FEBRUARY 1 — Space vessel Columbia explodes; INVENTION/PATENTS: 1893 Edison opens 1st movie production studio, 1788 1st patent for a steamboat goes to Brigs & Longstreet, Patent granted to Ralph Hodgson (oiled silk and linen); Nipplegate helps to launch YouTube
FEBRUARY 1
2003 – Columbia explodes.
…Manned by a crew of seven, all who perished, he Columbia was tasked to build on the International Space Station. It was a routine mission, and President George W. Bush pointed out in a heartfelt speech the American complacency toward space travel and how easy it was to overlook the dangers of travel by rocket, and the difficulties of navigating the fierce outer atmosphere of Earth. Bush would go on to talk about all seven individuals – Rick Husband, commander; Michael Anderson, payload commander; David Brown, mission specialist; Kalpana Chawla, mission specialist; Laurel Clark, mission specialist; William McCool, pilot; Ilan Ramon, payload specialist from the Israeli Space Agency. The president talked about their personal reasons for wanting to become astronauts. He praised the international makeup of the space program as one was from India and another from Israel, and shared a quote from Anderson; If this thing doesn’t come out right, don’t worry about me. I’m just going on higher. Bush would close his speech by vowing that America’s unbroken faith in the mission of the space program would continue in honor of those who had given their lives in the pursuit of science.
1893 – Black Maria opens up in W. Orange, NJ.
…There’s a Todd Rundgren song named Black Maria but it has precious little, if anything to do with Tommy Edison’s first movie production studio. In fact, Black Maria is credited for being the world’s first production studio.
Also known as the Kinetographic Theater, this is where The Wizard of Menlo Park premiered the first public demonstration of film using a Kinetoscope viewer. Short films deposited at the patent offices for copyright include The Edison Kinetoscope Record of a Sneeze. 1788 The first US patent for a steamboat went to Briggs & Longstreet. Ironically, it was Robert Fulton who was competing with John Fitch for the patent.
In 1769, James Watt held a patent for using steam to propel boats.
1793 Patent granted to Ralph Hodgson in New York for oiled silk and linen. If you had a silk textile you could boil it in linseed oil and dry it using a certain process and you have waterproof silk. These were used for umbrellas.
2004 — Two suicide bombers strike Kurdish political offices in the northern city of Arbil, kill 117 and injuring 133. But here in America we had much bigger problems – Nipplegate!
144 million viewers watched the Patriots beat the Carolina Panthers in Super Bowl XXXVIII. Tom Brady would be the MVP with 354 yards and three touchdowns. It was one of the most exciting Super Bowls ever! Neither team scored in the first or third quarter. At the end of the 4th the game was tied until there were four seconds left on the clock when Adam Vinatieri kicked a 41 yard field goal. It was all spectacular – especially the halftime when Justin Timberlake exposed Jana Jackson’s boob.
Don’t be scared children! It’s not real! Why, you can clearly see her boob has a nipple guard on it. MTV would be kicked out of the NFL forever. This half second wardrobe malfunction led down to two major changes in America. First the Federal Communications commission cracked down on indecency, increasing fines from $27,000 to $325,000.
The other thing it led to was YouTube. At least that’s what YouTube co-founder Jawed Karem said anyway. Janet Jackson would by far be the most searched term and person in internet history. Jackson was later listed in the 2007 edition of Guinness World Records as “Most Searched in Internet History” and the “Most Searched for News Item”.[22] It became the most watched, recorded and replayed television moment in TiVo history and “enticed an estimated 35,000 new [TiVo] subscribers to sign up.