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#PhotoOfTheDay: The first computer mouse, invented in 1963-64 by American engineer Douglas Engelbart. Fashioned at the Stanford Research Institute, it had a carved wood casing and just one button.
Engelbart, who was born 93 years ago today, helped develop a wide range of technologies that made it possible for ordinary people to use computers. In 1997 he won the A.M. Turing Award, the highest honor in computer science, for his "inspiring vision of the future of interactive computing and the invention of key technologies to help realize this vision."
Learn more: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Douglas-Engelbart
Today is #KorematsuDay, in honor of activist Fred Korematsu, who challenged the U.S. executive order that led to Japanese American internment.
Born in California to Japanese immigrant parents, Korematsu was convicted in 1942 for having refused to submit to forced relocation. Although the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the conviction, Justice Robert H. Jackson's dissenting opinion is still remembered today:
"Korematsu...has been convicted of an act not commonly a crime. It consis...ts merely of being present in the state whereof he is a citizen, near the place where he was born, and where all his life he has lived."
After World War II, Korematsu continued to advocate for Japanese Americans, and in 1998 he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Learn more about Korematsu's case: https://www.britannica.com/event/Korematsu-v-United-States
[The map below depicts the extent of the exclusion zone and the locations of the internment camps for Japanese Americans during World War II.]
At the start of 1919 Albert Einstein was only moderately well-known. A solar eclipse that spring vaulted him to international fame.
Happy birthday to Oprah Winfrey. The media icon and entrepreneur (who recently quashed speculation that she would run for president) turns 64 today.
The Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, prohibiting "the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors," was certified on this day in 1919. The prohibition of alcohol remained in effect in the United States from 1920 until the amendment's repeal in 1933.
Over the last 25 years, one of Antarctica's largest ice shelves has been slowly coming apart. Last summer a massive chunk of ice about the size of Delaware broke off into the sea. Scientists worry that the loss such a huge area may make the remainder of the ice shelf less stable and subject to complete disintegration.
Learn more: https://www.britannica.com/…/a-trillion-tonnes-of-antarctic…
📝 This week we added a new entry on the titan arum. This plant, also called corpse flower, is known for its massive cluster of flowers that smell of rotting flesh.
On this day in 1986 the U.S. space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after its liftoff from Florida. All seven crew members were killed, including a schoolteacher named Christa McAuliffe, who would have been the first private citizen in space.
In the 17th century a French doctor performed the first human blood transfusions. Alas, they did not go as planned.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born this day in 1756. Although he composed many familiar tunes, he's often credited with one that he didn't actually write.
