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Home | Publications | APS News | Special Features | This Month in Physics History

This Month in Physics History

2013

June 10, 1854: Riemann’s classic lecture on curved space

May 11, 1962: Feynman’s “Brownian Ratchet”

April 10, 1661: Hooke’s pamphlet on capillary action

March 23, 1882: Birth of Emmy Noether

February 26, 1870: First pneumatic powered subway line in New York City

January 2, 1839: First Daguerrotype of the Moon

2012

December 18, 1926: Gilbert Lewis coins “photon” in letter to Nature

November 1777: Discovery of Lichtenberg Figures

October, 1644: Torricelli Demonstrates the Existence of a Vacuum: Elegant physics experiment; enduring practical invention

August 10, 1915: Henry G.J. Moseley Killed in Action

July 24, 1954: Operation Moon Bounce

June 1911: Invention of the Geiger Counter

May 29, 1948: Results of first experiment on the Casimir effect

April 23, 1762: Joseph Black and Latent Heat

March 6, 1913: Bohr describes his model of atom to Rutherford

February 6, 1957: MIT introduces the first cryotron

January 19, 1894: James Dewar produces solid air

2011

December 2, 1942: First self-sustained nuclear chain reaction

Nov. 19, 1711: Birth of Mikhail Lomonosov, Russia’s first modern scientist

October 21, 1914: Birth of Samuel W. Alderson, inventor of the crash test dummy

August 15, 1758: Death of Pierre Bouguer

July 21, 2000: Fermilab announces first direct evidence for tau neutrino

June 1941: Hedy Lamarr and George Antheil submit patent for radio frequency hopping

François-Marie Raoult and Raoult’s Law: May 23, 1887

April 16, 1901: Death of Henry Rowland

March 16, 1699: William Chaloner, counterfeiter, hanged

February 12, 1935: Patent granted for Van de Graaff generator

January 10, 1919: Death of Wallace Sabine, pioneer of architectural acoustics

2010

December 20, 1900: Nature reports on William Duddell’s “musical arcs”

November 11, 1930: Patent granted for Einstein-Szilard Refrigerator

October 18, 1933: Louis de Broglie elected to Academy

August 1774: Priestley isolates a new “air,” leading to discovery of oxygen

July 1849: Fizeau publishes results of speed of light experiment

Circa June 1748: Publication of <em>Analytical Institutions</em>

May 16, 1960: Maiman Builds First Working Laser

April 12, 1912: Victor Hess’s balloon flight during total eclipse to measure cosmic rays

March 21, 1768: Birth of Jean-Baptiste Joseph Fourier

February 3, 1925: Death of Oliver Heaviside

January 15, 1955: "Characteristics of Bubble Chambers" Published in <em>Physical Review</em>

2009

December 1840: Joule’s abstract on converting mechanical power into heat

November 27, 1783: John Michell anticipates black holes

October 22, 2004: Discovery of Graphene

September, 1911–The Sackur-Tetrode Equation: How Entropy Met Quantum Mechanics

July 1654: Pascal’s Letters to Fermat on the “Problem of Points”

June 12, 1824: Sadi Carnot publishes treatise on heat engines

May 31, 1957: DeWitt’s Letter on Everett’s “Many Worlds” Theory

April 25, 1954: Bell Labs demonstrates the first practical silicon solar cell

March 13, 1930: Clyde Tombaugh’s discovery of Pluto announced

February 1928: Raman Scattering Discovered

January 1998: The accelerating expansion of the universe

2008

December 1706: Birth of Émilie du Châtelet

November 1919: Elmer Imes publishes work in infrared spectroscopy

October 1958: Physicist Invents First Video Game

August 1948: Maria Goeppert Mayer and the Nuclear Shell Model

July 1820: Oersted and electromagnetism

June 1798: Cavendish weighs the world

May 1801: Thomas Young’s double slit experiment

April 1, 1948: The alpha beta gamma paper explains the origin of the elements

March 1, 1896: Henri Becquerel discovers radioactivity

February 1927: Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle

January 1925 & 1929: Edwin Hubble Expands our View of the Universe

2007

December 1938: Discovery of nuclear fission

November 1887: Michelson and Morley report their failure to detect the luminiferous ether

October, 1957: Soviets launch first satellites into orbit

September 1904: Robert Wood debunks N-rays

July 1957: Bardeen, Cooper, and Schrieffer submit their paper, “Theory of Superconductivity”

