On this day in 529, the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I invented Neighbourhood Watch by publishing the Corpus Juris Civilis (the fundamental work in jurisprudence). As if that wasn’t exciting enough, in 1943 Albert Hoffman synthesised Lysergic Acid Diethylamide and hence psychedelic shirt material became a long-awaited reality (or possibly not, depending on your intake of LSD). Notwithstanding these two earth shattering events, probably the most exciting thing of all time to have happened on any April 7 is a toss-up between Anthony Eden becoming Prime Minister in 1955 and the invention of the friction match by English chemist John Walker in 1827. Possibly, the birth of the internet with the publication of RFC1 at ARPA on 7 April 1969 might also be of passing interest to nerds.
Incidentally, (and, sadly, nothing to do with April 7) the word nerd first appeared in Dr. Seuss’s book If I Ran the Zoo, published in 1950, where it names one of Seuss’s many comical imaginary animals. (The narrator Gerald McGrew claims that he would collect "a Nerkle, a Nerd, and a Seersucker too" for his imaginary zoo.). The philosopher Timothy Charles Paul Fuller adopted the term nerd in the mid-1960s to describe a stereotypical intelligent recluse with poor social skills, one often the butt of others’ jokes.
Incidentally, (and, sadly, nothing to do with April 7) the word nerd first appeared in Dr. Seuss’s book If I Ran the Zoo, published in 1950, where it names one of Seuss’s many comical imaginary animals. (The narrator Gerald McGrew claims that he would collect "a Nerkle, a Nerd, and a Seersucker too" for his imaginary zoo.). The philosopher Timothy Charles Paul Fuller adopted the term nerd in the mid-1960s to describe a stereotypical intelligent recluse with poor social skills, one often the butt of others’ jokes.
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