Today in History Tuesday June 11

1578 – England grants Sir Humphrey Gilbert a patent to explore and colonize North America

1644 – Florentine scientists describe invention of the barometer

1742 – Benjamin Franklin invents his Franklin stove, a metal lined fireplace with a hollow baffle and inverted siphon. The stove serves to produce more heat but less smoke than an ordinary stove.

1770 – Captain James Cook discovers the Great Barrier Reef off Australia

1825 – The first cornerstone is laid for Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn. Fort Hamilton is the last active military post in New York City.

1895 – Charles E Duryea patents a gas-driven automobile

1935 – Inventor Edwin Armstrong gives the first public demonstration of FM broadcasting in the United States, at Alpine, New Jersey.

1951 – New York Times reports the subway will auction off items lost and found on the subway. Theauctioning of these items continues to this day and is now operated off the MTA’s website.

1976 – Anti-apartheid advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza is arrested in South Africa

2004 – Ronald Reagan’s funeral is held at Washington National Cathedral.

1842 – Carl von Linde, German engineer and industrialist who developed refrigeration and gas separation technologies.

	Charles Fabry

1867 – Charles Fabry was the French physicist who discovered the ozone layer in the upper atmosphere and that it acts as a screen protecting life on the surface of Earth from most of the harmful effects of ultraviolet radiation from the Sun.

1886 – David Steinman, bridge builder who designed the Henry Hudson and Triborough Bridges, as well as numerous others across the globe.

1915 – Nicholas Metropolis, Greek-American mathematician, physicist and computer scientist

1509 – King Henry VIII marries Catherine of Aragon, his first wife. They had one daughter, Mary I of England, but no sons. Henry VIII’s intentions of annulling their marriage set off the chain of events that resulted in England’s schism with the Catholic Church.