it was the year of the great white fleet sailed around the world. it was the year robert perry set off to the north pole and frederick cook claimed to discover the north pole. wasof my favorites -- it the year of an automobile race from new york city to paris. six automobiles set out on a 20,000 mile race from times square to paris. i can see some of you thinking, how cute drive from new york city to paris? the plan is they would drive across america to the west and up through alaska, across the frozen bering strait, across siberia and towards paris. that was the plan. it did not come out quite the "ay "the new york times hoped it would, but it came close. baseball fans will not forgive forf i've forget to mention one of the greatest years in baseball history when the new york giants battled chicago cubs . almost lost in all of this was it was an election year. have to begin the 21st president -- taft . whole books could be written about any of them. been writtenve about most of them. most treat each of these as isolated incidents, out of the contex