June 27

1806: Augustus De Morgan, who formulated De Morgan's laws for Boolean algebra, was born. 1901: Merle Tuve who first used pulsed radio waves to explore the ionosphere, was born. 1941: The BBC began using the first four notes of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony as a morale-boosting motif (in Morse Code, "dit-dit-dit dahhh" stands for the letter "V" as in "Victory"). 1950: President Truman ordered the Air Force and Navy into the Korean conflict. 1954: The world's first atomic power station began producing electricity in Obninsk, USSR. 1962: Ross Perot began Electronic Data Systems (EDS). 1976: Palestinian extremists hijacked an Air France plane in Greece with 246 passengers and 12 crew onboard. 1978: The first pen with truly erasable ink, the Gillette Eraser Mate, was invented. 1983: Maxie Anderson, who co-piloted the first transatlantic balloon flight on the Double Eagle II, died.