29 April 2018 Interesting tidbits:

29 April 2018

Interesting tidbits:

1715 - John Flamsteed observes Uranus for 6th time.

1770 – James Cook arrives at and names Botany Bay, Australia.

1813 - First US Rubber patent granted to Jacob F Hummel.

1852 - First edition of Peter Roget's Thesaurus published.

1882 - The "Electromote" was the world's first electric trolley, which was shown to the public on this day by its inventor Dr. Ernst Werner von Siemens in a suburb of Berlin, Germany. It was built by the Siemens & Halske company on a converted four-wheel landau carriage, equipped with two 2.2 kW electric motors transmitting the power to the rear wheels using a chain drive. The voltage used was 550 V DC. The electric power transmission to the coach was by a flexible cable pulling a small eight-wheeled "contact car" (Kontaktwagen) that ran along the overhead power lines. After the demonstration closed on June 13, the test track was dismantled.

1927 - Construction of Spirit of St Louis was completed.

1953 – The first U.S. experimental 3D-TV broadcast showed an episode of Space Patrol on Los Angeles ABC affiliate KECA-TV.

2004 – Oldsmobile builds its final car ending 107 years of production.

Today's birthday crew:

1893 – Harold Urey, American chemist, most prominent for his contribution to theories on the development of organic life from non-living matter.

1899 – Duke Ellington, American composer, pianist, and bandleader.

1899 – Mary Petty, American illustrator (New Yorker).

1909 – Tom Ewell, American actor (The Seven Year Itch).

1912 – Richard Carlson, American actor, appeared in a number of horror and science fiction films, including three 3-D films: The Maze (1953) and the classics It Came from Outer Space (1953) with Barbara Rush, Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) with Julia Adams, and The Magnetic Monster. His success in the genre led him to direct the 1954 science fiction film Riders to the Stars, in which he also starred. In addition to science fiction work, he had a recurring role as a writer of "science fact" in The Bell Laboratory Science Series.

1925 – Iwao Takamoto, American animator, producer and director (Disney, Hanna-Barbera).

1936 – Lane Smith, American actor (Perry White).

1938 – Bernard Madoff, American businessman, stockbroker, investment advisor, financier, and con artist.

1951 – Dale Earnhardt, American race car driver.

1955 – Richard Epcar, American voice actor who has voiced over 300 characters in games, cartoon and anime, who, with his wife voice actress Ellyn Stern, own and operates Epcar Entertainment, Inc., a voiceover production service company based in LA.

1955 – Wendee Lee, American voice actress who has done voice work for many video games and anime, as well as several episodes in the Power Rangers franchise. As of April 2009, with 223 voice credits, she had more credits in this medium than any other English voice-over actor.

1955 – Kate Mulgrew, American actress most noted for her roles on Star Trek: Voyager as Captain Kathryn Janeway.

1955 – Leslie Jordan, American actor (Voyager).

1957 – Daniel Day-Lewis, English-Irish actor.

1958 – Michelle Pfeiffer, American actress.

1958 – Eve Plumb, American actress.

1970 – Uma Thurman, American actress.

1979 – Sam Jones III, American actor (Smallville).

Happy birthday guys!