| MAY 1 - BIRTHS | |
| M. Scott Carpenter | |
 Born 1
May 1925
American astronaut. As one of the original seven Mercury astronauts, he was one of the first humans in space (1962), and he was also one of the first humans to live under the ocean surface for an extended period of time (1965) as one of the aquanauts in Sealab II off the California coast. |
|
| Pierre Teilhard de Chardin | |
| Born 1
May 1881; died 10 Apr 1955.
French philosopher and paleontologist known for his theory that man is evolving, mentally and socially, toward a final spiritual unity. Blending science and Christianity, he declared that the human epic resembles "nothing so much as a way of the Cross." Various of his theories brought reservations and objections from within the Roman Catholic Church and from the Jesuit order, of which he was a member. In 1962, the Holy Office issued a monitum, or simple warning, against uncritical acceptance of his ideas. His spiritual dedication, however, was not questioned. |
|
| Harriet Quimby | |
(EB) |
Born 1
May 1875?; died 1 Jul 1912
American aviator, the first female pilot to fly across the English Channel. Although she was the first American woman to become a licensed pilot, her career as a pilot lasted a mere 11 months. On 16 Apr 1912 she left England in a 50-hp monoplane lent to her by Louis Blériot. She headed for France in a plane she had never flown before and a compass she had just learned how to use. Despite poor visibility and fog, Quimby landed 59 minutes later near Hardelot, France. Upon landing, she was greeted by the local residents, but the Titanic sinking just days earlier, limited reporting of Quimby's achievement in the world press. She died the same year, on 1 Jul 1912, when she lost control of her plane at a flying exhibition near Quincy, Mass. |
| Santiago Ramón y Cajal | |
1920 (source) |
Born 1
May 1852; died 17 Oct 1934.
Spanish histologistwho (with Camillo Golgi) received the 1906 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for establishing the neuron, or nerve cell, as the basic unit of nervous structure. This finding was instrumental in the recognition of the neuron's fundamental role in nervous function. He developed new stains and microscope techniques. |
| Lawson Tait | |
|
(source) |
Born 1
May 1845; died 13 Jun 1899
British surgeon who was the first to both diagnose and remove a diseased appendix (1880). He drained an abscess associated with the perforated appendix, a procedure which was not novel, as several surgeons had done the same previously. Tait was the first to actually remove the appendix as part of the planned treatment. (Nearly 150 years earlier, Claudius Amyand described a surgery in 1736 for a hernia in an 11-year-old boy during which his perforated appendix was found within the hernia sac. This first recorded removal of the appendix was not the subject of the operation but was only secondary to the hernia repair.) By 1889, work published by Charles McBurney established treating appendicitis early to avert a tragic outcome of delay. |
| Hilaire Chardonnet | |
(source) |
Born 1
May 1839; died 12 March 1924.
Count (Louis-Marie-) Hilaire Bernigaud Chardonnet was a French chemist and industrialist who first developed rayon, the first commonly used artificial fibre. When it was first displayed at the Paris Exposition of 1891 it was called Chardonnet silk, and caused a sensation. Although trained as a civil engineer, he went to work under Louis Pasteur. Chardonnet was prompted by Pasteur's study of diseases in silkworms to seek an artificial replacement for silk. His starting point was mulberry leaves, the food of silkworms. He turned them into a cellulose pulp with nitric and sulphuric acids and stretched it into fibres. The original fibre was highly flammable, but by 1889 he had eliminated this and developed rayon. He opened factories for its manufacture. |
| Johann Jakob Balmer | |
(source) |
Born 1
May 1825; died 12 Mar 1898.
Swiss mathematician and physicist who discovered a formula basic to the development of atomic theory. Although a mathematics lecturer all his life, Balmer's most important work was on spectral series by giving a formula relating the wavelengths of the spectral lines of the hydrogen atom (1885) at age 60. Balmer's famous formula is 
= hm2/(m2-n2). Wavelengths are accurately
given using h = 3654.6x10-8-cm, n = 2, and m = 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.
He suggested that giving n other small integer values would give other
series of wavelengths for hydrogen. Why this prediction agreed with observation
was not understood until after his death when the theoretical work of Niels
Bohr was published in 1913. |
| Alexander William Williamson | |
| Born 1
May 1824; died 6 May 1904.
English chemist whose research on alcohols and ethers clarified organic molecular structure. |
|
| Adam Schall von Bell | |
| Born 1
May 1591; died 15 Aug 1666.
