Moments in Time – Feb. 21, 2018

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• On March 6, 1776, Major William Malcolm is ordered to dismantle the Sandy Hook lighthouse in New Jersey to prevent it from helping the British to reach New York City. The British were able to put the lighthouse back into service, but the Patriots brought out cannons to blow away the British equipment.
• On March 9, 1781, the Siege of Pensacola begins as Spanish naval force of more than 40 ships and 3,500 men land at Santa Rosa Island in Florida. The flotilla survived a hurricane before beginning two months of constant artillery and cannon bombardment of British forts.
• On March 11, 1818, “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus,” by 21-year-old Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, is published. In Shelley’s tale, a scientist animates a creature constructed from dismembered corpses.
• On March 10, 1927, engineer Robert Kearns is born. Kearns patented a design for a type of windshield wiper and later won multi-million dollar judgments against Chrysler and Ford for using his concept without permission.
• On March 7, 1950, one week after British physicist Klaus Fuchs was sentenced to 14 years in prison for his role in passing information on the atomic bomb to the Russians, the Soviet Union issues a statement denying any knowledge of him or his activities. Fuchs’ arrest and conviction uncovered a network of spies.
• On March 5, 1963, the Hula-Hoop, a hip-swiveling toy that became a huge fad across America, is patented by Arthur “Spud” Melin. The hoop was dubbed “Hula” after the hip-gyrating Hawaiian dance of the same name.
• On March 8, 1993, the Music Television Network airs the first episode of the animated series “Beavis and Butthead,” which would become MTV’s highest-rated series to that point. Creator Mike Judge later created the Emmy-winning animated series “King of the Hill.”

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