On this day: Obama wins the Iowa Caucus

Just two years ago (although it seems like longer) some big-eared black dude won the Iowa caucuses and then, apparently, went on to win the White House and now we are all socialist. But the launching pad for Obama was the Iowa caucuses.

While the caucuses are now a quadrennial fixture on the political calendar, they're a relatively recent phenomenon. The first caucuses were in 1976, when Jimmy Carter came in second to an uncommitted slate (and claimed a win). But they were bigger news in 1980, and rose through 1988. In 1992, native son Tom Harkin won the state without competition, but the relevance grew through Howard Dean's scream in 2004. With the date of the caucuses moved so early in 2008, that year didn't eclipse '04, but the cycle, with 2007 garnering nearly as much press as 2008, did.

How big are the Iowa caucuses in an otherwise not-that-interesting (no offense, Iowa) state? Well, you can pick them out on a chart of, simply, Iowa:

Of course, compare that to New Hampshire, where, apparently, there's really no industry outside of the primary

especially since 1988, when New Hampshire seems to get double the press play in election cycle years as it does at other times.

On this day: Air Florida goes down

IN 1983, discount airline Air Florida had a flight leaving National Airport in DC (well, in Virginia) for Florida. After some time in the snow, the pilots, who did not want to return to the terminal for de-icing and had attempted to keep the plane snow-free by moving close to planes in front of them, elected to take off. It was the wrong choice—the last of many the pilots made. Flight 90 crashed in to the freezing Potomac, killing nearly everyone aboard, and several people on the bridge into which it crashed. Flight 90 peaked news coverage for Air Florida, which would only be surpassed two years later when the airline folded.

On this day: human cloning

No, no humans were cloned on this day. But, back in 1998, an international treaty banning human cloning was signed in Paris. The late 1990s and early 2000s were the heyday of the controversy over human cloning—it's since declined dramatically as a concern.

On this day: Earhart crosses the Pacific

In the second-to-last major flight of her career, Amelia Earhart flew from Honolulu to Oakland, the first solo flight from Hawai'i to the mainland. Two years later, she'd again visit Hawai'i, this time as her final stop before the ill-fated journey west across the Pacific.

The 1937 peaked news coverage of Earhart, which dropped rather precipitously with the coming of the war. Other peaks in news have generally had to do with various searches for or conspiracy theories about her demise, although none has found any concrete information. If any ever turns up, it may change this graph considerably, but that's unlikely.

On this day: Standard Oil incorporated

One of the worlds great monopolies began today—140 years ago. John Rockefeller incorporated Standard Oil and built it in to a mega-corporation, which was dissolved by the trustbusting Teddy Roosevelt in 1911 (actually, it was dissolved by the courts as TR was out of office.)

Standard continued to be a dominant brand through the 1930s, but has slipped significantly since, as various Standard Oils (as the broken-up companies were called) were remerged and renamed. Exxon, Mobil, Amoco, Texaco, Chevron—all are descendants of Standard.

On this day: the longest run

On this day in 2006, the Phantom of the Opera became the longest running Broadway musical of all time. It jumped in relevance in the late 1980s, and again in 2004-5, when it was made in to a movie, although the 2006 milestone was merely a blip against these other events.

"Phantom" replaced another Lloyd Webber production, Cats, as the longest-running show, although Cats' chart has kept news relevance for a longer period of time, even since it was canceled in 2002.

On this day: War on Poverty declared

The US has fought many wars which weren't wars, one of which was the War on Poverty. It was started by Lyndon Johnson on this day in 1964 and never became more relevant than that first year, declining to nearly zero by the end of Johnson's term. There were some mentions of it going forwards, but it has never regained a foothold in the American news cycle.

On this day: Impeach!

In 1999 the US House started impeachment hearings against President Clinton, for only the third time in history. Not surprisingly, impeach has only leapt up during presidential impeachments in the US (as opposed to judicial impeachments, or foreign impeachments), but it is interesting how quickly it has fallen. After Nixon resigned (and ended the long national nightmare), impeachment fell off the map, to pre-Nixonian levels, if not lower. After the Clinton impeachment failed, impeachment disappeared—it was not made an issue in the next election and only crept up after calls to impeach the next president.

