Today in Technology History Archives
The Center's daily history e-mail - which you can join here - is indexed and archived below.
2001
December 21 - The first humans to spend one year in space (1987 & 1988)
December 20 -R. Van de Graaff born; invented an electrostatic generator (1901)
December 19 - Mark Twain patents elastic suspenders (1871)
December 18 - Death of neglected computer pioneer Konrad Zuse (1995)
December 17 - Birth of Willard Libby, inventor of carbon-14 dating (1908)
December 14 - The last time humans walked on the Moon (1972)
December 13 - Death of Allen Breed, inventor of an early airbag sensor (1999)
December 12 - Marconi successfully sends a radio signal across the ocean (1901)
December 11 - Marconi first tries to send a transatlantic radio signal (1901)
December 10 - The first Nobel Prizes (1901)
December 7 - The attack on Pearl Harbor (1941)
December 6 - Death of N.-J. Conté, inventor of the modern pencil (1805)
December 5 - The birth of animation innovator Walt Disney (1901)
December 4 - The first mass-produced electric car (1996)
December 3 - Two heart surgery breakthroughs (1967 & 1982)
November 30 - Birth of electrical experimenter E. Kinnersley (1711)
November 29 - The first underground nuclear explosion (1951)
November 28 - Birth of plastics pioneer John W. Hyatt (1837)
November 27 - Anders Celsius was born (1701)
November 26 - France becomes the third country to launch a satellite (1965)
November 21 - The word "anesthesia" was coined (1846)
November 20 - Death of crackpot biologist Trofim D. Lysenko (1976)
November 19 - Birth of NASA astronaut Eileen Collins (1956)
November 16 - N.E. Guerin receives the first life preserver patent (1841)
November 15 - The first microprocessor, the Intel 4004 (1971)
November 14 - An airplane takes off from a ship for the first time (1910)
November 13 - The first successful cloud-seeding (1946)
November 12 - The ancient abacus defeats the fastest calculator (1946)
November 9 - Birth of actress and inventor Hedy Lamarr (1913?)
November 8 - Harvey Hubbell gets a patent for the electric plug (1904)
November 7 - The collapse of the Tacoma Narrows bridge (1940)
November 6 - Birth of Alois Senefelder, inventor of lithography (1771)
November 5 - Birth of Raymond Loewy, father of industrial design (1893)
November 2 - Only flight of "Spruce Goose," a giant wooden plane (1947)
Administrative Note - 200th message and minor format change
November 1 - Inventor and helicopter designer Anton Flettner born (1885)
October 31 - J. W. Swan born; he worked on photography and lighting (1828)
October 30 - The first patent for a ballpoint pen (1888)
October 29 - The healing effect of electricity on bones is first reported (1971)
October 26 - A dying newborn baby is given a baboon's heart (1984)
October 25 - Death of inventor and astronomer Benjamin Banneker (1806)
October 24 - Death of the great astronomer Tycho Brahe (1601)
October 23 - History's first military use of an airplane (1911)
October 22 - A.-J. Garnerin makes the first manned parachute jump (1797)
October 19 - Death of English inventor Sir Charles Wheatstone (1875)
October 18 - Thomas Edison's last breath (1931)
October 17 - Birth of NASA astronaut Mae Carol Jemison (1956)
October 16 - The first public demonstration of anesthesia in surgery (1846)
October 15 - The first traffic jam in Russian history (1941)
October 12 - Coup in Pakistan and terrorism against the U.S. (1999 & 2000)
October 11 - Factoring a 100-digit number, using 400 computers (1988)
October 10 - Dedication of the Very Large Array radio telescope (1980)
October 9 - A motor-powered flying machine gets off the ground (1890)
October 8 - Birth of early refrigeration expert Mary Pennington (1872)
October 5 - Death of Tupperware creator Earl S. Tupper (1983)
October 4 - Sputnik: The first man-made object to orbit Earth (1957)
October 3 - Death of Sony co-founder Akio Morita (1999)
October 2 - Birth of Charles Draper, inventor of navigation systems (1901)
October 1 - Birth of William Boeing, founder of the Boeing Company (1881)