Jesuit missionary and astronomer who became an important adviser to the first emperor of the Ch'ing dynasty (1644-1911/12). |
|
| Paracelsus | |
(source) |
Born 1
May 1493; died 24 Sep 1541
Paracelsus (more properly, Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim), the physician and alchemist, died in Salzburg. He had travelled widely, gaining practical medical knowledge as surgeon to mercenary armies. In 1527, while a physician at Basel, he also lectured, but his controversial views led to exile in 1538. In his major text, the Grosse Wundartzney (1536) he discusses wounds, ulcers, and their cure with salves and balms, with a section on treating gunpowder wounds. He established the use of chemistry in medicine, gave the most up-to-date description of syphilis, and was the first to argue that small doses of what makes people ill can also cure them. |
|
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| MAY 1 - DEATHS | |
| Charles Elton | |
 |
 Died
1 May 1991 (born 29 Mar 1900)
English biologist credited with describing the "sociology and economy of animals," thus outlining the basic principles of modern animal ecology. He thought of the "community" as a group of species related through the food chains. Elton developed the idea of a food chain in 1927. He described the way plants get energy from sunlight, plant-eating animals get their energy from eating plants, and meat-eating animals get their energy from eating other animals. Elton’s pyramid of numbers shows how energy flow links organisms to form the biological community. In 1932, Elton created the Bureau of Animal Population at Oxford, which was a mecca for ecologists from around the world, until its demise when he retired in 1967. |
| Leland Ossian Howard | |
| Died
1 May 1950 (born 11 June 1857)
American entomologist noted for his experiments in the biological control of harmful insects and for other pioneering efforts in applied entomology. |
|
| Frederic Stanley Kipping | |
| Died
1 May 1949 (born 16 Aug 1863)
British chemist who pioneered in the chemistry of silicones, organic derivatives of silicon. |
|
| Sir Weetman Dickinson Pearson | |
(source) |
Died
1 May 1927 (born 15 July 1856)
(1st Viscount Cowdray of Midhurst) British engineer and a developer of the Mexican petroleum industry. At age 19, Pearson became a partner in his family's contracting firm, the operation of which he extended to Spain and the U.S. In Dec 1889, he went to Mexico, where he drained swamps, built railways, power lines and waterworks for the Mexican government. Realizing the need for fuel to power the locomotives, he began as early as 1901 to buy concessions and drilled for oil. When the drilling site, known as Portrero del Llano No 4 struck oil, the plume of crude oil spurted 300 feet into the air. Within a couple of years Mexico was one of the world's biggest oil producer and by 1918 Pearson was one of the richest men in the world. |
| Grove Karl Gilbert | |
(source) |
Died
1 May 1918 (born 6 May 1843)
U.S. geologist, one of the founders of modern geomorphology (the study of landforms), structural geologist and map-maker. He worked on many U.S. surveys with the U.S. Geological Survey, studying the ancient lakes (Lake Bonneville) of Utah. He was an early pioneer of isostatic theory, made studies in glacial geology and was a close observer of the processes of transport and deposition. He first recognized the applicability of the concept of dynamic equilibrium in landform configuration and evolution, namely, that landforms reflect a state of balance between the processes that act upon them and the structure and composition of the rocks that compose them. Gilbert clearly expounded this concept in his geological report on the Henry Mountains, Utah. |
| Herman Frasch | |
(source) |
Died
1 May 1914 (born 25 Dec 1851)
German-born American petroleum scientist who invented the Frasch Process for sulphur mining. Patented in 1891, his method made it economically possible by a process of drilling, melting and pumping to extract sulphur from underground deposits as found in Louisiana and in eastern Texas. A hole is drilled into the sulphur bearing formation and cased. Then, three concentric pipes are placed within the protective casing to facilitate pumping super-heated water down the hole melting the sulphur and recovering the molten sulphur to the surface. It made possible the exploitation of extensive sulfur deposits otherwise obtainable only at prohibitive expense.«  Brimstone:
the stone that burns: The story of the Frasch sulphur industry,
by Williams Haynes. |
| Wilhelm His | |
(source) |
Died
1 May 1904 (born 9 Jul 1831)
Wilhelm His, born in Basel, Switzerland, was a German anatomist and embryologist who created the science of histogenesis, or the study of the embryonic origins of different types of animal tissue. His discovery, in 1886, that each nerve fibre stems from a single nerve cell was essential to the development of the neuron theory. He invented the microtome - a device to slice very thin serial specimens for microscope slides (1865). With it, he could examine embryos. He was the first to accurate describe the human embryo. |
| John Glover | |
| Died
1 May 1902 (born 2 Feb 1817)
