April Calendar

What famous events happened in the calendar month of April concerning patents, trademarks, and copyrights? Find out who patented roller skates, and discover which famous inventor has the same April birthday as you or what invention was created on your April birthday.

April Calendar of Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights

April 1

• 1953—Arthur Miller's "The Crucible," a play in four acts based on the Salem witch trials of the 17th century and referencing the then-current plague of McCarthyism, was copyrighted.

April 2

• 1889—Charles Hall patented an inexpensive method for the production of aluminum, which brought the metal into wide commercial use.

April 3

• 1973—Francis W. Dorion was granted patent #3,724,070 for a dual razor blade assembly.

April 4

• 1978—Francisco Garcia was granted patent #4,081,909 for orthodontic pliers.

April 5

• 1881—Edwin Houston and Elihu Thomson were granted a patent for a centrifugal separator: the creamer. 

April 6

• 1869—Isaac Hodgson received patent #88,711 for the roller skate.

April 7

• 1896—Tolbert Lanston was issued a patent for a monotype printing press.

April 8

• 1766—The first fire escape was patented—the contraption was a wicker basket on a pulley with a chain.
• 1997—Hooshang Bral received a patent for an automatically rinsing baby bottle.

April 9

• 1974—Phil Brooks received a patent for a disposable syringe, although intravenous injections and infusion began as early as 1670.

April 10

• 1849—Walter Hunt patented the first safety pin, based in part on the Roman brooch known as a fibula. Hunt also invented several other famous things, all of which he gave up on before seeing any profit.

April 11

• 1893—Frederic Ives patented the process for a half-tone printing press.

April 12

• 1988—Drs. Philip Leder and Timothy Stewart on behalf of Harvard University were issued the first patent, #4,736,866, for a new animal life form: a genetically altered mouse.

April 13

• 1990—The "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" movie was copyrighted.

April 14

• 1964—Paul Winchell (a ventriloquist whose main dummy was Jerry Mahoney) was granted patent #3,129,001 for an inverted novelty mask.

April 15

• 1997—Bertram Burke received a patent for an automatic philanthropic contribution system called the MILLIONAIRE'S CLUB.

April 16

• 1867—Wilbur and his brother Orville Wright invented the airplane, which they called a flying machine.
• 1997—James Watkins received a patent for confetti "that flutters and darts."

April 17

• 1875—Snooker, a variation of pool, was invented by Sir Neville Chamberlain.
• 1908—The song "Hail Hail the Gang's All Here" was copyrighted.

April 18

• 1916—Irving Langmuir received a patent for an incandescent gas lamp. Some of his other accomplishments include atomic-hydrogen welding and contributions to the development of the radio vacuum tube.

April 19

• 1939—John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" was copyrighted.

April 20

• 1897 - Simon Lake was granted a patent for an even keel submarine.

April 21

• 1828—Noah Webster published the first American dictionary.
• 1857—Albert Douglas patented a ladies' bustle.
• 1931—Ester Kiefer received a patent for ornamental paper.

April 22

• 1864—The United States minted the first coin with "In God We Trust" on it.
• 1884—John Golding patented a process for metallic silk screening.
• 1955—Congress declared that all U.S. coins would be minted with "In God We Trust" on them.

April 23

• 1964—"My Fair Lady," the movie based on a musical version of George Bernard Shaw's play "Pygmalion," was registered.
• 1985—The trade secret "New Coke" formula was released. Coca-Cola was invented by John Pemberton of Atlanta, Georgia. The famous trademark name was a suggestion given by Pemberton's bookkeeper, Frank Robinson.

April 24

• 1907—"Anchors Aweigh," the march and two-step by Chas. A. Zimmerman, was copyrighted.

April 25

• 1961—Robert Noyce was granted a patent for a semiconductor device-and-lead structure, the integrated circuit otherwise known as the chip. Noyce was the co-founder of Intel Corporation.

April 26

• 1881—Frederick Allen patented a life raft.
• 1892—Sarah Boone patented an ironing board.

April 27

• 1920—Elijah McCoy received a patent for an air-brake pump lubricator.

