Today is the birthday of Louis Blériot, French engineer and aviator. In 1909 he became famous as the first person to fly across the English Channel and received £1000 from a contest held by the Daily Mail. But before that he made his fortune in car headlamps. 

In his early twenties, post-graduation, Blériot worked for an electrical engineering company. In his spare time, he invented the first practical headlamp for automobiles. He left the company to develop the headlamp and at age 25 he began his own business selling his headlamps to the top two auto makers in France. 

With the money from his headlamps, he funded experiments in aviation, a burgeoning field. His competitive spirit and love of mechanical puzzles certainly drew him to the challenge of building a successful aircraft. Teaming up with different fellow engineers, he went through 10 aircraft models before the success of his Blériot XI. 

The Blériot XI was the plane he flew across the English Channel, with nearly 10,000 on-lookers at his departure in France and plenty more witnessing his arrival in England. The publicity boosted sales of his planes and the aviation branch of his company finally turned a profit. 

He was the first to use a hand/arm-operated joystick and foot-operated rudder control, a design piece which more or less exists in today’s planes.

Dogged determination to see his goals through was not just applied to Blériot’s work, but his relationships as well.  

When Blériot saw a fetching young lady at his favorite restaurant he reported to his mother that night: “I saw a young woman today. I will marry her, or I will marry no one.” He bribed a server for the lady’s name and less than a year later, he married the love of his life Alice Védères. 

He was the first person to fly with two passengers, the first to fly a plane in Eastern Europe, and beat the Wright Brothers in a years-long patent case. 

Today is the birthday of American poet Florence Earle Coates. She was born in 1850 in Philadelphia to a prominent lawyer and his wife. She received a well-rounded education, going so far as Paris and Brussels for continued studies.

In 1879, at age 29 she married well-to-do banker and fellow widower Edward Coates. Her first husband had passed away after just five years of marriage. The couple had a home in the Germantown suburb of Philadelphia and frequently had company. They attracted many friends through their shared love of art and culture. Florence’s poetry was published in various journals including Atlantic Monthly, Scribner's Magazine, The Literary Digest, and Harper's Monthly, enjoying notoriety both in America and abroad. 

Today is the birthday of Jefferson Pérez, Ecuadorian athlete and Olympic Gold-Medalist. He brought home a Gold in 1996 and a Silver in 2008, both for the 20km race walking event. As a result, racewalking has become a popular sport in Ecuador. I lived in Ecuador for two months and I can attest, that while I went for a run, high school track teams were racewalking. A racewalking athlete is known as a Marchista in Spanish. The current Ecuadorian marchista hopeful is a young native named Óscar Patín.

Florence Earle Coates

 

Was it worth while to paint so fair

Thy every leaf - to vein with faultless art

Each petal, taking the boon light and air

Of summer so to heart?

 

To bring thy beauty unto perfect flower,

Then, like a passing fragrance or a smile,

Vanish away, beyond recovery's power -

Was it, frail bloom, worth while?

 

Thy silence answers: 'Life was mine!

And I, who pass without regret or grief,

Have cared the more to make my moment fine,

Because it was so brief.

 

'In its first radiance I have seen

The sun! - why tarry then till comes the night?

I go my way, content that I have been

Part of the morning light!'