In 1947 – John Bardeen and Walter Brattain demonstrated their new discovery, the transistor, at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey. William Shockley, who contributed to the invention, missed the presentation.

In 1968 – Apollo 8 astronauts Frank Borman, James A. Lovell, Jr., and William A. Anders made the lunar-orbit-insertion maneuver on their way to becoming the first humans to orbit the Moon.

In 1986 – Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager touched down at Edwards Air Force Base in the experimental airplane Voyager, completing the first non-stop, round- the- world flight without refueling.

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In 1666 – Seven mathematicians and seven physicists gathered by Jean-Baptiste Colbert met in the king’s library to found the French Academy of Sciences.

In 1882 – Edward H. Johnson of the Edison Illumination Company strung a single power cord with red white and blue lights on his Christmas tree becoming the first person to use Christmas tree lights.

In 1885 – A patent for a gravity switchback railway was issued to La Marcus Thompson of Coney Island, New York. You and I might call it a “roller coaster.”

In 1968 – At 3:01 PM Eastern time, Apollo 8 transmitted the first US. live telecast from a manned spacecraft in outer space.

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In 1898 – Building on Henri Becquerel’s discovery of spontaneous radioactivity two years earlier the husband-and-wife team of Pierre and Marie Curie discovered Radium. Marie particularly figured out how to separate it from its radioactive residues.

In 1937 – Walt Disney’s first full-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs opened in Los Angeles. It ran 83 minutes. It was also the first animated film produced in color.

In 1968 – Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the moon, launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The crew performed the first ever manned Trans Lunar Injection and became the first humans to leave Earth’s gravity. The Apollo Guidance Computer was the first computer to use integrated circuit logic.

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In 1880 – New York’s Broadway from 14th to 26th street was first lighted by electricity and became known as the “Great White Way.”

In 1951 – In Idaho, the Experimental Breed Reactor no. 1 aka EBR-1 became the first power plant to produce electricity using atomic energy. It would take two more years to prove it could create more fuel than it consumed.

In 1996 – Apple announced it would acquire NeXT Computer and bring co-founder Steve Jobs back to the company he left in 1985.

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