| Wednesday, November 4, 2009 |
|
Answer of the DayWho invented the cash register? James and John Ritty came up with the prototype of the cash register, patenting it on this date in 1879. James Ritty was a saloonkeeper whose bartenders often pocketed the profits, instead of turning them over to their boss. His brother, John, was a mechanic. Together, they worked on a design for a machine that would record cash transactions at the saloon. They called their device Ritty's Incorruptible Cashier. It had no cash drawer; there were keys representing a specific amount of money. The employee would push the appropriate key with every sale, tabulating transactions as they happened. At the end of the day, Ritty could see if any money was missing. Eventually, the Rittys decided to sell their interest in the cash register factory they had opened. John H. Patterson bought up the rights and changed the name of the company to the National Cash Register Company.
Word of the dayantilogy
A contradiction in terms or ideas.
When one works with words, there are many things that can go wrong: they can be misspelled, misused, mispronounced, or go otherwise awry or missing. Here is a selection of words that refer to a variety of lexical mishaps.
Today's History
|
|
|
King Tutankhamen's Coffinette |
- William and Mary: joint rulers of England, Scotland and Ireland were married (1677)
- King Tutankhamen: treasure-filled tomb was discovered in Luxor, Egypt, by archeologist Howard Carter (1922)
- Nellie T. Ross: Wyoming woman became the first female governor of a US state; she was serving out her late husband's term (1924)
- Iran hostage crisis: a mob seized the US Embassy in Teheran after the US admitted the exiled Shah Reza Pahlavi (1979)
- Yitzhak Rabin: Israeli prime minister was assassinated after speaking at a peace rally in Tel Aviv (1995)
Today's Birthdays
|
|
| Laura Bush |
- William III (1650-1702): king of England
- Walter Cronkite (1916-2009): CBS newscaster who was "the most trusted man in America"
- Laura Bush (63): former FLOTUS
- Jeff Probst (47): Emmy-winning host of Survivor
- Matthew McConaughey (40): actor most recently on screen in Ghosts of Girlfriends Past; also, actors Art Carney (1918-2003), Doris Roberts (79) and Loretta Swit (72), Kathy Griffin (49), Ralph Macchio (48) and Heather Tom (34)
- Sean "P. Diddy" Combs (40): rapper/producer/businessman
- Luis Figo (37): 2001's FIFA World Player of the Year; football players Steve Mariucci (54) and Orlando Pace (34) share this birth date