English chemist who developed the Glover Tower in 1859 to reclaim useful chemicals during the manufacture of sulphuric acid, the most important industrial chemical. The previous Lead-Chamber Method (1749) used sulphur dioxide, a nitrate, air and water, but lost the nitrate in the form of nitric oxide to the atmosphere. This was expensive since the replacement nitrate had to be imported from Chile. Glover introduced a mass transfer tower to recover some of this lost nitrate. In his tower, sulfuric acid (still containing nitrates) was trickled downward against upward flowing burner gases. The flowing gas absorbed some of the previously lost nitric oxide. These gases were recycled back into the lead chamber where the nitric oxide could be re-used. |
|
| William Hewson | |
| Died
1 May 1774 (born 14 Nov 1739)
British anatomist and physiologist who described blood coagulation and isolated a key protein in the coagulation process, fibrinogen, which he called coagulable lymph. He also investigated the structure of the lymphatic system and described red blood cells. |
|
| MAY 1 - EVENTS | |
| BASIC | |
 |
In 1964, first BASIC program was run on a computer at about 4:00 a.m. Invented
at Dartmouth University by professors John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz,
the first implementation was a BASIC compiler. Basic is an acronym for
Beginner's
All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code, designed to be an easy programming
language to learn quickly how to write simple programs. Originally for
mainframes, BASIC
was adopted for use on personal computers when they became available. |
| Van Allen radiation belts | |
(source) |
In 1958, the discovery of the powerful Van Allen radiation belts that surround
Earth was published in the Washington Evening Star. The article
covered the report made by their discoverer James. A. Van Allen to the
joint sysmposium of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Physical
Society in Washington DC. He used data from the Explorer I and Pioneer
III space probes of the earth's magnetosphere region to reveal the existence
of the radiation belts - concentrations of electrically charged particles.
Van Allen (born 7 Sep 1914) was also featured
on the cover of the 4 May 1959 Time magazine for this discovery.
He was the principal investigator on 23 other space probes. |
| Neptune moon | |
(source) |
In 1949, Gerard Kuiper
discovered Nereid, the second satellite of Neptune, the outermost and the
third largest of Neptune's known satellites. (Orbit: ave 5,513,400 km,
diameter: 340 km). Nereid's orbit is the most highly eccentric of any planet
or satellite in the solar system; its distance from Neptune varies from
1,353,600 to 9,623,700 kilometers. Nereid's odd orbit indicates that it
may be a captured asteroid or Kuiper Belt object. The name, Nereid
refers to the sea
nymphs who dwell in the Mediterranean sea, the 50 daughters of Nereus
and Doris. Kuiper, a Dutch-American astronomer (1905-1973) also studied
the surface of the Moon; discovered Miranda, a moon of Uranus; and found
an atmosphere on Titan, a moon of Saturn. |
| Air Radar | |
|
In 1947, the first U.S. radar for commercial and private planes was first
demonstrated at Culver City, California on a TWA airplane. In the cockpit,
both a bright red panel light and a horn warned the pilot if the plane
was not at a safe distance from obstacles to flight. The device was developed
at the Hughes Aircraft Corp. by Howard Robard Hughes and a team of electronic
engineers. |
|
| Sea Radar | |
|
In 1946, the first radar on a commercial ship operated by an American company
began service with the maiden voyage of the S.S. African Star of the American
South African Line. The Mariner equipment, supplied by the General
Electric Co., had been installed on board the ship a few days earlier. |
|
| Boulder Dam | |
|
In 1935, Boulder Dam was finished after 4 years and 354 days. |
|
| Empire State Building | |
1934 (source) |
In 1931, the Empire State Building
in New York City was dedicated
by President Hoover from the White House in Washington D.C. where he pressed
a button that switched on the lights. The 102 story skyscraper, at the
corner of Fifth Avenue and 34th Street in New York City, was the first
higher than 1,250 feet. Excavation had begun in Jan 1930 of the following
year, construction commenced in two months later, and its cornerstone
was laid in Sep 1930. The steel framework rose at a rate of 4-1/2 stories
per week. The building's construction was completed in a phenomenal one
year and 45 days. It reigned as the world's tallest skyscraper until 1954,
but it still remains an icon for all things New York. |
| Recordak | |
1960s (source) |
In 1927, the Recordak, the first check photographing device began
commercial manufacture by the Recordak Corporation, a newly-formed subsidiary
of the Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester, NY. Designed to simplify bank records,
the machine photographed checks onto 16mm film. It was invented by George
Lewis McCarthy, who called it a Checkograph and was issued his patent
on 25 Feb 1930 (No. 1,748,489). By 1935, it was also used in libraries
for the purpose of making microfilm records, beginning with the New York
Public Library photographing the New York Times of the WWI period.
