September 30 is the day, in 1954, that the USS Nautilus was commissioned. It was not only the world’s first nuclear submarine; it was the first nuclear-powered vessel of any kind. People in 1954 thought nuclear power was going to define the future. There were predictions that electricity was going to be free because nuclear… Continue reading

September 29, coincidentally, is the date of some surprising coincidences. Some of them have been purposeful, at least sort of. It was this date in 1990, for example, that the Washington National Cathedral was completed. It took a while to finish — the cornerstone was laid on exactly the same date, but in 1907. That’s… Continue reading

If you read yesterday’s “book of days” post, you might have noticed that the Christmas Carol Good King Wenceslaus showed up because one of the two Kings Wenceslaus — Wenceslaus II in that case — was born that day in 1271. If you didn’t read it, you have a second chance — because the other… Continue reading

Google currently says that September 27, 1998 marks the birth of its search engine. That’s not what they’ve always said, though. It’s not the day they registered their domain name, google.com — that was September 15, 1997. It’s not the day the company was incorporated either. That was September 4, 1998. It’s not the day… Continue reading

Today’s September 26, the day FBI agents became known as G-Men. it was all thanks to Machine Gun Kelly, who surrendered by yelling “Don’t shoot, G-Men” when they raided his hideout in Memphis.  It didn’t really happen that way, though. The official reports from the raid itself said that Kelly was found standing in a… Continue reading

Powered, controlled flight (by humans, at least) started on September 24, and you’ll be surprised by the year: it was 1852. The vessel was a rigid airship — a dirigible, if you will, although “dirigible” just means “rigid airship”— designed and built by Henri Giffard. It made a 27 kilometer trip from Paris to Élancourt,… Continue reading

If yesterday was a good commemoration of enduring mysteries, then today, September 23, seems to be a good day to commemorate enduring itself. Quite a few things began today that are still around. For one thing, September 23, 1642 was the first day anyone ever became a Harvard alum — it was their first commencement.… Continue reading

“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” That was Hamlet pointing out to Horatio that even the most educated people can’t explain everything. Sometimes the quote reads “our philosophy,” which is the way Shakespeare’s first folio read before he changed it to “your.”  Although the play… Continue reading

One of the things we have to thank September 21 for is… the future. Maybe not the future we actually inhabit, but at least the one with time travel, invisible men, and invaders from Mars. That’s because H.G. Wells was born today in 1866. Although he’s mostly remembered for The Time Machine, War of the… Continue reading