1801: Gail Borden, Jr. is born to Gail and Philadelphia Borden in Norwich, N.Y. With only a year-and-a-half of formal education, he works as a surveyor and a journalist. After a decade of constant experimentation with preserving food, Borden is awarded is awarded a U.S. patent for condensed milk in 1856. For the first time, milk has been rendered imperishable and safe for use on the battlefield and on the expanding frontier, where refrigeration is unavailable — enabling his Borden Co. to become one of the world's biggest food producers.

1731: Benjamin Banneker, the brilliant African-American mathematician and inventor, is born on a farm in Ellicott's Mills, Md. In 1752 he builds what is believed to be the first clock made entirely in America. Banneker later published an authoritative annual almanac and helped conduct the land survey that laid out the boundaries of Washington, D.C.