Frank Halling (1888 - 1967)

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

In 1888, in the year that Frank Halling was born, on January 12th, the 'Schoolhouse Blizzard' blanketed Dakota Territory. Montana, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Texas were hit, leaving 235 dead. Many of those who perished were children on their way home from school. The day was relatively warm when it began and the blizzard hit unexpectedly, catching most by surprise.

In 1898, when he was just 10 years old, on March 24th, Robert Allison of Pennsylvania became the first person to buy an American-built car. He bought a Winton, which he had seen in an advertisement in Scientific American. The Winton, built in Ohio, was made by hand and came with a leather roof, padded seats, gas lamps, and tires made by B.F. Goodrich.

In 1916, Frank was 28 years old when the U.S. National Park Service - part of the Department of the Interior - was created by an act of Congress in August. The Park Service was charged with the dual role of "preserving the ecological and historical integrity of the places entrusted to its management while also making them available and accessible for public use and enjoyment". The resources managed by the National Park Service have often been referred to as the "crown jewels" of the United States.

In 1942, when he was 54 years old, on June 17th, Roosevelt approved the Manhattan Project, which lead to the development of the first atomic bomb. With the support of Canada and the United Kingdom, the Project came to employ more than 130,000 people and cost nearly $2 billion. Julius Robert Oppenheimer, a nuclear physicist born in New York, led the Los Alamos Laboratory that developed the actual bomb. The first artificial nuclear explosion took place near Alamogordo New Mexico on July 16, 1945.

In 1967, in the year of Frank Halling's passing, on November 7th, President Johnson signed legislation passed by Congress that created the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which would later become PBS and NPR. The legislation required CPB to operate with a "strict adherence to objectivity and balance in all programs or series of programs of a controversial nature".