This day in history

Some notable historical events that happened today include:

 

1845 -  Chemist Michael Faraday discovered how a magnetic field influences polarized light, now known as the Faraday Effect

 

1883 -  the Cleveland Blue's one-armed pitcher, Hugh Daily, pitched a no-hitter against the Philadelphia Quakers, earning a 1-0 win. He lost his left arm as a boy when a revolver accidentally discharged

 

1947 -  Blues musician T-Bone Walker recorded Call it Stormy Monday (But Tuesday is Just as Bad)

 

1948 -  Margaret Chase Smith was elected to the Senate, she was the first woman elected to both chambers of Congress and the first Republican woman elected to the Senate

 

1955 -  Swiss inventor George de Mestral was issued Patent No. 2,717,437 for what is now known as Velcro. It was inspired by burrs stuck in his dog's fur

 

1969 -  Scooby-Doo premiered on CBS.

 

1985 -  the Super Mario Bros. game debuted 

 

1999 -  the Denver Broncos retired quarterback John Elway's number 7 jersey

 

2007 -  Jose Melo of Ontario, Canada created the world's tallest inushuk measured at 37 feet and 3.9 inches tall made from 11 granite slabs. An inushuk is a stone sculpture traditionally built by the Inuit people often served as a marker for a variety of reasons

 

Some interesting birthdays include:

 

Laura Secord (1775)

Lucy Good Brooks (1818) - Former slave who founded the Friend's Asylum for Colored Orphans after the Civil War. It operated in the Richmond, VA area for nearly 60 years

Milton Hershey (1857) - yes, this is the founder of the Hershey chocolate company. Before that he operated the Lancaster Caramel Company before he decided to focus on chocolate, and thank God for that!

John J. Pershing (1860) 

Alain Locke (1885) - the first American Rhodes Scholar

Amelia "Melli" Besse (1886) - became the first woman in Germany to earn her pilots license in 1911

Roald Dahl (1916) - my favorite of his stories are Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Matilda

Jenny Romanowski (1927)

Don Bluth (1937) - animator known for The Secret of NIMH, An American Tail and All Dogs Go to Heaven 

Ed Roberts (1941) - developed the first successful personal computer, the Altair 8800, in 1974