December 1, 1988: World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland issued its first “World AIDS Day” declaration to increase awareness, fight prejudice & improve health education. Today, United Nations General Assembly officially recognizes December 1st every year as World AIDS Day. There are now 33.4 million people living with HIV, including 2.1 million children. In 2008, 2.7 million people became newly infected with the virus & 2 million people died from AIDS. Half of all people who become infected with HIV do so before they are 25 and are killed by AIDS before they are 35. December 1, 1999: International consortium of sequencing centers & collaborators from chromosome 22 genetics community released to public domain genetic code of the 33.5 million bps that comprise euchromatic portion of human chromosome 22. December 1, 1990: Workers drilled an opening through a wall of rock 132 feet under the English Channel to connect two ends of an underwater tunnel linking Great Britain with European mainland. Today, the “Chunnel” is world’s second-longest rail tunnel, after Seikan Tunnel in Japan. December 1, 1988: Cyclone struck Bangladesh, where 596 people dead died & half a million became homeless. December 1, 1958: Fire broke out at Our Lady of Angels School grade school in Chicago, Illinois; where 90 students died. There was only one fire escape, no sprinklers, no automatic fire alarm, no smoke or heat detectors, no alarm connected to the fire department, no fire-resistant stairwells & no fire-safe doors from the stairwells to the second floor. When a small fire broke out in pile of trash in the basement, it quickly led to disaster. Good news: Students on first floor were easily evacuated. Bad news: Students on second floor were completely unaware of rapidly spreading flames beneath them. Students tried to escape by jumping out windows. One quick-thinking teacher had her students crawl under the smoke & roll down the stairs, where they were rescued. December 1, 1930: Meuse Valley industrial smog incident in southeastern Belgium began, where 70 people died. Absence of any wind, where industrial & domestic furnaces were burning high sulfur coal, led to high concentration of sulfuric & sulfurous oxide hazardous air pollutants. December 1, 1928: Earthquake (7.6-magnitude) struck Chile, where 225 people died. December 1, 1923: Gleno Dam collapsed in Italian Alps, where 356 people died. Careless construction practices contributed to dam failure only 40 days after its ceremonial inauguration. Concrete in the dam’s arches was of poor quality & inadequately reinforced with scrap netting previously used as hand grenade protection during WW I. There was also evidence of a lack of a bond with its foundations. December 1, 1921: First U.S. helium-filled dirigible made its maiden flight. December 1, 1913: Henry Ford, American manufacturer, installed first moving assembly line to mass produce entire automobiles. His innovation reduced time it took to build a car from more than 12 hours to two hours & 30 minutes. December 1, 1913: First American drive-up gasoline filling station opened in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Opening-day sales amounted to just 30 gallons, at 27 cents each. Pagoda-style Gulf Refining station offered free air & water. It also sold first commercial road maps. December 1, 1743: Martin Klaproth, German chemist, was born. He discovered uranium (1789), zirconium (1789) & cerium (1803). Although he did not isolate them as pure metal samples, he was able to recognize them as new elements. Regarded as a founder of analytical chemistry, he was Europes leading analytical chemist.
Posted on: Tue, 02 Dec 2014 02:49:58 +0000
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