Born: 1921Birthplace: Mount Vernon, N.Y Laser—Co-inventor of the laser. Schawlow worked with Charles H. Townes who was inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame in 1976. Today the laser is prevalent…
Born: 1898Birthplace: Demopolis, Ala. PVC plastisols—Semon's work turned polyvinyl chloride (PVC), first considered worthless, into the world's second-best selling plastic. He also provided the…
Born: 1934Birthplace: Wakenda, Missouri Liquid crystal display (LCD)—Liquid crystal displays were originally based on a concept that used a large amount of powder, provided a limited life, and poor…
Born: 1819Birthplace: Danville, Pa. Typewriting machine—Publisher and politician Sholes invented the first practical typewriting machine (the name was coined by the Scientific American journal).…
director, screenwriter, producerBorn: 2/11/1909Birthplace: Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania Academy Award-winning film director, screenwriter and producer who directed Dragonwyck (1946), The Ghost and…
director, producer, writerBorn: 5/9/1940Birthplace: North Bergen, New Jersey Director, producer, and writer of the Oscar-winning films Terms of Endearment (1983) and As Good As It Gets (1997), as…
actorBorn: 12/21/1948Birthplace: Washington, D.C. Film actor best known for his role as a Bible-thumping hit man in Pulp Fiction (1994). Although he had already appeared in other big hits such as…
engineer and inventorBorn: 1935Birthplace: Georgia A native of Georgia, Clarence Elder founded Elder Systems Incorporated, a research and development company located in Baltimore, Maryland. Elder…
inventorBorn: 1791Birthplace: New York, N.Y. A tailor in New York City, Jennings is credited with being the first African American to hold a U.S. patent. The patent, which was issued in 1821, was…
