On March 19, Jan E. Matzeliger patented his revolutionary shoe machine.

Matzeliger began work as a sailor on a merchant ship at the age of 19 and after about six years settled in Lynn, Massachusetts. He found employment in a shoe factory and became interested in the possibilities of lasting shoes by machine.

Matzeliger obtained a patent for his invention of an automated shoe laster in 1883, which not only revolutionized the shoe industry but made Lynn, Massachusetts, the "shoe capital of the world."

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