September 13: Innovation on this day
Looking across roughly the last 200 years, September 13 has an unusually strong thread running through science, technology, media, exploration and human rights. Some of these were discoveries; others were patents, experiments, launches or institutional breakthroughs.
1845 — Michael Faraday connects light and magnetism — London, England. Faraday demonstrated what became known as the Faraday effect: a magnetic field can alter the polarization of light. It helped establish that electricity, magnetism and light are interconnected phenomena and became part of the foundation for modern electromagnetism, optics and communications.
1848 — Phineas Gage transforms our understanding of the brain — Vermont, United States. Railroad foreman Phineas Gage survived an iron rod passing through his skull. Changes reported in his personality afterward made his case one of the most influential early clues that particular parts of the brain are connected to behavior and personality—helping open the way toward modern neuroscience.
1898 — Flexible photographic film receives a key patent — United States. Hannibal Goodwin was granted a patent on September 13 for a transparent, flexible photographic film material. Flexible film became fundamental to portable photography and, eventually, the motion-picture industry—helping turn visual storytelling into a mass medium.
1906 — Santos-Dumont’s 14-bis gets airborne — Paris, France. Brazilian aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont managed a brief flight of roughly seven metres in his experimental 14-bis. It was an important step in the series of public experiments that led to his officially witnessed powered flights later that year and helped accelerate European aviation. (FAI)
1945 — Scientists isolate americium — Chicago, United States. B. B. Cunningham and L. B. Werner isolated the first microscopic amount of americium, element 95. Work on the transuranium elements ultimately reshaped the periodic table and expanded understanding of nuclear chemistry.
1955 — The hook-and-loop fastener takes a major step toward commercialization — Switzerland/United States. Swiss engineer George de Mestral received a U.S. patent for the fabric technology associated with what became VELCRO® fasteners. His breakthrough famously grew from studying how burrs attach themselves to fur and clothing—one of the classic examples of biomimicry.
1977 — Space Shuttle Enterprise proves another piece of reusable spaceflight — California, United States. Enterprise completed its second free-flight approach and landing test after separating from its Boeing 747 carrier aircraft. The tests demonstrated that a shuttle orbiter could glide through the atmosphere and land like an aircraft, preparing the way for operational Space Shuttle missions.
1985 — Super Mario Bros. launches in Japan. Nintendo released Super Mario Bros. for the Famicom on September 13. Its level design, scrolling worlds, controls and character-based storytelling helped establish conventions that shaped generations of interactive entertainment and turned video games into a major global cultural medium.
2007 — A new model for accelerating space innovation is launched. Google and the XPRIZE Foundation announced the $30 million Google Lunar XPRIZE, challenging privately funded teams around the world to land robotic spacecraft on the Moon. Although the grand prize was never claimed, the competition mobilized hundreds of millions of dollars, encouraged new space companies and helped strengthen today’s commercial lunar ecosystem.
2007 — The world adopts a new international standard for Indigenous rights. On the same September 13, the UN General Assembly adopted the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, after more than two decades of negotiations. It established a global framework covering self-determination, culture, land, participation, dignity and development.
What connects them?
There is a remarkably consistent pattern:
They reveal connections that were previously hidden.
Faraday connected light to magnetism. Gage helped connect the brain to behavior. De Mestral connected nature’s design to manufacturing. Goodwin connected chemistry to mass visual communication. Americium expanded our understanding of matter itself. Enterprise connected aircraft principles with spacecraft. Nintendo connected technology with participatory storytelling. XPRIZE connected competition, entrepreneurship and exploration. UNDRIP connected human dignity with governance, culture, land and self-determination.
And there is a second theme: breakthroughs become transformational when other people can build upon them.
The most important innovations are rarely isolated products. They become platforms—electromagnetism, film, reusable fasteners, nuclear science, reusable spacecraft, interactive media, innovation prizes and international rights frameworks all enabled people who came later to do things their originators could not have fully anticipated.
The September 13 signal
Progress happens when we see relationships that were previously invisible—and then turn those connections into something people can use.
For Mobilized News, I would distill today’s lesson even further:
See the connection → understand the system → make the breakthrough usable → give people the ability to build on it.
Bottom line: September 13 reminds us that the future is rarely created by improving one isolated thing. It is created by discovering how things connect.