| JUNE 8 - BIRTHS | |
| Tim Berners-Lee | |
(source) |
 Born 8
Jun 1955
English computer scientist who invented the World Wide Web and director of the World Wide Web Consortium, which oversees its continued development. In 1984, he took up a fellowship at CERN, to work on distributed real-time systems for scientific data acquisition and system control. While there , in 1989, he proposed a global hypertext project, to be known as the World Wide Web, which permitted people to collaborate by sharing knowledge in a web of hypertext documents. On 6 Aug 1991, the first World Wide Web site was made available to the Internet at large, giving information on a browser and how to set up a Web server. He then expanded its reach, always nonprofit, to become an international mass medium.«  Weaving
the Web: The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web,
by Tim Berners-Lee. |
| Eric F. Wieschaus | |
(source) |
Born 8
Jun 1947
American developmental biologist who shared the 1995 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, with geneticists Edward B. Lewis and Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, for discovering the genetic controls of early embryonic development. Wieschaus worked together with Nüsslein-Volhard examining mutations in 40,000 fruit fly families. They discovered (1980) that about 5,000 of the fly's 20,000 genes are important to embryonic development and about 140 are essential. They formed the widely accepted model that three sets of genes control subdivision in the developing embryo: gap genes, pair-rule genes and segment-polarity genes. Their work helped scientists to better understand congenital mutations in other animals, including humans. |
| Kenneth Geddes Wilson | |
(source) |
Born 8
June 1936
American physicist who was awarded the 1982 Nobel Prize for Physics for his development of a general procedure for constructing improved theories concerning the transformations of matter called continuous, or second-order, phase transitions. These take place at characteristic temperatures (or pressures), but unlike first-order transitions they occur throughout the entire volume of a material as soon as that temperature (called the critical point) is reached. One example of such a transition is the complete loss of ferromagnetic properties of certain metals when they are heated to their Curie points (about ºC for iron). Wilson's work provided a mathematical strategy for constructing theories that could apply to physical systems near the critical point. |
| Francis Crick | |
(source) |
Born 8
Jun 1916; died 28 Jul 2004.
Francis Harry Compton Crick was a British biophysicist, who, with James Watson and Maurice Wilkins, received the 1962 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for their determination of the molecular structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), the chemical substance ultimately responsible for hereditary control of life functions. Crick and Watson began their collaboration in 1951, and published their paper on the double helix structure on 2 Apr 1953 in Nature. This accomplishment became a cornerstone of genetics and was widely regarded as one of the most important discoveries of 20th-century biology. What
mad pursuit: A personal view of scientific discovery,
by Francis Crick. |
| Arsène d' Arsonval | |
(source) |
Born 8
Jun 1851; died 31 Dec 1940.
Jacques-Arsène d' Arsonval was a French physician and physicist known for his researches in electrotherapy. He introduced the first reflecting moving-coil galvanometers used to measure weak electric currents (1882), invented mechanisms to obtain high-frequency currents used to treat diseases of the skin and mucous membranes ("d'Arsonvalization"; 1890), and demonstrated how a human being could conduct an alternating current strong enough to light an electric lamp (1892). |
| Franklin Hiram King | |
1893 (source) |
Born 8
Jun 1848; died 4 Aug 1911.
American agricultural scientist who promoted use of the cylindrical tower silo and invented a gravity system of ventilation for dairy barns that was widely used until electrically powered blowers became commonly available. He researched in wide-ranging applications of physics to agriculture. Especially interested in soil physics, he studied water-holding capacities, moisture requirements of plants, aeration, movement of water in soils, and soil fertility. King demonstrated that cylindrical silo structures were not only the strongest form, but also reduced spoilage. He studied the efficiency of farm machinery and the draft of farm implements, the construction of rural roads, and the first year-long study of the power generated by farm windmills. |
| Sir Charles Tilston Bright | |
(source) |
Born 8
Jun 1832; died 3 May 1888.
