1706: Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston, MA. 1871: Andrew Hallidie received a patent for his cable car system. 1882: Leroy Firman received a patent for the telephone switchboard. 1886: American airplane designer Glenn L. Martin was born. 1955: The submarine Nautilus began the first nuclear-powered test voyage. 1994: A 6.7 magnitude earthquake struck Southern California, killing at least 61 people and causing $20 billion worth of damage. 1991: Operation Desert Shield became Operation Desert Storm as the air war phase began. 1995: 5,372 people were killed when a 7.2 magnitude earthquake devastated Kobe, Japan. 2001: Tom Kilburn, who was the first to succeed in storing and then retrieving a bit of data via software, died.