William Osterheldt (1889 - 1969)

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

In 1889, in the year that William Osterheldt was born, on March 31st, the Eiffel Tower was inaugurated. Because the elevators were not yet in operation, officials had to climb to the top of the tower - it took an hour. On May 15th, the Tower opened to the public - still without working elevators - but around 30,000 visitors still made the climb. The elevators went into operation on the 26th. The Tower wasn't considered aesthetically pleasing at the time but is now one of the most iconic structures in the world.

In 1903, he was just 14 years old when the United States Department of Commerce and Labor was created by President Theodore Roosevelt to control the excesses of big business. Renamed the Department of Commerce 10 years later, many departments concerned with workers were transferred to the Department of Labor at that time. Another spin-off, the Bureau of Corporations, became the Federal Trade Commission.

In 1920, by the time he was 31 years old, on November 2, radio station KDKA began broadcasting in Pittsburgh, PA. This was the first commercial radio broadcast in the United States. Westinghouse, a leading manufacturer of radios and the backer of the station, chose the date because of the Presidential election. People liked it because they could hear about the results of the election between Harding and Cox before the morning papers arrived. Four years later, there were 600 commercial stations broadcasting in the U.S.

In 1941, he was 52 years old when in his State of the Union address on January 6th, President Roosevelt detailed the "four freedoms" that everyone in the world should have: Freedom of speech, Freedom of worship, Freedom from want, and Freedom from fear. In the same speech, he outlined the benefits of democracy which he said were economic opportunity, employment, social security, and the promise of "adequate health care".

In 1969, in the year of William Osterheldt's passing, on July 20th, the first men walked on the moon. Apollo 11 astronauts Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. both walked on the moon but it was Armstrong who first stepped on the moon. They fulfilled the promise of President Kennedy's commitment in 1961 to put a man on the moon before the end of the decade.