Vivian Matt (Vallee) Hill (died 1995)

In 1807, on February 19th, former Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr was arrested on charges of treason, accused of plotting to grab parts of Louisiana and Mexico in order to create an independent republic. On September 1st, he was acquitted of the charges. Although he was deemed to be guilty of plotting against the U.S., he was not found to be guilty of an "overt act" - which is the Constitutional requirement to be met. Burr's reputation, after the charges and the duel with Alexander Hamilton, was ruined, however.

In 1822, on July 3rd, Charles Babbage published a proposal for a forerunner of the modern computer. Called a "difference engine", it calculated logarithms and trigonometric functions. Babbage wanted to eliminate the errors that occurred through the use of human "calculators" by creating a machine to do the same work. While a prototype was begun, it was never completed.

In 1879, on November 10th, Bell Telephone and Western Union reached an agreement. Bell Telephone would keep out of the telegraphy business and Western Union would stay out of the telephone business - leading to success for both.

In 1909, William Howard Taft became the 27th President of the United States on March 4th. Previously Secretary of War, Judge on the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, Solicitor General of the U.S., and Governor of both the Philippines and Cuba, Taft was the only President who went on to become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

In 1995, in the year of Vivian Matt (Vallee) Hill's passing, on September 3rd, eBay was founded in San Jose California. Beginning as simply a place for Pierre Omidyar's girlfriend (now wife) to share her Pez passion and collection online, the site has become a multibillion-dollar business and operates in 30 countries.