newspapers. After becoming an office boy at American Marconi, Sarnoff worked his way up and in 1916, would write a memo outlining his vision of making the radio as common a household item "as the piano or the phonograph". Over the next several decades, Sarnoff oversaw the spread of radio and then television across the world. Quarantine was declared in Nome, Alaska, due to a large measles outbreak in the Native American community. Throughout 1900 the mortality rate in some communities was 100% and estimates place the death toll around 1–2,000. Tuesday, July 3, 1900 United States Secretary of State John Hay, following up on the Open Door Policy toward China, sent a diplomatic note to the European powers making it clear that the Allied expedition against the Boxers should be limited to release of the legations, and that no attempt should be made to divide China among the victors in the invasion. "The policy of the Government of the United States is to seek a solution which may bring about permanent safety and peace to China, preserve Chinese territorial and administrative entity, protect all rights guaranteed to friendly Powers by treaty and international law, and safeguard for the world the principle of equal and impartial trade with all parts of the Chinese Empire." In Beijing, a force of 23 British, 15 Russian and 15 American defenders departed the safety of the walled legation compound to go on the offensive. The multinational force destroyed a tower that the Chinese armies had been building outside the legation grounds. The Chinese army temporarily drove off German and American defenders within the legation area, and left one side unprotected for more than an hour. Had an attack been made at that time, the Chinese soldiers would have been able to overrun the foreign legations. In Paris, a statue of George Washington was unveiled at the Place d'Iena, as a gift of the women of the United States to the people of France. Wednesday, July 4, 1900 One of the worst streetcar accidents in American history occurred in Tacoma, Washington, when a car plunged 100 feet into a ravine, killing 43 people and injuring 65. The passengers were coming from Lakeview, Parkland, and other southern suburbs for Tacoma's Independence Day celebration. Shortly after , the car jumped the track at 26th and C Streets. A 1910 streetcar accident in Kingsland, Indiana, would kill 41