Here it is, The Nerd's Almanac for Tuesday, August 16, 2011.
Were there nerds back in 1858? If so, they couldn't get enough news about the transatlantic telegraph... unfortunately, they tried to crank up the bandwidth and broke it -- I think that's nearly the truth!
And it was a solar flare, not a power surge, that wreaked havoc on micro chips and brought down the Toronto stock market on this date in 1989.
I didn't find any birthdays to report on for today, but I did learn that Robert Bunsen died on this date in 1899... but of course, his flame will never go out. Yes, that's right -- the Bunsen burner.
That's the Almanac for today. And nerds of the world, we salute you!
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_16
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transatlantic_telegraph_cable
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Wilhelm_Bunsen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunsen_burner
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