[Geezer]

They could have rode off together into the sunset on the back of a camel.

Yes, but they should never forget "It's the tobacco that counts." (Now that is a really old one.)

[RD]

... earlier this year, I found what I believed to be the mass grave of last year's snowmen. On further investigation, it turned out to be a carrot farm.

The lack of coins and teaspoons should have given that away ... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-11908583

[Don_1 (OP)]

Born today in 1795, Sir Rowland Hill, conceived and developed the Penny postal system.

Died today in 1888 – Carl Zeiss

On this day in 1818, Illinois becomes the 21st. state of the Union.
In 1931, Alka Seltzer goes on sale. Where would hang-overs be without them. Just in time for Xmas overindulgence.

[Don_1 (OP)]

Born this day in 1816, Benjamin Silliman Jr. Where would BP be today without him? Possibly not contaminating the Gulf of Mexico.

Born on this day in 1858, Chester Greenwood, inventor of earmuffs. Pardon, you’ll have to speak up!

Hershey – No, not Milton, Alfred Day Hershey, born this day in 1908

Died today in 1131, Omar Khayyam

Died today in 1850, William Sturgeon. He must have had a magnetic personality.

Died today in 1952, Karen Horney. No, that was her name, not her description. As a psychoanalyst who broke with Freud’s ideas on
                                                   nature Vs nurture,you’d have thought she would have had the presence of mind to marry someone
                                                   named Smith, Brown or Jones.

On this day in 1819, Sir William Congreve, inventor of military rockets, patented his triple paper which incorporated a watermark.

Today in 1894, George Parker patented the first successful fountain pen. One which didn’t leak in the pocket.
                          Who among us hasn't used a Parker Pen? (other writting implements are available).

[Don_1 (OP)]

Born this day in 1742, Nicolas Leblanc
Born this day in 1835, Rudolf, no, not the one with a red nose, Wilhelm Rudolf Fittig, the German chemist.
And in 1835, Libbie Henrietta Hyman. You couldn’t describe her as being ‘spineless’.

Died today in 1882, Anthony Trollope, I bet he wrote some old trollope. He also introduced the familiar red pillar box.
Died today in 1892, Werner von Siemens (other electrical appliances are available)
Died today in 1893, Rudolf, no, still not the one with the red nose, or the German chemist, Johann Rudolf Wolf, Swiss astronomer.

On this day in 1877, Thomas Alva Edison releases his first hit single, ‘Mary had a little lamb’. Fortunately he had had the presence of mind to invent the phonograph to play it on.

[Don_1 (OP)]

Born today in 1879, Charles Lavelle Broley. No he didn’t invent the umbrella. Ornithologist who linked DDT to the decline in the number of raptors.
Born today in 1761, Marie Grosholtz Tussaud (Madame Tussaud).
And born today in 1905, Gerard Peter Kuiper. Discovered Miranda (moon of Uranus) and Nereid (moon of Neptune).

Died today in 1254, Pope Innocent IV. Tried to persuade the Mongols to find an alternative pastime to slaughtering Christians.
Died today in 1817, Vice Admiral William Bligh FRS RN. He of the mutiny on the Bounty.

On this day in 1872 the corvette HMS Challenger set sail on the first world scientific voyage.
On this day in 1888 a veterinary surgeon patented the pneumatic tyre. 2 years later the patent was declared invalid as fellow Scott Robert William Thomas had already patented the idea in France in 1846 and in the USA in 1847. The vet’s name was John Boyd Dunlop.
And in 1909 Leo Hendrik Baekeland patent’s Bakelite.
Also today in 1787, Delaware becomes the first state to ratify the constitution.

[Don_1 (OP)]

Born on this day in 1730, Jan Ingenhousz. Following on from the work of Jan Baptista Van Helmont in 1649 and Joseph Preistly in the 1770’s, Ingenhousz, researching the remedial properties of plants, discovered the process of photosynthesis.

Sharing Ingenhousz’s birth date in 1730, Johann Hedwig, he didn’t let the moss grow under his feet.

Died on this day in 1983, Louis Burton Lindley, Jr. better known as the actor Slim Pickens. (Blazing Saddles, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, Dr Strangelove and many more).

On this day in 1941, the USA and Britain (already at war against Germany & Italy) formally declare war against Japan following the attack on Pear Harbour. 3 days later, the USA formally declares war against Germany.

[Don_1 (OP)]

On the 8th of December 1980, outside his apartment block in New York, John Winston Lennon is murdered.

He was pronounced dead on arrival at Roosevelt Hospital at 11.07PM 12/8/1980 (UK = 04.07AM 9th December 1980).

[Don_1 (OP)]

Born on this day in 1886, Clarence Birdseye, Where would the freezer be today without him? Empty!
Born on this day in 1742, Carl Wilhelm Scheele, discovered oxygen in 1772 but delayed publication of his book, resulted in Priestly being attributed with this discovery in 1774. Scheele also discovered chlorine, manganese and tungsten.

