Whenever I buy vintage items to sell, I will look for information on the internet or in a reference book I have about that item.  I always run across some great tidbits about something else that happened during a certain year.

Here is what I have run across for the year 1988:

May 27 saw the release of Windows 2.1.  This was the first version of Windows to require a hard disk drive in the computer.

June 12 saw Rusty Wallace win the last NASCAR Winston Cup race at Riverside International Raceway.

July 15 saw the debut of the blockbuster movie DIE HARD in movie theaters.

October 20—the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Oakland A’s on this date to win Major League Baseball’s World Series.

December 31—Extremely dense fog created The Fog Bowl game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Chicago Bears.  The fog was so dense that the fans could not see the players or the game.

1988 also saw DC Comics run a phone poll asking people to vote on Batman’s sidekick Robin live or die for the famous storyline called “Death In The Family”.

Table Tennis also became a sport in the Olympics.

This is just a few of the things that happened in 1988.  What are some of things that you know happened in 1988?

Whenever I happen to buy an item to sell, I will look either online or in reference books that I have to see what I can find out about that item.  It could be anything from a little history about the item or even when it made its debut.

Here are some of the things that I have found that debuted in 1939:

January 1—the Hewlett-Packard Company is founded.

April 14—The Grapes Of Wrath By John Steinbeck is first published.

April 30—The World’s Fair Opened in New York and ran until October 27, 1940.

May 1—the debut appearance of Batman in Detective Comics number 27 and it was released by DC Comics.

1939 saw The Wizard Of OZ hit the theaters August 15 and Gone With The Wind hit the theaters December 15.

This is just a few of the items that made their debut in 1939.  What items do you know of that debuted in 1939?

Whenever I run across an item, I will look either in reference books or online to see what I can find out about that item.  There are times when I happen to run across some fun facts about other items.

Here are some fun facts for the year 1910:

January 10—Joyce Hall founded Hallmark Cards.

February 8—The Boy Scouts Of America are incorporated.

April 10—Halley’s comet arrived in the inner solar system.

July 24 saw James MacGillvray publish an account of Paul Bunyan in THE DETROIT NEWS.

1910 also saw G. Washington mass produce instant coffee and The Tor electric washing machine to become the first commercially available electric clothes washer in the United States.

The Buick 60 Special that was made by Buick made its debut in 1910. These are only a few of the things that happened for the year 1910.  What are some fun facts that you have run across?

Whenever I buy an item to sell, I will find out everything out that I can about that item.  Along the way, I happen to find out something that happened during a particular year.  It could be an item made its debut or even a new fad that came about.

What are some of the things that happened in 1912?

On February 19, Cracker Jack’s prize in every box made its debut.

March 6th saw the National Biscuit Company (better known as Nabisco) sold its very first Oreo Cookie.

April 15 saw the sinking of the RMS Titanic after it stuck an iceberg.  Even after the sinking, the popularity of both the ship and the items related to the ship have been very popular.

December 6 saw the Nefertiti Bust being found at Amarna in Egypt.  The German Oriental Company that was led by archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt found it, and it has become one of the most copied images from ancient Egypt.

The Keystone Cops (also known as Keystone Kops) make their debut in silent film slapstick comedies from the Keystone Film Company in 1912.

This is only a handful of things that happened during 1912.  What are some things that happened that you have heard of?

Whenever I do research on the items that I just bought, I often run across some fun facts that happened during a certain year.  It could be a product that was released in a certain year, an advertising icon was debuted, or even something was invented that we never thought we could do without.

So what are some of the things that happened in the year 1928?

January 1—the first office building with air conditioning opened to the public.

July 9—saw the debut of the Plymouth car.

July 29—Walt Disney creates some test footage for Steamboat Willie.  This footage features the iconic character Mickey Mouse.

The famous British brand of men’s hair styling products called Brylcreem makes its debut.

An accountant for the Fleer Chewing Gum Company by the name of Walter Diemer invents the fruit flavored (and usually pink) Dubble Bubble gum in 1928.

This is just a handful of the things that happened in 1928.  What are some of the things that you heard of?

In 1883, the United States mint released a new 5 cent coin design.  There was one problem with it—it came without the word CENT anywhere on the coin.

The 5-cent coin quickly became known as the “Racketeer Nickel” because there was a group of people that would gold plate the coins and pass them off as $5 gold coins.

One of the more famous of people to be accused of gold plating the coins is a man by the name of Josh Tatum.  Josh would walk into a store and purchase an item for 5 cents.  He would then pay for it with the gold-plated fake.  Sometimes he would get $4.95 in change, and sometimes he wouldn’t if the clerk knew the actual denomination of the coin really was.

He then would leave with his purchase.  The striking thing about the entire thing was the fact that Josh would not say a single word throughout the entire transaction.

Why is this?  It is believed that Josh was a deaf mute.

The law finally caught up to Josh and promptly arrested and tried him for fraud.  The charges could not stick because of the fact that he did not say a word when the purchase was made, so it was up to the clerk to decide if the coin was worth 5 cents or 5 dollars.

The phrase “Just Joshing you” to this story.

What amazing bits of history like this have you heard?

Whenever I am looking up an item that I have recently bought, I will occasionally run across a fun fact that happened during a certain year.  You never know what you might run across, and I always find what I run across interesting.

Here is what I have run across for the year 1946:

The movie IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE was considered a failure at the box office when it came out in 1946.  What helped make it a Christmas classic was a clerical error that put the film in the public domain.  This let many local TV networks to play the movie for free starting in 1974.

The Cozy Dog made its debut in 1946.  This was the first corn dog on a stick, and it was invented by Ed Waldmire Jr.

The Magic 8 Ball, Lionel Trains with ‘steam’ and even the Streater Steam shovel truck were popular Christmas gifts for 1946.

This is a small handful of what I have run across for the 1946 year.  What interesting tidbits have you run across?