Today's Google doodle reminds us of the innovation and order brought by Garrett Morgan's creation of the traffic signal. Cleveland became the first city to install these devices on August 5th, 1914 at the bustling Euclid Avenue and E. 105th St. intersection -- on the current campus of Cleveland Clinic, just down the street from CWRU and our museum .
The traffic signal became a necessary fixture in light of alarming statistics about the dangers of automobiles and their fatal accidents in the early 20th century. From when the U.S. Census Bureau began collecting information in 1906 to 1914, the number...