August 10, 1846: Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. was established as an institute of learning. James Smithson, English scientist, made it possible to create the institute with monetary gift of $500,000. Today, the Smithsonian is composed of 19 museums & galleries. Referred to as America’s attic, it has a little something for everyone from every era & pertaining to all subject matter. Note: As a highly regarded scientist, Smithson (fellow of Royal Society) had published numerous scientific papers on mineral composition, geology & chemistry.
August 10, 1993: Three ships collided in Tampa Bay, Florida, which resulted in 336,000 gallon fuel oil spill. Incident marked first use of computerized trajectory model to track an oil spill. New federal legislation (Oil Pollution Act of 1990), which had been passed in aftermath of Valdez disaster assisted in effort to recover millions of dollars from ship owners to pay for cleanup efforts.
August 10, 1921: Franklin D. Roosevelt, at 39 years old, first began noticing signs of Polio (paralytic poliomyelitis). During next 7 days, paralysis spread over the rest of his body. He helped set up “March of Dimes Foundation” to search for a cure for the crippling disease.
August 10, 1856: William Willett, English home builder, was born. He invented “Daylight Saving Time”. While taking an early summer morning ride, observed that many blinds were still down, although there was already good daylight, yet many made no use of it. He used his wealth as prominent home builder to campaign for scheme of adjusting clocks with the season.
August 10, 1897: Felix Hoffmann, German chemist, successfully created a chemically pure & stable form of acetylsalicylic acid, which was trademarked as Aspirin. His handwritten laboratory notes (Aspirin’s “birth certificate”) suggested: “Through its physical characteristics such as a sour taste without any corrosive effect, acetylsalicylic acid has an advantage over salicylic acid and will therefore be tested for its usability in this context.” It was a better pain reliever for his father’s rheumatoid arthritis than salicylic acid, which had an unpleasant taste & side effects, such as stomach bleeding.