First National Education Association spelling bee (29-6-1908)

The Spelling Bee -- unique to the English-speaking world*, a ritual celebration of the intransigent irrationality of English orthography.
Noah Webster made his fortune with a "speller". He actually introduced some very sensible reforms, a few of which have survived in USEng.
*Crystal says the Dutch have spelling bees. Is this true?
The present series of "Nationals" began in 1925. I really enjoyed the documentary "Spellbound", about the 1999 competition, profiling a selection of the contestants from quite varied backgrounds. Fell in love with Nupur Lala, who was the winner; 25 years later she's doing fine, thankfully not as a professional speller.
https://www.instagram.com/scrippsnationalspellingbee/p/C3ArBC0MutN/
But even then there were some contestants being turned into little spell-bots by their ambitious parents. Stuffed with words like foie gras geese. This year I heard a short clip in which one of them spelled a whole lot of words I didn't know at incredible speed. That's pathological. But then, Americans take a similar approach to eating.
Further linguistic point: There used to be other kinds of "bees" -- sociable community gatherings to do some kind of work (quilting, husking...). OED from 1769, etymology obscure.