January 18

1779: British physician Peter Roget, best known for his thesaurus but also the inventor of a log-log slide rule and early investigator of sampling phenomena, was born. 1813: Joseph Glidden, inventor of barbed wire, was born. 1854: Thomas Watson, assistant to Alexander Graham Bell, was born. 1878: Antoine-César Becquerel, who was the first to use electrolysis to recover metals from ores, died. 1888: Sir Thomas Sopwith, of Camel biplane and triplane fame, was born. 1908: Dutch ophthalmologist Herman Snellen, developer of the visual acuity Snellen Chart seen in all opticians' offices, died. 1911: The first landing of an aircraft on a ship took place as pilot Eugene Ely flew onto the deck of the USS Pennsylvania in San Francisco harbor. 1933: American physicist Ray Dolby, of noise reduction fame, was born. 1991: Iraq launched SCUD missiles against Israel. 1994: The U.S. Department of Energy announced production of thin film solar panels giving nearly twice the efficiency of existing panels.