Alessandro Volta reported his discovery of the electric battery in a letter to Joseph Banks, president of the Royal Society of London, on this day in 1800.

Did you know that:

• Frederick Winslow Taylor was an American mechanical engineer born on this day in 1856
• Jan Matzeliger was granted a patent for a “lasting device for shoes” on this day in 1883
• B.F. Skinner was an American psychologist, behaviourist, author, and inventor born on this day in 1904