May 12

1909: Edwin Land, inventor of the Polaroid Land Camera, was born. 1926: The airship Norge became the first vessel to fly over the North Pole. 1930: The first planetarium in the U.S. opened to the public, the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, IL. 1936: The Dvorak typewriter keyboard was patented. 1940: The Nazi conquest of France began with the crossing Meuse River. 1942: A Nazi U-boat sunk an American cargo ship at mouth of Mississippi River. 1958: The U.S. & Canada formed the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD). 1978: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that they would no longer exclusively name hurricanes after women. 1980: The first nonstop crossing of U.S. via balloon began. 1994: Roy Plunkett, inventor of Teflon, died.