July 5

1795: Antonio de Ulloa, who discovered the element Platinum (Pt), died. 1820: Scottish physicist William Rankine, an early investigator of thermodynamics who developed the Rankine Cycle, was born. 1892: Andrew Beard was issued a patent for the rotary engine. 1911: George Stoney, who introduced the term "electron" as the fundamental unit of electric charge, died. 1944: Harry Crosby took the first rocket airplane (the Northrop MX-324) for its maiden flight at Harper Dry Lake, CA. 1946: Bikini swimwear, named after the Bikini atoll A-bomb test, was first displayed in Paris. 1951: Dr. William Shockley announced that he had invented the junction transistor. 1966: A Saturn 1-B rocket was launched at Cape Kennedy, FL, to become the first unmanned Apollo test flight, and made 4 orbits at an altitude of about 113 miles. 1986: Statue of Liberty reopened after being refurbished. 1991: France performed nuclear warhead test at Muruora Island. 1994: President Clinton announced that he was refusing entry to new Haitian boat people. 1996: MSNBC made its debut on cable TV and the Internet.