Portal:Physics/Anniversaries

This is a list of notable anniversaries in Physics.

January[edit]

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1 January[edit]

1894 - Satyendra Nath Bose's birthday.
1801 - Giuseppe Piazzi is the first to notice the dwarf planet Ceres. However, very soon astronomers lose sight of its orbital path. After some months, Giuseppe Piazzi finally calculates its correct position on December 31.
1985 - Ernie Wise, a comedian, places the first mobile phone call in the UK.

2 January[edit]

2 January 1822 - Rudolf Clausius was born.

4 January[edit]

4 January 1643 - Sir Issac Newton was born

8 January[edit]

8 January 1942 - Stephen Hawking was born, on the same day that Galileo Galilei died in 1642.

15 January[edit]

15 January 1908 - Edward Teller was born.

February[edit]

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15 February 1564 – Galileo Galilei's birthday
18 February 1745 – Alessandro Volta's birthday
15 February 1786 – Cat's Eye Nebula discovered
18 February 1838 – Ernst Mach's birthday
11 February 1847 – Thomas Edison's birthday
23 February 1855 – Carl Friedrich Gauss's death
22 February 1875 – Heinrich Hertz's birthday
28 February 1901 – Linus Pauling's birthday
18 February 1967 – J. Robert Oppenheimer's death
13 February 1910 – William Shockley's birthday
15 February 1988 – Richard Feynman died
28 February 2020 – Freeman Dyson's death

March[edit]

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1 March 1966 – first spacecraft crash-lands on Venus
14 March 1879 – Albert Einstein's birthday
14 March 2018 – Stephen Hawking died
20 March 1942 - Gabriele Veneziano's Birthday
24 March 1993 – Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 discovered

April[edit]

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1 April 1997 – Comet Hale-Bopp at perihelion
12 April 1633 – Galileo Galilei's trial starts
15 April 1707 – Leonhard Euler's birthday
18 April 1955 – Albert Einstein's death
22 April 1904 – J. Robert Oppenheimer's birthday
23 April 1858 – Max Planck's birthday
24 April 1990 – Hubble Space Telescope launched
25 April 1990 – Hubble Space Telescope deployed from the shuttle Discovery
30 April 1777 – Carl Friedrich Gauss's birthday

May[edit]

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May 1, 1960 - U-2 spy plane shot down
May 6, 1937 - Hindenburg fire
May 9, 1012 BC – Solar Eclipse seen at Ugarit, 6:09–6:39 PM.
May 9, 1904 – City of Truro, a steam locomotive exceeds 100 mph (160 km/h).
May 10, 1946 – V-2 rocket's first successful launch at White Sands Proving Ground
May 10, 1960 – The nuclear submarine USS Triton completes Operation Sandblast, the first underwater circumnavigation of the earth.
May 11, 1862 – American Civil War: The ironclad CSS Virginia is scuttled in Virginia.
May 11, 1995 – In New York City, over 170 countries extend Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty indefinitely, without conditions.
May 11, 1998 – India conducts three underground nuclear tests, including a thermonuclear device.
May 14, 2018 - Ennackal Chandy George Sudarshan died.
May 16, 1960 - Theodore Maiman operates the first optical laser, at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California.
May 16, 1969 – Venera 5, a Soviet spaceprobe, lands on Venus.
May 17, 1865 – The International Telegraph Union is established.
May 18, 1974 - India conducts underground nuclear tests, named Smiling Buddha.
May 18, 1998 - Microsoft sued by US Government
May 19, 1943 - RAF uses bouncing bombs in combat
May 20, 1932 - Amelia Earhart crosses Atlantic Ocean
May 26, 1972 - President Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev sign nuclear weapon non-proliferation pact.
May 24, 1844 - First official telegraph message is sent by Samuel Morse.
May 27, 1937 - Grand opening, Golden Gate Bridge
May 28, 1998 – Pakistan conducts five underground nuclear tests, named Chagai-I.

