Speed Boat

On July 20, 1807, Nicéphore Niépce got a patent  for arguably the world's first "internal combustion engine": the  Pyréolophore.  The engine did not operate as we today visualize such things, as near as I can tell, and was very much integrated into the propulsion system of the boat it powered.  It did have a combustion chamber into which fuel was introduced and within  which it was ignited. There things get a bit strange.  It did have a piston, to operate all of the linkages valves, and whatnot that governed the introduction of fuel and air and the ignition flame, but the motive power all came from the exhaust. The exhaust pipe was underwater and naturally filled with water. The engine's exhaust forced the water out of the exhaust pipe, moving the boat forward by reaction, and the pipe refilled while awaiting the next shot of exhaust.  It sounds very much like an aquatic V-1 buzz bomb built with steampunk technology.  Whatever, it did work, though it was very much directly limited to nautical propulsion.

On this day in history:

1402 – Timur defeated forces of the Ottoman Empire sultan Bayezid I at Ankara  This led to the Ottoman interregnum, possibly saving Europe's bacon.

1738 – French Colonist/adventurer Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de La Vérendrye reached the western shore of Lake Michigan.

1807 – Nicéphore Niépce was awarded a patent for the Pyréolophore, the world's first internal combustion engine, after it successfully powered a boat upstream on the river Saône in France.

1810 – Citizens of Bogotá, New Granada declared independence from Spain.

1848 – The first Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York, ended

1871 – British Columbia joins the confederation of Canada.

1917 – The Corfu Declaration, which led to the creation of the post-war Kingdom of Yugoslavia, was signed by the Yugoslav Committee and Kingdom of Serbia.

1922 – The League of Nations awarded mandates of Togoland to France and Tanganyika to the United Kingdom.

1934 – Police in Minneapolis fired upon striking truck drivers,killing two and wounding sixty-seven.

1934 – Police  tear gassed  and clubbed 2,000 striking longshoremen in Seattle, and the governor of Oregon called out the National Guard to break a strike on the Portland docks.

1936 – The Montreux Convention was signed in Switzerland, authorizing Turkey to fortify the Dardanelles and Bosphorus but guaranteeing free passage to ships of all nations in peacetime.

1940 – Denmark left the League of Nations.

1940 – California opened its first freeway, the Arroyo Seco Parkway.

1941 – Stalin consolidates the Commissariats of Home Affairs and National Security to form the NKVD.  Kind of like the the way we created DHS as an umbrella over our vastly more numerous "security" organizations.

1960 – Ceylon elected Sirimavo Bandaranaike Prime Minister, the world's first elected female head of government.

1960 – A Polaris missile was successfully launched from a submarine for the first time.

1961 – French military forces broke the Tunisian siege of Bizerte, but eventually ceded the base anyway..

1968 – The first International Special Olympics Summer Games were held at Soldier Field in Chicago.

1969 – Apollo 11's crew successfully made the first manned landing on the Moon;  Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the Moon six and a half hours later.

1976 – The Viking 1 lander successfully lands on Mars.

1977 – The Central Intelligence Agency released documents under duress which showed that it had engaged in mind-control experiments.

1985 – The government of Aruba passes legislation to secede from the Netherlands Antilles, a notorious  tax haven of long standing.

1989 – Burma's ruling junta put opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest.

2005 – The Civil Marriage Act legalized same-sex marriage in Canada.

2015 – The United States and Cuba briefly resumed full diplomatic relations

Born this day in:

356 BC – Alexander the Great

1304 – Petrarch, poet and scholar

1591 – Anne Hutchinson, Puritan preacher banished from Boston for thoughtcrime

1804 – Richard Owen, biologist, anatomist, and paleontologist

1822 – Gregor Mendel, monk, geneticist and botanist

1847 – Max Liebermann, painter and academic advocate for impressionism

1864 – Ruggero Oddi, physiologist and anatomist (Oddi's sphincter)

1873 – Alberto Santos-Dumont, pilot inventor, and aircraft designer

1882 – Olga Hahn-Neurath, mathematician and philosopher, part of Vienna circle

1918 – Cindy Walker, country music singer, songwriter, and dancer

1933 – Buddy Knox, singer, songwriter, and guitarist

1933 – Cormac McCarthy, novelist, playwright, and screenwriter

1935 – Sleepy LaBeef, rockabilly singer and musician

1936 – Alistair MacLeod, novelist and short story writer

1939 – Judy Chicago, painter, sculptor, and promoter of feminist art

1944 – T. G. Sheppard, country music singer and songwriter

1945 – Kim Carnes, singer and songwriter

1945 – John Lodge, singer, songwriter, bass player, and producer

1947 – Carlos Santana, singer, songwriter ,and guitarist

1953 – Dave Evans, singer and songwriter

1953 – Marcia Hines, singer and actress

1954 – Jay Jay French, guitarist and producer

1955 – Jem Finer, banjo player and songwriter, creator of the now playing "Longplayer"

1956 – Paul Cook, drummer

1958 – Mick MacNeil, keyboard player and songwriter

1959 – Radney Foster, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer

1964 – Chris Cornell, singer, songwriter, and guitarist

1966 – Stone Gossard, singer, songwriter, and guitarist

1967 – Courtney Taylor-Taylor, singer, songwriter ,and guitarist

Died this day in:

Don't let it end like this. Tell them I said something.
~~ Pancho Villa

1616 – Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, rebel soldier

1866 – Bernhard Riemann, mathematician and academic

1897 – Jean Ingelow, poet and author

1922 – Andrey Markov, mathematician and theorist

1923 – Pancho Villa, general and politician, Governor of Chihuahua 

1937 – Olga Hahn-Neurath, mathematician and philosopher from the Vienna Circle

1937 – Guglielmo Marconi, physicist and engineer

1945 – Paul Valéry, author and poet

1965 – Batukeshwar Dutt, activist

1972 – Geeta Dutt, singer and actress

1980 – Maria Martinez, San Ildefonso Pueblo potter

2013 – Helen Thomas, journalist and author

2017 – Chester Bennington, singer

Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:
Nap Day

Moon Day

National Fortune Cookie Day (in bed)

International Chess Day

National Lollipop Day

Global Hug Your Kids Day

Music goes here, iirc, well, With apologies

It's an open thread, so do your thing