On This Day: March 30

This is the 89th day of the year.

Fact of the Day: pencil and eraser

The first pencil with an attached eraser was patented by Hyman L. Lipman of Philadelphia in 1858. The pencil had a groove into which was "secured a piece of prepared rubber, glued in at one end." Erasers weren't always called erasers, though. The item was originally referred to as a "rubber," because the tree resin it was made of "rubbed out" marks made by a pencil. To eraser manufacturers, those little erasers on the ends of pencils aren't called "erasers" at all. They call them "plugs." More and more of today's erasers are made from something other than rubber. While some of the "pink" erasers you find on pencils are made from synthetic rubber blended with pumice (a grit that enhances its ability to erase), an increasing number of erasers are made from vinyl, a type of durable, flexible plastic.

Holidays

Feast day of St. Osburga, St. John Climacus, St. Zosimus of Syracuse, St. Ludolf, St. Leonard Murialdo, and St. Rieul.

Trinidad and Tobago: Spiritual Baptist Liberation Shouter Day.

Events

1775 - The British Parliament passed an act forbidding its North American colonies to trade with anyone other than Britain.

1814 - The European forces (Allies) against Napoleonic France captured Paris, formally ending a decade of French domination on the Continent.

1822 - Florida became a United States territory.

1842 - Dr. Crawford W. Long of Georgia, was the first to use ether as an anesthetic during an operation.

1856 - The Crimean War was brought to an end by the signing of the Treaty of Paris.

1858 - Hyman L. Lipman of Philadelphia patented the pencil with an eraser attached on one end.

1867 - U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward reached agreement with Russia to purchase the territory of Alaska for $7.2 million. At the time, many called it "Seward's Folly."

1870 - Texas was readmitted to the Union, the last of the Confederate states to be readmitted.

1870 - The 15th Amendment, granting African-American men the right to vote, went into effect.

1909 - The Queensboro Bridge -- the first double-decker bridge -- linking the New York boroughs of Manhattan and Queens, opened.

1945 - The Soviet Union invaded Austria during World War II.

1964 - "Jeopardy" developed by Merv Griffin, aired on TV for the first time.

1981 - President Ronald Reagan was shot and seriously injured outside a Washington, D.C. hotel by John W. Hinckley, Jr. White House press secretary James Brady, a Secret Service agent, and a District of Columbia police officer were also wounded.

1998 - Rolls-Royce was purchased by German automaker BMW.

Births

1746 - Francisco de Goya (Francisco Jose de Goya y Lucientes), Spanish painter.

1853 - Vincent (Willem) van Gogh, Dutch Post-Impressionist painter.

1880 - Sean O'Casey, Irish playwright.

1937 - Warren Beatty, American actor, director, producer.

Deaths

2002 - Queen Mother Elizabeth of England.

2004 - Alistair Cooke, British-born journalist and television and radio host.