| In 1783, Herschel published his observations leading to the discovery of the Solar Motion. He determined that our solar system is moving between the neighboring stars in the direction of the star Lambda Herculis; he introduced the term Solar Apex for this dierction |
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| In 1788, a patent for a steamboat was issued by the state of Georgia to Isaac Briggs and William Longstreet. The patent was the only one ever to be issued by Georgia, and first in the U.S. for a steamboat. Much development had to follow before the steamboat would be commercially viable. |
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| When the Supreme Court was unveiled on February 2, 1790 at the Merchants Exchange Building in New York City, six justices shared the bench. One justice was appointed as the Chief Justice and held additional administrative duties related both to the Supreme Court and to the entire federal court system. The other five were associate justices. At its creation, the judicial branch was by far the weakest and most timid of all three government branches, holding back from strongly upholding and deciding controversial issues. |
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| While staying with friends in a Shaker community in New York, Borden observed the use of a heated, airtight pan in the production of sugar. He realized that such a method could be used to condense milk into a form that would not spoil on long trips. In the process that Borden developed, milk was evaporated in a vacuum over low heat to remove much of its water content. The concentrated milk was then packed in hermetically sealed cans to keep it from spoiling. The process was patented in 1856, and it was the first method for producing condensed milk that had any commercial success. |
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| Howe wrote the verses to meet a challenge by a friend, Rev. James Freeman Clarke. As an unofficial anthem, Union soldiers sang "John Brown's Body." Confederate soldiers sang it with their own version of the words. But Clarke thought that there should be more uplifting words to the tune. She went back to the Hotel Willard in Washington... and wrote the new words for Steffe's tune, now known as "Battle Hymn of the Republic." This stirring poem was published in The Atlantic Monthly in February, 1862, and soon the words of Mrs. Howe of Boston, sung to the tune by the Southerner, William Steffe, became synonymous with the Union cause. |
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| A constant flow of new film subjects was needed to keep the new invention popular, so a motion picture production studio was built at West Orange in December 1892. It was dubbed the Black Maria on account of its resemblance to a police patrol wagon. The studio had a roof that could be opened to admit sunlight for illumination, and the building itself was mounted on a revolving pivot so that the structure could be constantly repositioned to keep it aligned with the sun. |
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| The Travelers Insurance Company of Hartford, Connecticut, extended coverage to an automobile owner, making them the first company to issue an automobile insurance policy to an individual. Dr. Truman J. Martin of Buffalo, New York, paid a premium of $11.25 for the policy that covered $5,000 to $10,000 of liability. |
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| After being restored to power, Empress Tzu-hsi started to promote the reforms she had so long resisted. Her nine-year plan provided for mass education, elimination of unusual punishments like beheading and slicing, improvement of the legal system, monetary reform, the taking of a census, and slow establishment of a constitutional monarchy. Foot-binding was declared illegal, Chinese and Manchus were at last allowed to intermarry, and the import and growing of opium were banned. |
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| In 1904, Marconi Co establishes "CQD" as first international radio distress signal. In 1904, the Marconi company filled the gap by suggesting the use of "CQD" for a distress signal. It was established on February 1 of that year by Marconi Company's circular No. 57. Although generally accepted to mean, "Come Quick Danger," that is not the case. It is a general call, "CQ," followed by "D," meaning distress. A strict interpretation would be "All stations, Distress." It didn't last long. Two years later, "SOS" became the radio distress signal because it was more convenient - meaning quicker - to send by wireless radio. |
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| The USP Leavenworth came into existence through an act of Congress in 1895. Inmates from the military prison at Fort Leavenworth were used in the early construction and were marched two and one-half miles to the site daily, returning each night to the prison at Fort Leavenworth. This continued until February, 1903 when the first 418 inmates to occupy the prison site were moved into what now serves as a laundry building. In 1906, all of the federal prisoners from Fort Leavenworth were housed in the new institution and the prison at Fort Leavenworth was returned to the War Department. |
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| In November 1913 a group of Chicago White Sox and New York Giants players left the US on an around the world tour that would take them four months to complete. Starting in Tokyo and ending in London, the Giants and White Sox played each other in Japan, China, Philippines, Australia, Ceylon, Egypt, France, and England. |
