National Radio Day
August 20
Guiglielmo Marconi sent the first ever radio transmission in 1896, so he’s considered “the father of radio.” AM stands for Amplitude Modulation and FM stands for Frequency Modulation. KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was the world’s first commercial radio station. Radio stations east of the Mississippi River use “W” as the first letter in their call signs and those west of the Mississippi River use “K” as the first letter in their call signs. FM Radio made its first appearance in 1939. Lee de Forest is regarded as the ‘Father of Radio Broadcasting’. Ever the opportunist, he took a break from his honeymoon in 1908 to climb to the summit of France’s most famous landmark, the Eiffel Tower. There, Forest broadcast a selection of music, beaming it over the Parisian suburbs and, in the process, becoming the first radio DJ in history.
World Mosquito Day
August 20
Mosquitoes mean nothing personal when they take your blood. Female mosquitoes need protein for their eggs and must take a blood meal in order to reproduce. Because males don’t bear the burden of producing young, they’ll avoid you completely and head for the flowers instead. Carbon dioxide, which humans and other animals produce, is the key signal to mosquitoes that a potential blood meal is near. They’ve developed a keen sensitivity to CO2 in the air. Once a female senses CO2 in the vicinity, she flies back and forth through the CO2 plume until she locates her victim. Mosquitoes are millions of years old as a species. There are more than 3,000 species of mosquitoes, but only about 200 bite humans.
Today’s Birthdays of Note….
Demi Lovato – Singer – born in Albuquerque, New Mexico
Al Roker – NBC Weatherman – born in Queens, New York
