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On the date

Saturday, June 19, 1909

From the day

Perspective: The Future Historian · Tactile

The heavy wool of my morning coat chafes against my neck as I stir a gritty slurry of instant coffee, marveling at the chemical tang of progress. On the sideboard, the newly polished toaster gleams, its glowing wires promising a future where heat is harnessed by the flick of a switch rather than the soot of a coal range. Some blockhead downstairs just discharged a pistol, yet the new silencer reduced the lethal crack to a mere heavy thud against the floorboards. I thumb a smooth Rook card, pondering the hundred-million-dollar subway proposal that will soon pulse like a steel artery beneath my very feet.

Memories from that day

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The Headlines

OFFERS TO BUILD VAST SUBWAY SYSTEM; Bradley-Gaffney-Steers Plan to Spend $101,000,000, City Putting Up Only $26,000,000. NEW LINE BRONX TO THE BAY Proposal Gives a Ride from Van Cortlandt Park to Bay Ridge for a Nickel, with Transfers to Brooklyn Lines. OFFERS TO BUILD VAST SUBWAY SYSTEM

Read in The New York Times →

Best-selling Sheet Music

Put On Your Old Grey Bonnet

Percy Wenrich

The must-have

Rook (Card Game)

Slang

Slang of the decade

General

bullyfit as a fiddleblockhead

Aristocrat

capitalmy wordbally

Working Class

gadzooksblimeychump

Catchphrases of 1909

  • Peary to the Pole

Tech Check

Toaster, Silencer for Guns & Instant Coffee.

Cost of Living (1900)

Loaf of Bread

$0.05

Gallon of Gas

$0.10

Average Home

$3,200

New Car

$1,000

Time Elapsed

42,720 days ago

(117 years, 15 days)