January 8th, 2009

Today in History

1994:
Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov on Soyuz TM-18 leaves for Mir. He will stay on the space station till March 22, 1995 for a record 437 days in space.

1916:
World War I: Allied forces withdraw from Gallipoli.

1889:
Herman Hollerith receives a patent for his electric tabulating machine.

1856:
Borax is discovered (John Veatch).

1838:
Alfred Vail demonstrates a telegraph using dots and dashes (this is the forerunner of Morse code).