On this day in 1895, Woodville Latham and his sons, Otway and
Gray, demonstrate their “Panopticon,” the first movie projector developed  in the United States.

Although motion pictures had been shown in the United States
for several years using Thomas Edison’s Kinetoscope, the films
could only be viewed one at a time in a peep-show box and not
projected to a large audience. Brothers Grey and Otway Latham,
the founders of a company that produced and exhibited films of
prize fights using the Kinetoscope, called on Woodville, their
father, and W.K.L. Dickson, an assistant in the Edison Lab, to
help them develop a device that would project life-sized images 
onto a screen in order to attract larger audiences.

 

  The Lathams: Otway, Woodville, Gray.

DAVID MELENDY

On this day in 1970, Apollo 13 returned to Earth safely after an on-
board accident with an oxygen tank.

The Apollo 13 crew following recovery.

DAVID MELENDY

In Texas City, TX, on this day in 1947, the French ship
Grandcamp, carrying ammonium nitrate fertilizer,
caught fire and blew up. The explosions and resulting
fires killed 576 people.

Rescue workers search for survivors at the Texas City
Terminal Building after disaster.

Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin ( April 16, 1889 – December 25, 1977)

Chaplin was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose
to fame in the era of silent film.

The Tramp

MIKE GRACIA

The first Barbie doll was officially unveiled on March 9,
1959, at the New York Toy Fair and 60 years later she’s
still a sensation among children and the adults who
grew up playing with her and her friends.

Barbie doll was created by Ruth Handler, the co-founder
of Mattel, whose daughter was named Barbara.

The full name of the first doll was Barbie Millicent Roberts,
and she was from Willows, Wisconsin. Barbie’s job was a teenage fashion model. Now, however, the doll has been
made in versions connected to over 125 different careers, including President of the United States.

Mattell founders Ruth and Elliott Handler with a Barbie doll.