On this day in 1752, Benjamin Franklin, American founding father, diplomat, writer and scientist, flew a kite in a thunderstorm to prove his theory that lightning and electricity were the same phenomenon.
On this day in 1860, nursing pioneer Florence Nightingale opened the world’s first school for nurses at St. Thomas’ Hospital in London.
On this day in 1911, the Computing-Tabulating Recording Company (CTR), an American firm that dominated the office equipment and information technology industries, changed its name to International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), becoming the world’s largest manufacturer of information systems and equipment.
On this day in 1919, aviation history was made as English aviators Capt. John Alcock and Lt. Arthur Whitten Brown touched down in Clifden, Ireland, thus completing the world’s first nonstop trans-Atlantic flight.
And on this day in 2009, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voiced support for the first time for the establishment of a Palestinian state under the condition that the state must be demilitarized.