Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee

On April 30, 1993, four years after publishing a proposal for
“an idea of linked information systems,” computer scientist
Tim Berners-Lee (above) released the source code for the
world’s first web browser and editor. Originally called Mesh,
the browser that he dubbed WorldWideWeb became the first
royalty-free, easy-to-use means of browsing the emerging
information network that developed into the internet as we
know it today.

Berners-Lee was a fellow at CERN, the research organization headquartered in Switzerland. Other research institutions like
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford
University had developed complex systems for internally
sharing information, and Berners-Lee sought a means of
connecting CERN’s system to others.

Hymen L. Lipman (1817-1893)

(FOXNEWS) – Philadelphia inventor Hymen L. Lipman rushed
heroically to the aid of mistake-prone schoolchildren, artists
and draftsmen everywhere when he secured the patent for the
pencil with eraser on this day in history, March 30, 1858. 

"Be it known that I, Hymen L. Lipman, of Philadelphia, in the
county of Philadelphia and State of Pennsylvania, have
invented a new and useful Lead-Pencil and Eraser;" the
visionary wrote in his patent application.

"I make a lead-pencil in the usual manner, reserving about
one-fourth of the length, in which I make a groove of suitable
size … and insert in this groove a piece of prepared India
rubber (or other erasive substance) secured to said pencil
by being glued at one edge."

The eraser, he noted in his application, "is particularly valuable 
for removing or erasing lines, figures, etc., and not subject to
be soiled or mislaid on the table or desk" — as if the purpose
of an eraser was unknown to mid-19th century consumers. 

SANDY KOZEL

Walter Matthau, left,  and Art Carney on Broadway in Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple.

Neil Simon Broadway play The Odd Couple debuted in 1965
and starred Walter Matthau (who would go to play the same
role in the film) and Art Carney as Felix Ungar. Matthau won
a Tony award for his portrayal, one of a slew of accolades
the play received.

On March 7, 1876, 29-year-old Alexander Graham Bell received
a patent for his revolutionary new invention: the telephone.

World War II restrictions cut deep into every American pantry as
federal officials announced that sliced bread would be rationed
on this day in history, Jan. 18, 1943.

"I should like to let you know how important sliced bread is to
the morale and saneness of a household," distraught mother
Sue Forrester of Fairfield, Connecticut, claiming to speak on
behalf of America’s housewives, lamented in a New York Times
letter to the editor.

Wartime rationing had already caused severe restrictions on
the nation’s household food supply. 

Basic resources were devoted in ever-growing volume to the
war effort in 1943, as the tide of battle turned and the U.S. and
its Allies went on the offensive across the vast expanse of two
oceans.

Bread rationing marked the depths of sacrifices on the home
front. 

Otto Frederick Rohwedder of Davenport, Iowa invented the
first single loaf bread-slicing machine. A prototype he built
in 1912 was destroyed in a fire, and it was not until 1928
that Rohwedder had a fully working machine ready. The
first commercial use of the machine was by the Chillicothe Baking Company of Chillicothe, Missouri, who sold their
first slices on July 7, 1928.

By 1933, around 80% of bread sold in the US was pre-sliced,
leading to the popular idiom "greatest thing since sliced
bread"

Otto Frederick Rohwedder
(July 7, 1880 – November 8, 1960)

This photograph depicts a "new electrical bread
slicing machine" in use by an unnamed bakery
in St. Louis in 1930.