ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, December 31, 1996 TAG: 9612310070
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RICK HOROWITZ SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES
No offense, but anybody can notice the big ones. You toss the old calendar into the trash, nail the new calendar to the wall, and you figure you're ready to celebrate the same things everybody else will be celebrating in 1997.
But are you satisfied with that? Wouldn't you rather celebrate flying saucers and Jell-O, or hot soup and the top hat? Here then is your guide to the year ahead - a semi-annual compilation of a few of the more notable bicentennials, tricentennials, sesquicentennials and so on that will come your way.
What a year it's going to be.
Let's start seven centuries ago, in 1297, when Scotland's "Braveheart" - William Wallace, that is, 20-something and already the "Scourge of England" - routs an English army of more than 50,000 men, winning temporary bragging rights and the chance to be played by Mel Gibson.
In 1497, the Italian navigator Giovanni Caboto - John Cabot to us English speakers - sails from England to the shores of what are now called Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, and perhaps even New England. Because nobody has ever been quite sure precisely where the Vikings landed, Cabot may be the first European ever to set foot on the actual coast of North America.
Meanwhile, Leonardo da Vinci is putting the final touches on one of Western civilization's major artistic achievements: "The Last Supper."
Three hundred years ago - 1697 - and Peter the Great is determined to Westernize his homeland; he becomes the first Russian sovereign ever to journey abroad. Calling himself "Peter Michailoff," he travels incognito through England, France and Holland, and even works as a laborer in a naval dockyard near Amsterdam.
Maybe young Peter catches the new William Congreve play while he's in London. "The Mourning Bride" opens there in 1697, giving the world the much-misquoted line, "Music hath charms to soothe a savage breast."
And speaking of lines, we have this from aspiring rap star Ben Franklin from Poor Richard's Almanack in 1747: "A Slip of the Foot you may soon recover, But a Slip of the Tongue you may never get over."
That same year, Scottish naval surgeon James Lind, after trying, among other things, cider, vinegar, nutmeg and seawater to fight off sailors' scurvy, finally hits the jackpot with oranges and lemons.
By 1797, Washington, D.C., is still under construction, so most of the important stuff still happens in Philadelphia. John Adams, for instance, is inaugurated as the country's second president, with Thomas Jefferson as the veep. Also in Philadelphia in 1797: America's first attempt at a central water-supply system, a tower-and-tunnel network that draws water from the Schuykill River.
In Cuba, cigar makers start thinking small, and use paper wrappers made of cotton to produce the first miniature cigars - or, as they're later called, "cigarettes." And in London, haberdasher John Etherinton introduces his latest creation: the top hat. ("Fred Astaire, call your office. Fred Astaire, please call ")
Ready for a little sesquicentennial action? That's 150 years ago, but you knew that.
That's the year Michigan becomes the first state in the nation to abolish the death penalty. It's also the year that Illinois Republican Abraham Lincoln joins the U.S. House of Representatives. It's the year former slave Frederick Douglass begins publication of an abolitionist newspaper, the North Star, and Liberia becomes the first African colony to gain independence.
"Wuthering Heights" and "Jane Eyre" are published; and in Camden, Maine, there's an enduring legacy of another sort, as 15-year-old baker's apprentice Hanson Gregory punches the center out of a fried doughnut and creates the first ring-shaped doughnut. Somebody had to.
Now let's go back 100 years - to 1897.
William McKinley is sworn in as America's 25th president and pledges to do all he can to keep the country out of war. (Do the words "Spanish-American" ring a bell? Just wait a year.)
From Camden, N.J., in 1897, the Joseph Campbell Preserve Co. offers America's busy households something completely different, a double-strength "condensed soup." At only 10 cents a can, Campbell's soup is an immediate hit - while another new product destined for greatness just can't get jiggling.
In little Leroy, N.Y., one century ago, cough-medicine manufacturer Pearl B. Wait introduces a new gelatin dessert with a catchy name: Jell-O. Wait will try to sell the concoction door-to-door for two years and will get nowhere; he'll finally give up and sell the rights to the product (and the name) to a neighbor for $450.
America's first successful subway debuts in 1897, in Boston.
Also new in Beantown that year: a "marathon" foot race. You've heard of it.
And from London, Mark Twain cables a New York newspaper to assure one and all that he is not dead. "The reports of my death," he announces, "are greatly exaggerated."
It was 50 years ago that famous financier Bernard Baruch coined a phrase that would stick around for the following four decades when he said: "Let us not be deceived. We are today in the midst of a cold war. Our enemies are to be found abroad and at home."
In Washington, they're wasting little time in gearing up for this latest struggle. The Truman Doctrine pledges American support for countries attempting to fight off Soviet influence. The Marshall Plan offers massive U.S. aid to help rebuild Europe. The Central Intelligence Agency is formed.
By 1947, the House Un-American Activities Committee starts investigating alleged Communist influence in Hollywood. Uncooperative committee witnesses are held in contempt of Congress - that's not difficult - and then "blacklisted" by the movie industry itself.
Fun times? Not that stuff, but maybe some of this stuff:
Right stuff Air Force Capt. Chuck Yeager breaks the sound barrier in 1947 in his Bell X-1 rocket plane, "Glamorous Glennis." Howard Hughes is somewhat less successful with his 140-ton, eight-engine "Spruce Goose." The world's largest airplane, it makes one flight - 1 mile long.
Meanwhile, what are those other strange-looking things zipping around up there?
They're flying saucers! That's what some people out West are saying, anyway, as reports of unidentified flying objects start pouring in from nervous citizens. The Army even sends planes aloft to search the skies for the alien invaders. If they find anything, they're not saying.
Jackie Robinson breaks baseball's modern-era color barrier in 1947 with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Hit movies of 1947 include "Gentleman's Agreement" - it'll take home a Best Picture Oscar - "Life With Father" and "Miracle on 34th Street." On Broadway, the big hits are "Brigadoon" and "A Streetcar Named Desire" starring an electrifying Marlon Brando.
Speaking of things electric, the transistor is invented in 1947. So is the Polaroid instant camera. Inventor Edwin Land's little daughter wanted to see the family Christmas pictures right this minute!! Finally, America's first major aerosol food product hits the shelves in 1947: It's Reddi-whip.
The perfect topping for some of that 50-year-old Jell-O, don't you think?
Rick Horowitz is a syndicated columnist and television commentator based in Milwaukee.
LENGTH: Long : 129 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: collage of photos - Celebrating Anniversaries, of sorts,by CNBin 1997. KEYWORDS: YEAR 1997