December 2

1594: Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator, developer of the map projection that bears his name, died. 1877: Louis-Paul Cailletet became the first to liquefy oxygen. 1881: German physicist Heinrich Barkhausen, who discovered the effect named after him regarding changes in the magnetic properties of metal, was born. 1895: James Dewar exhibited his new apparatus for the production of liquefied air. 1901: Gillette patented the first disposable razor. 1906: Peter Goldmark, who developed the first color commercial television system as well as the 33-1/3 LP phonograph record, was born. 1927: first Model A Fords sold for $385. 1941: Yamamoto ordered his fleet to Pearl Harbor. 1942: A self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was demonstrated by Dr. Enrico Fermi and his staff at the University of Chicago. 1952: The first human birth was televised to public on KOA-TV. 1965: American physicist Hugh Dryden, who headed NACA (now NASA) for seven years and after whom the Dryden Flight Research Center is named, died. 1969: The Boeing 747 jumbo jet got its first public preview as 191 people flew from Seattle, WA, to New York City, NY. 1990: first parliamentary election in newly reunified Germany. 2001: Enron filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.