Day in Engineering History Archive - July 19

July 19

1814: American firearms manufacturer Samuel Colt was born. 1843: The first all-metal ocean liner, the S.S. Great Britain, was launched from Bristol, England. 1865: Charles Mayo, co-founder of the Mayo Clinic, was born. 1912: A meteor with an estimated mass of 190 kg exploded over the town of Holbrook, AZ, causing approximately 16,000 pieces of debris to rain down on the town. 1937: George Parker, inventor of the the first successful fountain pen and founder of the Parker Pen Company, died. 1937: The official search for missing flyers Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan ended. 1941: BBC World Service began regular broadcasting throughout Europe of opening four notes of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, which in Morse Code spell V for "Victory" (dit, dit, dit, dah.., get it?). 1942: The Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter made its first flight under jet engine power. 1957: The first rocket with nuclear warhead was fired from an F-89 at Yucca Flat, NV (code name Plumbbob/John). 1961: The first in-flight movie, By Love Possessed, was shown on TWA. 1991: Cal Ripken played his 1,500th consecutive game. 2005: Death Valley, CA recorded a temperature of 53.9°C (129°F). 2010: David Ronald de Mey Warren, the Australian scientist who invented the flight data recorder (or "black box"), died.

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Note: These historical tidbits have been collected from various sources, mostly on the Internet. As detailed in this article, there is a lot of wrong information that is repeated hundreds of times because most websites do not validate with authoritative sources. On RF Cafe, events with hyperlinks have been verified. Many years ago, I began commemorating the birthdays of notable people and events with special RF Cafe logos. Where available, I like to use images from postage stamps from the country where the person or event occurred.