The Panama Canal officially opens
France began work on the canal in 1881, but stopped due to engineering problems and a high worker mortality rate. The United States took over the project in 1904 and opened the canal on August 15, 1914.
North & Central America
Ford Motor Company institutes world’s first moving assembly line for the Model T
The assembly line, driven by conveyor belts, reduced production time for a Model T to just 93 minutes by dividing the process into 45 steps.
Frank Shuman builds the world’s first solar thermal power plant in Egypt
Frank Shuman was an American inventor, engineer, and solar energy pioneer known for his work on solar engines. Shuman built the world’s first solar thermal power station in Maadi, Egypt in 1913, using used semi circle shaped troughs to power a 60-70 horsepower engine that pumped 6,000 gallons of water per minute from the Nile River to adjacent cotton fields.
ʻAbdu’l-Bahá travels to the Americas to spread his teachings about the unity of humankind
When he arrived in America, newspapers called him the “Apostle of Peace.” He “will surely unite the East and West,” the president of Stanford University remarked, “for he treads the mystic way with practical feet.”
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is founded
The NAACP is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du Bois, Mary White Ovington, Moorfield Storey and Ida B. Wells.
The Ford Company invents the Model T, the first car affordable to the masses
Conceived by Henry Ford as practical, affordable transportation for the common man, it quickly became prized for its low cost, durability, versatility, and ease of maintenance.
Wright Brothers invent first successful airplane
With over a thousand glides from atop Big Kill Devil Hill, the Wrights made themselves the first true pilots.
The 12-minute-long silent film, The Great Train Robbery becomes the first narrative movie ever
The Great Train Robbery’s popularity led directly to the opening up of permanent movie theaters and the possibility of a future film industry.
Clara Abbott of Abbott Laboratories becomes perhaps the first women ever to serve on a corporate board
She served on the board of Abbott Laboratories from 1900 to 1908 and from 1911 to 1924 before the company was publicly listed, blazing a trail for female business leaders for decades to come.
Mark Twain publishes “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”
Set in a Southern antebellum society that had ceased to exist over 20 years before the work was published, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is an often scathing satire on entrenched attitudes, particularly racism.