October 10

1731: Henry Cavendish, discoverer of hydrogen and nitrogen, was born. 1845: The U.S. Naval Academy opened in Annapolis, MD (my hometown). 1846: Neptune's moon, Triton, was discovered by William Lassell. 1892: Earle Dickson, inventor of the Band-aid, was born. 1896: Lester Germer, who along with Clinton Davisson, conducted an experiment that first demonstrated the wave properties of the electron, was born. 1911: Henry Ford received a patent for his automobile transmission. 1923: The first American-built rigid dirigible was christened in Lakehurst, N.J. as Shenandoah (daughter of the stars) - it used helium for buoyancy. 1933: Waldo Semon was awarded a patent for a method of making plasticized PVC, now known simply as vinyl. 1970: Separatist gunmen kidnapped the labour and immigration minister of Quebec. 1980: The Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope network in NM, was dedicated. 1986: A tiny asteroid, named 3753 Cruithne, was found orbiting the Earth. 1995: World chess champion Gary Kasparov won a month-long championship match against Viswanathan Anand.