1888 National Geographic magazine publishes for the 1st time
1899 J S Thurman patents motor-driven vacuum cleaner
1947 1st telescope lens 200″ (508 cm) in diameter completed
1856 Cyrus Chambers Jr patents folding machine that folds book & newspapers
2015 Nobel prize in Chemistry awarded to Tomas Lindahl (Sweden), Paul Modrich (US) and Aziz Sancar (Turkey) for work on cells DNA repair
1855 American inventor Isaac Singer patents sewing machine motor
1855 Joshua Stoddard of Worcester, Massachusetts, patents first calliope (musical instrument)
1884 George Eastman patents paper-strip photographic film
1855 Bessemer steelmaking process patented
1888 Thomas Edison files a patent for the Optical Phonograph (the first movie)
1824 Joseph Aspdin patents Portland cement (Yorkshire, England)
1879 Thomas Edison perfects carbonized cotton filament light bulb
1938 Chester Carlson demonstrates 1st Xerox copying machine
1962 James Watson (US), Francis Crick (UK) and Maurice Wilkins (UK) win the Nobel Prize for Medicine for their work in determining the structure of DNA
1538 The first university in the New World, the Universidad Santo Tomás de Aquino, is established on Hispaniola
1793 Eli Whitney applies for a patent on cotton gin
1831 Michael Faraday demonstrates his dynamo invention, an electrical generator
1904 St Louis police try a new investigation method – fingerprints
1872 J S Risdon patents metal windmill
1945 First ballpoint pen goes on sale, manufactured by Biro
