November 12

1802: John Dalton announced the first example of the law of multiple proportions. 1916: Percival Lowell, the American astronomer who helped discover Pluto and believed that there was life on Mars, died. 1923: Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company announced it had purchased all patents and rights to manufacture Zeppelin dirigibles (bad decision). 1926: Jack Ryan, inventor with more than 1,000 patents including the Barbie Doll and Hot Wheels cars, was born. 1927: The world's first underwater vehicular tunnel, the Holland Tunnel connecting NY and NJ, officially opened. 1936: The Oakland Bay Bridge opened. 1942: The naval battle of Guadalcanal began between Japanese and American forces. 1970: A 240 km/h cyclone hit East Pakistan (Bangladesh). 1979: William Friedman, the cryptologist who broke the Japanese "Purple" code, permitting the reading of many critical Japanese messages during WWII, died. 1980: The US space probe "Voyager One" came within 77,000 miles of Saturn. 1981: The shuttle Columbia became the first spacecraft ever launched twice from Earth.