Whistle While You …
December 15, 2007 6:34 am > MAUI TODAY, > Maui Yesterdays |
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Bill of Rights Day
HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DAY — Hokio: Whistle HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — “A standing together in twos.”
Today thru December 30thMaui Film Festival’s First Light Screenings
December 15th, 1924
Traffic on Oahu and Maui, the two most populous islands, officially gets out of hand. There are no traffic signals, so officials create a new way to control vehicles — whistles. Pedestrian crosswalks are painted on the streets along with white lines where vehicles were supposed to stop.
Traffic police with semaphores then tooted their whistles, one blast of the whistle meant traffic could move from north and south, two blasts allowed traffic to move east and west. On Oahu, left turns were banned Downtown. In Kahului, chaos ensues, and it is quickly decided that such a practice is not warranted on Maui, and it is abandoned.
The world’s first traffic light, by the way, was in London, in 1868, a revolving gas lantern with red and green glass.
HISTORICAL EVENTS ON THIS DAY – December 15th
1612: Simon Marius, is first to observe Andromeda galaxy through a telescope
1791: The first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution (the Bill of Rights) is ratified
1792: First life insurance policy issued in U.S., Philadelphia
1794: Revolutionary Tribunal abolished in France
1810: First Irish magazine in U.S., the Shamrock, is published
1820: First general pharmacopoeia in U.S. published, Boston
1836: Patent Office burns in Wash, DC
1859: GR Kirchoff describes chemical composition of Sun
1874: First reigning king to visit U.S. (of Hawaii) received by President Grant
1891: James Naismith invents basketball (Canada)
1941: USS Swordfish becomes first U.S. sub to sink a Japanese ship
1942: Massachusetts issues first U.S. vehicular license plate tabs
1944: Bandleader, Major Glenn Miller, lost over English Channel
1961: Adolf Eichmann convicted of crimes against humanity in Israel
1964: Canada adopts maple leaf flag
1965: Bangladesh windstorm kills 10,000
1966: Walt Disney dies at age 65 and is cryogenically frozen
BORN ON THIS DAY – December 15th
37: Nero, 5th Roman emperor (54-68)
1832: Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel, builder
1861: Charles Edgar Duryea, auto inventor
1892: J Paul Getty, oil magnate
1906: Betty Smith, novelist
1913: Muriel Rukeyser, poet
1916: Maurice Wilkins, Nobel physicist
1922: Alan Freed, DJ
1932: Edna O’Brien, writer
1933: Tim Conway, comic
1939: Cindy Birdsong, singer
1942: Dave Clark, rocker
1946: Carmine Appice, musician
1949: Don Johnson, actor
1963: Helen Slater, actress
