October 11

1844: Henry John Heinz, founder of the J.H. Heinz Company and originator of the "57 Varieties" slogan, was born. 1887: A patent for the first keypad adding machine, the "Macaroni box" Comptometer, was granted to Dorr Felt. 1889: James Joule, discoverer of the current/resistance/heat relationship and after whom the unit of energy is named, died. 1958: Lunar probe Pioneer 1 was launched; it failed to go as far out as planned, fell back to Earth, and burned up in the atmosphere. 1974: U.S. Energy Reorganizing Act abolished the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and created both the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA - now the DoE). 1983: The last hand-cranked (magneto) telephones in the U.S. went out of service as 440 telephone customers in Bryant Pond, ME, were switched to direct-dial service. 1984: Space shuttle "Challenger" astronaut Kathy Sullivan became the first American woman to walk in space. 1994: NASA's Magellan spacecraft made a dramatic conclusion to its highly successful mission at Venus when it is commanded to plunge into the planet's dense atmosphere.