U.S. Patent Number 1,835,031 was published on this date in 1931 by Lloyd Espenschied and Herman Affel of AT&T’s Bell Telephone Laboratories. It was for coaxial cable, something that is profoundly important in modern life, yet unheralded.

The patent was for innovations in the technology, which had been under development on both sides of the Atlantic for decades—ever since the first Trans-Atlantic cable had been set in place and put to work, technicians had been searching for better and faster cable for transmissions.

Espenschied’s patent for a “concentric conducting system” is also of note because, although written in 1931, it mentions its possible use in cable television: “The types of transmission line systems now in use will not satisfy the television requirements for long distance transmission which must be met eventually.”

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John Lennon was murdered in New York City on this date in 1980.

“You have got to say what we know in the booth.” Like many people, I learned the news from Howard Cosell on Monday Night Football. (Already an insomniac at age 12, I was pretending to be in bed but was listening from my room to what my parents were watching on television.) ESPN in 2010:

 
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“In Flanders Fields” by John McCrae was published anonymously in Punch magazine on this date in 1915.

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Howard E. Rollins died 20 years ago today. Dimebag Darrell was murdered on this date in 2004.

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Diego Rivera was born in 1886 on t his date. Lee J. Cobb was born on this date in 1911. Delmore Schwartz was born on this date in 1913. Lucian Freud was born in 1922 on this date. Sammy Davis Jr. was born in 1925 on this date. Maximilian Schell was born on this date in 1930. Flip Wilson was born on this date in 1933. Jim Morrison was born on this date in 1943. Sam Kinison was born on this date in 1953.

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Dr. Ferdie Pacheco is 89 today. Sir James Galway is 77 today. “Romance” by Camille Saint-Saëns, played by Sir James:

John Banville is 71 today. John Rubinstein is 70. Gregg Allman is 69. Mary Gordon is 67 today. Bill Bryson is 65. Roy Firestone is 63. Kim Basinger is 63. Teri Hatcher is 52. Sinead O’Connor is 50. Mike Mussina is 48. Nicki Minaj is 34.

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