April 28

• 1908—Leonard Dyer obtained a patent for an automobile transmission.

April 29

• 1873—Eli Janney received a patent for automatic railroad car couplings.

April 30

• 1935—Patent #2,000,000 was issued to Joseph Ledwinka for vehicle wheel construction.

April Birthdays

April 1

• 1578—English physician William Harvey, who discovered blood circulation.
• 1858—Italian sociologist Gaetano Mosca, who wrote the Circulation of Elite.
• 1865—Germany chemist Richard Zsigmondy won the Nobel Prize in 1925.
• 1887—American philologist and linguist Leonard Bloomfield dominated the science of linguistics.
• 1922—American computer scientist Alan Perlis was best known for his pioneering work in programming languages.

April 2

• 1618—Mathematician and physicist Francesco M. Grimaldi discovered light diffraction.
• 1841—French engineer and inventor Clement Ader is remembered primarily for his pioneering work in aviation and as a mechanical and electrical genius.
• 1875—Walter Chrysler founded the Chrysler car company.
• 1900—German musicologist Heinrich Besseler is best known for his Medieval, Baroque and  Renaissance music.
• 1922—Russian atomic physicist Nikolaj G. Bassov worked with lasers and won the Nobel Prize in 1964.
• 1948—Noted astronomer and educator Eleanor Margaret Burbridge was the first woman to be appointed to the Royal Greenwich Observatory.

April 3

• 1837—Writer and nature enthusiast John Burroughs had the Burroughs Medal named after him.
• 1934—British ethologist Jane Goodall studied African chimps.

April 4

• 1809—American mathematician and astronomer Benjamin Pierce contributed to studies in celestial mechanics, algebra, number theory and philosophy of mathematics.
• 1821—Linus Yale was an American portrait painter and inventor who invented the Yale cylinder lock.
• 1823—Karl Wilhelm Siemens was an inventor who laid undersea cables.
• 1826—Zenobe Theophile Gramme invented an electric motor.
• 1881—Encyclopedist Charles Funk produced Funk and Wagnalls.
• 1933—English manufacturer Robin Phillips invented a hand-dryer.

April 5

• 1752—Sebastien Erard invented improved pianos and harps.
• 1838—American invertebrate paleontologist Alpheus Hyatt made important contributions to the study of invertebrate fossils.
• 1899—American inventor Alfred Blalock's invention ushered in the era of cardiac surgery.
• 1951—Dean Kamen invented the Segway, and several other things, including the AutoSyringe, a mobile dialysis system, and the first wearable insulin pump.
• 1954—Computer programmer Michael W. Butler invented the TODAY program.

April 6

• 1920—Swiss scientist Edmond H. Fischer won the 1992 Nobel Prize in medicine with Edwin Krebs for their discoveries in reversible protein phosphorylation.
• 1928—Chemist James D. Watson co-discovered the structure of DNA.
• 1953—American inventor Andy Hertzfeld was a co-inventor of the Apple Macintosh; he started a new company called General Magic.

April 7

• 1775—American businessman Francis Cabot Lowell invented the first raw cotton-to-cloth textile mill.
• 1859—Walter Camp was the father of American football and invented many of the rules.
• 1860—Noted American vegetarian Will Keith Kellogg was the founder of the Kellogg Company and invented a process of making flaked cereal, corn flakes, for use as a healthy breakfast cereal.
• 1869—American botanist & explorer David Grandison Fairchild brought new plants into the United States.
• 1890—Noted environmentalist Marjory Stoneman Douglas was nicknamed the First Lady of the Everglades.

April 8

• 1869—American neurosurgeon Harvey Cushing did the first blood pressure studies.
• 1907—Noted chemist Maurice Stacey is known for his contributions to carbohydrate chemistry.
• 1911—American chemist Melvin Calvin won the Nobel Prize in 1961 for his work on photosynthesis.

April 9

• 1806—Isambard Kingdom Brunel invented the first Trans-Atlantic steamer.
• 1830—Eadweard Muybridge pioneered the study of motion photography.
• 1919—John Presper Eckert was the co-inventor of the first all-electronic computer called the ENIAC.