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| The first true commercial armored car was built that same year in Minneapolis, Minnesota, for a St. Paul police chief turned private detective Mike Sweeney. Sweeney designed the car and put it into service for his Sweeney Detective Bureau. |
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| The RCMP was created as the North West Mounted Police (NWMP) in 1873, given the "Royal" title in 1904, becoming the Royal North West Mounted Police (RNWMP). In 1920, it was renamed to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Force when the RNWMP was merged with the Dominion Police. Among themselves, the Mounties universally refer to their organization as "The Force", and members of the force are referred to as "Members". |
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| The resources and marketing of Time, Inc. guaranteed that over 500 theatres pre-booked the series when the first volume was launched on February 1, 1935. The March of Time was very successful with audiences. The voice of its leading narrator Westbrook van Voorhis became ingrained in the popular imagination. But the series never made money. Single episodes could cost $50,000 or more, with 75 staff members spending 1000 hours in preparation. |
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| The 200 inch (5.08 m) telescope is named after astronomer George Ellery Hale. It was built by a Caltech-Carnegie Institution consortium using a Pyrex blank manufactured by Corning Glass Works. The telescope saw 'first light' in 1949. The 200-inch Hale at Palomar, completed in 1949, then took over as the world's largest telescope. Weighing more than the Statue of Liberty, the huge instrument had the most perfect mirror ever polished. It revealed such wonders as the first quasars, star-like radio sources moving at incredible speeds at the edge of the visible universe. |
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| In February 1949, RCA Victor shipped the very first batch of 45s to record stores. Some of the larger retail shops also received a special display where customers could see samples of the new format as well as a list of 45 rpm selections that could be ordered. Made specifically for in-store use, and not broadcasters, the "Whirl-Away Demonstration Record" played over and over, calling attention to the colorful display. |
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| In 1951, the TV station KTLA broadcast of an atomic explosion was the first to be seen publicly on television. The event was captured by an NBC camera on Mount Wilson, 300 miles away from the test blast at Frenchman Flats, Nevada. |
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| General Electric Theater featured a mix of romance, comedy, adventure, tragedy, fantasy and variety music. General Electric Theater presented top Hollywood and Broadway stars in dramatic roles calculated to deliver company voice advertising to the largest possible audience. Ronald Reagan was the program host and as an occasional guest star brought needed continuity to disparate anthology offerings. The casting of Don Herbert of TV's Watch Mr. Wizard fame in the role of "General Electric Progress Reporter" established a clear-cut company identity for commercials. |
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| Walter Cronkite hosted the reenactments of historical events. Shows included "The Landing of the Hindenburg", "The Salem Witchcraft Trials", "The Gettysburg Address", "The Fall of Troy", and "The Scuttling of the Graf Spee." |
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| At the soap's center was the Ames family, a prominent clan in the fictional Northeastern town of Woodbridge. The Ames family consisted of Peter, his wife Ellen, and their three children: Susan, Jerry and Amy. The mother Ellen was killed off in the first episode and subsequent stories focused on the widower Peter raising his three children. |
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| This was originally titled "Do The Bop." Dick Clark suggested renaming it "At The Hop" after "Do The Bop" flopped. Changing from "Bop" to "Hop" gave it the pop to put it over the top, and the band later signed with Clark's Swan Records. Danny And The Juniors were the Philadelphia group of Danny Rapp, Dave White, Frank Maffei and Joe Terranova. At the time, they were known as The Juvenairs. |
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| Explorer-I, officially known as Satellite 1958 Alpha, was the first United States Earth satellite and was sent aloft as part of the United States program for the International Geophysical Year 1957-1958. Instrumentation consisted of a cosmic-ray detection package, an internal temperature sensor, three external temperature sensors, a nose-cone temperature sensor, a micrometeorite impact microphone, and a ring of micrometeorite erosion gauges. |
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| A Minuteman ICBM launches for the first time at Cape Canaveral in a major test. Under full guidance, the solid-fueled missile travels 4,600 miles, hitting the target area. Based on the success of the initial test flight, in March 1961 the Department of Defense formally accelerated the Minuteman program and gave it the same development priority as the Atlas and Titan ICBM programs. |
