1877 – Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated the telephone for the first time in public at the Salem Lyceum Hall. The demonstration ended with the sending of the first telephone news dispatch which was received by the Boston Globe.
http://www.salemweb.com/tales/lyceum.shtml
1973 – Along Interstate 71 in Ohio, the first metric distance road signs to be erected in the US were put in place. They informed of the distance between Columbus and Cleveland and Columbus and Cincinnati.
http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2003/02/12/loc_ohiodate0212.html
2001 – The NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft touched down on 433 Eros after transmitting 69 close up pictures. It became the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid.
Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.
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