October 13

1776: Peter Barlow, who invented the Barlow lens that is commonly used to increase optical magnification, was born. 1792: The cornerstone of the White House was laid. 1860: The first successful aerial photograph in the U.S. was taken from a balloon at 1200 feet over Boston, MA. 1916: General Motors was incorporated. 1945: Milton Hershey of chocolate fame died. 1953: The first U.S. patent for a burglar alarm operated by ultrasonic sound was issued to Samuel Bagno. 1957: Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra introduced the Ford Edsel on an hour long special, "The Edsel Show." 1983: Ameritech Mobile Communications (now Cingular) launched the first U.S. cellular network in Chicago. 1985: Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory observed the first proton-antiproton collisions. 1987: Nobel Prize winner Walter Brattain, co-inventor of the transistor, died. 1992: The U.K. government announced plans to close a third of its deep coal mines.