Births[edit]

May 6, 1872 - Willem de Sitter, physicist, mathematician, and astronomer
May 9, 1931 – Vance Brand, astronaut
May 10, 1746 – Gaspard Monge, mathematician
May 10, 1788 – Augustin-Jean Fresnel physicist
May 10, 1963 – Lisa Nowak, astronaut
May 11, 1918 – Richard Feynman, physicist
May 14, 1686 - Gabriel Fahrenheit, physicist and engineer
May 21, 1921 - Andrei Sakharov, nuclear physicist
May 7,1861 - Rabindranath Tagore, poet, patriotist, and philosopher

Deaths[edit]

May 10, 1482 – Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli, mathematician and astronomer
May 16, 1830 – Joseph Fourier, French scientist
May 17, 1916 – Boris Borisovich Galitzine, Russian physicist

June[edit]

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1 June 1831 – James Clark Ross discovers the North Magnetic Pole.
1 June 1869 – Thomas Edison receives a patent for his electric voting machine.
1 June 1910 – Robert Falcon Scott expedition leaves England for South Pole.
1 June 1978 – First Patent Cooperation Treaty international filings.
1 June 1980 – Cable News Network (CNN) begins broadcasting.
1 June 1990 – Bush and Gorbachev sign chemical weapons ban.
1 June 2000 – Patent Law Treaty is signed.
2 June 1966 – Surveyor 1 lands on the Moon.
2 June 2003 - ESA launches Mars Express probe to Mars.
3 June 1965 - First American spacewalk, mission Gemini IV
3 June 1973 – A Soviet supersonic Tupolev Tu-144 crashes.
4 June 781 BC – First historic solar eclipse is recorded in China.
4 June 1973 – A patent for the ATM is granted.
4 June 1996 - First flight. Ariane 5 rocket explodes after roughly 20 seconds.
5 June 1977 – Apple II, personal computer goes on sale.

Birthdays[edit]

1 June 1633 – Geminiano Montanari, Italian astronomer (d. 1687)
1 June 1796 – Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot, French physicist (d. 1832)
1 June 1899 – Edward Charles Titchmarsh, English mathematician (d. 1963)
1 June 1907 – Frank Whittle, invented jet engine. (d. 1996)
1 June 1917 – William S. Knowles Nobel Prize laureate
1 June 1940 – Kip Thorne, American physicist
2 June 1930 – Pete Conrad, American astronaut (d. 1999)
2 June 1949 – Heather Couper, British astronomer
3 June 1659 – David Gregory, Scottish astronomer (d. 1708)
3 June 1923 – Igor Shafarevich, Russian mathematician
4 June 1704 – Benjamin Huntsman, English inventor and manufacturer (d. 1776)
4 June 1877 – Heinrich Wieland, German biochemist & Nobel laureate (d. 1957)
4 June 1916 – Robert F. Furchgott, American chemist & Nobel laureate (d. 2009)
4 June 1967 – Robert Shane Kimbrough, American astronaut
5 June 1760 – Johan Gadolin, Finnish scientist (d. 1852)
5 June 1819 – John Couch Adams, English astronomer (d. 1892)
5 June 1862 – Allvar Gullstrand, Swedish ophthalmologist Nobel laureate (d. 1930)
5 June 1900 – Dennis Gabor, Hungarian physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 1979)
5 June 1965 – Michael E. Brown, American astronomer
13 June 1831 - James Clerk Maxwell, Scottish physicist (d. 1879)

July[edit]

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July 1654 – Blaise Pascal's letters to Pierre de Fermat on the "Problem of Points"
July 1820 – Hans Christian Ørsted published pamphlet about the relation between electricity and magnetism
July 1849 – Fizeau publishes results of speed of light experiment.
July 1914 – AT&T tested the first working transcontinental telephone line when the president of the company spoke from one coast to the other. Months later Alexander Graham Bell repeated his famous statement over the phone in New York City which was heard by Dr. Watson in San Francisco.
July 1957 – John Bardeen, Leon Cooper and Robert Schrieffer submit detailed research report, "Theory of Superconductivity" to the Physical Review (it was published in December).
July 1994 – Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 collides with Jupiter.
16 July 1945 – Trinity test, named by J. Robert Oppenheimer.
16 July 1969 – Apollo 11 launched.
20 July 1969 – Apollo 11 landed on the Moon.
23 July 1995 – Comet Hale-Bopp discovered.
2 July 1876 - Harriet Brooks was born; noted for research in nuclear transmutations and for discovering the Atomic recoil.

