History

On this day in 1948 – Candid Camera makes its television debut after being on radio for a year as Candid Microphone. The show involved concealing cameras filming ordinary people being confronted with unusual situations, sometimes involving trick props, such as a desk with drawers that pop open when one is closed or a car […]

On this day in 1892 Thomas Edison received a patent for a two-way telegraph. A great biography of Thomas Edison is The Wizard of Menlo Park: How Thomas Alva Edison Invented the Modern World. In this entertaining biography, Stross (eBoys: The First Inside Account of Venture Capitalists at Work) approaches the life of Edison from

1926 – In New York, New York, the Warner Brothers’ Vitaphone system premieres with the movie Don Juan starring John Barrymore. 1956 – After going bankrupt in 1955, the American broadcaster DuMont Television Network makes its final broadcast, a boxing match from St. Nicholas Arena in New York in the Boxing from St. Nicholas Arena

1527 – The first known letter from North America is sent by John Rut while at St. John’s, Newfoundland. 1678 – Robert LaSalle builds the Le Griffon, the first known ship built on the Great Lakes. 1900 – The Firestone Tire & Rubber Company is founded. 1946 – Santa Claus Land, the world’s first themed

1869 – Japan’s samurai, farmer, artisan, merchant class system (Shinōkōshō) is abolished as part of the Meiji Restoration reforms. (Traditional Japanese date: June 25, 1869). 1870 – Tower Subway, the world’s first underground tube railway, opens in London, England, United Kingdom. 1873 – The Clay Street Hill Railroad begins operating the first cable car in

On this day in 1962 Telstar, the world’s first communications satellite, was launched into orbit. Telstar 1 relayed its first, and non-public, television pictures—a flag outside Andover Earth Station—to Pleumeur-Bodou on July 11, 1962. Almost two weeks later, on July 23, at 3:00 p.m. EDT, it relayed the first publicly available live transatlantic television signal.

On this day in 1819, Elias How the american inventor and sewing machine pioneer was born. Contrary to popular belief, Howe was not the first to conceive of the idea of a sewing machine. Many other people had formulated the idea of such a machine before him, one as early as 1790, and some had