And that other impeachment? Well, the little peak in the late 1860s was the impeachment of Andrew Johnson, which also fell rather precipitously, even as he survived by just one vote.

On this day: Four Freedoms

In 1941, during the run-up to the United States joining World War II (aided by Japan), FDR gave his "Four Freedoms" speech. While it has fallen from prominence some since, it had a lot of play during the war.

Even though the speech was in early 1941 and there were a few intervening events later that year, it was referenced more in 1942 and then in 1943. The freedoms, of speech and religion, and from want and fear, were incorporated in to the UN declaration of human rights, and while a man on the street might not be able to rattle off the Four Fears today, they likely could 65 years ago.

On this day: Sonny pulls a "Sonny"

In 1998, a week after Michael Kennedy died while skiing, Sonny Bono did the same thing. Bono had shown up in the news some starting in the mid-1960s, and moreso in the 1980s and 1990s when he moved from music to politics. Still, relevance jumped up following his death in 1998, although it's subsided some since.

On this day: Charles Stuart leaps off the Mystic River Bridge

In one of Boston's last big race-war stories, Charles "Chuck" Stuart abandoned his car in the middle of the Mystic River Bridge, and leapt to his death on January 4, 1990. Stuart had claimed that a black man had carjacked him and his pregnant wife, killed her, and shot him as well. In a city still reeling from a decade of race relations issues, this was big news.

But it didn't stand up. While Stuart's wounds were not likely self-inflicted, his brother stepped forwards and said that it was a ruse to get a hefty life insurance payment. With the new allegations swelling, Stuart drove to the apex of the highest bridge in the city, parked his car, and jumped. Well, case closed.

The case has had some staying power, and while it peaked in 1989 and 1990, Charles Stuart has been rather constant coverage of the case for the last two decades.

On this day: Alaska is #49

On this day in 1959, Alaska was admitted to the Union. Hawaii would follow soon thereafter. Peaks in its relevance have occurred, several times, but the last frontier has never had a watershed event for publicity, nor dramatic growth.

This might be a fun time to play "guess the peaks." Each date is linked to a relevant Wikipedia article.

1867

1898

1942

1959—statehood

1964

1978

1989

2008

On this day: The Double Nickel

When gas prices skied in 1973, one idea to bring down consumption was a national speed limit. Before 1973, many western states had speed limits of 75 or even 80, which led to higher gas consumption. Congress passed a national speed limit in 1974, and mandated 55 as the speed limit nationwide.

It was modified in the mid 1980s to allow for some roads to be 65 mph, and repealed in 1995, hence the big jump. The other bumps are in 2008, when gas prices led some to renew a call for a limit, and the early 1940s, when driving was curtailed by the war, but the lack of interstate highways did not allow for truly high (and wasteful) speeds.

The chart for speed limit is has similar peaks; it's interesting to see how the relevance of speed limit only began in 1900, and has otherwise peaked whenever national limits were set or repealed.

On this day: Remember Y2K?

So, 10 years ago, no one celebrated anything because we were afraid about planes and satellites falling out of the sky, right? And then nothing happened. Y2K peaked in 1999 and was almost unheard of after 2000—early 2000.

There was a minor peak in early 2007, however. Why? Well, daylight savings changed in 2007, and it was referred to as a mini-Y2K. And just like the real Y2K, nothing happened.

On this day: Edison presents his light bulb.

On this day a long, long time ago, in 1879 (that's 120 years for the maths-averse), Thomas Edison brought us the light bulb. He'd been working on it some, but on the last day of the 1870s, it was presented to the world.

It caused a stir then, and onwards, but the peak of relevance for Edison was in 1931, when he died. Since then, however, companies like Con Ed (Consolidated Edison) and Com Ed (Commonwealth Edison) have kept the name in the news to the present.

How important was Edison's invention? Well, the term light jumped in relevance when he invented the light bulb, and peaked when he died. I guess it's nice to be able to see.

On this day: First Freeway

The term "freeway" today is well-steeped in the English language. But on this day in 1940, the first such freeway opened in California. What is now known as the Arroyo Seco Freeway opened in LA. In the early 20th century, the Pacific Electric railway ruled long-distance travel in Los Angeles; it'd be a thing of the past within 20 years, and freeways would sprawl across LA and much of the rest of the country. The term freeway only arose in the mid-1930s. It jumped in relevance in 1940 and 1941, but with the coming of the war disappeared for the next couple of years (what with tire and gas rationing and no cars being built). Of course, after the war, it rose steadily as the Interstate system was built, and then leveled off and fell as the system reached maturity.

