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On the date

Friday, September 18, 1908

From the day

Perspective: The Future Historian · Sight

The sun catches the crisp shimmer of a new Cellophane wrapper discarded near the newsstand, where headlines scream of steel trusts and political immunity. I watch a blockhead in a stiff wool suit stumble as he gawks at the rhythmic precision of the emerging Ford assembly line, a mechanical heartbeat beginning to pulse through the city's veins. A nearby lab technician obsessively checks his primitive Geiger counter, oblivious to the sharp, high-collared silhouettes of the passing elite. Below the neon theater glow, the air hums with the distant, haunting melody of "Shine On, Harvest Moon."

Memories from that day

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The Headlines

STEEL TRUST AIDS TAFT, SAYS BRYAN; Corporation Supporting Republican Party in Return for Immunity from Prosecution. DELAWARE FARMERS CHEER Nebraskan Declares Roosevelt's Indictment Against Swollen Fortunes Is an Indictment Against His Own Party.

Read in The New York Times →

Best-selling Sheet Music

Shine On, Harvest Moon

Nora Bayes & Jack Norworth

The must-have

Rook (Card Game)

Slang

Slang of the decade

General

bullyfit as a fiddleblockhead

Aristocrat

capitalmy wordbally

Working Class

gadzooksblimeychump

Catchphrases of 1908

  • Take me out to the ball game

Tech Check

Ford Model T (Assembly Line), Geiger Counter & Cellophane.

Cost of Living (1900)

Loaf of Bread

$0.05

Gallon of Gas

$0.10

Average Home

$3,200

New Car

$1,000

Time Elapsed

42,994 days ago

(117 years, 289 days)