In 1879, Rutherford B. Hayes from Fremont, Ohio was President. My sister once bought a box of "junk" at a flea market and in it she found a letter written by Hayes. It was authenticated as genuine by his museum and she subsequently donated it to them.
In Utica, New York, Frank Woolworth opened Woolworth's Great Five Cent Store, but it soon failed. Later that year he opened his first successful store in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. After a long run, it was eventually crowded out by Walmart. After a couple of changes, the original Woolworth became Foot Locker which is the legal continuation of the original company.
Milk was sold in glass bottles for the first time. But, by the 1950s, glass was becoming too hard to manage. The crates heavy and there were a lot of damage when transporting the bottles to and from home deliveries.
As a kid we never bought milk at the store...a milkman delivered it in glass bottles in a wire rack. Every week, when the empty bottles were left out for him to pick up, my dad left the payment in one of the bottles which were set on the porch. Porch thieves? They were unheard of.
The quality factor of making sure the bottles were properly cleaned before re-using was a problem. As a result, in the 1960s, a switch was made to paper cartons that were dipped in wax and then stapled at the top.
The problem with those cartons was they were considered as a potential fire hazard (sic!). So, another switch was made to the construction of cartons made of layers...plastic, paper, plastic and then heat sealed at the top. In the 2010s a transition was made to recyclable plastic.
In chess, Adolf Anderssen died in Breslau from a heart ailment on March 13th and the English player George Walker died on April 23rd.
A couple of posts back I mentioned the little known Hungarian player of yesteryear, Adolf Schwarz (October 31, 1836 - October 25, 1910).
He was a trade merchant and teacher of religious education, but beyond that there seems to be no other information available.
However, I did locate his obituary that appeared in the January, 1911 edition of Wiener Schachzeitung.
"He showed extraordinary interest in chess already in his youth and was soon regarded to be the strongest player in Arad (Romania), where he studied.
But, only in Budapest, where he moved to at the age of 20, he acquired this stubbornness in had and the incomparable vigor in good positions, which made him a feared opponent everywhere. In 1872, he moved to Vienna where he joined the Vienna Chess Society and he remained a member for 38 years."
He had many successes in local and national tournaments. At the international tournament in Wiesbaden (1880), he shared first place with Blackburne and Englisch (11.0/15). In matches he beat Minckwitz (+3 -2 =4) and Winawer (+2 -0 =2).
After that he participated in tournaments more rarely, but at the age of 73 he won a tournament of the Vienna Chess Club in 1909 against the strongest amateurs.
Chessmetrics gives his best world rank at #3 with a rating of 2657 in 1882. His last rating of 2526 is in 1902 which placed him 39th in the world.
Schwarz' opponent in the following game was German master Carl Wemmers (1845-1882, 37 years old). He was a businessman in Cologne, an amateur musician and a singer. He died of blood poisoning in his parents' house after several months of illness.
[Event "Leipzig"]
[Site "Leipzig GER"]
[Date "1879.07.17"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Adolf Schwarz"]
[Black "Carl Wemmers"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C48"]
[Annotator "Stockfiah 15.1"]
[PlyCount "61"]
[EventDate "1879.07.14"]
{Four Knights Game} 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6 {Prior to WWI, the Four
Knights Game was popular even at the highest level, but then along with a
number of open games in gerneral it fell by the wayside. It usually leads to
quiet positional play, but there are some shartp tactical lines.} 4. Bb5 (4.
Nxe5 {The dubious (or is it?!) Halloween Gambit.} Nxe5 5. d4 {Against the
popular 5...Bd6 my database gives white only a very slight edge in the winning
percentage which is nearly evely divided between white wins, black wins and
draws! Stockfish prefers 5...Ng6}) (4. d4 exd4 5. Nd5 {The spicy Belgrade
Gambit which is little explored and is certainly worth a try.} Nb4 (5... Nxe4 {
Rare, but perfectly satisfactory.} 6. Bd3 Nc5 7. O-O {equal}) (5... Be7 6. Bc4
O-O 7. O-O d6 8. Nxd4 Nxd4 9. Qxd4 Nxd5 10. Bxd5 Bf6 11. Qd3 c6 12. Bb3 Be6 13.
Be3 {Draw agreed. Tartajubow-Opponent, Correspondence 2016}) 6. Bc4 {equal})
4... Bc5 5. O-O O-O 6. d3 d6 7. Bg5 h6 8. Bh4 Be6 9. Bxc6 bxc6 10. d4 exd4 11.
Nxd4 g5 12. Bg3 Bxd4 {An unfavorable exchange. Retreating to d7 is logical.} (
12... Qd7 13. Qd3 Nh5 14. Rad1 Rad8 {with equal chances. Krebs,D (2080)-Yeo,M
(2170) Dresden 2013}) 13. Qxd4 Nh5 14. f4 Nxg3 15. hxg3 f5 {This move opening
up his Ks position is not a good idea. Instead, strengthening it with 15...f6
was better.} 16. Rf2 {More aggressive was 16.Rae1 followed by the advance of
the e-Pawn.} Qf6 17. Qe3 Bc4 {This move does not turn out especially well as
black now comes under a heavy attack.} (17... fxe4 {keeps black's disadvantage
at a minimum.} 18. Qxe4 Bd7 19. Raf1 Qe6 {with excellent defensive chances.})
18. fxg5 hxg5 19. Rxf5 Qh6 20. Rxg5+ {With his K stripped of cover black is
now lost and he is dispatched in a most efficient manner.} Kh7 21. g4 Bf7 22.
Rf1 Bg6 23. Qh3 Rxf1+ 24. Kxf1 {[%mdl 32]} a5 25. Kf2 Kg7 26. Qh5 a4 (26... Qh7
{offers more resistance.} 27. e5 Rf8+ 28. Kg3 Kf7 29. Rf5+ Ke8 30. Rxf8+ Kxf8
31. Qxh7 Bxh7 {White wins the ending.}) 27. a3 Rf8+ 28. Kg3 Rf1 (28... Qh7 29.
Qxh7+ Kxh7 30. Ra5 Rb8 31. Ra7 {This is more efficient than taking the a-Pawn
which is not going to run away.} Rxb2 32. Rxc7+ Kh8 33. Rxc6 Rxc2 34. Kf4 Rxg2
35. Rxd6 {wins}) 29. Ne2 Rh1 {There was nothing really better, but this allows
a nice finish.} 30. Rxg6+ Qxg6 31. Qxh1 {Black resigned.} 1-0
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