1824: The Rensselaer School was founded in Troy, NY, becoming the first engineering college in the U.S. 1863: James Packard, of automotive fame, was born. 1879: James Clerk Maxwell, whose equations have tortured countless EE students, died at age 48. 1895: The first US patent was granted to George B. Selden for the auto. 1901: Henry Ford received a patent for a motor carriage. 1906: Astronomer Fred Whipple, who proposed the "dirty snowball" model for comets, was born. 1914: Great Britain, France & Russia declared war on Turkey. 1935: Parker Brothers launched the game of Monopoly. 1952: General Dwight D. Eisenhower swept a victory in the American presidential elections. 1959: The American Football League was formed. 1992: Jan Hendrik Oort, Dutch physicist and astronomer of Oort Cloud fame, died. 1992: Chemical evidence of 5,000 year old beer found in cave in Iran.