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an American theoretical physicist, first applied the term black hole to these collapsing objects whose gravitational field is so intense that no electromagnetic radiation can escape, not even light.

Blockbuster Film
    The term blockbuster probably stemmed from the crowds of people that flocked to see the premiere of The Birth of a Nation, directed by D. W. Griffith, on February 8, 1915, in Los Angeles, California. The huge crowds formed long lines around the block to get tickets. Based on two novels by Thomas F. Dixon Jr., the film was a 3-hour silent epic about the South in the aftermath of the Civil War. Griffith used innovative editing and production techniques to create an unprecedented display of visual, thought-provoking entertainment. Blockbuster crowds came to see the film, making it the biggest money earner in film history until 1937, when Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs claimed that title.

Blood Bank
    In 1933, Soviet physician Sergey Yudin tried blood storage using cadaver blood at the Sklifosovsky Institute in Moscow. But it was on March 15, 1937, at Cook County Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, that the first blood bank to preserve blood for future use in transfusions was established. Bernard Fantus, director of therapeutics at the hospital, formulated a hospital laboratory that could preserve and store live donor blood and coined the term blood bank to describe it. Fantus had seen a need for blood storage to avoid transfusions having to go direct from donor to patient. Physicians had seen the effectiveness of transfusion therapy on the front lines of war and wanted blood available for treatment of their patients. The blood bank filled that lifesaving need.
    In 1940, American Dr. Charles Drew was a pioneer in blood plasma preservation and organized the world’s first blood bank drive, nicknamed “Blood for Britain.” He also established the first American Red Cross blood bank.

Blood Transfusion
    From the 1300s, the Incas of Peru regularly practiced blood transfusions centuries before the Europeans invaded their land. In their ancient engraved records, the Ica Stones of Peru show evidence of blood vessels being connected from one human to another via crude tubes (hollowed-out reeds). The Incas understood the life forces of blood and that a lack of blood meant certain death. The Incas’ crude live donor blood transfusions would have had minimal problems from incompatibility. Most all the South American Incas had the same blood type—O-positive, same as all the indigenous peoples of the Andean region during that time.

Blue Jeans
    In 1853, the first blue jeans came into existence through the ingenuity of Levi Strauss. Strauss was a 24-year-old German immigrant who left New York for San Francisco with a small supply of dry goods to open a makeshift shop during the California gold rush. Shortly after setting up, a prospector asked Strauss what he was selling. Strauss told him he had rough canvas to use for tents and wagon covers. Story has it that the prospector told him he should have brought pants because there weren’t any strong enough. Immediately, Strauss had the canvas made into waist overalls, which the gold miners liked, except they complained that the overalls tended to chafe. Strauss substituted a twilled cloth from France called serge de Nimes that later became known as denim. The pants were nicknamed blue jeans.

Bourbon Whiskey
    In 1783, Evan Williams established the first commercial distillery, Old Evan Williams Distillery, to produce bourbon whiskey in the Commonwealth of Kentucky on the east side of what later became 5th Street in Louisville. Although others were individually concocting their own versions of bourbon whiskey, Williams took a professional approach to emphasize quality. A premium whiskey was his means to better the competition that would inevitably follow. Mother Nature smiled gracefully upon his efforts, too. The limestone water in the area used in the distilling process conveyed a