Today in History – January 31, 1958 – Explorer 1 became the United States of America’s first satellite to orbit the Earth after it was launched on January 31, 1958. After the Soviet Union’s successful launch of Sputnik I on October 4, 1957, the United States of America embarked upon a program to launch it [...]

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Today in History – January 09, 1839 – Louis Daguerre announces his photographic process. The first permanent photograph was made in 1826 by Joseph Niepce. Together with Louis Daguerre they further refined the process. The process involved silver-coated copper plates mixed with iodine to create a layer of silver iodine. After being exposed to light [...]

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Today in History – January 7, 1913 – William Merriam Burton is awarded the patent for thermal cracking. Cracking is a process where organic molecules and broken down into simpler molecules by breaking carbon-carbon bonds. This process is used to breakdown crude oil into one of its many products. These methods were pioneered in by [...]

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Today in History – December 25, 1642 – Isacc Newton‘s birth. Also on this date in 1741 astronomer Anders Celsius introduces the temperature scale that bears his name. For more information, see the Engineering Pathway‘s resources on Newton and engineering mechanics or the Celsius scale and temperature measurement. For curricular resources, visit the Engineering Mechanics [...]

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Today in History – December 23, 1867 – Birth of first self-made millionairess (Sarah Breedlove for hair straightener invention, products and services). Born in poverty in 1867 (left graphic is of her birth house) on the shores of the Mississippi River in northeast Louisiana, her parents died of ‘yellow fever‘ while she was a young [...]

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