Today in New York 1959, the Barbie doll makes its first public appurtenance at the American International Toy Fair. Fun fact: Ruth Handler created and named Barbie after daughter Barbara Handler, after seeing her play with paper dolls for hours. * * * * * * Source and to read some more: Barbie – https://barbie.mattel.com/en-us/about/our-history.html

In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell is granted a US patent for a world changing invention. Today begins the invention of the telephone. Having the US patent number 174,465, it was described as “the method of, and apparatus for, transmitting vocal or other sounds telegraphically”. 3 days later, Bell and his partner Thomas Watson successfully tested…

The periodic table. We have all seen it in our science classes but did you ever wonder when and where it all began – for this must have been discovered and created too. Today in 1869, after finding patterns in the know 56 elements, Dmitri Mendeleev presents his findings and the first version of the…

At 7am today, in 1982, space probe Venera 14 will land on Venus. The Soviet Venera program sent not one but two identical spacecrafts to Venus. Launched 5 days apart at the end of October 1981, Venera 13 and Venera 14 landed on Venus 1,000 kilometres apart. This distance proved useful since the temperatures and…

After being forced to leave around 40 men in La Navidad (modern day Haiti) on 2nd January, Christopher Columbus aboard his ship Niña, landed back in Lisbon, Portugal today in 1493. This was Columbus’s first voyage that began on 3rd August 1492 and he originally began it with three ships; the Santa Maria, Niña and…

Landing today in 2005 Salina, Kansas, James Stephen Fossett secured another world record for the first solo non-stop fixed-wing aircraft flight around the world. Having taken off from Salina on 28 February 2005, it took Fossett 67 hours, 2 minutes and 13 seconds to fly around the world. Fossett still owns the world record for…

Today in 1904, Dr Seuss aka Theodor Seuss Geisel was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. He was a political cartoonist and animator, but more famously, he is the world’s best-selling children’s author. Under the pen-name Dr Seuss, he was the author and illustrator for over 60 books, which have been translated into 30 languages and selling…