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| "I Want to Hold Your Hand" was the first Beatles song to catch on in America. In 1963, the Beatles became stars in England, but couldn't break through in the US. They couldn't get a major label to distribute their singles in America, so songs like "Love Me Do" and "She Loves You" were issued on small labels and flopped, even though they were hits in England. By February 1964, America finally took notice of The Beatles and bought this single in droves, giving them their first US hit. |
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| On Tuesday, January 21, 1964, Governor Matthew Welsh of Indiana received a complaint from a Frankfort, Indiana teenager, claiming that the lyrics to "Louie Louie" were obscene. Apparently the teenager sent a copy of the obscene lyrics as evidence. Jack New, the Governor's executive secretary, and the Governor listened to it. New told the Indianapolis Star "We slowed it down and we thought we could hear the words." Billboard reported that the Governor said his ears "tingled." |
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| On February 1 King and Ralph Abernathy led a march of about 250 people to the Selma Courthouse to protest slow voter-registration. Both King and Abernathy were arrested and spent five days in jail. |
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| "Crimson and Clover" was #1 during Christmas. At the end of the song, when the vocals are heavily processed, some listeners thought James was singing "Christmas Is Over" instead of "Crimson And Clover." Many songs need to be cut down before radio stations will play them, but this was the opposite. The song was only 2 1/2 minutes long, so they spliced together an extended version for FM radio. |
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| The catchy, haunting, piano-plinking score won the Best Original Score Oscar (the film's sole award) for Francis Lai from its seven Academy Awards nominations: Best Picture, Best Actor (Ryan O'Neal), Best Supporting Actor (John Marley), Best Actress (Ali MacGraw), Best Director (Arthur Hiller), and Best Original Story and Screenplay (Erich Segal). Beau Bridges, Michael York, Michael Douglas, Jon Voight, Michael Sarrazin and Peter Fonda all turned down the part of Oliver - which ultimately went to Ryan O'Neal. |
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| The HP-35 was the world's first pocket electronic scientific calculator, having the equivalent of 30,000 transistors. It sold for $395. Hewlett-Packard sold over 100,000 of the HP-35s the first year. The introduction of the HP-35, known as the "electronic slide rule," and other electronic calculators that followed marked the end of the mechanical slide-rule as a primary problem solving device. |
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| Even when his performing career was at a low ebb, Sedaka served as a songwriter for other artists, resulting in a string of hits year in and year out, whether recorded by him or someone else. For himself, he wrote eight U.S. Top Ten pop hits, including the chart-toppers "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do," "Laughter in the Rain," and "Bad Blood." The most successful cover of one of his compositions was Captain Tennille's recording of "Love Will Keep Us Together," another number one. |
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| David Letterman hosted this popular late-night comedy/talk-show. Often, Dave would go on location or to the phone lines to play pranks. Some famous features of the show include the "Top Ten" lists and "Stupid Pet Tricks" (complete with slow-mo). Fans of the show will also remember Dave's use of unusual camera placements (Sky-Cam, Guest-Cam, etc.) and Dave's supporting cast (Paul Shaffer, Chris Elliott, Larry Bud Melman). Many famous guests and bands appeared on the show. |
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| Gordon Matthews learned about Delphi's voicemail prior to his founding VMX. Regardless of how he was inspired, Matthews eventually founded VMX which developed a 3,000-user voice messaging system called the VMX/64. VMX was arguably the first company to offer voice mail for sale commercially for corporate use. Gordon Matthews, a prolific entrepreneur and patenter, applied for and was granted a patent on voice mail which issued in February, 1983. The patent was promoted as the pioneering patent for voice mail. |
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| "Dionne And Friends" is Dionne Warwick, Stevie Wonder, Elton John and Gladys Knight. They recorded this as a single to raise money for the American Foundation For AIDS Research (AmFAR). AIDS was a widely misunderstood disease in 1985, and this recording helped draw attention to the cause and educated people about the disease. The Dionne And Friends version won Grammies for Best Pop Performance by A Duo Or Group With Vocal and Song Of The Year. |
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| "I'm Too Sexy" was a #1 hit in 28 countries. In the UK, it was held back by Bryan Adams' "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You." When this hit #1 in America, Right Said Fred became the first British group since The Beatles to top the chart with their debut single. |
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1783 William Herschel announces star Lambda Herculis
as apex
More ...
