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American-Bulgarian physicist John Atanasoff dies

John Atanasoff was an American-Bulgarian physicist and inventor best known for inventing the first electronic digital computer. A professor at Iowa State University, Atanasoff worked with his graduate student, Clifford Berry, to build a machine known as the Atanasoff–Berry computer. It introduced the ideas of binary arithmetic, regenerative memory, and logic circuits. John Mauchly later used these concepts in the design of ENIAC.

British aviators complete first non-stop transatlantic flight

Pilot John Alcock and navigator Arthur W. Brown flew from Newfoundland to Clifden, Ireland, in 16 hours and 12 minutes. By doing so, they won a prize offered by the London Daily Mail. The prize was presented by British Secretary of State for Air, Winston Churchill. Alcock and Brown used modified WW1 bomber, Vickers Vimy.

Outbreaks of typhoid fever traced to Typhoid Mary

Mary Mallon, better known as Typhoid Mary, was the first person in the United States identified as an asymptomatic carrier of typhoid fever. She was discovered by sanitation engineer George Soper who was investigating enigmatic outbreaks of the illness. Presumed to have infected 51 people over the course of her career as a cook, she was twice forcibly isolated by public health authorities and died after a total of nearly three decades in isolation.

Psychoanalyst Erik Erikson is born

Erik Homberger Erikson was a German-American developmental psychologist and psychoanalyst known for his theory on the psychological development of human beings. He may be most famous for coining the phrase "identity crisis". His son, Kai T. Erikson, is a noted American sociologist.

Medical researcher Hubertus Strughold is born

He is known as the father of space medicine. Strughold served as chief of Aeromedical Research for the German Luftwaffe from 1935. During the war, he conducted unethical human experimentation. After the war, he was as brought to the United States as part of Operation Paperclip. He worked for both the US Air Force and NASA.

Charles Goodyear receives a patent for strengthened rubber

Charles Goodyear developed vulcanized rubber, for which he received patent number 3633 from the United States Patent Office in June 1844. The first vulcanization of rubber is considered one of the major "firsts" that contributes to the City of Springfield's nickname, "The City of Firsts."

Anniversaries of the (in)famous