For what does the world owe Almon Strowger a debt of gratitude?

His middle name, Lionel, is the source of the Lionel Train brand name.

Invented in 1939.

George Gamow. Gamow, who died in 1968, was a physicist, who published "Thirty Years that Shook Physics".

McQueen died in 1980 from a rare form of lung cancer.

The first elevator was built in the palace of King Louis XV. It only traveled up one floor, and was hand powered by men inside the chimney.

Ben also holds a lot of firsts - first U.S. ambassador, first political cartoonist, first American philosopher, organized the first fire department, and on and on.

On April 6, 1914, Hiram Percy Maxim proposed the formation of the American Radio Relay League.

John Kruesi was a mechanic for Edison, and Kruesi built the phonograph. Edison designed it, and later improved the phonograph.

In 1904, John Ambrose Fleming invented the first practical electron tube called the 'Fleming Valve', which is a diode rectifier. In 1906, Lee de Forest invented the audion later called the triode, which provided signal amplification.