Microfilming itself began in the early 1800s. Microphotography
for military purposes was first used in the Franco-Prussian war (1870 ). |
| Iodized salt | |
(source) |
In 1924, the first iodized table salt in the U.S. went on sale at grocers
in Michigan state. The table salt contained 0.01% sodium iodide as a dietary
supplement, since an adequate intake of iodine reduces the incidence of
goiter (major swelling of the thyroid gland in the neck.) Diamond Crystal
Salt, and four other Michigan table salt companies agreed to add the trace
of iodine compound to their product at the urging of the Michigan State
Medical Society, initiated and led by David
Murray Cowie. At first reluctant, later in the year, Morton Salt Company
supplied the national market. The significant value of iodine for this
purpose had been determined by David
Marine. as a result of a trial (1917-22) on a large group of schoolgirls.«
[Image:
Morton's Iodized Salt container; detail from vintage advertising blotter.] |
| US radio navigation beacons | |
(source) |
In 1921, the first successful marine radio navigation beacons in the U.S.
began regular operation. They were first called radio fog signals. Three
stations
were installed by the U.S. Lighthouse Service to guide ships approaching
New York Harbor. These were the Ambrose Channel Lightship, Sea
Girt Light station and the Fire Island Lightship. N.Y. Government trials
of the radio fog signal transmitting sets began several years earlier in
1916, but the work was delayed during WW I. [Image:
Sea Girt Lighthouse, Sea Girt, N.J.] |
| Hydroelectricity | |
(source) |
In 1909, the first of five generating units was started in the power plant
at the Minidoka Dam
on the Snake
River in Idaho. This was the first hydroelectric power plant to be
built by the U.S. government. The first unit could generate 1,400 kilowatts
of electricity. Minidoka Dam was originally designed and constructed without
a powerplant and was completed in 1907. The powerplant
and three pumping plants were added shortly afterwards. The original Minidoka
Powerplant is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. |
| US Pan-American Exposition Stamps | |
(source) |
In 1901, a series of six two-colour U.S. stamps was issued
to promote the Pan-American Exposition World's Fair opening the same day
at Buffalo, New York. Various forms of transport were illustrated. The
1¢ "Fast Lake Navigation" stamp shows the steamshipCity
of Alpena which operated along the Great Lakes. The 2¢ "Fast Express"
stamp portrays the Empire State Express of the New York Central
and Hudson River Railroads. The 4¢ "Automobile" features an electric
automobile. The 5¢ "Bridge at Niagara Falls" stamp shows what was
then the world's largest single span steel bridge, over the Niagara Falls.
The 8¢ shows the "Canal Locks at Sault de Ste. Marie." The steamship
St.
Paul is on the 10¢ "Fast Ocean Navigation" stamp.« |
| Electric railroad engine | |
|
In 1895, an electric engine for passenger trains began regular use on the
Baltimore and Ohio railroad, Maryland. This was already the first railroad
in the U.S. to use an electric engine instead of a steam engine in regular
service for freight trains (beginning 4 Aug 1894), which travelled on a
route 3.6 miles through the Baltimore tunnel. It was also the first U.S.
railroad where an electric locomotive made a trial round trip on 29 Apr
1851, on the Washington branch of the B&O Railroad, travelling five
miles each way between Washington, DC and Bladensburg, Md. However, this
earliest trial used galvanized storage batteries, which could not be practical
for great distances. |
|
| Electric railway | |
|
In 1894, black American inventor, W.B. Purvis patented an "Electric Railway"
No. 519,291. This was just one of several patents obtained in his life.
