Sublimis Deus (English: The sublime God; erroneously cited as Sublimus Dei) is a papal encyclical promulgated by Pope Paul III on June 2, 1537, which forbids the enslavement of the indigenous peoples of the Americas (called Indians of the West and the South) and all other people. It goes on to state that the Indians are fully rational human beings who have rights to freedom and private property, even if they are heathen.

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Thomas A. Edison filed for a patent on his cylinder phonograph 140 years ago this month. The inventor accumulated more than 1,000 U.S. patents, but always considered the phonograph to be his favorite invention.

Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Voting Machines On June 1, 1869, Thomas Edison received his first patent for improvements to “electrographic vote-recording.” A demonstration of the device to Congress by one of Edison’s investors failed to win support for its use in U.S. elections. In 1892, Lockport, NY, was first to use an electronic voting machine in an American election.