June 1876: Edward Bouchet becomes the first African American PhD in physics

May 1932: Chadwick reports the discovery of the neutron

April 1911: Kamerlingh Onnes Begins work on Superconductivity

March 16, 1938: Katharine Blodgett patents anti-reflective coatings

February 3, 1851: Léon Foucault demonstrates that Earth rotates

January 1925: Wolfgang Pauli announces the exclusion principle

2006

December 23, 1750: Ben Franklin Attempts to Electrocute a Turkey

November, 1783: Intrepid physicist is first to fly

October 1987: Maria Mitchell Discovers a Comet

August 1913: Robert Millikan Reports His Oil Drop Results

July 3, 1977: MRI uses fundamental physics for clinical diagnosis

June, ca. 240 B.C. Eratosthenes Measures the Earth

May 1911: Rutherford and the Discovery of the Atomic Nucleus

April 1935: British Patent for Radar System for Air Defense Granted to Robert Watson-Watt

March 20, 1800: Volta describes the electric battery

February 1968: Discovery of pulsars announced.

January 1938: Discovery of Superfluidity

2005

Einstein's quest for a unified theory

Einstein and the EPR Paradox

Einstein Lays Theoretical Foundation for BECs

Einstein predicts stimulated emission

Einstein's Biggest Blunder

Einstein's Attitudes Towards Women by guest columnist Nina Byers

Einstein and general relativity

Energy and mass are equivalent

Einstein and Special Relativity

Einstein and Brownian Motion

Einstein and The Photoelectric Effect

2004

December 1898: The Curies Discover Radium

November 25, 1975: Patent for Full-body CAT Scan

October 1807: Invention of the camera lucida

August 1932: Discovery of the Positron

July 13, 1901: Santos-Dumont Flies Around Eiffel Tower

June 5, 1995: First Bose Einstein Condensate

May 1816: Germain Forms Theory of Elastic Surfaces

April 15, 1452: The Birth of a Visionary — Leonardo da Vinci

Lens Crafters Circa 1590:The Invention of the Microscope

February 9, 1990: Death of George de Mestral

January 1884: First U.S. Patent for a Roller Coaster

2003

December 1958: Invention of the Laser

November 1, 1952: Teller and the Hydrogen Bomb

October 22, 1938: "Invention of Xerography"

September 1981: Invention of the scanning tunneling microscope

July 16, 1945: First nuclear bomb exploded

June 1931: Lawrence and the First Cyclotron

May 1888: Tesla Patents "Electric Transmission of Power"

April 18, 1916: Langmuir Patents the Incandescent Lamp

March 13, 1781: Herschel discovers the planet Uranus

February 1987: Discovery of Supernova 1987A

Circa January 1961: Lorenz and the Butterfly Effect

2002

December 14, 1989: Death of Andrei Sakharov

November 1872: Death of Mary Somerville

October 1900: Max Planck's formula for black body radiation.

August 1946: The Moore School Lectures

June 1963: Discovery of the cosmic microwave background

June 1871: Maxwell and his Demon

May 24, 1844: Morse and the telegraph.

April 1995: Discovery of the top quark at Fermilab

Circa March 1935: Schroedinger's Paradoxical Cat

February 1996: Kasparov vs. Deep Blue

January 1665: Publication of Hooke's Micrographia

2001

December 27, 1956: Fall of Parity Conservation.

November 8, 1895: Roentgen's Discovery of X-Rays

October 1871: Babbage's Successful Failure—The First Computer

September 4, 1821 and August 29, 1831: Faraday and electromagnetism.

July 20, 1969: The first manned lunar landing.

June 29, 1954: Oppenheimer's Security Clearance Revoked

May 1609: Galileo first hears about the telescope.

April 1946: First Concept of Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometer

March 16, 1926: Launch of the First Liquid Fuel Rocket

February 2, 1893: Edison Records First Sneeze on Film

January 28, 1986: The Challenger Explosion

2000

December 29, 1959: Feynman's Classic CalTech Lecture

November 17 - December 23, 1947: Invention of the First Transistor

October 1897: The Discovery of the Electron

September 1905: Einstein's Most Famous Formula

July 5, 1687: Publication of Sir Isaac Newton's Principia

June 2 - 4, 1947: The Shelter Island Conference

May 10, 1752: First experiment to draw electricity from lightning

April 26, 1920: The Shapley-Curtis Debate

March 10, 1876: The First Transmission of Speech