December 29

1731: Brook Taylor, developer of the Taylor Series in mathematics, died. 1766: Scottish chemist Charles Macintosh, inventor of the rubberized raincoat that bears his name, was born. 1800: Charles Goodyear, who invented vulcanization of rubber, was born. 1848: President James Polk turned on the first gas light at the White House. 1891: Thomas Edison was issued a patent for "telegraphy without wires." 1905: Henri-Gaston Busignies, developer of HF (high frequency) direction finding equipment, was born. 1916: Cleveland Abbe, known as "the father of the U.S. Weather Bureau," died. : German engineer Wilhelm Maybach, who invented the fuel spray carburetor, died. 1940: During WWII, Germany began dropping incendiary bombs on London in what became known as "The Second Great Fire of London." 1949: KC2XAK of Bridgeport, CT, became the first UHF television station to begin operating on a regular daily schedule. 1987: Cosmonaut Yuri Romanenko ended his record 326-day space flight. 1999: The NASDAQ closed above 4,000 for the first time, at 4,041.46, after having 60 record highs for the year.