[syhprum]

Sir Bernard Lovell is not quite as old as you make out, he was born in 1913.

[Don_1 (OP)]

Sir Bernard Lovell is not quite as old as you make out, he was born in 1913.

Indeed he was. I have corrected my typo. Thanks syhprum.

[Don_1 (OP)]

16^th December.

Born this day in 1770, Ludwig von Beethoven
Born this day in 1899, Noël Peirce Coward

Died today in 1859, Wilhelm Carl Grimm, the younger of the brothers.

Died on or around 15th / 16th December 1944, Glenn Miller

On this day in 1631 Mt Vesuvius erupts, claiming some 4000 souls in 6 villages.
On this day in 1653, Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales.
On this day in 1773, they had a tea party in Boston, in the British colony of Massachusetts.

[Don_1 (OP)]

Born this day in 1805, Thomas Graham, 'father of colloid chemistry'.
Born on this day in 1868, Harvey Samuel Firestone, we never tyre of his development.
Born today in 1901, Robert Jemison Van de Graaff, he generated some interest.

Died this day in 1921, Richard Julius Petri. He was no chef, but we still enjoy his dish today.
Died on this day in 1996, Carl Edward Sagan, astronomer and all round clever cloggs.

On this day in 1920, William Henry Hope becomes a US citizen, thus his son, born in Eltham, SE London,  Leslie Townes Hope, also becomes a US citizen. He will become better known as Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS and in 1996, US Congress declared him the ‘first and only honorary veteran of the U.S. armed forces.’

On this day in 1951, the first nuclear generated electricity was produced by EBR-1 in Idaho, USA.

[Geezer]

On this day in 1951, the first nuclear generated electricity was produced by EBR-1 in Idaho, USA.

Which explains why there are so many strange people living here.
 
BTW, shouldn't that be "nukeular"?

[Don_1 (OP)]

BTW, shouldn't that be "nukeular"?

I don't think so....... LOOK OUT!!!

[Don_1 (OP)]

Sorry I didn't get to post this one on the appropriate day, but better late than never:-

January 8th.

Born on this day in 1942, Stephen William Hawking, CH, CBE, FRS, FRSA



Happy 70th birthday.

I wonder how many cards he got? 20³

[Don_1 (OP)]

Born this day in 1888, Sir Thomas Octave Murdoch Sopwith. I bet Snoopy would give him the hump.

In 1911 Lt. Eugene Burton Ely made the first aircraft landing on a ship, the U.S.S. Pennsylvania in San Francisco Harbour.

And on this day in 1896, the first X-Ray machine is exhibited in New York.

[Don_1 (OP)]

Born this day in 1832, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, photographer and mathematician. Of the books he wrote on mathematics, only one (Euclid and his modern rivals - 1879) was of any consequence. However, he had somewhat better luck with a fantasy novel written under his pen name, 'Lewis Carroll'.

On this day in 1926 in London, John Logie Baird gives the first public demonstration of his television.

And on this day in 1888, the National Geographic Society was established in Washington.

[Don_1 (OP)]

How remiss of me to forget this one for yesterday.

Born 7th February  1812 in Portsmouth, Hampshire, Charles John Huffam Dickens. Author, philanthropist and father to 10 children.

Bleak House, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Nicholas Nickleby, The Old Curiosity Shop, Little Dorrit and A Christmas Carol are among his many works, which are still popular and in print to this day.

Some of the characters from his novels are among the best known fictional characters of all time, such as Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim, Jacob Marley, Bob Cratchit, Oliver Twist, The Artful Dodger, Fagin, Bill Sikes, Miss Havisham, David Copperfield, Mr. Micawber, Daniel Quilp, Samuel Pickwick, Wackford Squeers and Uriah Heep.

Dickens supported Urania Cottage, a home and school for ‘fallen women’ and Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital and many of his novels were a political criticism in support of the poor and oppressed. He fiercely opposed Victorian inequality and has probably turned in his grave a million times due to today’s worsening wealth distribution.

His name was given to the term ‘Dickensian’, meaning to resemble conditions described in Dickens novels, squalid, poverty-stricken, Victorian,  grotesquely comic.

Dickens died at his home, Gads Hill Place, in Higham, Rochester, Kent on 9th June 1870 leaving his final work ‘Edwin Drood’ unfinished with only 6 of the planned 12 monthly serials completed. Contrary to his wish to be buried in an unostentatious manner and grave, he was buried in Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey.

[Don_1 (OP)]

Born this day in 1777, Bernard Courtois. The scourge of every schoolboy’s grazed knee.

Born this day in 1834, Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev. Where would chemicals be without his Periodic Table?

Born this day in 1868, Lionel Walter Rothschild, zoologist and founder of the Walter Rothschild Zoological Museum. A Rothschild who turned his back on the family banking business.

And on this day in 1865 Gregor Johann Mendel presents his first scientific paper to the Brünn Society.