Today in History

	Jean Joseph Étienne Lenoir (1822-1900), inventor of the gas engine

1862 – Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir a Belgian engineer developed the internal combustion engine in 1858. By 1859, Lenoir’s experimentation without electricity led him to develop the first single-cylinder two-stroke engine which burnt a mixture of coal gas and air ignited by a “jumping sparks” ignition system and which he patented in 1860. The engine differed from more modern two-stroke engines in that the charge was not compressed before ignition with a power stroke at each end of the cylinder.
In 1863 the Hippomobile with a hydrogen gas-fueled one-cylinder internal combustion engine made a test drive from Paris to Joinville-le-Pont in about three hours with a top speed of about 5-6 miles per hour
1868 – By one vote, US Senate fails to impeachPresident Andrew Johnson
1874 – First recorded dam disaster in US (Williamsburg, Mass)
1881 – World’s first electric tram goes into service in Lichterfelder (near Berlin)
1891 – George A Hormel & Co introduce Spam
1903 – First transcontinental motorcycle trip begins in San Francisco / George Wymann
1918 – The Sedition Act of 1918 is passed by the U.S. Congress, making criticism of the government an imprisonable offense.
1927 – Supreme Court ruled bootleggers must pay income tax
1941 – Last massive German air attack on Great Britain targeting Birmingham
1963 – Gordon Cooper completes 22 orbits in the spacecraft Faith 7

1977 – Five  die as NY Airway helicopter topples on Pan Am building on 42nd Street. In its report about the accident, the National Transportation Safety Boarddescribed the event and its probable cause:
http://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/AAR7709.pdf
“About 1735 e.d.t., on May 16, 1977, the right landing gear of a New York Airways, Inc., Sikorsky Model S-61L helicopter, N619PA, failed while the aircraft was parked, with rotors turning, on the rooftop heliport of the Pan Am Building in New York, New York.
The aircraft rolled over on its right side and was substantially damaged. Four passengers had boarded the aircraft and other passengers were in the process of boarding. The passengers and the three crewmembers onboard received either minor or no injuries; however, four passengers who were still outside the aircraft and were waiting to board were killed and one was seriously injured.
One pedestrian on the corner of Madison Avenue and 43rd Street was killed and another was seriously injured when they were struck by a separated portion of one of the main rotor blades of the aircraft.”
The National Transportation Safety Board determined that the probable cause of the accident was the fatigue failure of the upper right forward fitting of the right main landing gear tube assembly. Fatigue originated from a small surface pit of undetermined source. All fatalities were caused by the operating rotor blades as a result of the collapse of the landing gear. The heliport was permanently closed after the accident.

1988 – US Surgeon Gen C Everett Koop reports nicotine as addictive as heroin
1988 – US Supreme Court rules trash may be searched without a warrant
2013 – Bill Gates becomes the world’s richest man with $72.7 billion again after losing the position in 2008
2013 – Pope Francis calls for ethical financial reform to fight speculation
2013 – Human stem cells are successfully cloned

1763 – Louis-Nicolas Vauquelin, chemist (discovered chromium, beryllium)
1801 – William H. Seward, United States Secretary of State, bought Alaska at 2 ¢/acre (d. 1872)
1831 – David Edward Hughes, inventor (microphone, teleprinter)

1691 – Jacob Leisler, becomes first American colonist hanged for treason
1864 – Lean Bear, Cheyenne chief, murdered
1955 – James Agee, US critic/writer (Death in Family), dies in NY
1984 – Andy Kaufman, comedian (Latka-Taxi), dies of cancer at 35
1985  Margaret Hamilton, the Wicked Witch from Oz, dies at 82
1990 – Jim Henson, puppeteer (Sesame Street, Muppet Show), dies at 53
1990 – Sammy Davis Jr, singer/actor (Golden Boy), dies at 64