John Hunter Hill (born 1828)

In 1828, in the year that John Hunter Hill was born, Hungarian inventor and physicist, Ányos Jedlik - a Benedictine priest - created the world's first electric motor, which he called an electromotor. Currently, the motor still works.

In 1846, on June 15th, the Oregon Treaty - between Great Britain and the US - was signed. The Treaty agreed that the 49th parallel would be the border between the United States and Canada. Since the actual border wasn't clear in the Treaty, dispute about what was Canada and what was the US continued for a decade.

In 1852, in Springfield Massachusetts, Smith & Wesson was founded. Their first gun was the Volcanic rifle. The company later expanded their line to include revolvers and ammunition.

In 1888, on July 25th, a court stenographer from Salt Lake City - Frank Edward McGurrin - decisively beat the competition in a typing contest in Ohio. He was supposedly the only person who used touch typing and is believed to have invented the method. Touch typing is ubiquitous now - but Frank's win is what convinced everyone that the method was good!

In 1971, in March, Intel shipped the first microprocessor to Busicom, a Japanese manufacturer of calculators. The microprocessor has since allowed computers to become smaller and faster, leading to smaller and more versatile handheld devices, home computers, and supercomputers.