German Ferdinand von Zeppelin patented a “Navigable Balloon” on this day in 1899.

Did you know that:

• Physicist Pieter van Musschenbroek, inventor of the first electrical capacitor, the Leyden Jar, was born on this day in 1692
• Eli Whitney was granted a patent for the cotton gin machine on this day in 1794
• James Bogardus, the pioneer of American cast-iron architecture, was born on this day in 1800