Francis Smith (born 1861)

In 1861, in the year that Francis Smith was born, on January 29th, Kansas became the 34th U.S. state. After skirmishes - often very bloody - between abolitionist and pro-slavery groups within the state, Kansas entered the Union as a free state.

In 1876, on February 14th, Alexander Graham Bell applied for a patent for the telephone. So did Elisha Gray. A month later, on March 7th, Bell was granted the patent and on the 10th, he made his first successful telephone call - in which he said: "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you."

In 1946, pediatrician Dr. Benjamin Spock's book "The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care" was published. It sold half a million copies in the first six months. Aside from the Bible, it became the best selling book of the 20th century. A generation of Baby Boomers were raised by the advice of Dr. Spock.

In 1956, on May 20th, the U.S. tested the first hydrogen bomb dropped from a plane over Bikini Atoll. Previously, hydrogen bombs had only been tested on the ground. The Atomic Age moved forward.

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.