Italian actress and model; also, actors Linda Thorson (62), Carol Kane (57) and Alana de la Garza (33)
