September 14

1698: Charles de Cisternay DuFay, discoverer of positive and negative electricity ("vitreous electricity" and "resinous electricity") and repulsion between like charges, was born. 1712: Gian Cassini, after whom the division between Saturn's A and B rings is named, died. 1716: The first lighthouse in America, Boston Light, was illuminated just before sunset. 1886: George Anderson patented typewriter ribbon. 1887: Karl Compton, who directed the development of radar during WWII, was born. 1940: The U.S. Congress passed the first peace-time conscription bill. 1944: Dr. Harry Wexler made the first successful flight into the eye of a hurricane was made by a 3-man American crew flying a Douglas A-20 Havoc. 1959: The Soviet Luna 2 became the first man-made object to reach the surface of the moon and the first man-made object to reach any celestial body. 1960: Radar pioneer Sir Arthur Percy Morris Fleming died. 2003: Sweden rejected adopting the euro.