- The patent for the fire hydrant was destroyed in a fire.
- The first vacuum was so large, it was brought to a house by horses.
John Trumbull was a Revolutionary War veteran and an American artist of the early independence period, notable for his historical paintings of the American Revolutionary War. He has been called "The Painter of the Revolution".
Trumbull's Declaration of Independence, one of his four paintings which hang in the United States Capitol Rotunda, was used on the reverse of the commemorative bicentennial two-dollar bill.
Pieter de Carpentier was a Dutch administrator of the Dutch East India Company who served as Governor-General there from 1623 to 1627. The Gulf of Carpentaria in northern Australia is named after him.
Pieter de Carpentier was born in Antwerp in 1586, shortly after the formation of the newly independent Dutch Republic. He studied philosophy in Leiden, from 1603. In 1616 he sailed on board the sailing vessel De Getrouwheid to Indonesia. There he had a number of functions, including Director-General of the Trade, Member to the Council of the Indies, and member of the Council of Defence. From 1 February 1623 to 30 September 1627 he was the fifth Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies. He participated in the conquest of Jakarta and helped to build the town of Batavia. He did much for the town, including setting up a school, a Town Hall, and the first Orphanage Home. He also designed the structure of the churches in the town.
On 12 November 1627 Pieter de Carpentier sailed from the East Indies as Head of the Fleet.
The Jameson Raid was a botched raid against the South African Republic carried out by British colonial statesman Leander Starr Jameson and his Company troops and Bechuanaland policemen over the New Year weekend of 1895–96. Paul Kruger was president of the republic at the time. The raid was intended to trigger an uprising by the primarily British expatriate workers in the Transvaal but failed to do so. The workers were called the Johannesburg conspirators. They were expected to recruit an army and prepare for an insurrection. The raid was ineffective and no uprising took place. The results included embarrassing the British government; replacing Cecil Rhodes as premier of the Cape Colony; strengthening Boer dominance of the Transvaal and its gold mines; helping start the Anglo-Boer War.