17 October

1771     Premiere in Milan of the opera Ascanio in Alba, composed by Wolfgang Mozart at age 15.

1888     Thomas Edison files a patent for the Optical Phonograph (the first movie).

1907     Guglielmo Marconi’s company begins the first commercial transatlantic wireless service between Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada and Clifden, Ireland.

1910     Julia Ward Howe (died), American poet and abolitionist (born 1819)

1919     RCA is incorporated as the Radio Corporation of America.

1930     Robert Atkins (born), American physician and cardiologist, created the Atkins diet (died 2003)

1931     Al Capone convicted of income tax evasion.

1933     Albert Einstein flees Nazi Germany and moves to the United States.

1938     Evel Knievel (born), American motorcycle stuntman (died 2007)

1956     Donald Byrne and Bobby Fischer play a famous chess game called The Game of the Century. Fischer beat Byrne and wins a Brilliancy prize.

1956     The first commercial nuclear power station is officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II in Sellafield,in Cumbria, England.

1979     Kimi Räikkönen (born), Finnish race car driver

1979     Mother Teresa awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

1979     The Department of Education Organization Act is signed into law creating the US Department of Education and US Department of Health and Human Services.

2003    The pinnacle is fitted on the roof of Taipei 101, a 101-floor skyscraper in Taipei, surpassing the Petronas Twin Towers (1,483 ft) in Kuala Lumpur at 1,669 ft and become the world’s tallest highrise.

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EO Smith

Interests include biological anthropology, evolution, social behavior, and human behavior. Conducted field research in the Tana River National Primate Reserve, Kenya and on Angaur, Palau, Micronesia, as well as research with captive nonhuman primates at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center and the Institute for Primate Research, National Museums of Kenya.
EO Smith
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