| MARCH 16 - BIRTHS | |
| R. Walter Cunningham | |
(source) |
 Born 16
Mar 1932
Ronnie Walter Cunningham is an American astronaut and civilian participant in the Apollo 7 mission , in which the first manned flight of Apollo Command and Service modules was made. On 11 Oct 1968, he occupied the lunar module pilot seat for the eleven-day flight of Apollo 7. With Walter M. Schirra, Jr., and Donn F. Eisele, he participated in maneuvers enabling the crew to perform exercises in transposition and docking and lunar orbit rendezvous with the S-IVB stage of their Saturn IB launch vehicle; in test ignitions of the service module propulsion engine; in measuring the accuracy of performance of all spacecraft systems; and provided the first effective television transmission of onboard crew activities. |
| Vladimir Mikhaylovich Komarov | |
(source) |
Born 16
Mar 1927; died 24 April 1967.
Soviet cosmonaut, the first man known to have died during a space mission. He flew on two space missions. He was Command Pilot of Voskhod I, on a day-long mission, 12-13 Oct 1964. Also on board were Dr. Yegorov, a medical doctor as flight physiologist; and the spacecraft engineer Feoktistov. For this landing, the spacecraft's parachutes opened at an altitude of 7 km followed by a soft-landing system that used streams of gases from nozzles to reduce touchdown velocity to near zero. Komarov died during the landing after his second space mission, when he was Commander of Soyuz-I, 23-24 Apr 1967, on a nearly 27 hour flight. On its return, his spacecraft became entangled in its main parachute and fell several miles to Earth. |
| Frederick Reines | |
(source) |
Born 16
Mar 1918; died 26 Aug 1998.
American physicist who was awarded the 1995 Nobel Prize for Physics for his detection in 1956 of neutrinos, working with his colleague Clyde L. Cowan, Jr. Theneutrino is a subatomic particle, a tiny lepton with little or no mass and a neutral charge which had been postulated by Wolfgang Pauli in the early 1930s but had previously remained undiscovered. (Reines shared the Nobel Prize with physicist Martin Lewis Perl, who discovered the tau lepton.) |
| Kunihiko Kodaira | |
(source) |
Born 16
Mar 1915; died 26 July 1997.
Japanese mathematician who was awarded the Fields Medal in 1954 for his work in algebraic geometry and complex analysis. Kodaira's work includes applications of Hilbert space methods to differential equations which was an important topic in his early work and was largely the result of influence by Weyl. Through the influence of Hodge, he also worked on harmonic integrals and later he applied this work to problem in algebraic geometry. Another important area of Kodaira's work was to apply sheaves to algebraic geometry. In around 1960 he became involved in the classification of compact, complex analytic spaces. One of the themes running through much of his work is the Riemann-Roch theorem. He won the 1985 Wolf Prize. |
| François-Emile Matthes | |
(source) |
Born 16
Mar 1874; died 21 Jun 1948.
Dutch-born American geologist and topographer whose mapping, with marvelous draftsmanship, of some of the most rugged and scenic features of the western United States was instrumental in the establishment of several notable national parks. He came to the U.S.A. in 1891, studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and worked with the US Geological Survey (1896-1947). An authority on glaciers and glaciation, he was chairman of the committee on glaciers of the American Geophysical Union (1932-46), and developed an international glacier study program. During both world wars, he engaged in military geology. [Image: Plane station table at Cape Royal in 1904] |
| Heinrich Kayser | |
(source) |
Born 16
Mar 1853; died 14 Oct 1940.
Heinrich Gustav Johannes Kayser was a German physicist who discovered the presence of helium in the Earth's atmosphere. Kayser's early research work was on the properties of sound. In collaboration with the physicist and mathematician Carl D.T. Runge, Kayser carefully mapped the spectra of a large number of elements. He wrote a handbook of spectroscopy (1901–12) and a treatise on the electron theory (1905). [Image: Helium spectrum] |
| Magnus Gösta Mittag-Leffler | |
(source) |
Born 16
Mar 1846; died 7 Jul 1927.
