Adam Yates (born 1828)

In 1828, in the year that Adam Yates was born, on April 20th, French explorer René Caillié became the first non-Muslim to enter Timbuktu and to later return alive. He gave Europeans a first hand description of the city. He was awarded a prize of 10,000 francs for his trip - offered by the Société de Géographie.

In 1838, on February 24th, Representatives William J. Graves (Kentucky) and Jonathan Cilley (Maine) fought a duel with rifles. They faced off at 94 yards. Cilley was hit on Graves' third try - in the femoral artery - and bled to death on the dueling field. The Panic of 1837 and Jackson's presidency had caused an extremely partisan Congress and the duel was a result.

In 1864, on August 13th, the first fish and chips shop opened in London England. By the 1930's, there were over 35,000 shops throughout the United Kingdom.

In 1888, Irishman John Robert Gregg published a pamphlet in the U.S., teaching his first version of shorthand - Gregg shorthand. When he improved on the first version and published it 5 years later, Gregg shorthand became popular.

In 1994, on May 6th, the Channel Tunnel or "Chunnel" was officially opened. The Chunnel is a railway tunnel beneath the English Channel that connects Great Britain to mainland France. Original plans for such a tunnel were developed in 1802 and approved by Napoleon Bonaparte but the British rejected the plan fearing that Napoleon would use the railway to invade.