In 1781 – English astronomer William Herschel observed what he initially thought was a comet but turned out to be the planet Uranus. It was the first planet to be discovered using a telescope.

In 1882 – At the Royal Institution, Eadweard J. Muybridge demonstrated his zoopraxiscope, an optical apparatus that exhibited photographs of moving animals. It is sometimes considered the first movie projector.

In 1969 – Apollo 9 returned safely to Earth after orbital testing of the first crewed Lunar Module.

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In 1790 – John Frederic Daniell was born. He would grow up to invent the Daniell cell, a battery that supplied an even current during continuous operation, thus making battery power practical.

In 1889 – Almon B. Strowger of Kansas City filed his patent for the first automatic telephone exchange.

In 1923 – Inventor Lee De Forest demonstrated The Phonofilm for the press. It was the first motion picture with a sound-on-film track.

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In 105 – Ts’ai Lun demonstrated his process for making paper to the Han emperor in China. He probably didn’t invent it, but he certainly turned it into an industry for the first time. And the industry still survives 20 centuries later even in the face of the computers that plot its doom.

In 1985 – The Southern New England Telephone Company turned on ConnNet, the nation’s first local, public packet-switching network. Customers could access CompuServ, NewsNet and other services at a blistering 4,800 to 56,000 bits per second. The service’s X.25 protocol went obsolete in the 1990s with the popularity of the Internet Protocol.

In 2011 – Apple began selling the iPad 2, a thinner version of the first iPad, that also included a camera.

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