1877 US in baseball; metaphorical usage from 1896, more generally from 1930. Since at least 1870, baseball teams would reissue tickets in case of postponement due to rain, which became known as rain checks.
Update: In fact, the latest update of iPhoto is using Helvetica Neue. And now there's Avenir, a Linotype typeface and Apple's new favorite. It was designed by Adrian Frutiger in 1988, inspired by two old school typefaces created in the 20s: Erbar by Jakob Erbar and Futura by Paul Renner.
The font costs like 200 bucks, but Arial is the closest font to it According to the New York Times' recently published obit for Bob Noâ¦orda, the designer of the NYC Subway system signage, the type is internal to the system, Standard Medium, but was originally designed by Mr. Noorda using Helvetica.