July 17

Today is Wrong Way Corrigan Day. 709 BC: The earliest record of a confirmed total solar eclipse was written in China. 1850: Astronomers at the Harvard Observatory took the first photograph of a star - Vega. 1899: NEC Corporation was organized as the first Japanese joint venture with foreign capital. 1902: Willis Carrier completed drawings for what came to be recognized as the world's first scientific air conditioning system. 1920: Gordon Gould, who coined the term "laser," was born. 1920: Nils Bohlin, inventor of the 3-point should and lap safety belt, was born. 1947: Sir Watson-Watt, the father of radar, was granted a patent for his radar concept. 1955: Disneyland opened in Anaheim, CA. 1975: An Apollo spaceship docked with the Soyuz 19 spacecraft in orbit - it was the first link up between the U.S. and Soviet Union. 1981: The Humber Bridge at Kingston-Upon-Hull, England, was opened as the longest single-span bridge in the world (1.4 km). 1989: The first test flight of Stealth bomber took place. 1996: TWA Flight 800 mysteriously crashed off the coast of Long Island. 1997: The F.W. Woolworth Company closed after 117 years in business.