Smithsonian magazines always have a department for "This Month In History" that I find pretty interesting. They have a tendency not to go back to far in opinion, but I still appreciate it all the same.
230 years ago, George Washington and the Continental Army settled down at their Valley Forge encampment on December 19,1777. They would stay there for the next six months, enduring the elements, illness, and supply shortages. They would build 2,000 log huts and train for future encounters as well. 2,000 of the 12,000 soldiers died by June.
130 years ago, Thomas Edison applied for a patent for his phonograph on December 24, 1877. The patent was granted in February, and then he began his work on inventing the light bulb.
120 years ago, Arthur Conan Doyle published his first story about the genius-detective, Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock would be the subject of 60 works by Doyle. By the way, Sherlock never said, "Elementary, my dear Watson." That's a common misconception.
60 years ago, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain, physcisits of Bell Labs, would create the first transistor with a wire, a paper clip, gold folil, and germanium connected to a power source. Their boss, William Shockley, made improvements on the design, leading to smaller electronics and the semi-conductor era in industry. All three were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.
40 years a go, Christiaan Barnard, a South African surgeon, performs the first human heart transplant on December 3, 1967. The procedure took nine hours to give Louis Washkansky the hear of Denise Darvall, a car crash victim in Capetown. Washkansky died 18 days later of pneumonia.
4 comments:
This is a pretty interesting post, but the man who wrote Sherlock Holmes was named Sir Aurthur Conan Doyle. This Arthur Conan Boyle person seems like an interesting fellow, I will have to research him! =)
Yes, and I'd be very interested to learn about Aurthur Conan Doyle. Maybe we could ask your Honor Band director? =)
What is that supposed to mean? Our director actually knew quite a bit about literature for being someone associated with music, considering that we are all as dumb as dirt!
=)
Oh, I just heard that he was an interesting guy. You and him had an enjoyable connection, I'm sure. =)
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