On this day, 21 Feb....
1804 - The first self-propelling steam engine or steam locomotive was tested at the Pen-y-Darren ironworks on its normally horse-drawn tramline. The machine was designed by Richard Trevithick, who had built his first road steam locomotive in 1801, before turning his attention to railways. The railway engine at Pen-y-Darren was able to pull a load of 15 tons at a speed of about 5 mph. However, adhesion was a problem as the iron wheels slipped on the iron rails. Further, the cast-iron rails of the tramways of those days were not strong enough to support the weight of his new machine and the experiment was soon abandoned.
1811 - Humphry Davy introduced the name “chlorine” from the Greek word for “green,” for the bright yellow-green gas chemists then knew as oxymuriatic gas.
1842 - The first U.S. patent for a sewing machine was issued to John J. Greenough of Washington. It was designed for "Stitching all Kinds of Straight Seams."
1858 - The first electrical burglar alarm installation in the U.S.
1866 - The first woman dentist in the U.S. to obtain a D.D.S. degree from a dental college graduated. Lucy B. Hobbs (Mrs. Taylor). Being a woman, Hobbs had been originally turned down by many schools.
1878 - The first U.S. telephone directory, listing about 50 names, was issued.
1902 - Dr. Harvey Cushing, the first US brain surgeon, performed his first brain operation.
1931 - Alka-Seltzer, an effervescent antacid and pain reliever first marketed. It originated after Hub Beardsley, the president of Miles Laboratories, during a severe flu epidemic in winter 1928, had visited a local newspaper and learned from the editor, Tom Keene, that the staff seemed to be resistant to the illness. Keene explained that at the first sign of illness, he treated staff members with a combination of aspirin and baking soda. This resulted in a tablet with aspirin and sodium bicarbonate as the main ingredients.
1947 - The Polaroid camera, with the first used self-developing film, was demonstrated. It produced a black-and-white photograph in 60 seconds.
1958 - The first U.S. submarine to circumnavigate the world returned to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. It spent 228 days traveling about 25,000 miles while visiting ports in Asia, Africa, and Europe.
1983 - More than 600 people were killed in Assam after student agitators protesting the immigration of Muslim refugees from Bangladesh attempted to stop state elections.
1994 - Whirlpool Corporation began production of an energy efficient refrigerator that did not use freon. It had an efficiency 25% better than the U.S. law required. By removing freon, the destructive effect on ozone in the atmosphere by that chemical was eliminated.
2013 - 21 people are killed and 54 are injured in a bombing in Hyderabad.
RIP
1991 - Nutan, famous film actor. She appeared in more than 70 Hindi films in a career spanning nearly four decades. Nutan holds the record of five wins of the Best Actress award at Filmfare, which was held only by her for over 30 years until it was matched by her niece Kajol in 2011; she is overall the most-awarded actress in the female acting categories at Filmfare, with six awards alongside Jaya Bachchan.
1998 - Om Prakash, actor. Born as Om Prakash Chibber, he used to play the role of Kamla in the stage play. Since his career began in 1942, he was a popular supporting actor from the 1950s until the 1980s.
You may have known....
In space, the skin on your feet peels off! This is a pretty gross fact but in the micro-gravity environment, astronauts are not using their feet to walk. Therefore the skin on their feet starts to soften and flakes off. As laundry facilities do not exist in space, astronauts will wear the same underwear and socks for a few days. Those socks then need to be taken off very gently. If not, those dead skin cells will float around in the weightless environment.
Economic news
FM will pull up bankers and auditors in the alleged fraud at PNB.
The private players will soon be able to mine coal and sell it to power plants and other users, ending the decades-old monopoly of State-run Coal India Ltd.
A new law approved to Ban unregulated deposit schemes. It aims to ban unregulated entities from collecting deposits from individuals to protect small investors from Ponzi schemes.
EPFO could maintain 8.65% interest rate for the current year after booking good gains in its equity portfolio.
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