May 18 1812: The U.K.'s first automated telephone exchange opened for business at Epsom. 1850: Oliver Heaviside, developer of the Heaviside step function, was born. 1897: Dow Chemical was incorporated. 1917: The U.S. Congress passed the Selective Service Act, calling up soldiers to fight World War I. 1950: The U.S. and Great Britain greed to the terms of NATO. 1933: The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) was formed as "a corporation clothed with the power of government but possessed of the flexibility and initiative of a private enterprise," to perform research on civil engineering challenges. 1953: The first woman to fly faster than the speed of sound, Jacqueline Cochran, piloted an F-86 Sabrejet over California at an average speed of 652.337 miles-per-hour. 1969: Apollo 10 was launched. 1974: India became the 6th nation to explode an atomic bomb. 1980: Mount St. Helens blew its top. 1991: Helen Sharman became first Briton in space. 2004: Arnold Beckman, founder of Beckman Instruments, died - at 104 years old! | 