In 1937 – North Pole-1 became the first scientific research station to operate on the drift ice of the Arctic Ocean. The Soviet Union established it about 20 km from the North Pole. It operated for 9 months, and travelled 2,850 kilometres. In 1952 – IBM announced the Model 701, the first computer designed...

In 1875 – 17 nations (including the US) signed the ‘Convention du Mètre’ in Paris, France, establishing the International Bureau of Weights and Measures. In 1891 – The first public demonstration of a prototype Kinetoscope was given at Edison’s laboratory for approximately 150 members of the National Federation of Women’s Clubs. The New York...

In 1857 – William Francis Channing of Boston, Mass. and Moses Gerrish Farmer, of Salem, Mass. received the first U.S. patent for an “electromagnetic fire alarm telegraph for cities” (No. 17,355). In 1961 – Venera 1 became the first manmade object to fly-by another planet by passing within 100,000 KM of Venus. The probe...

In 1923 – The first patent application for the rotary-dial telephone was submitted in France by Antoine Barnay. In 1969 – Apollo 10 launched, completing all the stages of a moon landing mission without landing on the Moon. Astronauts Eugene Cernan and Thomas Stafford descended in the Lunar Module to within 15KM of the...

In 1902 – While going through objects recovered by divers near Antikythera off the coast of Greece, archaeologist Valerois Stais discovered a strange device with gear-wheels inside. The Antikythera mechanism have been puzzling investigators for over a hundred years. In 1943 – The U.S. Army and the University of Pennsylvania signed a contract to...