British engineer who superintended the laying of the first Atlantic telegraph cable. He supervised the laying of hundreds of miles of underground telegraph cables, throughout the British Isles, including the first cable under the sea between Scotland and Ireland, when just 21. He joined the new Atlantic Telegraph company as chief engineer to lay the first transatlantic cable. The first attempt (1857) ended when the cable broke 280 miles off the coast. The second attempt, a year later and was initially successful but with a weak electric signal. On 16 Aug 1858, Queen Victoria sent a message to U.S. President James Buchanan. This cable failed within a few weeks. He acted as consulting engineer for the second and third transatlantic cables of 1865 and 1866. |
| Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie | |
(source) |
Born 8
Jun 1783; died 21 Oct 1862.
(1st Baronet) British physiologist and surgeon whose name is applied to certain diseases of the bones and joints. As one of the outstanding surgeons of 19th-century London, he opposed the prevailing practice of indiscriminate amputation, always trying to save the limb instead. He pioneered the surgery of varicose veins. In 1814, he described synovitis in the knee joint,and in 1843 a tuberculous abscess in the head of the tibia, Brodie's abscess. He lectured on hysterical pain;. Brodie’s knee came to refer to a condition of stiff knees frequently observed in hysterical patients. In his research, using animals, he disproved the chemical theory of animal heat, which held that respiration was the immediate source of heat production. |
| Robert Stevenson | |
(source) |
Born 8
Jun 1772; died 12 Jul 1850.
Scottish civil engineer who in 1797 succeeded his stepfather, Thomas Smith, as a member of the Scottish Lighthouse Board. In that capacity until 1843, he designed and built lighthouses (1797-1843). His first and greatest was the lighthouse at Bell Rock. Subsequently he established a civil engineering practice involved at first in canal, road and rail projects, and later maritime, river and bridge work. As chief executive of the Northern Lighthouse Board (1808-43) he was responsible for the construction and design of at least 23 lighthouses on the Scottish Coastline. He invented intermittent and flashing lights as well as the hydrophore (an instrument for obtaining specimens from water). The writer Robert Louis Stevenson was his grandson. |
| John Smeaton | |
(source) |
Born 8
Jun 1724; died 28 Oct 1792.
English civil engineer, who coined the term "civil engineering" (to distinguish from military engineers). He built the third Eddystone Lighthouse, Plymouth, Devon, using dovetailed blocks of portland stone (1756-59). He discovered the best mortar for underwater construction to be limestone with a high proportion of clay. Smeaton also constructed the Forth and Clyde Canal in Scotland between the Atlantic and the North Sea; built bridges in towns including Perth, Banff, and Coldstream, Scotland; and completed Ramsgate harbour, Kent. He introduced cast-iron shafts and gearing into wind and water mills, designed large atmospheric pumping engines for mines, and improved the safety of the diving bell.) Smeaton's
Tower, by Christopher Severn. |
| William Dampier | |
(source) |
Born 8
Jun 1652; died Mar 1715.
English navigator who recorded descriptions of native cultures as well as coastlines, rivers, and villages during his several voyages of mapping and exploration around the world. He published these, along with natural history observations, including his experience on 4 Jul 1687 when his ship survived a typhoon. This, one of the earliest known European descriptions of a tropical revolving storm, also presented a new understanding that storms somehow move, rather than remain stationary. He collected plants in Brazil, Australia, Timor and New Guinea. His book A New Voyage Round The World contained descriptions of people, places, things, plants, fish, reptiles, birds and mammals. In effect he was an early contributor to scientific exploration.« 
William
Dampier, Seaman, Scientist, by Joseph C. Shipman. |
| Giovanni Domenico Cassini | |
(source) |
Born 8
Jun 1625; died 14 Sep 1712.
