History Book: The men who built America’s national parks

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Monday, March 27th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Next up on The World and Everything in It: the WORLD History Book. Today, a stock market milestone, plus an aviation pioneer. But first, 90 years ago this week, an unemployment program that puts 250,000 people to work in the great outdoors. Here’s Paul Butler.

PAUL BUTLER, REPORTER: We begin today in the spring of 1933 with the formation of a voluntary government work program. It’s created to relieve unemployment in the United States while improving the nation’s forests, soil conservation, and infrastructure: it’s known as the Civilian Conservation Corps—or the CCC.

Congress unanimously approves the plan on March 21st, 1933. And Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the bill into law 10 days later.

The President unveils the program during a May 7th Fireside chat.

FDR: First, we are giving opportunity of employment to one-quarter of a million of the unemployed.

It’s a big task directing and caring for a group of men larger than the nation's standing army at the time.

FDR: And in creating this civilian conservation corps we are killing two birds with one stone. We are clearly enhancing the value of our natural resources and at the same time we are relieving an appreciable amount of actual distress.

The CCC runs for nine years. Three million young men take part…including William Roberts—who told his story in 2009 to Pennsylvania’s WPSU-TV.

ROBERTS: It was a healthy life. The opportunities for excess were rather limited. So I see it as an experience that would benefit most young men.

The Civilian Conservation Corps provides shelter—usually tents—as well as clothing, food and monthly wages totalling $30…$25 of that is sent home to their families. Life in the camps is structured much like the military…with men serving for six months at a time.

The CCC is credited for increasing greater public appreciation of the country’s natural resources. The corps plant more than 3 billion seedlings, create 711 state parks, and spend a lot of time fighting forest fires. An unintended benefit of the civilian corps turns out to be that it prepares a new generation of men for war.

And by 1942 World War II is well underway. The need for work relief disappears and Congress officially brings an end to the program on July 2nd, 1942.

Next, we head to 1973. Bonnie Tiburzi is a 24 year old pilot and flight instructor.

TIBURZI CAPUTO: I used to hang around the airport after school and on weekends and with that I knew also that someday I was gonna be an airline pilot, just like my father.

And that’s exactly what she does. On March 30th, 1973, Tiburzi becomes the first female pilot to fly for a major U.S. airline.

MUSIC: [AMERICAN AIRLINES JINGLE] 

During her 26-year career Tiburzi becomes the first woman in the world to earn a Flight Engineer rating on a turbo-jet aircraft.

In 2021 she spoke virtually to a Women’s Aviation International event about her life as a female pilot—reading excerpts from her 1986 autobiography: Takeoff!

TIBURZI CAPUTO: I was called out of the class one morning for a special trip to one of the simulators: a scale model of the 707.

It was during her training, one of her instructors worried that she might not be strong enough to manipulate the jet controls during hydraulic failure. But at each stage of the simulation test, she held her own. That is until she had to crank the trim by hand while keeping the plane upright after losing two engines.

TIBURZI: I thought this was really getting ridiculous. I needed another limb, and then it just so happened I remembered that my left leg wasn't doing anything.

So Tiburzi wraps her leg around the yolk, leans over, and easily turns the crank with her now free hand.

TIBURZI: “That is the silliest thing I have ever seen in a 7-0-7” and he said, “you know what? Doesn't matter. It's all right. Whatever works for you works. So now let's go to lunch.”

Bonnie Tiburzi Caputo retired with distinction from American Airlines in 1999. Today she lives in New York City with her husband and grown children. Her American Airlines pilot uniform is on display at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

SOUND: [NYSE TRADING FLOOR]

And we end today on March 29th, 1999, on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. All eyes are focused on the Dow Jones Industrial Average during the last 8 minutes of trading. CNBC host Mark Haines…

HAINES: In fact, we are now about a point and a half away.

It’s taken a year for the Dow Jones Industrial Average to move from the 9,000 point milestone to this threshold. Anticipation builds as trading crosses the 10,000 point level a couple times before dropping back down in the final moments.

HAINES: The Dow now trading above for a moment, for a tantalizing moment.

In the midst of the controlled chaos someone starts handing out black hats that say “10,000. ” But the last minute trading is too volatile to know for sure if it’s premature.

HAINES: The market has closed, and it is above 10,000.

It takes awhile for the last second trading to be recorded and tracked, but in the end the adjusted Dow Jones Industrial Average sets a new record close: 10,006.78.

SOUND: [CLOSING BELL]

Hats with the number 11,000 come out just 24 days later on May 3rd. But before the Dow can hit 12,000…the dot-com bubble bursts, and the Dow drops to under 7200 within two years. It takes nearly four more years for the markets to return to 1999 levels.

The current Dow record is 36,799 and some change (.65) set on January 4th, 2022. We are currently 4,500 points off that record high.

That’s this week’s WORLD History Book. I’m Paul Butler.

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