September 30

1846: Ether was used as an anesthetic for the first time. 1882: The world's first hydroelectric power plant in the U.S. was opened on the Fox River, in Appleton, WI. 1882: Hans Geiger, inventor of the Geiger counter alpha particle detector, was born. 1882: Charles Lawrance, designer of the famed J-5 Whirlwind radial engine, was born. 1917: Irving Berlin Kahn, inventor of the teleprompter, was born. 1935: The Boulder Dam (renamed to Hoover Dam), in Boulder City, NV, was dedicated 1947: The World Series was televised for the first time, and the sponsors only paid $65,000 for the entire series between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Yankees. 1949: The Berlin Airlift ended after 278,288 flights and delivery of 2,326,406 tons of supplies. 1954: The U.S. Navy commissioned the Nautilus submarine as the first atomic-powered vessel. 1968: The Boeing 747 was rolled out the factory. 1982: H. Ross Perot Jr. and Jay Colburn completed the first circumnavigation of the world in a helicopter, the Spirit of Texas. 1985: Seismologist Charles Richter, who devised the earthquake-measuring scale that bears his name, died.