On this day in 1848, Adolphe Sax, French instrument maker, was granted a patent for the saxophone, a wind instrument in various sizes with a single-reed mouthpiece and a curved conical metal tube.
On this day in 1894, British monarch Edward VIII was born. He abdicated in order to marry the divorcee Mrs. Simpson and took the title Duke of Windsor.
On this day in 1914, the Kuomintang was reorganized as the Chinese Revolutionary Party in Tokyo, with Dr. Sun Yat-sen elected director-general.
On this day in 1995, American microbiologist Jonas Edward Salk died in California at the age of 80. The medical pioneer developed the first effective killed-virus vaccine against polio in 1954.