1788 First US steamboat patent issued, by Georgia
to Briggs & Longstreet
More ...
1790 Supreme Court convenes for the first time
(New York NY)
More ...
1793 Patent granted Ralph Hodgson, New York, for
oiled silk & linen
1851 Evaporated milk was invented by Gail Borden
More ...
1862 Julia Howe publishes "Battle Hymn of
the Republic"
More ...
1893 Inventor Thomas Edison completed work on
the world's first motion picture studio
More ...
1898 First auto insurance policy in US issued,
by Travelers Insurance Company
More ...
1902 China's empress Tzu-hsi forbids binding woman's
feet
More ...
1904 Marconi Co establishes "CQD"
More ...
1906 First federal penitentiary building completed,
Leavenworth KS
More ...
1914 New York Giants & Chicago White Sox play
an exhibition baseball game in Egypt
More ...
1920 First commercial armored car introduced (St
Paul MN)
More ...
1920 Royal Canadian Mounted Police forms
More ...
1926 Land at Broadway & Wall Street sold at
a record $7 per square inch
1935 First "March of Time" newsreel
premieres at the Capitol
More ...
1947 NV United Dutch Fokker's Aircraft established
1949 200" (5.08-meter) Hale telescope first
used
More ...
1949 RCA releases first single record ever (45
rpm)
More ...
1951 First telecast of atomic explosion - US nuclear
test at Nevada Test Site
More ...
1951 First X-ray moving picture process demonstrated
1951 State record low temperature of -50°
in Gavilan, NM
1953 "General Electric Theater" premieres
on CBS TV
More ...
1953 "You Are There" with Walter Cronkite
premieres on CBS television
More ...
1954 First TV soap opera "Secret Storm"
premieres
More ...
1957 First Black pilot (PH Young) on a US scheduled
passenger airline
1958 "At the Hop" by Danny and the Juniors
topped the charts
More ...
1958 First US satellite (Explorer I) launched
More ...
1961 First full-scale test of US Minuteman ICBM
is successful
More ...
1962 NL releases its first 162-game schedule
1964 Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand"
first #1 hit & stays #1 for 7 weeks
More ...
1964 Indiana governor declares "Louie Louie"
to be pornographic
More ...
1965 Martin Luther King Jr & 700 demonstrators
arrested in Selma AL
More ...
1969 "Crimson and Clover" by Tommy James
& the Shondells topped the charts
More ...
1971 The soundtrack album from the movie, "Love
Story" certified as a gold record
More ...
1972 First scientific hand-held calculator (HP-35)
introduced ($395)
More ...
1975 "Laughter in the Rain" by Neil
Sedaka topped the charts
More ...
1977 Hillsdale High School defeats Person High
School 2-0 in basketball
1982 "Late Night With David Letterman"
debuts on NBC-TV
More ...
1983 Matthews, Tansil and Fannin obtained a patent
for a digital voice mail system
More ...
1985 State record low temperature of -61°
in Maybell, CO
1985 State record low temperature of -69°
in Peter's Sink, UT
1986 "That's What Friends Are For" by
Dionne Warwick topped the charts
More ...
1992 "I'm Too Sexy" by Right Said Fred
topped the charts
More ...