Trivia - First Driver's License
I used to like checking a new word in the dictionary for fun every day, and love Trivial Pursuit. I just joined a subscription to 'Ask Yahoo' and thought I'd share this:
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Dear Yahoo!:When did the United States begin requiring government-issued driver licenses?Jean
Brookfield, Wisconsin
Dear Jean:In a word, or rather a year, 1903. According to the
Voluntaryist, that was when the first states, Missouri and Massachusetts, passed laws requiring all drivers to have a license.
Up until then, horseless carriages were thought of as just that -- carriages without horses. There was no licensing requirement to "drive" a horse. Even though Missouri was first to require a driver license, it wasn't until 1952 that the state required a driver examination. Massachusetts required a driver examination for commercial chauffeurs as early as 1907.
The
National Conference of State Legislatures asserts that Rhode Island was the first state to require a license, passing the law in 1908.
Prior to 1903, some cities and towns tried licensing requirements. The Voluntaryist states that Chicago passed a law in 1898 requiring the owners of almost anything with wheels, including bicycles and wagons, to be licensed. That law was later ruled unconstitutional.
Regulation was pretty loose in many states through the 1930s and '40s. In
Georgia, for example, there was no test; one sent for a license by mail.
South Dakota was the last state to pass a law requiring drivers to be licensed. In 1954, the state required drivers to be licensed, and five years later added an examination.
Hurray for Georgia!
http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/12/12_7_22.gifHAPPY NEW YEAR!
Any other trivia is very welcome, a change from sadness and frustration..
In the world today, where - now it's been said - that 13 percent of Americas teens are already depressed, not counting the rest of the world, we need a little distraction now and then. Any trivia you have, please post. Thanks and HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!
More Trivia to add... School Grades in America
Dear Yahoo!:
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When did the A to F grading system start? And what happened to E?JJ
Glendale, CaliforniaDear JJ:An excellent question and one we thought we could answer in a flash. Not so. After much digging, we found an article in
The Washington Post that states the first letter grade given in the United States was a "B" at Harvard University in 1883.
Prior to that time and up to about 1900, most institutions of higher learning used the numeric system (0-100) for grading. According to the Georgia State University web site, from about 1900 to the 1960s, colleges and universities became more general in grading. Hence, the letter-grade system became popular.
Georgia State University surveyed 1,395 two-year colleges, four-year colleges, and universities, and found 89.8% use the letter-grading system with a tendency to add plus or minus.
About that "E" grade -- some schools have used the E instead of F, but we speculate too many students tried to convince their parents the "E" stood for "excellent." It's much harder to trick parents into believing an "F" stands for "fantastic."
Some academics
oppose this system of grading. One Stanford University professor claims students tend to take only courses in which they can get good grades. It would be much better, he states, if students explored courses in subjects of interest to them and there were no grades. Where was this guy when we were in school?
Again, Georgia is mentioned... I wonder and love that state, and not just because my daughter was born there, so she's a Georgia Peach!
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