Sunday, December 16, 2012

1912










1. New Mexico becomes the 47th state and Arizona the 48th state of the United States.

2. Albert Berry is reported to have made the first parachute jump from a flying airplane.

3. The Girl Scouts is founded by Juliette Gordon Low in Savannah, Georgia.

4. Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo gives 3,000 cherry trees to be planted in Washington, D.C., to symbolize the friendship between the two countries.

5. RMS Titanic strikes an iceberg in the northern Atlantic Ocean. She sinks the following day with the loss of 1517 lives.

6. Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts opens.

7. Krupp engineers Benno Strauss and Eduard Maurer patent austenitic stainless steel.[

8. Merck files patent applications in Germany for synthesis of the entactogenic drug MDMA (Ecstasy), developed by Anton Köllisch.

9. The Scoville Unit (used to measure the heat of peppers) is devised and tested by Wilbur Scoville.

10. Casimir Funk identifies vitamins.