Others covered a magnetic car balancing device, electric railway switch,
ten for paper bag machines. His earliest patents were for a bag fastener,
a hand stamp, and a fountain pen. |
|
| Kapok | |
(source) |
In 1893, kapok (a textile) was first exhibited in the U.S. as a commercial
product by the Netherlands in the Agriculture building at the World's Columbian
Exposition in Chicago, Ill. The Book of the Fair referred
to it. "Somewhat of a curiosity is the Java kapok, a fibre used for bed-filling,
and for which are claimed the advantages of remarkable elasticity and lightness."
It had already been used in Europe for a number of years. The water and
decay resistant fibre is obtained from the tropical kapoktree
seeds. Before the development of synthetic fibres, it was used for stuffing,
such as in life-jackets,
and for sound or heat insulation.
 The
Great Kapok Tree: A Tale of the Amazon Rain Forest, by
Lynne Cherry |
| Aspirin | |
|
In 1889, Bayer introduced aspirin in powder form (Germany). |
|
| Electric locomotive trial | |
|
In 1888, a trial of the first electric freight locomotive in the U.S. took
place on the Ansonia, Derby and Birmingham Electric Line, Connecticut.
The 17.5 ton engine could pull a train of about 35 tons, but at less than
10 mph. It was built by the Pullman Car Co. of Pullman, Ill. |
|
| Tesla patents | |
|
In 1888, Nikola Tesla was issued several patents relating to the induction
magnetic motor, alternating current (AC) sychronous motor, AC transmission
and electricity distribution (Nos. 381,968-70; 382,279-82) |
|
| First skyscraper | |
|
In 1884, construction began in Chicago, Illinois, on the first skyscraper,
the ten-story steel-skeleton Home Insurance Company of New York (The
use of a steel skeleton made the building of skyscrapers possible, for
the frame carries the entire weight of the building, instead of the walls
themselves supporting the entire weight.) Designed by Major William Le
Baron Jenney, marble was used on the walls of the building, with four columns
of polished granite supporting a a marble balcony. Work was finished in
the fall of 1885. Later, two more stories were added. |
|
| Shutter patent | |
|
In 1883, black American inventor J. Cooper was issued a patent for his
invention, "Shutter and Fastening" (No. 276,563). In the next few years,
he also patented elevator devices. |
|
| Shaving mug patent | |
|
In 1860, a patent for the shaving mug was granted to Thomas E. Hughes. |
|
| Great Exhibition | |
(source) |
In 1851, the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations opened
in Hyde Park, London, England. This was the first international exhibition
to be held in any country. Housed in Paxton's magnificent Crystal
Palace, it provided a showcase for many thousands of inventions. The
legacy
of the Great Exhibition of 1851, still lives on today. Several great institutions
were founded with the profits, including the Victoria and Albert Museum
and Imperial College. Scholarships which were setup and still continue
reaped an immense contribution to the world's body of knowledge. Recipients
included several Nobel prize winnners: one scholarship went to Rutherford,
a son of a New Zealand farmer.
The
Great Exhibition of 1851, by Louise Purbrick |
| Telegraph register | |
(source) |
In 1849, a telegraph register was patented by Samuel
F. B.Morse (No. 6,420). Although Morse first thoughts of an electromagnetic
telegraph
(1832) led to building an experimental version (1835), he constructed his
first truly practical system in 1844. That line ran from Baltimore to Washington,
DC. This patent incorporates the basic features of the 1844 receiver and
a method for marking dots and dashes on paper. Within ten years after the
first telegraph line opened, 23,000 miles of wire crisscrossed the country.
The invention profoundly affected the development of the West, made railroad
travel safer, and allowed businessmen to conduct their operations more
profitably.
Lightning
Man: The Accursed Life of Samuel F. B. Morse, by Kenneth
Silverman. |
| English mammoth | |
|
In 1823, the skeleton of a mammoth was found in England. |
|
| Linnaeus publishes plant names | |
|
In 1753, Carolus
Linnaeus published the first edition of his Species Plantarum
in which he gave systematic names to plants that are still in use today.
He was a Swedish botanist and explorer who was the first to frame principles
for defining genera and species of organisms and to create a uniform system
for naming them. Thus, he is often called the father of classification,
and he extended the familiar scheme of dual Latin names to identify animals
in 1758. The Species Plantarum was taken by international consent
in 1905 as the starting point for modern botanical nomenclature. |
|
| Salt from sea water | |
|
In 1683, a patent was awarded in England on this day for the extraction
of salt from sea water. |
|
| Copernicus publishes | |
|
In 1543, Copernicus circulated "The Little Commentary," showing the heliocentricity
of the Solar System. |
|
