VOLUME 30 , NUMBER 1 -January 1999

Time Capsule

1846

On Jan. 13, New York State Senator E.F. Backus introduced the first legislation to provide for separate treatment of people with mental retardation. The legislation led to the establishment of an experimental school in Albany in 1851. The school proved so successful that the state established a permanent facility in 1854.

1866

On Jan. 17, English physician William Wythe Gull interviewed the first of several female patients brought to him in conditions of self-induced emaciation. The patient was 82 pounds, 5 feet 5 inches tall. After seeing other similar patients, Gull presented the first thorough paper on 'anorexia nervosa,' or 'apepsia hysterica,' to the British Medical Association on Oct. 24, 1872.

1883

Congress established the U.S. Civil Service Commission, on Jan. 16, in the wake of President Garfield's assassination by a man who was denied a government appointment through the spoils system. The Civil Service Act, or 'Pendleton Act,' provided for competitive examinations based on 'those matters which will fairly test the relative capacity and fitness' of the candidate. Psychological tests of aptitude and achievement were developed to meet this need.

1909

The first White House Conference on Children began with an address by President Theodore Roosevelt on Jan. 25. The focus of the conference was the welfare of children dependent on the state. White House conferences on children have been held every 10 years since this first meeting.

1988

On Jan. 15, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission found portions of the APA's Ethical Standards of Psychologists to be illegal restraints of trade. The offending sections

restricted the content of advertising and other public statements intended to represent the desirability of services. APA was ordered to amend its standards on Dec. 16, 1992.

1992

In its Jan. 3 ruling on Abrahamson v. Gonzalez, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Florida's law prohibiting unlicensed practitioners from calling themselves psychologists was an unconstitutional restriction of free speech.

Source: APA Historical Database, created and maintained by Warren R. Street, Central Washington University, and published as 'A Chronology of Noteworthy Events in American Psychology' (APA, 1994).

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