Date in History: 1904
As we approach the year 2004, lets take a look back to 1904 to see what will soon be one hundred years old. In 1904, New York City opened its subway and the first Olympics ever held in the United States opened that summer in St. Louis. There were 82 million people in the United States, but there was still no Vice President and there hadn’t been one since the fall of 1901 when President McKinley was assassinated and Vice President Teddy Roosevelt assumed the Presidency.
Speaking of Teddy, the first teddy bear hit the market, as did the first ice cream cone, the telephone answering machine and the first flat disk phonograph. The average life expectancy in the U.S. was 47 – only 14% of homes had a bathtub – and 8% had a telephone. Iowa and Tennessee each had more people than California and the tallest building in the world?? – the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
This historic document aired on the radio as an Historic Minute on 12/29/2003.