Technology

At 12:01 a.m. on February 2, 1913, Grand Central Terminal officially opened in New York City. Today it’s the third busiest train station in North America and has more platforms than any other in the world, with 44.

Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17, 1706, in Boston, Massachusetts Bay Colony. “The first citizen of Philadelphia,” Franklin was a printer, inventor, postmaster, and the only person to sign all four of the key documents in US history.

On December 14, 1962, Mariner 2 became the first spacecraft to fly by Venus. Mariner 2 sent back a wealth of data about the planet, revealing many facts unknown up to that point.

On November 12, 1980, the Voyager 1 space probe made its closest approach to Saturn. The probe is still traveling today and is estimated to be about 15 billion miles from Earth.

On October 14, 1947, Chuck Yeager became the first person to break the sound barrier. He reached a speed of 700 miles per hour and accelerated past Mach 1 – the speed of sound.

On September 30, 1935, President Franklin Roosevelt presided over the dedication ceremony of the Boulder Dam. Later renamed the Hoover Dam, it’s one of the highest concrete dams in the world.

On September 18, 1997, the USPS issued the US Air Force stamp, the first US stamp to have a hidden image using Scrambled Indicia.

On September 17, 1976, America’s first space shuttle, the Enterprise, made its debut public appearance.

Inventor Jan Matzeliger was born on September 15, 1852, in Paramaribo, Dutch Guyana (present-day Surinam).  He invented a device that is considered “the most important invention for New England” and the “greatest step forward in the shoe industry.”