The term “deadline” hasn’t been around that long, about 160 years in fact.  The first written mentions were in 1863 during the American Civil War.  The “dead-line”, as then, was defined as “a line drawn within or around a prison that a prisoner passes at the risk of being shot” and shot dead at that.  Prison conditions could be so deplorable that some men crossed the line on purpose, some survivors wrote that they had wished they’d crossed it to end their misery.  Deadlines in those days were lessons in ultimate liability. Continue reading →