1952 First successful cardiac pacemaker
| Paul M. Zoll of Boston’s Beth Israel Hospital, in conjunction with the Electrodyne Company, develops the first successful cardiac pacemaker. Around the same time a battery-powered external machine is developed by Earl Bakken and C. Walton Lillehei. |
1953 First successful open-heart bypass surgery
| Philadelphia physician John H. Gibbon performs the first successful open-heart bypass surgery on 18-year-old Cecelia Bavolek. The device is the culmination of two decades of research and experimentation and heralds a new era in surgery and medicine. Today coronary bypass surgery is one of the most common operations performed. |
1982 First permanent artificial heart implant
| Seattle dentist Barney Clark receives the first permanent artificial heart, a silicone and rubber device designed by many collaborators, including Robert Jarvik, Don Olsen, and Willem Kolff. William DeVries of the University of Utah heads the surgical transplant team. |
1944 Federal Aid Highway Act
| The Federal Aid Highway Act authorizes the designation of 40,000 miles of interstate highways to connect principal cities and industrial centers. |
1956 New Federal Aid Highway Act
| President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs a new Federal Aid Highway Act, committing $25 billion in federal funding. Missouri is the first state to award a highway construction contract with the new funding. |
1960s Reflective paint for highway markings developed
| Paint chemist and professor Elbert Dysart Botts develops a reflective paint for marking highway lanes. When rainwater obscures the paint’s reflective quality, Botts develops a raised marker that protrudes above water level. Widely known as Botts’ Dots, the raised markers were first installed in Solano County, California, along a section of I-80. They have the added benefit of making a drumming sound when driven over, warning drivers who veer from their lanes. |
1958 United States launches its first satellite
| The United States launches its first satellite, the 30.8-pound Explorer 1. During this mission, Explorer 1 carries an experiment designed by James A.Van Allen, a physicist at the University of Iowa, which documents the existence of radiation zones encircling Earth within the planet’s magnetic field, The Van Allen Radiation Belt. |
1969 Neil Armstrong becomes the first person to walk on the Moon
| Neil Armstrong becomes the first person to walk on the Moon. The first lunar landing mission, Apollo 11 lifts off on July 16 to begin the 3-day trip. At 4:18 p.m. EST on July 20, the lunar module—with astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin E. (Buzz) Aldrin—lands on the Moon’s surface while Michael Collins orbits overhead in the command module. |
1951 First computer designed for U.S. business
| Eckert and Mauchly, now with their own company (later sold to Remington Rand), design UNIVAC (UNIVersal Automatic Computer)—the first computer for U.S. business. Its breakthrough feature: magnetic tape storage to replace punched cards. First developed for the Bureau of the Census to aid in census data collection, UNIVAC passes a highly public test by correctly predicting Dwight Eisenhower’s victory over Adlai Stevenson in the 1952 presidential race. |
1946 Tupperware
| As a chemist at DuPont in the 1930s, Earl Tupper develops a sturdy but pliable synthetic polymer he calls Poly T. By 1947 Tupper forms his own corporation and makes nesting Tupperware bowls along with companion airtight lids. Virtually breakproof, Tupperware begins replacing ceramics in kitchens nationwide. What do these 10 accomplishments have in common? Major accomplishments in health, transportation, communication and easy living? Accomplishments that cost the US government and private entities time and money? All of these and many more came during a time of incredible technological advancement and economic growth while the country was being taxed at an average of 49.5% for corporate tax rates and 72.5% top rate for private citizens. Our periods of greatest growth in American economic prosperity came first during the Eisenhower (R) administration (1953- 1961) with a top corporate rate of 52% and individual rates between 22% to 91%. The next jump came during Bill Clintons term while the country was saddled with individual rates between 15% and 39.6% and corporate rates at 37% with fewer "loopholes" than are written in our tax codes today. Even during saint Ronnies reign the top rate for corporations was 46%. Do the newly elected "members" of the freshman congressmen feel that we as a country are as good as we will ever be? Or do they just feel that they have theirs so let the future "eat cake"? Why else would they be so against changing the tax rates back to the levels that allowed this country to be the country the rest of the world could only wish they could be? To be the place they wanted to live in, be part of? Less government, lower taxes, fewer programs. No protection, no advancement, no hope for those in need. What kind of country do they envision for the future, or do they really care? |
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