Ehrich Weiss, better known by his stage name Harry Houdini, died in a Detroit hospital on this day in 1926. A student asked Houdini if it was true that he could accept blows to the stomach without harm. Houdini said yes, and the student punched him in...
Something extraordinary happened at Mainz, Germany on this day in 1452. A goldsmith turned printer by the name of Johann Gutenberg started a print job. It was a big job, and took over two years to complete: The first verifiable book printed with moveable...
Melvin Jerome Blank was born at San Francisco on this day in 1908, and grew up at Portland, Oregon. In high school he entertained his friends with jokes featuring multiple accents he picked up from his neighbors, and changed his last name to Blanc. He...