By Zola Elder
FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. It was founded on January 15, 1889, evolving from the American Graphophone Company, the successor to the Volta Graphophone Company. Columbia is the oldest surviving brand name in the recorded sound business, and the second major company to produce records. From 1961 to 1991, its recordings were released outside North America under the name CBS Records to avoid confusion with EMI‘s Columbia Graphophone Company. Columbia is one of Sony Music’s four flagship record labels: Epic Records, and former longtime rivals, RCA Records and Arista Records as the latter two were originally owned by BMG before its 2008 relaunch after Sony’s acquisition alongside other BMG labels.
In 1908 Columbia commenced successful mass production of what they called their “Double-Faced” discs, the 10-inch variety initially selling for 65 cents apiece.
TODAY’S ALMANAC
Question of the Day
Advice of the Day
Home Hint of the Day
Word of the Day
Puzzle of the Day
Born
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge (poet) –
- Alfred Bernhard Nobel (inventor) –
- Dizzy Gillespie (musician) –
- Edward “Whitey” Ford (baseball player) –
- Ursula K. Le Guin (author) –
- Manfred Mann (musician) –
- Dr. Ronald McNair (astronaut) –
- Carrie Fisher (actress) –
- Douglas G. Hurley (astronaut) –
Died
- Lord Nelson (British admiral) –
- Jack Kerouac (poet) –
- Fred Berry (actor) –
Events
- U.S.S. Constitution launched, Boston, Massachusetts–
- Lord Horatio Nelson of Great Britain and his men destroyed a combined French and Spanish fleet in the Battle of Trafalgar–
- Thomas Edison successfully tested for the first time a carbon-filament incandescent light bulb–
- Columbia ran an advertisement in The Saturday Evening Post for the first two-sided record–
- Margaret Owen set a typing speed record on a manual typewriter of 170 words per minute–
- The Guggenheim Museum of Art, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, opened in New York City–
- Trimline phone was first placed in service, in Michigan–
- Movie My Fair Lady premiered–
- Native American saint Kateri Tekakwitha canonized–
Weather
- The temperature in Boston, Massachusetts, was 80 degrees F–
COURTESY www.almanac.com
