July 18

0064: The Great Fire of Rome began, as Emperor Nero reportedly fiddled on the roof. 1635: Robert Hooke, who developed Hooke's Law for springs, was born. 1853: Hendrik Lorentz, after whom the Lorentz force in electromagnetism is named, was born. 1941: The Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter made its first flight, only with propeller power. 1955: The first electrical power generated from a nuclear station was sold commercially by the Utah Power and Light Company. 1958: Henri Farman, the airplane designer who invented ailerons, died. 1963: The first implantation of an intrathoracic left artificial ventricle in a human being was made. 1968: The Intel Corporation was incorporated by Noyce and Moore as N M Electronics. 1969: A car driven by Senator Edward Kennedy plunged off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island near Martha's Vineyard, leaving Mary Jo Kopechne to drown. 1980: India became the 6th nation to place a satellite, the Rohini-1, in orbit. 1997: Eugene Shoemaker, of Comet P/Shoemaker-Levy 9 fame, died.