May 1

1825: Johann Balmer, of Balmer's formula for computing wavelengths [λ=hm²/(m²-n²)], was born. 1875: Harriet Quimby, the first female pilot to fly across the English Channel, was born. 1921: The first successful marine radio navigation beacons began regular operation in the U.S. 1925: Astronaut M. Scott Carpenter, the second U.S. citizen to orbit the earth, was born. 1926: Henry Ford announced an 8 hour, 5 day work week. 1931: The Empire State Building was dedicated remotely by President Hoover from Washington, D.C. 1958: James Van Allen reported that two radiation belts encircled Earth. 1960: The Soviet Union shot down an American U-2 reconnaissance plane near Sverdlovsk and captured its pilot, Francis Gary Powers. 1964: The first BASIC program, invented by John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz at Dartmouth University, was run on a computer at about 4:00 a.m. 1999: The ''Liberty Bell 7,'' the Mercury space capsule flown by Gus Grissom, was found in the Atlantic 300 miles southeast of Cape Canaveral, 38 years after it sank.