Birth of the Dollar-Bill Printing Press

August 29, 1862 is the birthday of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, born of President Abraham Lincoln's need to finance the Civil War.  Because of wartime inflation, Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase elected to print "paper coins," replacing silver change, which had become scarce. The Bureau began in the basement of the Treasury Building, with a staff of six.  They didn't print dollar notes at first, but the Bureau started printing Greenbacks when the Civil War dragged on.  Since 1862, the Bureau has grown from six to 2,800 employees, in two offices in Washington, D.C., and Fort Worth, Texas.  Today, the bureau turns out 6.5 billion notes a year.

Cold War Benchmarks

On August 29, 1918, the new Soviet Premier, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was almost killed by an assassin's bomb.  Thirty years earlier, his older brother had tried to bomb the Czar.

Another kind of terrorist bomb resurfaced in Russia on the same date, 31 years later: On August 29, 1949, in remote Kazakhstan, the USSR successfully detonated its first atomic bomb, code-named 'First Lightning.' In late December, Klaus Fuchs, a German-born physicist who had helped the U.S. build its first atomic bombs, was arrested for passing nuclear secrets to the Soviets, including a blueprint of the 'Fat Man' atomic bomb dropped on Japan in 1945.

Postscript: August 29, 1991 marked the official end of the Communist Party's 74-year reign over the Russian collective they called The Soviet Union.  The final, last-ditch "hard-liner's" coup attempt failed earlier in that week with the emergence of Boris Yeltsin as Russian President.

Money Men Born Today

August 29, 1938 is the birthday of Robert Rubin, who served the first Clinton Administration as America's 70th Secretary of the Treasury.  He was born in New York City.

August 29, 1941 is the birthday of Robin Leach, the jet-setting host of the popular 1980s TV show, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.  He was born in London, England. 

Auto-Related Benchmarks on August 29

1828: Robert Turner of Ward, Mass., received a patent for his self-regulating wagon brake.

1876: Charles F. Kettering, inventor of the electric starter, was born on this day in Detroit.  He and his company (Delco) invented lighting and ignition systems, lacquer finishes, antilock brakes, new fuels, and leaded gasoline.  GM's Cadillac was the first car to use the electric starter.  Delco would later become a subsidiary of General Motors. Kettering, growing up in Ohio, also invented the first electric cash register before he returned to Detroit to work with GM's Alfred Sloan.

1885: The world's first motorcycle, made by Gottlieb Daimler, was patented on this day.  It was widely used by all branches of the armed forces during World War I.

1898: The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. was incorporated in Ohio. Originally founded by the Seiberling brothers, Goodyear began manufacturing tires shortly after incorporating.   

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