Geek events to celebrate on February 4: 1936 – Radium becomes the first radioactive element to be made synthetically. 1957 – The first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus (SSN-571), logs its 60,000th nautical mile, matching the endurance of the fictional Nautilus described in Jules Verne‘s novel “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”. 2004 – Facebook, a mainstream […]
Geek events to celebrate on February 3: 1966 – The unmanned Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft makes the first controlled rocket-assisted landing on the Moon. February 3 birthdays of geeky note: 1905 – Arne Beurling, Swedish-American mathematician (d. November 20, 1986). In the summer of 1940 he single-handedly deciphered and reverse-engineered an early version of the […]
Standard Holiday: Groundhog Day (USA and Canada) 1887 – In Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania the first Groundhog Day is observed. Geek Events to celebrate on February 2: 1935 – Leonarde Keeler tests the first polygraph machine. That’s a fact. February 2 birthdays of geeky note: 1522 – Lodovico Ferrari, Italian mathematician (d. 1565). Ferrari is attributed with […]
Standard Holiday: National Freedom Day (United States) Established in 1948 by President Harry Truman in honor of the anniversary of the abolition of slavery. It’s interesting that most American calendars don’t list this as a holiday, but do list the folklore-based Groundhog Day on February 2. Doesn’t seem right. Neither are federal holidays, though, so […]