(a.k.a. Gian Domenico Cassini) Italian-born French astronomer who in 1675 discovered Cassini's division, the dark gap subdividing Saturn's rings into two parts. He stated that Saturn's ring, believed by Huygens to be a single body, was actually composed of small particles. Cassini also discovered four of Saturn's moons: Iapetus (Sep 1671), Rhea (1672) and on 21 Mar 1684,* Tethys and Dione. He compiled new tables (1662) on the annual motion of the Sun. He observed shadows of four Galilean satellites on Jupiter (1664), and measured its rotation period by studying the bands and spots on its surface. He determined the period of rotation of Mars (1666), and attempted the same for Venus. His son Jacques was also an astronomer.« |
|
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| JUNE 8 - DEATHS | |
| Maria Reiche | |
(source) |
 
Died 8 Jun 1998 (born 15 May 1903)
German-born Peruvian mathematician and archaeologist who was the self-appointed keeper of the Nazca Lines, a series of desert ground drawings over 1,000 years old, near Nazcain in southern Peru. For 50 years the "Lady of the Lines" studied and protected these etchings of animals and geometric patterns in 60 km (35 mi) of desert. Protected by a lack of wind and rain, the figures are hundreds of feet long best seen from the air. She investigated the Nazca lines from a mathematical point of view. Death at age 95 interrupted her new mathematical calculations: the possibility that the lines predicted cyclical natural phenomena like El Nino, a weather system that for centuries has periodically caused disastrous flooding along the Peruvian coast. [Image right: source ] |
| Abraham Harold Maslow | |
(source) |
Died
8 Jun 1970 (born 1 Apr 1908)
Abraham Harold Maslow was a U.S. psychologist who believed that man has a natural drive to healthiness, and developed this into his self-actualization theory of psychology. Thus, man knows more than his physical needs to maintain health, but also knows intuitively what he needs to become mentally healthy and happy. In his early career, working with monkeys, he observed that some needs take precedence over others, for example, thirst takes priority over hunger. Later, he created his now famous hierarchy of needs. Beyond the details of air, water, food, and sex, he laid out five broader layers: physiological needs, needs for safety and security, needs for love and belonging, needs for esteem, and the need to actualize the self, in that order.« The
Farther Reaches of Human Nature, by Abraham H. Maslow. |
| Eugène Freyssinet | |
(source) |
Died
8 Jun 1962 (born 13 July 1879)
Marie-Eugène-Léon Freyssinet was a French civil engineer who successfully developed pre-stressed concrete, that is, concrete beams or girders in which steel wire is embedded under tension, greatly strengthening the concrete member. The prestressing technique was devised to overcome difficulties in executing curved shapes in reinforced concrete. More an engineer than an architect, Freyssinet began creating innovative architecture using reinforced concrete as his main material, such as airship hangars at Orly Airport, France (1921), bridges and industrial buildings. His first use of pre-stressed concrete was for the renovation of the transatlantic pier at Le Havre (1933-35). |
| Augusto Righi | |
(source) |
Died
8 Jun 1920 (born 27 Aug 1850)
Italian physicist who showed that radio waves displayed characterics of light wave behaviour in the manner of reflection, refraction, polarization and interference. Thus the nature of radio waves was similar to light, but with the difference of greater wavelength and a part of the same electromagnetic spectrum as light. He discovered magnetic hysteresis (1880). He was the first person to generate microwaves, and opened a whole new area of the electromagnetic spectrum to research and subsequent application. By 1900 also began work on X-rays. In 1903 he wrote the first paper on wireless telegraphy. His improvements on the work of Hertz were passed along to Guglielmo Marconi, who studied in Righi’s laboratory. |
| John Scott Russell | |
(source) |
Died
8 Jun 1882 (born 8 May 1808)
British civil engineer best known for researches in ship design. He designed the first seagoing battleship built entirely of iron. He was the first to record an observation of a soliton, while conducting experiments to determine the most efficient design for canal boats. In Aug 1834, he observed what he called the "Wave of Translation," a solitary wave formed in the narrow channel of a canal which continues ahead after a canal boat stops. He also made the first experimental observation of the "Doppler shift" of sound frequency as a train passes (1848). He designed (with Brunel) the Great Eastern and built it; he designed the Vienna Rotunda and helped to design Britain's first armoured warship, the Warrior. |
| Sir Joseph Paxton | |
(source) |
Died 8 Jun 1865 (born 3 Aug 1801)