September 28 - Flogging abolished in the U.S. Navy (1850)
September 27 - The Taliban captured Afghanistan's capital, Kabul (1996)
September 26 - A U.S. patent was granted for portland cement (1871)
September 24 - USS Enterprise, first nuclear aircraft carrier, launched (1960)
September 21 - Birth of paving innovator John L. McAdam (1756)
September 20 - German rocket scientists move to the U.S. (1945)
September 19 - Birth of soap magnate William Hesketh Lever (1851)
September 18 - The first edition of the New York Times (1851)
September 17 - A patent for an important electrical light (1901)
September 14 - ...the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air... (1814)
September 13 - Wen Ho Lee, physicist and suspected spy, set free (2000)
September 12 - Birth of occasional technology critic H.L. Mencken (1880)
September 11 - Birth of cosmonaut Titov and astronaut Crippen (1935 & 1937)
September 10 - Birth of Dr. John Kidd, the man behind the mothball (1775)
September 7 - The first electronic television image (1927)
September 6 - Birth of engineer Ernst Weber, who helped develop radar (1901)
September 5 - Birth of Frank B. Jewett, first president of Bell Labs (1879)
September 4 - First U.S. live transcontinental TV & Japan's tech economy (1951)
August 31 - Edison patents the motion picture camera (1897)
August 30 - A telephone hotline connects Soviet and American leaders (1963)
August 29 - The pope speaks out about cloning and stem cells (2000)
August 28 - The first successful oil well in the U.S. (1859)
August 27 - Nobel-winning industrial chemist Carl Bosch born (1874)
August 24 - Death of Bernard Castro, inventor of the unfolding sofa-bed (1991)
August 23 - Two Moon missions: a failure and a success (1961 & 1966)
August 22 - The birth of industrial research pioneer Willis R. Whitney (1868)
August 21 - The effort to fix an exploding lake (1986)
August 20 - The first dogs to return alive from a trip into space (1960)
August 17 - Death of Robert Gilruth, important NASA administrator (2000)
August 16 - Birth of inventor Hugo Gernsback, "father of science fiction" (1884)
August 15 - The birth of Crisco, the famous hydrogenated shortening (1911)
August 14 - A patent for the modern internal-combustion engine (1877)
August 13 - Discovery of the first near-Earth asteroid (1898)
August 10 - Synthesis of the world's most popular drug (1897)
August 9 - The death of John Gates, who brought barbed wire out west (1911)
August 8 - The birth of Ernest Lawrence, American physicist and inventor (1901)
August 7 - Two men who helped automate the textile business (1783 & 1834)
August 6 - An atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima (1945)
August 3 - Birth of Joseph Paxton, botanist who transformed architecture (1801)
August 2 - A snapped cable sets back the effort to wire the world (1865)
August 1 - Birth of artificial insemination pioneer Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov (1870)
July 31 - The U.S. government grants its first patent (1790)
July 30 - The first lunar rover lands on the Moon (1971)
July 27 - The "polywater" controversy begins (1969)
July 26 - Birth of Isaac Babbitt, American metallurgist and inventor (1799)
July 25 - Death of mysterious British surgeon Dr. James Barry (1865)
July 24 - Death of Albert Barnes, inventor and art collector (1951)
July 23 - The first commercial HDTV broadcast (1996)
July 20 - Pioneering embryo researcher Arthur Hertig died (1990)
July 19 - Nobel-winning biophysicist Rosalyn Yalow was born (1921)
July 18 - American astronaut and politician John Glenn was born (1921)
July 17 - "Wrong Way Corrigan" crossed the Atlantic -- "accidentally" (1938)
July 16 - The first atomic bomb exploded in New Mexico (1945)
July 13 - New York City's second Great Blackout (1977)
July 12 - George Eastman, inventor of photographic film, was born (1854)
July 11 - Theodore Maiman, who built the first laser, was born (1927)
July 10 - Telstar I, the first true communications satellite, was launched (1962)