August[edit]

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2 August 1932 – The positron is discovered by Carl D. Anderson.
2 August 1939 – Einstein and Leó Szilárd urge Franklin D. Roosevelt to begin the Manhattan project.
3 August 1958 – USS Nautilus under the Arctic ice cap.
3 August 1972 – U.S. Senate ratifies Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

Birthdays[edit]

1820 - John Tyndall 2 August
1871 - Ernest Rutherford 30 August
1887 - Erwin Schrödinger 12 August
1902 - Paul Dirac 8 August
1931 – Roger Penrose 8 August
1934 - Valery Bykovsky 2 August
1951 - Edward Witten 26 August
1959 – Koichi Tanaka 3 August

Deaths[edit]

2 August 1922 – Alexander Graham Bell
3 August 1942 – Richard Willstätter, Nobel laureate
28 August 2006 - Melvin Schwartz, Nobel laureate

September[edit]

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6 September 1809 - Sir George Cayley identifies the four aerodynamic forces
3 September 1821 - Faraday discovers electromagnetic rotation (the principle behind the electric motor).
- September 1911 - The Sackur-Tetrode Equation is published in Annalen der Physik.
29 September 1904 - Nature publishes Wood's letter discrediting N-rays.
27 September 1905 - E=mc² --- Annalen der Physik publishes the Mass–Energy equivalence
9 September 1934: The American Rocket Society (ARS) launched Rocket No. 4 to 400 feet.
17 September 1959 - The first powered X-15 flight.
9 September 1959 - The Atlas 10-D rocket is launched.
1 September 1974 - Pioneer 11 sends polar images of Jupiter.
20 September 1979 - The High Energy Astronomical Observatory (HEAO) 3 is launched.
- September 1981 - Invention of the scanning tunneling microscope.

Births[edit]

22 September 1791 Michael Faraday (d.1867)
29 September 1901 Enrico Fermi

Deaths[edit]

5 September 1906 - Ludwig Boltzmann
7 September 1783 - Leonhard Euler
9 September 2003 - Edward Teller

October[edit]

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1 October 1922 - Chen Ning Yang's Birthday
1 October 1958 - NASA created to replace NACA
7 October 1885 - Niels Bohr's birthday
20 October 1984 - Paul Dirac died

November[edit]

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1952 - detonation of the first Hydrogen bomb, code named "Ivy Mike".
1947 - invention of the first transistor, between November 17 to December 23. APS.
1930 - Patent granted for Einstein-Szilard refrigerator designed by Albert Einstein and Leó Szilárd. APS.
1919 - Elmer Imes's published work presented the first accurate measurement of the distance between atoms in molecules with high resolution infrared spectroscopy. APS.
1915 – Einstein's presentation to the Prussian Academy of Science specifies how the geometry of space and time is influenced by whatever matter is present. (see: General relativity and APS)
1895 - Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen discovers X-rays.
1887 - Michelson–Morley experiment provided strong evidence against the luminiferous ether. APS.
1872 - death of Mary Somerville who gained an international reputation as a scientist in the intervals of raising a family of six children. APS
1783 - John Michell predicted the existence of black holes, and the possibility of a luminous twin to aid in detection. APS
1676 – using his first quantitative measurement of the speed of light, Ole Rømer accurately predicts the delay of eclipse of Io

Births[edit]

1934 – Carl Sagan
1932 - Melvin Schwartz
1929 - Richard E. Taylor
1925 - Simon van der Meer
1902 - Eugene Wigner
1837 - Johannes Diderik van der Waals
1867 - Marie Curie (Nov. 7)
1828 - Balfour Stewart
1878 - Lise Meitner (Nov. 7)
1887 - Henry Moseley
1888 - C V Raman (Nov. 7)
1892 - Dmitri Skobeltsyn (Nov. 24)

December[edit]

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1610 – Galileo Galilei observes phases of Venus.
1900 - The peer reviewed journal "Nature" reports on Duddell's "Singing Arc" American Physical Society.
1942 - First self-sustained nuclear chain reaction at the University of Chicago under the supervision of Enrico Fermi. American Physical Society
1968 – Apollo 8 Launched
1995 – Hubble Deep Field images taken.

Births[edit]

1852 - Henri Becquerel
1900 - George Eugene Uhlenbeck
25 December, 1642 - Isaac Newton
5 December, 1901 - Werner Heisenberg
18 December, 1856 - J. J. Thomson