Swedish mathematician who founded the international mathematical journal Acta Mathematica and whose contributions to mathematical research helped advance the Scandinavian school of mathematics. Mittag-Leffler made numerous contributions to mathematical analysis (concerned with limits and including calculus, analytic geometry and probability theory). He worked on the general theory of functions, concerning relationships between independent and dependent variables. His best known work concerned the analytic representation of a one-valued function, this work culminated in the Mittag-Leffler theorem. |
| Andrew Smith Hallidie | |
(source) |
Born 16
Mar 1836; died 24 Apr 1900.
English-American engineer and inventor of cable cars, as first used on the steep hills of San Francisco streets (1 Aug 1873). Streetcars on rails were fitted with a mechanical device that gripped an underground endless moving cable to travel and released to stop. The cable passed around pulleys and was driven by a large wheel at an engine house. He had learned the business of making wire rope from his father before moving to the U.S. (1853), where he designed and built wire suspension bridges and flumes. He began manufacturing wire rope in 1857. Hallidie also developed a method of moving freight over canyons using an endless wire rope, and inventions for the transmission of power with wire rope, which seeded his idea for cable cars.« |
| Ami Boué | |
(source) |
Born 16
Mar 1794; died 21 Nov 1881.
Austrian geological pioneerwho fostered international cooperation in geological research. While studying medicine in Edinburgh, he was influenced by the noted Scottish geologist Robert Jameson and studied the volcanic rocks in various parts of Scotland and the Hebrides. After he received his M.D. (1817) Boué continued his medical studies in Europe, but ultimately decided to devote himself to geology. He settled in Paris in 1830 and was a founder of the Société Géologique de France. For the next four years he published reports on geological progress in other countries. In 1845 he finished his comprehensive overview of geology, Essai de carte géologique du globe terrestre ("Essay on a Geological Map of the World"). |
| Georg Simon Ohm | |
(source) |
Born 16
Mar 1789; died 6 Jul 1854.
German physicist who showed by experiment (1825) that there are no "perfect" electrical conductors. All conductors have some resistance. He stated the famous Ohm's law (1826): "If the given temperature remains constant, the current flowing through certain conductors is proportional to the potential difference (voltage) across it." or V=iR. |
| Caroline Lucretia Herschel | |
(source) |
Born 16
Mar 1750; died 9 Jan 1848.
German-born British astronomer, sister of Sir William Herschel, who assisted in his astronomical researches making calculations associated with his studies. In her own telescope observations, she found three nebulae (1783) and eight comets (1786-97). In 1787, King George III gave Caroline a salary of 50 pounds per year as assistant to William. She published the Index to Flamsteed's Observations of the Fixed Stars and a list of his mistakes in 1797. At the age of 10 she had been struck with typhus, which subsequently stunted her growth. She never grew taller than 4' 3" and remained frail throughout her life.  Sweeper
of the skies: A story of the life of Caroline Herschel,
by Frances Lowry Higgins. |
| MARCH 16 - DEATHS | |
| Sir Derek H.R. Barton | |
(source) |
Born 16
Mar 1998 (born 8 Sep 1918)
Sir Derek H(arold) R(ichard) Barton was a British chemist, a joint recipient (with Odd Hassel of Norway) of the 1969 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for research that helped establish conformational analysis - the study of the 3-D geometric structure of complex molecules. In a brief paper in Experienta entitled "The Conformation of the Steroid Nucleus" (1950), Barton showed that organic molecules in general and steroid molecules in particular could be assigned a preferred conformation based on work of chemical physicists, in particular by Odd Hassel. Conformational analysis is useful in the elucidation of configuration, in the planning of organic synthesis, and in the analysis of reaction mechanisms. It is fundamental to a complete understanding of enzymatic processes. |
| Yves-André Rocard | |
(source) |
 Died
16 Mar 1992 (born 22 May 1903)
French mathematician and physicist who contributed to the development of the French atomic bomb and to the understanding of such diverse fields of research as semiconductors, seismology, and radio astronomy. During WW II, as Head of the Research Department of the Free French Naval Forces in England, he learnt about radars in England and interference from strong radio emission from the Sun. After the war, Rocard returned to France and proposed that France started a project to conduct radio astronomy. In the last part of his life he studied biomagnetism and dowsing which reduced his standing in the eyes of many of his colleagues. |
| J.J.R. Macleod | |
(source) |
Died
16 Mar 1935 (born 6 Sep 1876)
J(ohn) J(ames) R(ickard) Macleod, was a Scottish physiologist and educator who researched diabetes and named the hormone insulin. In 1923, he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Sir Frederick Banting for the discovery of insulin, and its role in the metabolism of sugar in the body.
