1915 — The taxi industry begins when automobile owners discover that people will pay for a short ride. Fare is a “jitney” (a nickel), and cars are soon called jitneys. Drivers are known as hackers or hackies in the East, and cabbies in the Midwest.

Elsewhere that year:

• Russian Czar Nicolas II assumes command of the Russian army. Czarina Alexandra Feodorovna takes control in St. Petersburg and comes under the influence of the notorious adventurer Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin.
• The Lusitania and Arabic sinkings with loss of American lives bring strong protest notes from President Wilson. Changes occur in German submarine warfare.
• President Wilson vetoes a U.S. Senate bill requiring literacy tests for all immigrants.