November 30

1603: William Gilbert, the "father of electrical studies," coiner of the names of electric attraction, electric force, and magnetic poles, died. 1756: German physicist Ernst Chladni, known as "the father of acoustics," was born. 1782: The U.S. and Britain signed preliminary peace articles in Paris, ending the Revolutionary War. 1874: Sir Winston Churchill was born. 1835: Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain) was born, the same year as an appearance of Halley's Comet and, amazingly, the comet's next appearance came during April 1910, the year of Clemens' death (throughout his life, Clemens said that he would "go out with the comet"). 1850: Germain Hess, early thermochemistry researcher who developed Hess's law of constant heat summation, died. 1858: John Mason patented the screw neck bottle (Mason Jar). 1882: Hans Geiger, inventor of the Geiger counter alpha particle detector, was born. 1954: In Sylacauga, AL, Ann Hodges, was bruised on the arm and hip by a meteorite (Hodges Meteorite) that fell through the roof of her house into her living room. 1983: Radio Shack announced Tandy Model 2000 computer (80186 chip). 1999: British Aerospace and Marconi Electronic Systems merged to form BAE Systems.