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Events on Saturday 21 June 1834 1
1834Cyrus McCormick Patents the Mechanical ReaperA horse-drawn machine to cut grainCyrus McCormick patented a horse-drawn reaping machine in Virginia, improving on a design his father had developed. The reaper could cut grain far faster than hand labour, and McCormick later built a manufacturing empire around it in Chicago. The invention became a cornerstone of American agricultural mechanization.