Business Birthdays and Anniversaries in December

BIRTHDAYS

• Dec 5, 1901 -  Walt Disney: Animator, filmmaker, theme park developer

• Dec 7, 1863 -  Richard W. Sears: Founder of Sears, Roebuck & Company. Concentrating on poorer customers in rural areas, he built a hugely successful mail order business through his catalogs.

• Dec 8, 1861 -  William Crapo Durant: He lost, regained and again lost control of GM after which he founded Durant Motors and then went bankrupt in the Depression.

• Dec 8, 1765 -  Eli Whitney: Inventor of the cotton gin

• Dec 9, 1886 -  Clarence Birdseye: Created the first commercially viable use of quick-freezing foods. His sold his company to the Postum Company, which later became part of the General Foods Corporation

• Dec 9, 1906 -  Grace Hopper: Retiring from the US Navy at age 79, she was the oldest naval officer ever on active duty. She was a leader in the computer revolution, having developed the computer language COBOL.

• Dec 10, 1851 -  Melvil Dewey: Librarian and inventor of the Dewey decimal book classification system

• Dec 10, 1927 -  William G. McGowan: He built MCI Communications into a $4 billion telecommunications giant that broke the AT&T monopoly.

• Dec 12, 1927 -  Robert Noyce: Called “The Father of Silicon Valley", co-founded Fairchild Semiconductor in 1957 and Intel in 1968 with longtime business partner Gordon Moore

• Dec 15, 1832 -  Alexandre Gustave Eiffel: Engineer who designed the 1000-foot high, open lattice wrought iron Eiffel Tower, and participated in the designing of the Statue of Liberty.

• Dec 16, 1938 -  Philip H. Knight: Founder of sportswear giant Nike

• Dec 17, 1908 -  Willard Frank Libby: Atomic scientist, chemist educator, inventor of the carbon-14 "atomic clock" method for dating ancient and prehistoric plant and animal remains and minerals

• Dec 20, 1868 -  Harvey S. Firestone: Industrialist, businessman and founder of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company. He was a close friend of Henry Ford, Thomas Edison and John Burroughs.

• Dec 23, 1867 -  Madam C. J. Walker: The first member of her family born free, she worked as a laundress early in life. She lost much of her hair from the stress and harsh chemicals of the job. This led her to search for a hair treatment. She developed a scalp ointment that promoted healthy hair growth and began selling it door-to-door in the black community. The Madam C.J. Walker Company became known not only for its products, but also for its extensive agent network.

• Dec 24, 1905 - Howard Hughes: Industrialist, aviator and movie producer

• Dec 25, 1821 -  Clara Barton: Founder of the American Red Cross

• Dec 27, 1571 -  Johannes Kepler: "Father of modern astronomy"

• Dec 30, 1851 -  Asa G. Candler: Developer of patent syrup and founder of Coca Cola Company

• Dec 31, 1878  -  Elizabeth Arden: Through her salons and cosmetics lines, she helped create the multi-billion-dollar personal care industry. She also built a successful Thoroughbred racing stable that included 1947 Kentucky Derby winner Jet Pilot.

ANNIVERSARIES IN DECEMBER

• 2 - 1901: King Gillette designs the first safety razor with disposable blades. In 1895, while shaving, Gillette thought of a safety razor with a disposable blade rather than a straight-edge razor that required regular stropping on a leather strap. He found an engineer, William Emery Nickerson (a MIT-trained inventor), who could produce a sharp edge on a small square of sheet steel. Nickerson and Gillette founded the American Safety Razor Company, which was soon renamed for Gillette.

• 2 - 1942: Team of scientists at University of Chicago produce the first controlled, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction, beginning the atomic age.

• 17 - 1903: Wright Brothers complete the first powered airplane flight, traveling 120 feet in 12 seconds. The brothers fly three more times that day, covering more distance as they become accustomed to the way the rudders respond in flight. The final flight of the day covers 852 feet in 59 seconds.

• 17 - 1935: First DC-3 flight. Originally called the Douglas Sleeper Transport (DST), the flight takes off on the 32nd anniversary of the Wright brothers’ first flight. One of the world’s best known aircraft, 1500 to 2000 DC3’s are still in service today.

• 17 - 1967: US Congress passes Clean Air Act to place pollution controls on the automobile industry.

• 21 - 1988: Pan American Flight 103 explodes in midair over Lockerbie, Scotland as a result of a terrorist bombing, killing 259 people on the plane and 11 people on the ground.

• 23 - 1913: Federal Reserve Bank is established. The Federal Reserve System is composed of a central Board of Governors in Washington, D.C. and twelve regional Federal Reserve Banks located in major cities throughout the nation.

• 23 - 1947: The transistor is invented at Bell Laboratories by William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain. It replaces the vacuum tube, leading to a revolution in communications and electronics.

• 23 - 1987: First nonstop flight around the world without refueling. From Edwards AFB, Calif., Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager complete 24,986 miles in 216 hours, 3 minutes.

• 24 - 1942: Germany launches the first surface-to-surface guided missile launched at Peenemunde on the Baltic.

• 31 - 1781: The first modern US bank, The Bank of North America, opens.

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