Walter Robert Braden Lewis (born 1843)

In 1843, in the year that Walter Robert Braden Lewis was born, on March 21st, the world didn't end! It was the first time that Baptist preacher William Miller predicted the Second Coming - he kept predicting it until his death in 1849.

In 1858, on May 11th, Minnesota became the 32nd U.S. state. It was previously the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory.

In 1890, on June 1st, the U.S. Census Bureau started tabulating census returns with punch cards. Herman Hollerith's "tabulating machine" used punch cards to more quickly compute census information, taking the time to get census results from 8 years in 1880 to 6 years for the 1890 census. Hollerith's company eventually became IBM.

In 1903, the Ford Motor Company was incorporated in June after Henry Ford left another car company he founded in 1901 (which became the Cadillac Motor Company). He began Ford Motor Company with $28,000 in cash from twelve investors, two of whom (the Dodge brothers) later began their own car company. Henry Ford improved on assembly line techniques and has been so successful that his family still controls a very popular Ford line of cars and trucks.

In 1935, on August 14, the Social Security Act was signed into law. The purpose was to "provide federal assistance to those unable to work". The law established the Social Security Administration whose primary focus was to "provide aid for the elderly, the unemployed, and children". The Act survived many Supreme Court challenges and the Administration continues until today.