Gday...

1839  -             Louis Daguerre invents the daguerreotype photographic process, allowing an image to be chemically fixed as a permanent picture.

Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre was born on 18 November 1787 in Cormeilles-en-Parisis. He experimented on making pictures from 1824, showing dioramas around France, England and Scotland, until he became interested in the emerging field of photography.

Daguerreotype is an early photographic process by which a photograph is produced with the image made on a light-sensitive silver-coated metallic plate. It is a direct-positive process, creating a highly detailed image on a sheet of copper plated with a thin coat of silver without the use of a negative. Daguerre's invention was announced by the French Government on 19 August 1839. The daguerreotype photographic process was the first to allow an image to be chemically fixed as a permanent picture. Popular for many years, the daguerreotype was replaced in the 1850s by the ambrotype, which was both faster and cheaper.

1871  -             American pioneer aviator Orville Wright is born.

Orville Wright was born in Dayton, Ohio, on 19 August 1871. Together with his brother Wilbur, he operated a bicycle repair, design and manufacturing company, the Wright Cycle Company, and used the venture to fund his interest in flying. In 1903 the Wright brothers invented the first powered airplane, "Flyer", capable of sustained, controlled flight. The aircraft was tested at Kitty Hawk in North Carolina, making the first ever manned powered flight which lasted for 12 seconds. By 1905, their "Flyer III" was capable of remaining airborn for over 39 minutes, travelling at 39 kph.

As the Wright brothers' designs and flight capabilities improved, they sold many aircraft, but competition from European designers became too great. After Wilbur died of typhoid in 1912, Orville sold his interest in the Wright aeroplane company. He died of a heart attack in 1948.

1921  -             Gene Roddenberry, creator of the Star Trek phenomenon, is born.

Eugene Wesley Roddenberry was born in El Paso, Texas, on 19 August 1921. After moving to Los Angeles when Roddenberry was very young, his father became a police officer. Roddenberry initially studied Criminal Justice, but then joined the Civilian Pilot Training Program, becoming a pilot. He flew bombing missions in the South Pacific during WWII, but two crashes led him to give up flying. After then following in his father's footsteps as a police officer, he found more satisfaction and monetary rewards in writing scripts for TV police dramas.

As a fan of science fiction, Roddenberry set his sights towards writing a sci-fi TV script. 'Star Trek' debuted in 1966. Although it ran for only three years and was never a top rating show, it became a cult classic. From the initial 'Star Trek' came six motion pictures, then the further series of 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' and accompanying motion pictures, 'Star Trek: Deep Space Nine', 'Star Trek: Voyager' and 'Star Trek: Enterprise'.

Roddenberry died on 24 October 1991. He was one of the first people to be sent posthumously into space: a small capsule of his ashes was sent into orbit for six years, after which they burned up in the earth's atmosphere. An asteroid called 4659 Roddenberry and a crater on Mars have been named in his honour.

1930  -             The two halves of the Sydney Harbour Bridge are joined.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge connects the Sydney CBD with the North Shore commercial and residential areas on Sydney Harbour. The Sydney Harbour Bridge is the largest steel arch bridge in the world, though not the longest, with the top of the bridge standing 134 metres above the harbour. At 48.8 m wide, it is the widest bridge in the world (as of 2004). In 1912, John Bradfield was appointed chief engineer of the bridge project, which also had to include a railway. Plans were completed in 1916 but the advent of WWI delayed implementation until 1922. Construction of the bridge began in 1924, and took 1400 men eight years to build at a cost of £4.2 million. Sixteen lives were lost during its construction, while up to 800 families living in the path of the proposed Bridge path were relocated and their homes demolished when construction started.

The arch of the Sydney Harbour Bridge was built in two halves cantilevering from each shore and tying each half back by steel cables that were anchored into U-shaped tunnels excavated into the sandstone rock. Construction of the two halves of the arch began late in 1928, and the two halves were properly joined around 10pm on 19 August 1930.

1960  -             Sputnik 5, the first satellite to carry animals into orbit and back, is launched.

Sputnik 5, also known as Korabl-Sputnik 2, was the second test flight of the Russian Vostok spacecraft. It was launched on 19 August 1960, and carried two dogs, Belka and Strelka, 40 mice, 2 rats and numerous plants. A card accompanied Sputnik 5 requesting the finder not to open the capsule but to set it upright, and to leave it exactly where it had landed, in case the capsule landed outside the recovery zone. The spacecraft returned to earth on August 20, and all animals were recovered safely.

Cheers - John