Business History for the week of May 21-27

Every day, the US Federal Aviation Administration’s Air Traffic Organization (ATO) provides service to more than 42,000 flights and 2.5 million airline passengers across more than 29 million square miles of airspace. That includes those of us in the air for our Marketing and Social Media agencies. Where would business history be without the airplane? Where would we be without the Wright Brothers, who this week back on May 22, 1906 received the first airplane patent in the U.S. for their “new and useful improvements in Flying Machines.”

Some other events we at Buzz Bear Media found in business history that contributed directly or indirectly to the expansion of engagement between sellers and buyers of products & services:

5/21/1927 Charles A. Lindbergh lands at Le Bourget Field in Paris, successfully completing the first solo, nonstop transatlantic flight and the first ever nonstop flight between New York to Paris. An owner of hotels in New York had put up a purse of $25,000 to the first aviator or aviators to complete such a nonstop flight. At 10:24 p.m. Paris time, the dark sky was pierced as his gray and white monoplane slipped out of obscurity and into history. There was an estimated crowd of 150,000 people waiting. Lindbergh, weary from his 33 1/2-hour, 3,600-mile journey, was cheered and lifted above their heads. He hadn’t slept for 55 hours.

5/21/1932 Amelia Earhart becomes the first pilot to repeat Lindbergh’s feat, landing her plane in Ireland after flying across the North Atlantic. Earhart traveled over 2,000 miles from Newfoundland in just under 15 hours. (In 1935, in the first flight of its kind, she also flew solo from Wheeler Field in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Oakland, California, winning a $10,000 award posted by Hawaiian commercial interests, according to History.com)

5/23/1903 Paris, France and Rome, Italy were connected by telephone for first time.

5/24/1844 Samuel Morse sends the first telegraphic message over a line from Washington, D.C. to Baltimore. This formally opened America’s first telegraph line. It was the first steps in instant communication.

5/25/1977 Star Wars was unleashed on the public and Hollywood was never the same. The success of Star Wars gave the science-fiction film genre a huge financial & creative boost. It also ushered in the concept of the profitable summer blockbuster.

It was a good week for business then, the Buzz Bear Media team hopes you make it a good one for you and your customers this week.