December 16

1907: The first U.S. radio broadcast of a singer featured Eugenia Farrar, as transmitted by Lee De Forest from the Brooklyn Naval Yard. 1912: The first U.S. postage stamp to depict an airplane was a 20-cent Parcel Post stamp that used a biplane carrying mail. 1944: The Battle of the Bulge began in Belgium, and was the final major German counteroffensive in the war. 1945: Giovanni Agnelli, founder of the Fiat (Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino) automobile company, died. 1947: The transistor was invented by American physicists John Bardeen, Walter H. Brattain, and William Shockley. 1954: Synthetic diamonds were produced at General Electric Research Laboratories. 1979: The first rocket vehicle to break the sound barrier on land reached 739.7 mph on a 3-mile test-strip at Rogers Lake, Edwards Air Force Base, CA. 1997: 700 children in Japan were hospitalized after a televised cartoon triggered a condition called "Nintendo epilepsy."