Granville Woods

Granville Tailer Woods was an American inventor who held more than 50 patents in the United States. He was the first African American mechanical and electrical engineer after the Civil War. Self-taught, he concentrated most of his work on trains and streetcars. One of his inventions is the Synchronous Multiplex Railway Telegraph, a variation of the induction telegraph that relied on ambient static electricity from existing telegraph lines to send messages between train stations and moving trains.

23 April 1856

Born on the same birth day (23 April): Barry Douglas (pianist) • David Cross (musician) • Dev Patel • Dorian Leigh • Frans Koppelaar • George Lopez • George Steiner • Janet Blair • Joan of France, Duchess of Berry • John Hannah (actor) • Joseph Green (actor) • Melina Kanakaredes • Rafael Fernandes (baseball) • Robert Fayrfax • Simone Simon • Vilna Gaon

Born in the same month (April 1856): Arthur Shrewsbury • Booker T. Washington • Jean Moréas • Joseph Ward • Martin Conway, 1st Baron Conway of Allington • Philippe Pétain