I missed an important date

Yesterday, December 16, was the anniversary of the of arguably one of the most important innovations of modern times, maybe even all time. 60 years and one day ago a group of scientists and engineers  working for Bell Labs invented the transistor. The transistor is the building block for just about every thing we take for granted in the 21st century. Every thing from cell phones to computers depend on a little glob of silicon and the odd chemical or two. The first one looked like it was cobbled from scraps of plastic and a paperclip. The computer I'm typing this on has a microprocessor on its motherboard with a few million transistors in it miniaturized on a silicon wafer substrate. The little transistorized junctions are so small that you could not see them with an unaided eye. Each one switching off and on a billion time a second. 

Maybe we should have a new  holiday, one that celebrates human ingenuity. Innovations that serve to advance humanity and make life better. We have all kinds of holidays to celebrate all kinds of dubious things. How about we drop Columbus day, he was a racist jerk that brought misery and death to millions and enriched a monarchy that set back civilization back a about a century. I say we dump Columbus day and we use that day for Innovators Day. We would honor people like Tesla,Shockley,Edison,Armstrong and the like. Now I'd take a day off for that.