Today in History – May 13, 1958 – Velcro® trademark is registered for a fabric hook and loop fastener. The way George de Mestral, a Swiss mountaineer, tells the story, he was hiking with his dog in 1948 and was frustrated to see all of these burrs covering them both when he returned home. He says [...]

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Today in History – April 22, 1970 – First Earth Day. Senator Gaylord Nelson, founder of Earth Day, says that the idea for Earth Day evolved over a period of seven years starting in 1962. He wanted President Kennedy to give visibility to pollution and the environmental degradation that was appearing throughout the country, but [...]

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Today in History – February 18, 1901 – First vacuum cleaner patented by Hubert Cecil Booth, an English structural engineer. This design had the disadvantage that it had no way to collect the dust and never became a commercial success. In 1907, James Spangler, a janitor working in Canton, Ohio, was not aware of this [...]

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Today in History – February 13, 1959 – the first Barbie doll goes on sale. Barbie’s inventor, Ruth Handler, was inspired by seeing that her daughter, Barbie, and her girl friends enjoyed playing with adult female dolls, but most dolls at the time were baby dolls. Handler created 3D models of dolls that she thought [...]

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Today in History – January 24, 1984 – Apple Computer unveils the Macintosh personal computer. Apple introduced “the Mac” through its famous “1984″ television commercial that was played at the 1984 Super Bowl. The imagery pitted Apple’s new generation of the people’s personal computer against the Orwellian IBM. The Mac was an innovation breakthrough in [...]

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