What are the peaks in 1989 and 1994? The Loma Prieta an Northridge earthquakes which, amongst other things, collapsed freeways, snarling traffic in the Bay Area and LA, respectively, and making big news of freeways.

As far as the Arroyo Seco Freeway is concerned, it peaked with its opening in 1940 and 1941, fell dramatically during the war, and then peaked with its completion in the early 1950s.

The next peak, in 2003, was when the road was closed to traffic for a day to allow cyclists, rollerbladers and pedestrians to access the roadway where, for more than 60 years, only cars had ventured. The road, of course, reopened later that day.

On this day: Havel elected president

After 40 years of Soviet Occupation, the Velvet Revolution liberated the Czechs from their Russian oppressors, and they created a democratic government. A month and a half later, 20 years ago today, playwright and intellectual  Vaclav Havel was elected to the presidency unanimously by the Federal Assembly, which he retained months later in a full, free election. He'd generally maintain the presidency during the breakup of Czechoslovakia, and hold the Czech Republic's presidency until 2003.

Vaclav Havel's relevance peaked, of course, in 1989 and 1990, and continued to be rather high during his presidency. However, it's interesting to note the Prague Spring in the late 1960s, when Havel had plays performed in the Czech Republic, which were then banned. Compared with his presidency, it was not high at all, but it does show the relevance he had when press was somewhat free in that time period—and not for a while afterwards.

On this day: the first American IVF baby

 The first in-vitro fertilized baby born in the US, Elizabeth Jordan Carr was born on today's date in 1981. She was newsworthy then, and has been checked in on by the press from time to time since, although IVF is so common now that she's not particularly noteworthy:

What's interesting is that while today we might call her an IVF baby, we would not have done so, at least not until several years after she was born. The term in-vitro fertilization reached its peak relevance in 1989, and has leveled off and fallen some since.

IVF, on the other hand, wasn't used until 1984, and was then only used sparingly until it climbed dramatically in the late 1990s, probably when the Internet and assorted communication changes made for more abbreviating.

On this day: Guantanamo opens

On December 27, 2001, it was announced that "enemy combatants" would be held at Guantanamo Bay, in Cuba. It was not, of course, the first time that Guantanamo had been in the news.

Guantanamo first was mentioned in the early 1960s when tensions were high with Cuba (see Missile Crisis, Cuban). But things simmered down there and it became one of many US-operated bases in foreign lands worldwide. In the 1990s, there was a period where it house Hatian and even some Cuban refugees, but that was disallowed by the courts, and it sank back in to oblivion. Until, of course, 2002, when enemy combatants (see below) were first housed there—we'll see how it fares once they are moved stateside.

On this day: tsunami vs. tidal wave

It was December 26 in 2004 that the tsunami hit. There have been other tsunamis back through the years, but it was the one in 2004 that caused the most damage, or was at least the most widely reported. Before then, tsunamis were rarely in the news, but since 2004 (and 2005, when most of the coverage occurred), they show up quite often.

Still, it seems bizarre. Were there really no tsunamis before 2004? Was 2004's so big that it blew coverage out of proportion to this degree? Nope. The difference, of course, is that befre 2004, we were more likely to call a tsunami by its misnomer, a tidal wave.

 Tidal wave coverage also peaked in coverage in the mid-2000s, but in 2004, not 2005. Many early news reports were about "tidal waves" but, presumably, editors got on board with "tsunami" and the term tidal wave ebbed."Tsunami" has stayed significantly higher since 2004, and "tidal wave" has dropped to pre-1990 levels.

A couple more notes. First, you can see that there were tidal waves in 1946, and 1960, although it becomes more muddled after that. Second, if you look at recent uses of tidal wave in the news, it is more likely to be used as a figure of speech, "a tidal wave of trash" or "an olympic tidal wave" or "a tidal wave of rage." In the past, it was more likely to describe the wave itself. When will we talk about a "tsunami of public outpouring" or a "a tidal wave of applicants"?