On this day in 1779, British navigator and explorer Captain James Cook, who commanded three major voyages of "discovery," charting and "naming" many islands in the Pacific, was killed by a native’s spear in Hawaii.
On this day in 1876, Alexander Graham Bell applied for a patent for the telephone, as did another inventor, Elisha Gray.
On this day in 1899, voting machines were approved by the U.S. Congress for use in federal elections.
On this day in 2005, YouTube was launched by a group of college students, eventually becoming the largest video sharing website in the world and a main source for viral videos.