July 9 - Elias Howe, inventor of the sewing machine, was born (1819)
July 6 - Thomas Davenport, a forgotten pioneer of electricity, died (1851)
July 5 - The birth of Dolly the cloned sheep (1996)
July 3 - 4 - Thomas Jefferson, inventor (1776 & 1826)
July 2 - Amelia Earhart and her navigator disappeared (1937)
June 29 - Three record-setting cosmonauts died during their voyage home (1971)
June 28 - Death of Vannevar Bush, eminent inventor and technologist (1974)
June 27 - Troubled Canadian Abraham Gesner patented kerosene (1854)
June 26 - Completion of the first useable bridge near the Niagara Falls (1848)
June 25 - The final days of the true inventor of the steamboat (1798)
June 22 - The official meter and kilogram were put in France's archives (1799)
June 21 - Birth of Charles Jackson; he claimed others' inventions were his (1805)
June 20 - Morse patents his telegraph -- and Morse code (1840)
June 19 - The birth and death of two great American shipbuilders (1816 & 1915)
June 18 - The first genetically engineered vaccine (1981)
June 15 - The first blood transfusion involving a human (1667)
June 14 - The first UNIVAC was unveiled (1951)
June 13 - The first man-made object to leave the solar system (1983)
June 12 - Birth of early radio innovator Sir Joseph Lodge (1851)
Administrative Note - 100th message and corrections
June 11 - Death of the first U.S. "right-to-die" patient (1985)
June 8 - Birth of American architect Frank Lloyd Wright (1867)
June 7 - Death of Alan Turing, the "Father of Computer Science" (1954)
June 6 - The first drive-in movie theater opened (1933)
June 5 - Birth of Dennis Gabor, the inventor of holography (1900)
June 4 - Announcement of the first clones of an extinct animal (1984)
June 1 - The first hovercraft goes for its first ride (1959)
May 31 - Birth of quirky inventor Richard Lovell Edgeworth (1744)
May 30 - Launch of the first man-made object to orbit another planet (1971)
May 29 - Three men who brightened our world (1767, 1829 & 1908)
May 25 - President Kennedy's famous "man on the Moon" speech (1961)
May 24 - The birth of Fahrenheit, of thermometer fame (1686)
May 23 - The birth of transistor co-inventor and Nobelist John Bardeen (1908)
May 22 - The U.S. tests-launches a ballistic missile for the first time (1947)
May 21 - Amelia Earhart flies solo across the Atlantic (1932)
May 18 - Jackie Cochran becomes the first woman to fly faster than sound (1953)
May 17 - The World Wide Web turns 10 years old (1991)
May 16 - The death of high-tech puppeteer Jim Henson (1990)
May 15 - The first airline flight with stewardesses aboard (1930)
May 14 - Edward Jenner conducts the first vaccination (1796)
May 11 - A landmark in the history of computer memory (1951)
May 10 - The completion of America's transcontinental railroad (1869)
May 9 - The famous speech denouncing TV as a "vast wasteland" (1961)
May 8 - The first U.S. patent related to photography was issued (1840)
May 7 - The birth of Polaroid camera inventor Edwin H. Land (1909)
May 4 - Patents were issued for the first improved phonograph (1886)
May 3 - The historic chess rematch between Kasparov and Deep Blue (1997)
May 2 - A major U.S. effort to extract oil from rock abruptly ended (1982)
May 1 - The opening of the first world's fair (1851)
April 30 - Birth of the "Father of Information Theory" (1916)
April 27 - America's worst maritime disaster, the sinking of the Sultana (1865)
April 26 - At Chernobyl, the world's worst nuclear accident (1986)
April 25 - The birth of tunnel builder Marc Isambard Brunel (1769)
April 24 - The death of drug discoverer Gerhard Domagk (1964)
April 23 - American inventor Granville T. Woods was born (1856)
April 20 - The important Surveyor 3 spacecraft landed on the Moon (1967)
April 19 - America's Revolution, with its muskets and bayonets, began (1775)
April 18 - The death of scientist/anti-nuclear campaigner Albert Einstein (1955)
April 17 - The death of inventor and statesman Benjamin Franklin (1790)
April 16 - The death of DNA pioneer Rosalind Franklin (1958)
