By Zola Elder
FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
Samuel Hopkins (December 9, 1743 – 1818) was an American inventor from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, On July 31, 1790, he was granted the first U.S. patent, under the new U.S. patent statute just signed into law by President Washington on April 10, 1790. Hopkins had petitioned for a patent on an improvement “in the making of Pot ash and Pearl ash by a new Apparatus and Process.”
The statute did not create a Patent Office. Instead a committee of the Secretary of State, Secretary of War and the Attorney General were authorized to make a decision on the merit of a properly documented petition.
The patent was signed by President George Washington, Attorney General Edmund Randolph, and Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson. The other U.S. patents issued that year were for a new candle-making process and Oliver Evans‘s flour-milling machinery.
Hopkins also received the first “Canadian” patent from the Parliament of Lower Canada in 1791, issued “by the Governor General in Council to Angus MacDonnel, a Scottish soldier garrisoned at Quebec City, and to Samuel Hopkins, for processes to make potash and soap from wood ash.”
TODAY’S ALMANAC
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Born
- John Ericsson (engineer) –
- Theobald Smith (bacteriologist) –
- Jean Dubuffet (artist) –
- Primo Levi (author) –
- Whitney Moore Young Jr. (civil rights activist) –
- Susan Flannery (actress) –
- Geraldine Chaplin (actress) –
- Wesley Snipes (actor) –
- J. K. Rowling (author) –
- Dean Cain (actor) –
- Tim Couch (football player) –
Died
- Andrew Johnson (17th U.S. president) –
- Robert A. Taft (politician) –
Events
- George Washington signed the first United States Patent Grant to Samuel Hopkins of Pittsford, Vermont, for a new method of making Potash–
- David Rittenhouse, Director of the Mint, laid the cornerstone of the building being built in Philadelphia for the U.S. Mint–
- Alys McKey Bryant first woman to fly a plane in Canada–
- The first automobile, a Ford Model T, was permitted into Yellowstone National Park–
- The Shadow radio program first aired–
- 5-pound 3-ounce white crappie caught, Enid Dam, Mississippi–
- IBM released the Selectric typewriter–
- U.S. probe Ranger 7 relayed first moon close-ups–
- Astronauts David Scott and James Irwin became the first people to drive a vehicle on the Moon–
- French became the official language of Quebec–
- Former Teamsters Union president, James R. Hoffa, was reported missing–
- NASA released the famous Face on Mars photo, taken by Viking 1–
- The ashes of astrogeologist Eugene Shoemaker were deposited on the Moon–
Weather
- Hail fell 12 inches deep in Scituate, Massachusetts, remaining on the ground for 30 hours–
- The Edmonton Tornado struck Alberta’s capital city, killing 27 people and causing more than $250 million in damage.–
- Roswell, New Mexico, set a record for monthly rainfall with 6.68 inches–
COURTESY www.almanac.com
