The Great Geek Manual

1840
Englishman John William Draper becomes the first person to successfully photograph the Moon. The image is a daguerreotype, precursor of the later photograph.

1857
The first Otis commercial passenger elevator is installed at the E.V. Haughwout and Company department store in New York City at a cost of US$300.

1903
The Wright Brothers apply for a patent for the first successful airplane. The patent will be granted on May 22, 1906. View the original patent application.
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1840
Englishman John William Draper becomes the first person to successfully photograph the Moon. The image is a daguerreotype, precursor of the later photograph.

1857
The first Otis commercial passenger elevator is installed at the E.V. Haughwout and Company department store in New York City at a cost of US$300.

1903
The Wright Brothers apply for a patent for the first successful airplane. The patent will be granted on May 22, 1906. View the original patent application.
Read the rest of this entry » » »

1457
The Gutenberg Bible is printed by Johannes Gutenberg. While it isn’t the first book to be printed using Gutenberg’s movable type system, it will become the first popular work produced by the machine.

1895
The first motion picture shown on a screen is presented by Auguste and Louis Lumière during a private screening for the Société d’Encouragement à l’Industrie Nationale. An invited audience at forty-four spectators at the Rue de Rennes in Paris, France, view the silent documentary film La Sortie des ouvriers de l’usine Lumière (“Employees Leaving the Lumière Factory and Exiting the Factory”), a film they shot especially for the occasion. The film is a recording of workers leaving the Lumières’ own factory in Lyon, which manufactures photographic products. The workers stream out, most on foot, some with their bicycles, followed by those with cars. Several more such screenings will follow before the first public exhibition at the Salon Indien du Grand Café at 14 Boulevard des Capucines in Paris on December 28. Though the “film” is only 46 seconds long, it will go down in history as the first true motion picture. The Lumières will soon begin opening cinemas in Berlin, Brussels, London, and New York to exhibit their films.
Read the rest of this entry » » »

1457
The Gutenberg Bible is printed by Johannes Gutenberg. While it isn’t the first book to be printed using Gutenberg’s movable type system, it will become the first popular work produced by the machine.

1895
The first motion picture shown on a screen is presented by Auguste and Louis Lumière during a private screening for the Société d’Encouragement à l’Industrie Nationale. An invited audience at forty-four spectators at the Rue de Rennes in Paris, France, view the silent documentary film La Sortie des ouvriers de l’usine Lumière (“Employees Leaving the Lumière Factory and Exiting the Factory”), a film they shot especially for the occasion. The film is a recording of workers leaving the Lumières’ own factory in Lyon, which manufactures photographic products. The workers stream out, most on foot, some with their bicycles, followed by those with cars. Several more such screenings will follow before the first public exhibition at the Salon Indien du Grand Café at 14 Boulevard des Capucines in Paris on December 28. Though the “film” is only 46 seconds long, it will go down in history as the first true motion picture. The Lumières will soon begin opening cinemas in Berlin, Brussels, London, and New York to exhibit their films.
Read the rest of this entry » » »

1684
Giovanni Domenico Cassini discovers Tethys and Dione, two moons of Saturn with a refractor telescope.

1859
The first Zoological Society is incorporated in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Following the disruption of the Civil War, the society will establish the country’s first Zoo.

1925
Wolfgang Pauli publishes his “exclusion principle” at the young age of twenty-four, in an article in the journal Zeitschrift für Physik. The Pauli exclusion principle states that two fermions, such as electrons, cannot be in the same quantum state at the same time. In 1945, Pauli will be awarded a Nobel Prize for this fundamental contribution to the science of quantum mechanics.
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1684
Giovanni Domenico Cassini discovers Tethys and Dione, two moons of Saturn with a refractor telescope.

1859
The first Zoological Society is incorporated in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Following the disruption of the Civil War, the society will establish the country’s first Zoo.

1925
Wolfgang Pauli publishes his “exclusion principle” at the young age of twenty-four, in an article in the journal Zeitschrift für Physik. The Pauli exclusion principle states that two fermions, such as electrons, cannot be in the same quantum state at the same time. In 1945, Pauli will be awarded a Nobel Prize for this fundamental contribution to the science of quantum mechanics.
Read the rest of this entry » » »

1800
In a letter, Alessandro Volta announces his invention of the voltaic pile, the earliest battery, to Sir Joseph Banks, president of the Royal Society in London, England.

1841
The short story The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe, which will later come to be widely considered the first detective story in history, is published in Graham’s Magazine. The story establishes many literary devices and motifs later seen in the mystery genre.

1886
An alternating-current (AC) electrical system is demonstrated by lighting Main Street in Great Barrington, Massachusetts with electricity generated by the power planet of George Westinghouse.

1900
Nikola Tesla receives a patent for the wireless transmission of electric power. (US No. 645,576) View the patent online.
Read the rest of this entry » » »

1800
In a letter, Alessandro Volta announces his invention of the voltaic pile, the earliest battery, to Sir Joseph Banks, president of the Royal Society in London, England.

1841
The short story The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe, which will later come to be widely considered the first detective story in history, is published in Graham’s Magazine. The story establishes many literary devices and motifs later seen in the mystery genre.

1886
An alternating-current (AC) electrical system is demonstrated by lighting Main Street in Great Barrington, Massachusetts with electricity generated by the power planet of George Westinghouse.

1900
Nikola Tesla receives a patent for the wireless transmission of electric power. (US No. 645,576) View the patent online.
Read the rest of this entry » » »