Physiology
and Biochemistry in Modern Medicine, by John James Rickard
Macleod. |
| August von Wassermann | |
(source) |
Died
16 Mar 1925 (born 21 Feb 1866)
German bacteriologist whose discovery of a universal blood-serum test (1906) for syphilis helped extend the basic tenets of immunology to diagnosis. "The Wassermann reaction," in combination with other diagnostic procedures, is still employed as a reliable indicator for the disease. A positive reaction when the blood or spinal fluid of the patient is tested indicates the presence of antibodies formed as a result of infection with syphilis (even though symptoms of the disease may not be observable at the time). A few other diseases, however (such as leprosy), also sometimes produce a positive Wassermann reaction. In addition, he developed inoculations against cholera, typhoid, and tetanus. He was a student of bacteriologist Robert Koch. |
| Sir John Murray | |
(source) |
Died
16 Mar 1914 (born 3 Mar 1841)
Scottish naturalist who, as one of its founders, coined the name oceanography. He studied ocean basins, deep-sea deposits, and coral-reef formation. As a marine scientist, he took part in the Challenger Expedition (1872-76), the first major oceanographic expedition of the world. He was first to observe the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and the existence of marine trenches. He attempted with Buchan to construct from temperature and salinity observations a qualitative theory of water movement in the world's oceans. With A. Agassiz, he put forward a modified hypothesis for coral reef development, arguing against Darwin's hypothesis and suggesting that subsidence was not always a controlling mechanism. He died in 1914, killed by a motor car. |
| Richard Roberts | |
(source) |
Died
16 Mar 1864 (born 22 Apr 1789)
Welsh mechanical engineer and versatile inventor. One of his earliest inventions was the first successful gas meter. His first patent (1822) was for improvements in looms. He was one of the inventors of the first metal planing machines (1817). Roberts also developed a screw-cutting lathe, and machines for gearcutting and slotting. The self-acting spinning mule (1825) he invented was his most important contribution to the textile industry, which he also set up in France. In the 1830s, his firm built railway locomotives in one of the earliest applications of the use of interchangeable parts. In the 1840s he devised machinery for punching patterns of holes in bridge and boiler plate, automated using punched cards similar to the Jacquard loom. |
| Nathaniel Bowditch | |
(source) |
Died
16 Mar 1838 (born 26 Mar 1773)
Self-educated American mathematician and astronomer. He learnt Latin to study Newton's Principia and later other languages to study mathematics in these languages. Between 1795 and 1799 he made four sea voyages and in 1802 he was in command of a merchant ship. He was author of the best book on navigation of his time, New American Practical Navigator (1802), and his translation (assisted by Benjamin Peirce) of Laplace's Mécanique céleste gave him an international reputation. Bowditch was the discoverer of the Bowditch curves, which have important applications in astronomy and physics. |
| MARCH 16 - EVENTS | |
| Spacecraft docking | |
(source) |
In 1966, the first US manned docking of two spacecraft was accomplished
by the Gemini VIII. The Gemini space vehicle with command pilot
was Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong and pilot Astronaut David R. Scott, was
launched at 10:41 a.m. The primary objective of the scheduled three-day
mission was to rendezvous and dock with the Gemini Agena target
vehicle and to conduct extravehicular activities. Though this was accomplished,
some problems developed that required the mission and its other planed
objectives and experiments to be terminated early. [Image:
The Gemini VIII spacecraft approaching the Gemini Agena target
vehicle in the final stage of rendezvous. The distance between the two
craft is approximately two feet.] |
| Solar powered car battery | |
|
In 1960, in New York a car was displayed with a battery recharged by solar
cells. |
|
| Rocket | |
(source) |
In 1926, the first US liquid-fuel rocket flight was launched
by Robert
Goddard in a field in Auburn, Mass. He thought stable flight could
be obtained by mounting the rocket
ahead of the fuel tank. The tank was shielded from the flame by a metal
cone and was pulled behind the rocket by the lines for gasoline fuel and
oxygen. The design worked, but did not produce the hoped-for stability.
