12-12-12

He guys! I'm sure you know the date today is 12-12-12! The last time in our lifetime we will see a triple date repeat thing! Its weird cause my parents barely care, but my entire K-12 education has had a triple date like that! I was in first grade in '01! January was 1-1-01! And ever since then we have had a date like that when I was in school! Its like a part of my childhood is dying!
Today's special significance has also prompted me to think about the last time earth had seen a 12-12-12. It would have been December 12th, 1912! I wonder if they were as stoked about it as we were, as vocal about their excitement!? They probably didn't have a lot of time to think, they were probably interested in things like putting food on the table. But I decided to see what happened on 12-12-12 way back when... and this is when I found!
The only nod really in America toward 12-12-12 was in a Filene's Ad, with a hand written date at the top of the ad. As it turns out Dec. 12th 1912 was a thursday, making Friday the 13th preceding it! Which the papers were more interested in! The Boston Globe published, on Friday the 13th, about how two significant dates were next to each other. They urged shoppers to "keep their safety clutches tightened on handbags and pocket books" and recommended the "kleptomaniacs who are doing their shoplifting early should make their hands behave today or the jail bells may ring out for them on Christmas morn." Hahaha! Turns out they were interested in the date and had the same sense of humor! Here is the link to that Boston Globe Post! (http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/downtown/2012/12/recognizing_121212_in_the_bost.html)  
I also came upon multiple people pointing out that only accountants, bankers, and/or bookkeepers would see the written date! Also, journalists would see the date as they publish it in their papers. Average people did not write the date like we do frequently today. Nor did they have phones to flash the date at us whenever we turn it on!
I also found that Eben Appleton wrote a very important letter to Charles Walcott on Dec. 12th, 1912. The Appleton family owned the famous giant American flag that is now in the Smithsonian! The flag that is mentioned in the Star-Spangled Bannor, yah, that one. He wrote a letter to Charles Walcott to donate the flag to the Smithsonian on this day! So thats pretty cool!
Around this time in general culture, ragtime was making a showing of itself, the Federal Reserve System was just being presented to President-Elect Woodrow Wilson, the Triple Alliance was renewed in Vienna, the first airplane flew across the Mediterranean, and alliances were forming for the World War!
Pretty cool huh? I hope today's 12-12-12 will be as cool!

Wonder what the next 12-12-12 will bring!?