Ann S. Epstein Writer

Olive trees are gnarled and twisted, and often kept small to facilitate harvesting on the ground. The trees can live for hundreds of years but, depending on the variety, they don’t start to bear fruit until they are 3 to 12 years old. Yield depends on a tree’s size, age, variety, and growing conditions. Mature trees which have not been pruned can reach 40-60 feet in height and produce up to 800 kilos of olives while others only produce 50. Read more about olives and olive farming 100 years ago and today in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).

In 1929 in San Diego, the 2,400-seat Fox Theatre opened during the heyday of the silver screen era, at a cost of $1.8 million (worth $25.5 million today). The theater, now called Copley Symphony Hall, is the home of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra. Discover more San Diego history in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).

The Commission on Industrial Relations (a.k.a. the Walsh Commission) was created by the U.S. Congress on 08/23/1912 to scrutinize labor laws. The final report, published in eleven volumes in 1916, contain tens of thousands of pages of testimony from a wide range of witnesses, including Clarence Darrow, Louis Brandeis, Mary Harris “Mother” Jones, scores of workers, and industry titans such as Henry Ford, and Andrew Carnegie. Read more about labor laws over the last century in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).

The gradual segregation of schools in Topeka began in the early 1900s, despite protests by Negro parents against the doctrine of “separate but equal.” The School Board did not rule for segregation outright but instead selectively closed schools, using housing boundaries. As the city thrived and the population grew, new schools with better facilities were constructed in white neighborhoods. Read more about race relations in Topeka 100 years ago in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).

Marshall Field & Company, a Chicago landmark, was built 1891-1892. Its signature feature was the Tiffany glass dome. Customers received the royal treatment. Goods were stored behind mahogany counters; models circulated wearing the latest women’s fashions. There was a reading and writing room with popular magazines and tables with pens and free stationary. Read more Chicago history in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).

The 1911 Triangle Waist Company fire killed 146 people, 129 women and 17 men, primarily Jewish and Italian immigrants who spoke little English. Ranging in age from 14-43, most were only 16-23. They died of fire or smoke inhalation, 20 fell 100 feet to their death when a fire escape collapsed, others plunged down an empty elevator shaft after the car’s last descent, and 62, facing their inevitable end, jumped from the 8th, 9th, or 10th floor where the factory was located. Read about one survivor in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).