1910 Neon lighting was displayed for the first time at the Paris Motor Show 1924 John Backus inventor (born 1967 At Groote Schurr Hospital, Cape Town, Dr Christiaan Barnard carried out the world's first heart transplant 1984 A chemical leakage at a pesticide factory in Bhopal, India caused the deaths of over 2,500 people and blinded many thousands 1993 Lewis Thomas, US physician and biologist, died