Benjamin Rose (1808 - 1888)

Refresh this page to see various historical events that occurred during Benjamin's lifetime.

In 1808, in the year that Benjamin Rose was born, on February 11th, anthracite coal - the hardest form of coal - was first burned as fuel by Jesse Fell, in Pennsylvania. He burned the coal on an open air grate. This discovery led to the use of coal as the key fuel source of the industrial revolution in the United States.

In 1818, at the age of only 10 years old, Benjamin was alive when on April 4th, the United States Congress adopted the official flag of the United States. It had 13 red and white stripes - representing the original 13 colonies - and one star for each state (twenty at the time) with additional stars to be added whenever a new state was added to the Union.

In 1835, Benjamin was 27 years old when on June 2nd, P. T. Barnum and his "circus" began their first tour of the U.S. He had paid $1,000 for an elderly slave named Joice Heth, who he claimed was 161 years old and a former nurse for George Washington. Touring the northeast of the U.S., he made more than $1,000 per week. Joice died the next year - at about 80 years old.

In 1846, he was 38 years old when on November 4th, the Donner Party was stranded in the Sierra Nevada on its way to California. The ill-fated wagon train was snowed in and couldn't get out of the mountains for 3 months. Some went for help - on foot - but the majority of the 87 people in the wagon train were stuck in heavy snow, without food. Only 48 of the original settlers survived - some by cannibalism of the dead.

In 1888, in the year of Benjamin Rose's passing, on July 25th, a court stenographer from Salt Lake City - Frank Edward McGurrin - decisively beat the competition in a typing contest in Ohio. He was supposedly the only person who used touch typing and is believed to have invented the method. Touch typing is ubiquitous now - but Frank's win is what convinced everyone that the method was good!