On March 24, 1693, English clockmaker John Harrison was born. As England’s maritime exploits, explorations, and economy grew, the country’s mariners had run smack up against a seemingly impenetrable wall. They required convenient and accurate measure of their positions at sea, specifically their longitude,…
On March 16, 1750, astronomer Caroline Lucretia Herschel was born in Germany. She had a bad health childhood that included smallpox and Typhus that left her with a slightly scarred face and shorter than a parking meter. Her parents kept her at home as…
On February 19, 1473, astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus [Mikołaj Kopernik] was born in Prussia [present day Poland]. He studied mathematics, optics, and canon or church law. Thanks to an interested and protective uncle, Copernicus was appointed a canon to the Frauenburg cathedral where he spent…
On February 11, 1916, Bandelier National Monument was designated in New Mexico. Its 13,355 ha ( 33,000 acres) were set aside for the cultural conservation of archaeological and anthropological sites and materials and to provide recreational trail access to mountain, canyon, and mesa scenery.…
On February 3, 1821, Anglo-American physician Elizabeth Blackwell was born. Encouraged to pursue a degree in medicine, Blackwell turned to teaching to earn money. Arranging to live in a physician’s house, she also acquired some medical training and introduction to Greek and Latin. Although…
On January 19, 2006, on a bright afternoon, NASA launched New Horizons, a sophisticated space probe to make flyby studies of the mysterious planet Pluto and its moon. Now en route to the Kuiper belt in which Pluto lives, New Horizons began its close…
On January 7, 1827, Canadian surveyor, engineer, and inventor Sir Sandford Fleming was born in Scotland. He served as the chief engineer of both the Intercolonial (Maritimes-Quebec) and Canadian Pacific Railways. In what can only be imagined as a stunning eye opener, Fleming saw…
On December 25, 1821, American teacher, nurse, and humanitarian Clara Barton was born. At 12 years of age, Barton began to care for her brother who had been injured in a fall from a barn roof and become bedridden. At 18 she had passed…
On December 11, 1863, American astrophysicist Annie Jump Cannon was born. She learned about constellations from her mother. However, from a fever early in her life, Cannon was hearing impaired. She studied physics at Wellesley and took graduate courses in astronomy there. She acquired…
On December 10, 1827, American landscape photographer Benjamin West Kilburn was born. He was the younger brother who eventually took over the family’s business of commercial landscape photography. One of the latest entertainment crazes in Europe, the stereoscope, had arrived in North America. The…