Knowing one’s history is essential for every society and person. The past shows our shifting attitudes toward life and various aspects of it. Moreover, discussing history helps to know about the significant events that led to a social change in our society. Some of these events on April 29 are below.
1813: Jacob Hummel receives patent for elastic rubber
Rubber is in use for over 1000 years. Earlier, it was a product from natural sources. But nowadays, rubber is just as likely manufacturing with artificial chemical plants. This is because we cannot generate enough natural rubber to satisfy all of our demands. Also, due to the incredible utility of rubber.
Although, before Charles Goodyear discovers the vulcanization process in 1844, the rubber industry in the United States was not booming at all. It had barely any actual and tangible presence. The first rubber import into the United States arrives in Boston in the year 1800. Later, Jacob Hummel of Philadelphia had the patent for a gum-elastic varnish in 1813.
1852: The first edition of Peter Roget’s Thesaurus publishes
Peter Mark Roget, a British physician, natural theologian, and lexicographer, published his Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases Classified on April 29, 1852. It was nearly 50 years after the manuscript was written. It was classified as an aid in the formulation of ideas, and to assist in literary composition in this context.
Its 15,000 words is a structure arranged conceptually rather than alphabetically. With 1002 concepts divided into six groups based on Aristotelian and Leibnizian classification principles. In the current scenario, Roget’s International Word and Phrase Thesaurus established a high standard. It is affordable for every library because of its low cost. Also, it is very easy to operate and can be used by anybody.
1977: British Aerospace forms
The Aircraft and Shipbuilders Industries Act of 1977 culminates in the establishment of British Aerospace (BAe) as a statutory corporation on April 29, 1977. The merging of British Aircraft Corporation, Hawker Siddeley Aviation, Hawker Siddeley Dynamics, and Scottish Aviation was done together to form the firm.
BAE Systems designs and manufactures fighter aircraft in collaboration with several European and American aerospace firms. With over £13 billion annual sales, BAE is worldwide the fourth-largest arms company. From its headquarters in Farnborough, Hampshire, BAE hires over 90,000 people around the world. It has four major flight factories in Britain: Brough in Yorkshire and Woodford in Cheshire, Warton, and Samlesbury in Lancashire.
1983: Harold Washington sworn in as Chicago’s 1st African American mayor
Major Harold Washington’s election was a major milestone in Chicago’s history. All the Black people of the city came to elect their first Black mayor with a commitment. Major Harold Washington collaborated with the city leadership and admired countrywide leaders. He was a Mayor until 1987. Unfortunately, his plans and vision for the town were shortened by his early death in power.
The heritage of Harold Washington continues today. His archives can now be found in his proudly promoted Mayor’s library, the Harold Washington Library Center. These papers document and contain all the history regarding his careers and administration in the Harold Washington Archives & Collection and are available publicly. Besides this, researchers can learn more about him through manuscripts, photographs, panels, videotapes, artifacts, and books available in the personal library.
1985: 17th space shuttle mission (51-B)-Challenger 7 launched
STS 51-B was NASA’s 17th Space Shuttle mission, and the seventh mission of Space Shuttle Challenger. Due to a malfunction in startup processing, Challenger’s launch delays by 2 minutes on 29 April 1985 and 18 seconds. On April 10th, Challenger got a merger to her STS-51B ET/SRB pad. It then launches into Pad-A on April 15th ahead of the scheduled launch on April 29th.
During the inspections of the SRBs after the flight, one of the SRBs experiences a failure similar to the STS-51L. STS-51-B was the second mission for European Space Agency’s Spacelab pressurize module. Additionally, it was the first with the Spacelab module fully operational. Spacelab has successfully demonstrated its ability to conduct multidisciplinary research in microgravity. While the crew did two 12-hour shifts all day.
To read such history posts, click here.