This Week in Science
June July August September October November December
January
February March April May
June
- June 5, 1783: Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier gave the first successful balloon flight demonstration. The U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission offers information on the Montgolfier brothers.
- June 15, 1844: Charles Goodyear was granted a patent for rubber vulcanization.
- June 18, 1812: Aviator Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. See the Amelia Earhart official website for more information.
- June 26, 1819: W. K. Clarkson patented improvements to the bicycle. The Development of the Bicycle presented by the Smithsonian National Museum of American History outlines a brief history of the bike.
July
- July 4, 1997: The U.S. Pathfinder probe landed on Mars. For more information, see this CNN article released the day before the probe landed.
- July 9, 1894: The inventor of the microwave oven, Percy Lebaron Spencer, was born. For more information on how Spencer and his colleagues stumbled upon this invention, see the MIT Inventor of the Week Archive.
- July 20, 1969: Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the moon. Check out this brief biography of Armstrong, complete with a link to a video of these historical lunar steps.
- July 25, 1920: Rosalind Franklin, a molecular biologist who contributed to the discovery of DNA, was born in London. For more information on Franklin and her discoveries, see her profile from the National Library of Medicine.
August
- August 3, 1958: The USS Nautilus, a nuclear submarine, made the first underwater trip across the North Pole. For more about this difficult excursion, see Athropolis.com.
- August 15, 2001: Astronomers announced the discovery of the first solar system outside our own. For more about the origin of our solar system and information on extrasolar systems, see The 8 Planets.
- August 24, 79: Mount Vesuvius erupted and buried the towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum. For more about Mt. Vesuvius and its eruptions, check out Volcano World.
- August 29, 2005: Hurricane Katrina slammed into the U.S. Gulf Coast, destroying beachfront towns in Mississippi and Louisiana, displacing a million people, and killing more than 1,000. For more about Hurricane Katrina, visit the National Climatic Data Center.
September
- September 4, 1888: George Eastman patented his roll-film camera and registered the Kodak trademark. For more about Eastman's contribution to photography, visit PBS's The Wizard of Photography.
- September 14, 1959: The Soviet space probe Luna 2 became the first man-made object to reach the Moon when it crashed onto the lunar surface. For more about lunar missions, visit the National Space Science Data Center.
- September 21, 1938: A hurricane struck New York and New England with extensive damage and more than 600 deaths. For more about The Great Hurrican of '38, visit The Long Island Express.
- September 29, 1988: The space shuttle Discovery was launched, the first American staffed space flight since the Challenger disaster. For more about the Challenger accident, visit NASA's History Division.
October
- October 1, 1908: Henry Ford introduced the first mass-produced automobile on the market-the Model T car-to the market. Each car cost $825. For more information on the Model T, visit The Henry Ford.
- October 8, 1871: The Great Fire of Chicago started. That same day in Peshtigo, Wis., the worst forest fire in U.S. history also began. For more information on The Great Fire and its aftermath, check out ChicagoHistory.org
- October 17, 1989: An earthquake measuring 7.1 in magnitude killed 67 and injured over 3,000 in San Francisco. For more information on this earthquake and its aftermath, visit The Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco.
- October 28, 1793: Eli Whitney applied for a patent for the cotton gin. To learn more about Whitney and his invention, visit The Eli Whitney Museum and Workshop.
November
- November 1, 1755: Earthquake, fires, and tsunami leveled Lisbon and claimed 70,000 lives. For some historical depictions of the Lisbon earthquake, check out the National Information Service for Earthquake Engineering.
- November 13, 1927: The world's first long, mechanically ventilated underwater tunnel, the Holland Tunnel, opened between New York and New Jersey. For a historical overview of the Holland Tunnel, visit NYC Crossroads.
- November 17, 1869: The Suez Canal opened in Egypt. To learn more about the Suez Canal's historical significance, visit The BBC.
- November 21, 1783: With the Marquis d'Arlandes, Pilâtre de Rozier made the first free flight in a balloon, reaching a peak altitude of about 3,000 ft and traveling about 5 1/2 mi in 20 min. For more information about this historic flight and other flight machines, visit The U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission.
- November 28, 1964: The U.S. spacecraft Mariner 4 launched—on its way to the first successful mission to Mars. For more about Mars exploration, check out NASA's Mars Exploration Program.
December
- December 3, 1967: Dr. Christiaan N. Barnard performed the world's first successful human heart transplant. For more information about Barnard and the procedure, visit the Groote Schuur Museum.
- December 14, 1967: DNA was synthesized for the first time. For more information about the history of DNA, visit PBS.
- December 16, 1947: The first transistor was invented at Bell Laboratories by William Shockley, John Bardeen, and Walter Brattain. For more about the history of the transistor, visit PBS's Transistorized!.
January
- January 3, 1870: Construction of the Brooklyn Bridge began. For more about the bridge, visit New York City's Brooklyn Bridge Website.
- January 10, 1863: The first underground passenger railway, the Metropolitan, opened in London. For more about the London Underground, visit Transport for London.
- January 19, 1915: The electric neon sign was patented in the United States by George Claude of Paris, France. For more about the development of the neon sign, visit The History of Neon Signs.
- January 24, 1986: Voyager 2 space probe passes within 51,000 miles of Uranus. To learn more about Uranus and Voyager 2's findings, visit NASA's site, Voyager: The Interstellar Mission.
February
- February 1, 1946: A press conference that announced the first electronic digital computer, ENIAC, was held at the University of Pennsylvania. To learn more about ENIAC and the history of computing, visit The ENIAC Museum Online.
- February 9, 1870: The National Weather Service was established under the U.S. Army Signal Corps. To learn more about the National Weather Service, visit NOAA's History of the National Weather Service.
- February 16, 1937: Nylon was patented. To learn more about the composition of this fabric, visit The Science of Nylon.
- February 19, 1878: Thomas Edison patented the gramophone (phonograph). To learn more about Edison and his numerous patents, check out The Edison Papers.
- February 26, 1935: RADAR (Radio Detection and Ranging) was first demonstrated by Robert Watson-Watt. To learn more about the use of radar in England and other countries, check out Radar World.
March
- March 7, 1876: Alexander Graham Bell received a patent for the telephone. For more on Graham Bell's invention, visit The Franklin Institute's Bell's Telephone.
- March 14, 1794: The cotton gin was patented by Eli Whitney. For more information about Whitney's invention, visit The Eli Whitney Museum and Workshop.
- March 28, 1979: The nuclear power plant accident at Three Mile Island, near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, occurred. For more information about Three Mile Island, visit the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Fact Sheet on the Three Mile Island Accident.
April
- April 1, 1960: The first U.S. weather satellite, TIROS-1, was launched from Cape Canaveral. To learn more about environmental satellites, visit the NOAA's Satellites: Then and Now.
- April 10, 1790: The U.S. patent system was formed. To learn more about patents, the history of the patent system, and searching for patents, visit the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
- April 17, 1970: The Apollo 13 astronauts safely splashed down after their near-disastrous flight. To learn more about the mission, visit NASA's Apollo 13 Mission Site.
- April 23, 1970: The first Earth Day was observed. To learn more about Earth Day and how to get involved, visit the EPA's Earth Day site.
May
- May 1, 1931: The Empire State Building opened in New York City. At 102 stories, it would be the world's tallest building for the next 41 years. For facts about and historic pictures of the Empire State Building's construction, visit the New York Public Library.
- May 5, 1961: Alan Shepard became the first American in space. For information about this and the other Mercury missions, visit NASA's page on Freedom 7.
The content on this page is from multiple sources including Infoplease This Day in History.
