Day in Engineering History Archive - May 18
May 18
1812: The U.K.'s first
automated telephone exchange opened for business at Epsom. 1850:
Oliver Heaviside,
developer of the Heaviside step function, was born. 1897:
Dow Chemical was incorporated. 1917: The U.S. Congress
passed the
Selective Service Act, calling up soldiers to fight World War
I. 1950: The U.S. and Great Britain greed to the terms of
NATO. 1933: The
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) was formed as "a corporation
clothed with the power of government but possessed of the flexibility
and initiative of a private enterprise," to perform research on
civil engineering challenges. 1953: The first woman to fly faster
than the speed of sound,
Jacqueline Cochran, piloted an F-86 Sabrejet over California
at an average speed of 652.337 miles-per-hour. 1969: Apollo 10 was
launched. 1974: India became the 6th nation to explode an
atomic bomb. 1980:
Mount St. Helens blew its top. 1991:
Helen Sharman became first Briton in space. 2004:
Arnold Beckman, founder of Beckman Instruments, died - at 104
years old!
1812: The U.K.'s first
automated telephone exchange opened for business at Epsom. 1850:
Oliver Heaviside,
developer of the Heaviside step function, was born. 1897:
Dow Chemical was incorporated. 1917: The U.S. Congress
passed the
Selective Service Act, calling up soldiers to fight World War
I. 1950: The U.S. and Great Britain greed to the terms of
NATO. 1933: The
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) was formed as "a corporation
clothed with the power of government but possessed of the flexibility
and initiative of a private enterprise," to perform research on
civil engineering challenges. 1953: The first woman to fly faster
than the speed of sound,
Jacqueline Cochran, piloted an F-86 Sabrejet over California
at an average speed of 652.337 miles-per-hour. 1969: Apollo 10 was
launched. 1974: India became the 6th nation to explode an
atomic bomb. 1980:
Mount St. Helens blew its top. 1991:
Helen Sharman became first Briton in space. 2004:
Arnold Beckman, founder of Beckman Instruments, died - at 104
years old!| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
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.
Please submit significant historical events and
dates for inclusion in these lists. I will be glad to include your name and birthday. Please do not submit your death
date ;-) A couple 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.