February 5th

1878

Birthday of André Citroën, French engineer and businessman who founded Citroën (d. 1935). Citroën was the first mass-production car company outside the USA. It has been part of the PSA Peugeot Citroën group since 1976.

 

Further reading

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_Citro%C3%ABn

1909

Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland announces the creation of Bakelite, bakelitethe world’s first synthetic plastic. Bakelite which is chemically phenol-formaldehyde resin, is now a very common thermosetting polymer, used in kitchenware, jewellery, electrical insulators, switches and casings

Further reading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakelite

 

1924gmt

The Royal Greenwich Observatory begins broadcasting the hourly time signals known as the Greenwich Time Signal or the “BBC pips”. This has led to the standardisation of time zones, in the GMT scale.

Further reading

http://www.rmg.co.uk/royal-observatory

1958

The Tybee Island B-47 crash occurred, an incident in which thnukee United States Air Force lost a 7,600-pound (3,400 kg) Mark 15 nuclear bomb in the waters off Tybee Island near Savannah, Georgia, United States. During a practice exercise, an F-86 fighter plane collided with the B-47 bomber carrying the bomb. To protect the aircrew from a possible detonation in the event of a crash, the bomb was jettisoned. Following several unsuccessful searches, the bomb was presumed lost somewhere in Wassaw Sound off the shores of Tybee Island.

Further reading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1958_Tybee_Island_mid-air_collision

 

1979

Apollo 14, the 3rd manned Moon expedition of US, lands near Fra Maapollo-14uro. Alan Shepard & Edward Mitchell walk on the Moon for 4 hrs.
This success followed the Apollo
13 accident, in which lunar landing was aborted after an oxygen tank explosion. Several modifications were made to the Service Module electrical power system of Apollo 14 to prevent a repeat of that accident.

Further reading

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_14