7 th January

1782 The first commercial American bank, the Bank of North America, opened.

1830 The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company began rail service.

1913 A cracking process to obtain gasoline from crude oil was patented.

1953 President Harry S Truman announced that the U. S. had developed a hydrogen bomb.

1959 The United States recognized Fidel Castro’s Cuban government.

1968 Surveyor VII landed on the moon, 1968.

1978 President Jimmy Carter said he favored a referendum on the future of Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. (See March 3rd entry.)

This is the anniversary of a few newfangled ideas. In 1830, The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company started operating out of Baltimore, Maryland. Believe it or not, the first American train was drawn by a team of horses. But nothing can keep a good idea down, and before long the country was linked by railroad tracks. In 1968, another transportation milestone was reached when the manned spaceship Surveyor VII landed on the moon.

Doing business strictly in cash is difficult and dangerous, especially if you want to expand your interests beyond your local area. When American businessmen decided to open an institution that could help them trade and negotiate with the rest of the world, they took a giant step toward national economic independence. The first commercial American bank, the Bank of North America, opened in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on this day in 1782.

The paths to many different forms of freedom can be equally explosive. It was on this date, in 1913, that William M. Burton of Chicago, Illinois, was given a patent for a cracking process that enabled him to obtain gasoline from crude oil. From one end of the globe to the other, his idea changed the way the world moves. Today, the world may not always appreciate the ultimate consequences of Mr. Burton’s discovery, but it wasn’t his concept that was the problem. It’s the way in which it was used by others. For the same reasons, President Harry S Truman might have heeded sounder advice before he

Announced the U. S. development of a hydrogen bomb on this same date in 1953, had he been privy to the future consequences of building a better bomb.

The fruits of the actions taken did not bear what their authors had anticipated. It was on this date in 1959 that the United States recognized Fidel Castro’s government in Cuba. And it was on this very day, in 1978, that President Jimmy Carter announced that he favored a referendum on the future of Palestinians living in the Israeli-held Gaza Strip and West Bank.