October 3

Today is German Reunification Day (1990). 1830: George Brayton, who invented the first commercially produced internal combustion engine and developed the Brayton cycle, was born. 1910: Lucy Hobbs Taylor, the first woman to earn a dental degree in America, died. 1913: President Woodrow Wilson signed a bill authorizing the Federal Income Tax. 1942: The first successful launch of the German V-2 rocket took place. 1947: The 200-inch diameter telescope lens for the Mount Palomar Observatory was completed after 11 years of grinding and polishing. 1950: The transistor was patented by Shockley, Bardeen and Brattain. 1952: "Hurricane", the first British atomic bomb, was tested becoming the third country in the world to test such a weapon. 1971: Lester Germer, who along with Clinton Davisson, conducted an experiment that first demonstrated the wave properties of the electron, died. 1999: Sony co-founder Akio Morita died. 2006: Nokia announced its new Wibree short-range wireless connectivity standard.