1885 Elmira, New York, Literature: Mark Twain published ‘Huckleberry Finn,’ often cited as the great American novel. Read it.
1901 Gloucester, England, Technology: Cecil Booth patented a dust removing suction cleaner. He had seen devices that blew dust off furniture to be swept up and conceived reversing the process with a filter to capture the dust. He thought this would be a more hygienic method, if it worked. His first trial was to put a handkerchief over his mouth and suck dust off wooden chairs in a restaurant! The first version was enormous and gas-fired on a wagon drawn by a team of horses. He used it to offer a cleaning service to hotels, hospitals, schools, and like institutions as pictured below. He later turned to electric models and ever smaller devices.
1927 Hollywood, Entertainment: The first list of the Awards by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was printed on the back page of Academy’s irregular newsletter. The names were later reprinted in ‘Variety’ magazine, buried on page 7. Assiduous readers would find that ‘Wings’ was the best picture that year.
1930 Flagstaff, Arizona, Science. At the Lowell Observatory astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto. Percival Lowell had concluded that wobbles in the orbit of Uranus indicated the gravity of another planet out there and he calculated when and where to look. Tombaugh was versed in a new technique using photographic plates with a blink microscope and he took the first picture of Pluto. Other observers soon confirmed the sighting.
1953 Hollywood, Entertainment: ’Bwana Devil’ the first 3-D movie was released. A forgotten movie (rated 4.9 on the IMDB) but it seemed to herald a new age in cinema, which age briefly came and went. Three D recently came….and went again. Who talks about 3-D television these days? Sic transit 3-D, as Cicero said. We still have some 3-D glasses when the old becomes new again.
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