Elizabeth Smedley (born 1827)

In 1827, in the year that Elizabeth Smedley was born, on May 25th, Romanian inventor Petrache Poenaru received a French patent for the invention of the first fountain pen with a replaceable ink cartridge. The fountain pen would make inkwells obsolete. Poenaru's patent used a barrel made from a large swan quill (part of the feather).

In 1855, on June 29th, The Daily Telegraph began in London. The newspaper began as The Daily Telegraph and Courier and still has the reputation of being a quality paper.

In 1862, on January 30th, the USS Monitor - an iron hulled steamship - was launched. It was the first of its kind in the United States and was built in response to the rumor that the Confederate states were building an ironclad ship - the CSS Virginia.

In 1884, on December 6th, the Washington Monument was completed. Building began in 1848 but was stopped because of lack of funds and also due to the Civil War. It would be dedicated in 1885. At the time of its completion, it was the tallest structure in the world.

In 1930, as head of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, William Hays established a code of decency that outlined what was acceptable in films. The public - and government - had felt that films in the '20's had become increasingly risque and that the behavior of its stars was becoming scandalous. Laws were being passed. In response, the heads of the movie studios adopted a voluntary "code", hoping to head off legislation. The first part of the code prohibited "lowering the moral standards of those who see it", called for depictions of the "correct standards of life", and forbade a picture from showing any sort of ridicule towards a law or "creating sympathy for its violation". The second part dealt with particular behavior in film such as homosexuality, the use of specific curse words, and miscegenation.