Timeline of United States discoveries 4–6, 1942 and the decisive turning point of the Pacific War when the United States Navy defeated an attack by the Empire of Japan. First known as "Middlebrooks Islands", Midway Atoll was discovered by U.S. Captain N.C. Brooks aboard his ship, "Gambia", on July 8, 1859. 1859 Petroleum jelly Petroleum jelly, petrolatum or soft paraffin is a semi-solid mixture of hydrocarbons originally promoted as a topical ointment for its healing properties. The raw material for petroleum jelly was discovered in 1859 by Robert Chesebrough, a chemist from New York. In 1870, this product was branded as Vaseline Petroleum Jelly. 1873
A Sort of Life A Sort of Life A Sort of Life is the first volume of autobiography by British novelist Graham Greene, first published in 1971. This volume covers Greene's early life, from mundane childhood in Surrey, through to school and university and on to his early working life as a sub editor at The Times and his years as a struggling novelist. His memoirs have been criticized for being oddly impersonal and for brushing over his marriage and his conversion to Catholicism, especially as his faith was to become a powerful motif in many of his novels. Despite these omissions he deals