Today was the day, in 1858, when General Sam Browne (he of the Cavalry) designed a brilliant new sword belt. He'd lost an arm during the Indian Mutiny of the previous year and found drawing his sword difficult because swords were slung by two loose straps from a waist belt. The 'Sam Browne' carried a sword frog that held the weapon close to the hip and could be drawn with one hand.
They don't make them like that any more.
In other news ...
The first Cadillac, the Rolls-Royce of American car design, appeared today in 1902. It had so many additional features ((four wheels, steering wheel, doors etc) that they immediately wrote a song about it - Knick Knack Cadillac.
