Day in History Archive - May 13

May 13

1878: Joseph Henry, discoverer of the principle of self-induction, and after whom the unit of inductance is named, died. 1884: The American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) was formed (forerunner to the IEEE). 1890: Nikola Tesla was issued a patent for a pyromagneto electric generator. 1912: The Royal Flying Corps was established its second wing. 1913: Igor Sikorsky flew the first four engine aircraft. 1918: The first U.S. airmail postage stamps were issued with airplanes on them. 1958: The Velcro trademark was registered for a fabric hook and loop fastener. 1967: Mickey Mantle hit his 500th homerun. 1984: Stanislaw Ulam, who determined the way to initiate fusion in a nuclear bomb was to use a fission reaction to create the necessary compression, died. 1992: Three astronauts from the space shuttle "Endeavour" captured a wayward Intelsat-6 communications satellite during the first-ever 3-person spacewalk.

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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.