Template:Selected anniversaries/January 22
1592: Mathematician, astronomer, philosopher, and priest Pierre Gassendi born. He will clash with his contemporary Descartes on the possibility of certain knowledge.
1673: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz presents a calculation machine at the Royal Society. Leibniz would complain to Oldenburg that Hooke took an "almost obscene" interest in the machine. Sure enough, by Feb 2 Hooke was actively working on an "arithmetic engine" that he would complete and show to the Royal Society within the month. By the following month his interest waned and he decided that no mechanical device could compare to paper and pencil or "Lord Napier's metal or parchment rods" (Napiers bones).
1859: Mathematician Joseph Ludwig Raabe dies. He is best known for Raabe's ratio test, which determines the convergence or divergence of an infinite series, in certain cases.
1909: Chemist and academic Emil Erlenmeyer dies. He contributed to the early development of the theory of structure, formulating the Erlenmeyer rule, and designing the Erlenmeyer flask.
1904: Mathematician and Anglican theologian George Salmon dies. He worked in algebraic geometry for two decades, then devoted the last forty years of his life to theology.
Premiere of the political science fiction thriller Astronaut Farm, set in the Edward Eric Blair Memorial Space Station.
1957: The New York City "Mad Bomber", George P. Metesky, is arrested in Waterbury, Connecticut and is charged with planting more than 30 bombs.
1968: Operation Igloo White, a US electronic surveillance system, begins installation: the first of 316 sensors are implanted around and near Khe Sanh in 44 strings by Navy squadron VO-67.
1987: Politician R. Budd Dwyer takes his own life during a press conference. Later that day, the event is broadcast on television.