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Nov. 17, 1749: Father of Modern Canning Born
1749: Nicolas Appert is born. He will invent the modern food-canning process while trying to help Napoleon conquer Europe. By 1795, France was in an expansionist mood and quarreling with its neighbors....
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Dec. 16, 1770: Beethoven’s Birth in Bonn Leads to Longer CDs
1770: Ludwig van Beethoven is born to a family of musicians in Bonn, Germany. His Ninth Symphony will play a role in determining the length of the music CD. Exactly how big a role is a matter of...
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Dec. 17, 1790: Accurate Calendar Requires Sacrifice, You Dig?
1790: Workers doing repairs in Mexico City unearth a massive stone bearing ancient symbols. It turns out to be a representation of the Aztec calendar and will eventually become a national treasure. The...
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Jan. 14, 1794: First Successful Cesarean in U.S.
1794: Elizabeth Bennett delivers a daughter by cesarean section, becoming the first woman in the United States to give birth this way and survive. Her husband, Jesse, is the physician who performs the...
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April 15, 1726: Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From Physicist
1726: Isaac Newton tells a biographer the story of how an apple falling in his garden prompted him to develop his law of universal gravitation. It will become an enduring origin story in the annals of...
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July 15, 1783: Marquis Invents Steamboat, Misses Esteem Boat
A young French nobleman demonstrates the first successful steamboat on the River Saone at Lyon. But as for fortune, and as for fame: nada.
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Sept. 22, 1792: Day One of Revolutionary Calendar
When people who study the French Revolution read about the Uprising of Vendémiaire or the Insurrection of 12 Germinal An III, most simply scratch their heads and wonder, Vendémiaire? Germinal? An III?...
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Jan. 18, 1778: Cook Blunders Into Paradise, Which Is Soon Lost
Capt. James Cook discovers the Hawaiian Islands on his way to hunt for the Northwest Passage. He fails to find the latter, and probably wishes he missed finding the first one, too.
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April 17, 1790: America Loses One of Its Most Inventive Minds
Ben Franklin dies, and America loses one of its most inventive minds.
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June 4, 1783: Balloons That Carry Passengers? It’s More Than Hot Air
The Montgolfier brothers develop a balloon that will soon be all the rage in Paris.
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