The first successful passenger elevator was installed on this day at 488 Broadway in New York City.
All in Engineering
The Strowger Switch
An undertaker invented a pivotal piece of technology that would automate phone exchanges.
The Simplon Tunnel
It was on this day that two work crews converged deep under the Swiss Alps to form one of the greatest engineering feats of all time.
QWERTY
Christopher Latham Sholes was a newspaper publisher, politician and most notably - the inventor of the QWERTY keyboard.
The Parachute Cape
It was on this day that an Austrian tailor/inventor fell to his death from the Eiffel Tower.
Spindletop Gusher
It ignited the Texas oil boom and within a year over 500 oil and land companies were created.
King Camp Gillette
King realized that what the world needed was a razor that was sharp enough to give you a good shave, but not big enough to slice open your jugular.
Meltdown of SL-1
The only known fatal accident involving a nuclear reactor in America happened on this day.
The Ashtabula Horror
92 of 159 passengers would die when a wrought-iron bridge collapsed and the Pacific Express fell 70 feet into the frozen Ashtabula River.
Silver Bridge Collapse
46 people died as cars and trucks plunged 100 feet into the near-freezing water of the Ohio River.
Catastrophic Fail
It was on this day in Los Angeles that the Baldwin Hills Reservoir crumbled apart and released 250,000,000 gallons of water into the surrounding neighborhoods.
Quebec Bridge
In 1907 two massive sections of the bridge snapped off and plunged over 300 feet into the Saint Lawrence River.
Crazy Drake
In 1859 a semi-retired train conductor named Edwin Drake engineered the world's first successful oil drilling operation.
Empire State Disaster
A B-25 bomber on a routine transport mission slammed into the Empire State Building.
Death at the Hyatt
114 people were killed and over 200 were injured when an elevated walkway collapsed at the Hyatt Regency in Kansas City, Missouri.
Skylab is Falling
In 1979, America's first space station, the 100-ton Skylab, came crashing back to Earth.
Howard Hughes Crashes
Howard Hughes took one of the fastest planes ever built on a maiden flight that almost killed him.
The Best Thing Since...
The machine that Otto Rohwedder created not only sliced bread, but it also wrapped it.
Mianus
In 1983, a 100-foot section of the Mianus River Bridge collapsed and 4 vehicles plunged into the shallow water below.
Long Beach Earthquake
Over 200 schools were destroyed in the disaster and it was clear that had the quake struck during school hours the death toll would have been significantly higher.