April 13 - Apollo 13 explosion: "Houston, we've had a problem here" (1970)
April 12 - The announcement of Dr. Jonas Salk's polio vaccine (1955)
April 11 - Two anniversaries related to vertical flight (1943 & 1957)
April 10 - The safety pin was first patented (1849)
April 9 - The birth of the great engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806)
April 6 - Two rear-admirals who improved naval technology died (1942 & 2000)
April 5 - The birth of Joseph Lister, father of antiseptic surgery (1827)
April 4 - The birth of inventor Sir William Siemens (1823)
April 3 - The deadly crash of the airship Akron (1933)
April 2 - The process for extracting aluminum was patented (1889)
March 30 - A controversial patent was granted for the pencil eraser (1858)
March 29 - Birth of Elihu Thomson, a founder of the electricity industry (1853)
March 28 - An airplane lifted off from water for the first time (1910)
March 27 - The deadliest airplane accident in history (1977)
March 26 - The birth of Edward Bellamy, author (1850)
March 23 - The controversy over "cold fusion" is born (1989)
March 22 - The birth of F.W.A. Argelander, star-charter (1799)
March 21 - The death of Frederick Taylor, efficiency expert (1915)
March 20 - The worst known instance of chemical terrorism (1995)
March 19 - TV cameras start covering the U.S. House of Representatives (1979)
March 16 - Dr. Goddard launches the first liquid-fuel rocket (1926)
March 15 - The deaths of three influential engineers (1888, 1891 & 1898)
March 14 - Eli Whitney receives a patent for his cotton gin (1794)
March 13 - Three amateur astronomers who hit it big (1781, 1855 & 1930)
March 12 - The birth of William Perkin, discoverer of artificial dyes (1838)
March 9 - The birth of Howard Aiken, computer pioneer (1900)
March 8 - The birth of the great 18th century doctor John Fothergill (1712)
March 7 - The birth of Niepce, who took the first photograph (1765)
March 6 - The deaths of auto pioneers Daimler and Buick (1900 & 1929)
March 5 - The birth of William Oughtred, inventor of the slide rule (1574)
March 2 - The birth of Harry Soref, inventor of the "layered" padlock (1887)
March 1 - Atomic spy Klaus Fuchs sent to prison (1950)
February 28 - The birth of Nobel laureate Linus Pauling (1901)
February 27 - The birth of Kelly Johnson, legendary airplane designer (1910)
February 26 - A pneumatic subway opens in New York (1870)
February 23 - The creation of the U.S. Federal Radio Commission (1927)
February 22 - The first organic compound is synthesized in a lab (1828)
February 21 - The first locomotive was taken for a test drive (1804)
February 20 - Russia launches the Mir space station (1986)
February 19 - Edison patents the phonograph (1878)
February 16 - The first patent related to nylon (1937)
February 15 - The birth of Cyrus McCormick, inventor of the reaper (1809)
February 14 - A man-made spacecraft first orbits an asteroid (2000)
February 13 - France's first nuclear test (1960)
February 12 - A great automobile race from New York to Paris (1908)
February 9 - The deaths of two government chief astronomers (1811 & 1865)
February 8 - The first criminal executed in a gas chamber (1924)
February 7 - A series of attacks on major Web sites (2000)
February 6 - The death of Aldus, a great printing innovator (1515)
February 5 - Two inventors born on the same day (1840)
February 2 - The death of Styrofoam inventor Ray McIntire (1996)
February 1 - The first motion picture studio (1893)
January 31 - The first monthly Social Security check (1940)
January 30 - The death of Orville Wright (1948)
January 29 - "The birth certificate of the automobile" (1886)
January 26 - Two accidents kill U.S. astronauts (1967 & 1986)
January 25 - First use of the word "robot" (1921)
January 24 - Two U.S. nuclear bombs accidentally dropped (1961)
January 23 - The first use of radio in a major rescue at sea (1909)
January 22 - The death of engineer Joseph Whitworth (1887)
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