The first successful adding machine (a class of mechanical calculator) in the United States is patented by William Seward Burroughs.

The first commercial radio station, 8MK (now WWJ), begins operations in Detroit, Michigan.

First ascent of Weisshorn, fifth highest summit in the Alps.

1868 – French astronomer Pierre Janssen discovers helium.

Fantasmagorie, the first animated cartoon, created by Émile Cohl, is shown in Paris.

The Wizard of Oz premieres at Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Los Angeles, California.*

*actual date is August 15, 1939, but I did not realize I had my dates mixed up until after I put my blood, sweat and tears into drawing, AND coloring this….

The Big Ear, a radio telescope operated by Ohio State University as part of the SETI project, receives a radio signal from deep space.

France becomes the first country to introduce motor vehicle registration.

Carl Gustav Witt, a German astronomer, discovers 433 Eros, the first near-Earth asteroid to be found. It is a potential Earth impactor, believed to be larger than the impactor that created the Chicxulub Crater that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs.

Isaac Singer is granted a patent for his sewing machine. Singer’s prototype sewing machine became the first to work in a practical way. It could sew 900 stitches per minute, far better than the 40 of an accomplished seamstress.