April 10

• 1755—German physician Samuel Hahnemann invented homeopathy.
• 1917—Organic chemist Robert Burns Woodward won the Nobel prize in 1965.

April 11

• 1899—Chemist Percy L. Julian invented a drug for the treatment of arthritis called cortisone.

• 1901—Adriano Olivetti was an Italian engineer and manufacturer of typewriters.

April 12

• 1884—German psychologist and biochemist Otto Meyerhof won the Nobel Prize in 1922.
• 1926—James Hillman is credited with developing archetypal psychology.

April 13

• 1832—British designer and inventor James Wimshurst invented the electrostatic generator.
• 1899—Alfred Moser Butts invented the game "Scrabble."

April 14

• 1886—American psychologist Edward C. Tolman created behaviorism.

April 15

• 1452—Italian painter Leonardo da Vinci was also an inventor.

April 16

• 1682—John Hadley invented the first reflecting telescope.
• 1867—​Wilbur Wright co-invented the first manned and engined airplane.

April 17

• 1934—Don Kirshner invented bubblegum music.

April 18

• 1905—Medical research pioneer George Herbert Hitchings was renowned for developing drugs for several major diseases and was co-winner of the Nobel Prize in 1988.

April 19

• 1768—English entomologist and botanist Adrian H. Haworth was known for his work with succulent plants.
• 1877—Ole Evinrude invented the outboard marine engine
• 1912—American chemist Glen T. Seaborg discovered plutonium and won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1951.
• 1931—American computer scientist Fred Brooks is best known for managing the development of IBM's  System/360 computers.

April 20

• 1745—Physician Philippe Pinel is considered the founder of psychiatry.

• 1921—Donald Gunn MacRae is a noted sociologist.
• 1927—Swiss superconductivity physicist Karl Alex Muller won the Nobel Prize in 1987 for his discovery of high-temperature superconductivity in a new class of materials.
• 1934—Lindsay Oliver John Boynton is a noted furniture historian.

April 21

• 1782—German educator Friedrich W.A. Frobel invented kindergarten.
• 1849—German embryologist Oskar Hertwig discovered fertilization.
• 1913—Biochemist Choh Hao Li isolated growth hormones.

April 22

• 1799—Physician and physiologist Jean Poiseuille discovered blood pressure.
• 1853—French anthropologist Alphonse Bertillon devised the crime ID system.
• 1876—Sweden otologist Robert Barany was a vestibular expert who won the Nobel Prize in 1914.
• 1919—American biochemist Donald Cram won the Nobel Prize in 1987.
• 1929—Margaret Pereira was a noted forensic scientist.

April 23

• 1858—German physicist Max Planck wrote the "Planck Constant" and won the Nobel Prize in 1918.
• 1917—Nuclear physicist Jacob Kistemaker invented an ultracentrifuge.

April 24

• 1620—Statistician John Graunt founded the science of demography.
• 1743—Edmund Cartwright invented the power loom.
• 1914—Justin Wilson invented Wise Potato Chips.

April 25

• 1769—Mark Isambard Brunel was a noted engineer and inventor.
• 1825—Charles Ferdinand Dowd standardized time zones.
• 1874—Guglielmo Marconi invented a radio system and won a Nobel Prize in 1909.
• 1900—Swiss-American physicist Wolfgang Pauli discovered the Pauli inhibition and won a Nobel Prize in 1945.

April 26

• 1879—English physicist Owen Williams Richardson won a Nobel Prize in 1928.

April 27

• 1896—Wallace Hume Carothers invented nylon.
• 1903—Biochemist Hans Walter Kosterliz is best known as one of the key discoverers of endorphins.
• 1791—Inventor Samuel Finley Breece Morse was born.

April 28

• 1846—Swedish astronomer Johann E. Backlund discovered planets and asteroids.        
• 1882—Italian industrialist Alberto Pirelli joined the family small rubber factory in Italy—the first of its kind—and was active in international affairs. 

April 29

• 1893—Physicist Harold C. Urey discovered Deuterium and won a Nobel Prize in 1934.

April 30

• 1777—Carl Friedrich Gauss is considered the world's greatest mathematician.