HISTORY TODAY

 1610 – Galileo Galilei makes his first observation of the four Galilean moons

 1738 – A peace treaty is signed between Peshwa Bajirao and Jai Singh II following Marathavictory in the Battle of Bhopal.

 1782 – The first American commercial bank, the Bank of North America, opens.

 1894 – William Kennedy Dickson receives a patent for motion picture film.

 1904 – The distress signal “CQD” is established only to be replaced two years later by “SOS”.

 1927 – The first transatlantic telephone service is estab- lished from New York City to London.

 1939 – Marguerite Perey discovers Francium, the last ele- ment first discovered in nature, rather than by synthesis.

 1954 – Georgetown-IBM experiment: The first public demonstration of a machine translation system, is held in New York at the head office of IBM.

 1955 – Contralto Marian Anderson becomes the first per- son of color to perform at the Metropolitan Opera in Giuseppe Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera.

 1959 – The United States recognizes the new Cuban gov- ernment of Fidel Castro.

 1968 – Surveyor Program: Surveyor 7, the last spacecraft in the Surveyor series, lifts off from launch complex 36A, Cape Canaveral.

 1980 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter authorizes legislation giving $1.5 billion in loans to bail out the Chrysler