A twenty-one-year-old thief stole Jan Vermeer’s painting “The Love Letter” from The Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels on this day in 1971.

Did you know that:

• Richard Rhodes invented a hearing aid called the Audiphone on this day in 1879
• John C. Sheehan, who invented a method for the synthesis of penicillin, was born on this day in 1915
• Johannes Ostermeier was issued a patent for the flashbulb used in photography on this day in 1930