Business Birthdays and Anniversaries in April

BIRTHDAYS

• April 3, 1898 -  Henry Luce: Editor and publisher, he built an empire with Time, Fortune, Life and Sports Illustrated.

• April 4, 1821 -  Linus Yale: Portrait painter and inventor of the Yale Infallible Bank Lock and developer of the cylinder lock

• April 5, 1893 -  David Burpee: He grew the W. A. Burpee Seed Company to be the largest mail order source of fruit, vegetable and flower seeds. More than 50 of its varieties have won All American awards.

• April 6, 1882 -  Rose Schneiderman: An organizer of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union and the Women's Trade Union League

• April 6, 1928 - James Watson: Discoverer along with Frances Crick of the structure of DNA

• April 7, 1860 -  Will K. Kellogg: Inventor of corn flakes, founder of Kellogg Company and creator of breakfast cereal empire.

• April 9, 1919 -  John Presper Eckert: Coinventor with John w. Mauchly of ENIAC, the first computer. They formed Electronic Control Co, which later became Unisys Corporation.

• April 10, 1847 -  Joseph Pulitzer: Journalist and newspaper publisher, founder of the Pulitzer Prize awarded annually since 1917

• April 10, 1930 -  Dolores Huerta: Co-founder with Cesar Chavez of the United Farm Workers Union

• April 13, 1852 -  Frank W. Woolworth: Capitalizing on a need for lower-priced merchandise, he built a chain of 1250 stores that was the largest retailer at the time.

• April 13, 1899 - Alfred M Butts: Jobless architect in the Depression when he invented the board game Scrabble

• April 16, 1867 -  Wilbur Wright: Ohio bicycle mechanic and aviation pioneer. Builder of first airplane to fly successfully

• April 17, 1837 -  John Pierpont Morgan: Major financier and power broker at the turn of the 20th century. Purchasing Andrew Carnegie’s steel business, he created
  U.S. Steel, the first billion-dollar business. He had the power to stop financial panics, which he did in 1907.

• April 19, 1772 -  David Ricardo: Recognized as the man who first systematized economics, his writings greatly influenced later economic theory.

• April 19, 1877 -  Ole Evinrude: Created the recreational boating industry with the first practical outboard motor

• April 21, 1838 -  John Muir: Naturalist, explorer, conservationist who urged the establishment of national parks and profoundly influenced US forest conservation

• April 23, 1856 -  Granville T. Woods: Invented the Synchronous Multiplex Railway Telegraph which allowed communication between dispatchers and trains while trains were in motion, decreasing the number of train accidents

• April 24, 1743 -  Edmund Cartwright: Inventor of the power loom and other weaving inventions

• April 24, 1766 -  Robert Bailey Thomas: Founder and editor of The Farmer's Almanac, first issue published in 1793.

• April 25, 1874 -  Guglielmo Marconi: Inventor of wireless telegraphy 1895

• April 26, 1822 -  Frederick Law Olmsted: Known as the "father of landscape architecture in America", he helped design Yosemite National Park and Central Park in NYC.

• April 27, 1791 -  Samuel Morse: Artist and inventor after whom Morse code is named. (electromagnetic telegraph)

• April 29, 1863 - William Randolph Hearst: American newspaper editor and publisher

ANNIVERSARIES IN APRIL

• 1 - 1634: First bridge built in the US spanned the Neponset River between Milton and Dorchester, MA

• 1 - 1913: Ford introduces the first moving assembly line, increasing volume and lowering production costs on the Model T, introduced in 1908.

• 1 - 1970: President Richard Nixon signs the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act into law banning cigarette television advertisements in the United States starting on January 1, 1971. The implementation is delayed until January 2 to allow Super Bowl ads to run. The bill also requires an updated warning on cigarette packages: "Warning: The Surgeon General Has Determined That Cigarette Smoking is Dangerous to Your Health.”

• 3 - 1948: George C. Marshall, Truman's Secretary of State, announces details of what became known as the Marshall Plan or the European Recovery Program (ERP). The European Recovery Program came to an end on December 31. In its three year existence, the ERP spent almost $12.5 billion.

• 6 - 1938: Teflon is invented by Roy J. Plunkett while working for DuPont. Dr. Plunkett discovered PTFE or polytetrafluoroethylene while he was working with gases related to Freon® refrigerants. When he checked a frozen, compressed sample of tetrafluoroethylene, he and his associates discovered that the sample had polymerized spontaneously into a white, waxy solid with a surface so slippery, virtually nothing would stick to it or be absorbed by it. PTFE was first marketed under the DuPont Teflon ® trademark in 1945.

• 6 - 1992: Microsoft introduces Windows 3.1 and sells more than 1 million copies within the first two months of its release. It contains minor improvements over Windows 3.0, along with bugfixes and multimedia capability. Nonetheless, Microsoft quickly overtakes the operating system and graphical user interface markets for the IBM PC. Windows becomes the de-facto standard for consumer software.

• 10 - 1849: Safety Pin is patented. Walter Hunt was twisting a piece of wire, trying to think of something that would help him pay off a fifteen dollar debt when the invention occurred to him. He thought so little of his safety pin that he soon sold the patent for four hundred dollars.

• 13 - 1962: Silent Spring by Rachel Carson signals beginning of environmental movement.

• 14 - 1828: First dictionary of American English published by Noah Webster. He took the k out of musick, the u out of colour, and turned centre to center. His dictionary sold a million copies a year.

• 15 - 1912: The luxury liner Titanic sinks. The "unsinkable" ocean liner strikes an iceberg and sinks within a few hours. News of how many passengers survived and the list of actual names are wired from the rescue ship Carpathia to New York and published nationwide the following day. But the reports vary and it isn’t until April 19 when Carpathia reaches port that newspaper accounts could be based on eyewitness testimony.

• 17 - 1973: Federal Express begins operations in Memphis, Tennessee. On the first night of continuous operation, 389 Federal Express employees and 14 Dassault Falcon jets deliver 186 packages overnight to 25 U.S. cities — and the modern air/ground express industry is born.

• 20 - 1939: First commercial television broadcast. Television demonstrations are held at the World's Fair in New York City and the Golden Gate International Exhibition in San Francisco, California. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, appearing at the World's Fair, becomes the first President of the United States to give a speech that is broadcast on television.

• 24 - 1983: IBM Introduces the PC. Personal computers first appeared in the late 1970s. The popular Apple II, was introduced in 1977. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, many new models and operating systems appeared. The IBM PC quickly becomes the personal computer of choice.

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