Alexander Melville Bell (born 1819)

In 1819, in the year that Alexander Melville Bell was born, on January 25th, former President Thomas Jefferson founded the University of Virginia. Unsatisfied with his alma mater, William and Mary, which focused on religion and shorted science, Jefferson - along with former Presidents Monroe and Madison - created a university that had 8 schools: medicine, law, mathematics, chemistry, ancient languages, modern languages, natural philosophy, and moral philosophy.

In 1903, two brothers, Orville and Wilbur Wright, flew the first powered heavier-than-air plane. They flew 4 times in one day - the longest flight lasting 59 seconds and a little over 852 feet. While the brothers had notified several newspapers of their attempt, only one - a local paper - covered it. After their 4th flight, a gust of wind caught the plane, turned it over, and totaled it.

In 1933, Frances Perkins became the first woman to hold a cabinet-level position, appointed by President Roosevelt to serve as Secretary of Labor. She told him that her priorities would be a 40-hour work week, a minimum wage, unemployment compensation, worker’s compensation, abolition of child labor, direct federal aid to the states for unemployment relief, Social Security, a revitalized federal employment service, and universal health insurance. President Roosevelt approved of all of them and most them were implemented during his terms as President. She served until his death in 1945.

In 1988, on December 16th, 1988 the popular film Rain Man was released. Featuring Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise. this film brought attention to autistic savants and was based on the "megasavant" Laurence Kim Peek. The film would later go to win four Oscars including Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Director and Best Actor in a Leading Role.

In 1999, on January 1st, the Euro became the new official single currency of the eurozone. It was used by Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain and has since spread in use. Daily, over 337 million Europeans use the euro.