MIKE DAY
This day is celebrated by disc jockeys, TV hosts, movie stars, department store announcers, rock groups, politicians and many, many others. For it was on this day in 1877 that Emile Berliner, the man behind so many inventions, came up with a thing called the microphone. Good thing, too, because the Bell System, run by Alexander Graham Bell, was in desperate need of something to save it from financial ruin -- and to help the progress of the telephone. 

So, the Bell Labs came up with a compact way to put Mr. Berliner’s microphone on a wooden box, with a crank, an earpiece, a cradle hook for the earpiece and some wires, and called it the telephone. 

There was no such thing as a telephone dial. One rang up ‘Jenny’ (the operator) with three turns on the crank. That got her to put a cord into the switchboard connecting you directly to the phone you were calling. Because of the microphone, people could hear you speak. Neat, huh? 

And in 1957, operators in upstate New York (90 miles from Manhattan) and other somewhat rural areas throughout the U.S. were still saying, “Number, plee-uz” into their little mouthpiece microphones attached to headsets. 

Even as late as the 1980s, the average Joe would shy away when a microphone was stuck in his face. Today, with all the amazing electronic gadgets we have, hardly a soul is afraid of a microphone. Witness karaoke! 

1930 - Emma Fahning became the first woman bowler to make a perfect score in competition sanctioned by the Women’s International Bowling Congress in Buffalo, NY. 

1933 - Franklin D. Roosevelt wird als 32. Präsident der USA vereidigt
March 4, 1933: Fifty-one-year-old Franklin Delano Roosevelt is sworn in as the 32nd President of the United States. Asking the Congress to give him broad executive powers, "as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe", Roosevelt assured the nation that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." (Read President Franklin D. Roosevelt's First Inaugural). The United States is facing one of the worst economic crises in its history. Almost 25 percent of the workforce is unemployed, leaving 13 million people out of work. The nation's financial institutions are failing. Over the past 3 1/2 years scores of banks have closed, factories have shutdown and farmers have been evicted from their lands. During his presidential campaign, Roosevelt promised a "new deal for the American people", declaring that "Our greatest primary task is to put people to work." During the first 100 days of his Presidential Administration, Roosevelt pushed through Congress his New Deal legislation which consisted of mass government intervention to employ millions of unemployed Americans. FDR was the last President to be inaugurated on March 4th. The 20th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which passed in 1933, stipulated that the terms of future Presidential Administrations would end at noon on January 20th. After being re-elected by a landslide in the 1936 election, Roosevelt was sworn in on January 20, 1937, amidst the pouring rain of that day in the nation's capital. Roosevelt was the only President to be elected to more than two Presidential terms.

 1939 - Paula Prentiss (Ragusa)
actress: What’s New Pussycat; Last of the Red Hot Lovers, Where the Boys Are, Man’s Favorite Sport, He & She, geboren

1942 - Shirley Temple had a starring role in Junior Miss on CBS radio this day. The show, heard for the first time, cost $12,000 a week to produce and stayed on the airwaves until 1954. 

1942 - The Stage Door Canteen opened on West 44th Street in New York City. The canteen became widely known as a service club for men in the armed forces and a much welcomed place to spend what would otherwise have been lonely hours. The USO, the United Service Organization, grew out of the ‘canteen’ operation, to provide entertainment for American troops around the world.