September 23

Today is the Autumnal Equinox - 9:51 UT. 1846: German astronomer Johann Galle discovered Neptune after only an hour of searching. 1861: Robert Bosch, the German engineer and industrialist who was invented the spark plug and magneto, was born. 1869: Typhoid Mary (Mary Mallon), famous for spreading typhoid fever in NY, was born. 1877: Urbain-Jean-Joseph Le Verrier, who calculated the likely position of Neptune so closely that it took Johan Galle only an hour of search to find, died. 1879: Richard Rhodes invented the audiophone, the first hearing aid. 1913: Roland Garros made the first airplane flight across the Mediterranean Sea. 1930: Flashbulbs were patented by Johannes Ostermeier. 1938: A time capsule, to be opened in 6939, was buried at World's Fair in New York City. 1960: Georges Claude, inventor of the neon light, died. 1962: "The Jetsons" premiered on ABC-TV, being the first program on the network to be carried in color. 1970: IBM announced the System 370 computer. 1981: President Reagan announce plans for Radio Marti to broadcast to the people of Cuba. 2002: Mozilla Firefox browser was first released as Phoenix.