The rocket burned about 20 seconds before reaching sufficient thrust (or
sufficiently lightening the fuel tank) for taking off. During that time
it melted part of the nozzle. It took off to a height of 41-ft, leveled
off and within 2.5 seconds hit the ground 184 feet away, averaging about
60 mph. The camera ran out of film, so no photographic record
of that flight remains. |
| Wireless telephone | |
|
In 1919, a wireless telephone was invented enabling air pilots to talk
in flight. |
|
| National zoo | |
(source) |
In 1902, Dr. Baker of the U.S. National Zoo published a list of South American
fauna required for the collection including a spectacled
bear from the Andes. It has distinctive circular or semicircular creamy
white markings on the face around the eyes, reminiscent of spectacles.
Lines and patches of white usually extend onto the throat and chest though
the amount and pattern of the white markings can be quite variable. |
| Fertilizer law | |
|
In 1871, the first US state fertilizer law (Chap. 35) was enacted in Delaware.
The law was unworkable and was amended 8 Apr 1881 (Chap. 348) and several
times later. |
|
| Antiseptic surgery | |
 |
In 1867, Joseph Lister published
the first of a series of articles in the Lancet on his discovery
of antiseptic surgery. Lister applied Pasteur's idea that the micro-organisms
causing gangrene might be controlled with chemical solutions. Since the
use carbolic acid (phenol) was known as means of deodorizing sewage, Lister
tested the results of using a solution of it for spraying instruments,
on surgical incisions, and applied to dressings. Upon finding this procedure
substantially reduced the incidence of gangrene, Lister published his results
in series of articles in the Lancet on the Antiseptic Principle
of the Practice of Surgery.« |
| Explosive Harpoon | |
(USPTO) |
In 1844, a U.S. patent for "a new and Improved Harpoon for the Destruction
and Taking of Whales" was issued to Albert Moor of Hampden Maine (No. 3490).
In his design for an explosive harpoon,
the fluke of the harpoon pivoted on the shank, held in place by a wooden
pin. A small vial of explosive powder was placed in the fluke and under
the end of the shank of the harpoon. It was arranged so that the power
of the whale pulling upon the tow-line attached to the harpoon would break
the wooden pin allowing the fluke of the harpoon to turn, crush the vial,
and cause the powder to explode to destroy the whale. [At
the time of writing, this is the earliest patent listed in the 102/371
"Bomb Lance" classification at the U.S. Patents and Trademarks Office web
site.] |
| Hay fever | |
(source) |
In 1819, the first clinical description of an allergy - hay fever - was
delivered by Dr John Bostock to a meeting of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical
Society in London. For many years doctors called hay fever "Bostock's catarrh."
The pollens of grasses, weeds and trees are the main causes of this type
of allergy,
although mold spores can also cause the symptoms. The lining of the nose
becomes swollen and exudes a runny discharge. Spells of sneezing and itchiness
of the throat and palate also occur and the eyes may be similarly affected. |
