Today in history—December 19
1732: Printer Benjamin Franklin begins publication of his popular Poor Richard’s Almanack under the pseudonym Richard Saunders. From the first issue:
God works wonders now & then;
Behold! a Lawyer, an honest Man!
1814: Edwin M. Stanton (left) is born in Steubenville, Ohio. He will later give up a very lucrative legal practice to become attorney general under President Buchanan and Secretary of War under President Lincoln, but will die just four days after being confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
1871 A major advance in the history of the cardboard box, as Albert Jones receives a patent for corrugated paper.
1843: Charles Dickens has a runaway best-seller with a short new work called A Christmas Carol.
1849: Henry Clay Frick, who will become a sometime competitor and sometime partner of Andrew Carnegie before going on to co-found U.S. Steel, is born in West Overton, Pennsylvania.
1917 The new National Hockey League, successor of the old National Hockey Association, begins play with five teams:: Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers, Ottawa Senators, Quebec Bulldogs, and Toronto Arenas. Only the Canadiens and the Arenas (now known as the Maple Leafs) survive.
1918 Believe it or not, Robert Ripley begins a regular newspaper column about odd stuff in the New York Globe.
1960: After years recording for Columbia Records, Frank Sinatra holds his first recording session for the new label he’s created for himself, Reprise Records. The first cut is Ring-A-Ding-Ding.
1968: Norman Thomas, the Presbyterian minister who ran six times for President on the Socialist ticket and co-founded the ACLU, dies. People who agreed with him called him “America’s Conscience.” Those who didn’t, didn’t.
1973: The Great Toilet Paper Shortage begins with Johnny Carson’s remark on The Tonight Show that the U.S. was facing a shortage of the stuff. Toilet paper begins flying off supermarket shelves, but it was only a joke.
1997: Earth’s highest-grossing film, Titanic, opens. It will gather in $1.8 billion worldwide.