1758: French astronomer Charles Messier mistakenly identifies the Crab Nebula, and begins his Messier Catalogue

1909: World’s first patent for synthetic rubber granted to German chemist Fritz Hofmann

1933: Leó Szilárd, waiting for a red light on Southampton Row in Bloomsbury, conceives idea of a nuclear chain reaction

1940: Four teens, following their dog down a hole near Lascaux, France and discover 17,000 year old drawings now known as the Lascaux Cave Paintings

1958: US Supreme Court orders the all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas to integrate

1959: Luna 2 launched by USSR; 1st spacecraft to impact on the Moon

Source: Onthisday.com