Past July 17s: 1577: Martin Frobisher discovers Baffin Island. 1603: Sir Walter Raleigh is arrested as a suspect in a plot to dethrone England’s King James I. 1790: Thomas Saint, a London cabinet maker, patents possibly the first sewing machine, fitted with an awl that makes a hole in leather and allows a needle to pass through it. 1902: Willis Haviland Carrier completes drawings for what becomes the world’s first scientific air conditioning system. 1917: Britain’s King George V issues a royal proclamation changing his family’s surname from Hanover to Windsor. (To distance the family from the Germans.) 1959: Mary Leakey discovers ancient humanoid skull (600,000 years old). 1979: Sebastian Coe breaks world record and runs the mile in 3 minutes and 49 seconds. 1981: Two sky walks at Kansas City Hyatt Regency break free from the atrium ceiling, falling upon guests in the lobby, killing 114 and injuring many more. 1996: TWA Flight 800, a Boeing 747 bound for Paris, explodes, crashing in the Atlantic off Long Island NY, shortly after leaving John F. Kennedy International Airport (all 230 people aboard are killed). 1997: After 117 years, the Woolworth Corp. closes its last 400 stores.
Posted on: Thu, 18 Jul 2013 01:18:41 +0000