On This Day:
Friday December 20, 2013 This is the 354th day of the year, with 11 days remaining in 2013. Fact of the Day: Crayola crayons In 1885, cousins Edwin Binney and C. Harold Smith formed the partnership of Binney & Smith. In 1900, the company purchased a stone mill in Easton, PA, and began producing slate pencils for schools. This started Binney's and Smith's research into nontoxic and colorful drawing media for kids. They had already invented a new wax crayon used to mark crates and barrels; however, it was loaded with carbon black and too toxic for children. Binney and Smith were confident that the pigment and wax mixing techniques they had developed could be adapted for a variety of safe colors, and in 1903, a new brand of crayons with superior qualities was introduced - Crayola crayons. The Crayola name, coined by Edwin Binney's wife Alice, comes from craie, the French word for chalk, and ola, meaning "oleaginous." The original eight colors were: black, blue, brown, green, orange, red, violet, and yellow.
Holidays Feast day of St. Dominic of Silos, St. Ammon and his Companions, St. Ursicinus, and St. Philogonius.
Events 1790 - The first successful cotton mill in the U.S. began operating at Pawtucket, Rhode Island.
1803 - The Louisiana Purchase was completed as ownership of the territory was formally transferred from France to the United States during ceremonies in New Orleans. The massive land purchase, nearly doubled the size of the young republic, and was Thomas Jefferson's most notable achievement as President.
1860 - South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union.
1879 - Thomas A. Edison privately demonstrated his incandescent light at Menlo Park, New Jersey.
1880 - Electric lights were installed throughout Broadway's theater section in New York City.
1892 - The pneumatic tire was patented.
1922 - The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was formed when 15 eastern European republics merged to form the USSR.
1924 - Adolf Hitler was released from prison after serving less than one year of a five-year sentence for treason.
1938 - The kinescope, now known as the cathode-ray tube, was patented by Russian immigrant Vladimir Zworykin.
1965 - "The Dating Game" premiered on television.
1989 - U.S. armed forces invaded Panama to overthrow military dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega, who had been indicted in the United States on drug trafficking charges and accused of suppressing democracy in Panama.
1999 - The Vermont Supreme Court ruled that homosexual couples were entitled to the same benefits and protections as wedded couples of the opposite sex.
1999 - Macau reverted to Chinese rule; it had been a Portuguese colony since 1557.
Births 1868 - Harvey Firestone, American industrialist and tire maker.
1895 - Suzanne K. Langer, American philosopher and author.
1901 - Irene Dunn, American actress.
1901 - Robert Van de Graaff, American physicist and inventor.
Deaths 1968 - John Steinbeck, American novelist, who wrote "The Grapes of Wrath" and other works.
1973 - Bobby Darin, American singer, and teen idol of the late 1950s.
1982 - Artur Rubenstein, Polish pianist.
1996 - Carl Sagan, American astronomer and science writer.
|
No comments:
Post a Comment