English architect who designed the Crystal Palace for the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London. In 1832, Paxton became Manager to the Duke of Devonshire's estates where he created lakes, arboreta, and greenhouses. Between 1836-40 he designed and built a large greenhouse, at the time the largest glass building in the world. In 1844 he constructed the "emperor fountain", at 280 feet the tallest in Europe. He also built a second smaller glasshouse for a giant Amazonian lily where it flowered in 1849, the first time ever in cultivation. Paxton's superiority in conservatory design led to his work as the innovative architect of the Crystal Palace. He spent his later years in urban planning projects. [Image right: (source)] |
| Walter Hunt | |
(source) |
Died 8 Jun 1859 (born 29 July 1796)
American inventor who designed the first repeating rifle. Hunt began inventing in his late teens with a machine to spin flax, which he patented in 1826. He also invented a fire engine gong (1827), a forest saw, and a stove that burned hard coal. In 1834, he invented a sewing machine with a lock stitch, which he failed to patent until it was too late. Although his inventions were worthwhile, he failed to market them effectively. In 1849, Hunt made the first safety pin out of a piece of brass wire about eight inches long, coiled at the center and shielded at one end. He patented this invention as a "dress pin", and sold the rights to it for $400. His rifle design of 1849 had a tubular magazine beneath the barrel used with his previously-patented self-propelled "rocket" ball ammunition.« |
| Johann Winckelmann | |
(source) |
Died
8 Jun 1768 (born 9 Dec 1717)
Johann Joachim Winckelmann was a German archaeologist and art historian who is regarded as the father of modern archaeology because of his observations of the excavations of Pompeii and Herculaneum in Italy (made during three visits). The excavations, started in 1748, were carried out secretly to find art objects. Many artefacts and wall paintings were removed for the private collection of the Bourbon king Charles III (reigned 1759-88). Winckelmann protested the despoiling. He produced scholarly studies of archaeology and anquities and redefined archeology as a history of ancient art. For these, he is often credited with being the first modern art historian. He was murdered in Trieste by a former-convict cook while robbing him. |
| Christian Huygens | |
(source) |
Died
8 Jun 1695 (born 14 Apr 1629)
Dutch mathematician, astronomer, and physicist, who founded the wave theory of light, discovered the true shape of the rings of Saturn, and made original contributions to the science of dynamics - the study of the action of forces on bodies. Using a lens he ground for himself, Huygens detected, in 1655, the first moon of Saturn. In 1656 he patented the first pendulum clock, which he developed to meet the need for an exact measure of time while observing the heavens. Huygens studied the relation of the length of a pendulum to its period of oscillation (1673). This lead him to formulate theories on the centrifugal force in circular motion which would influence Sir Isaac Newton in formulating his Law of Gravity. Huygens also studied and drew the first maps of Mars.  Unrolling
Time : Christian Huygens and the Mathematization of Nature,
by Joella G. Yoder |
| JUNE 8 - EVENTS | |
| U.N. environmental agency formed | |
(source) |
In 1992, the U.N. Commission on Sustainable Development was created
as one of the most important accomplishments of the International Earth
Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Argentina. The agency was formed to monitor and
report on implementation of the Earth Summit agreements at the local, national,
regional and international levels. More than 100 heads of state signed
the Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological
Diversity; endorsed the Rio Declaration and the Forest Principles; and
adopted Agenda
21, a 300-page plan for achieving sustainable development in the 21st
century. |
| Test tube triplets | |
age 21 (source) |
In 1983, the first triplets resulting from in-vitro fertilization were
born at the Flinders Medical Centre in Adelaide, Australia, named
Aaron, Jessica, and Chenara Guare. As adults, 21 years later, they were
respectively a diesel mechanic apprentice, a cheerleader for Norwood Football
Club and a worker at National Pharmacies. Britain's first test-tube triplets
- a girl and two boys - were born to mother Anne Maaye on 21 Jan 1984,
while in the same year, the world's first test tube quadruplets were born
in Melbourne, Australia and the third set of test tube triplets in Australia
were born in Perth. [Image:
Guare triplets age 21] |
| U.S. missile mail | |
(source) |
In 1959, the first official U.S. missile
mail was launched from the submarine
USS Barbero at about 100
miles off the Atlantic Coast to the Mayport Auxiliary Naval Station near
Jacksonville, Florida. The 36-foot Regulus 1 winged missile carried
3,000 letters, delivering about 22 minutes after launch. The letters included
one from President Eisenhower. The mail
carried four-cent stamps. Rocket airmail in the U.S. had its first launch
in the U.S. on 23 Feb 1936 in an 11-foot rocket with 15-foot wingspread
fueled by liquid oxygen and alcohol.*Postmaster
General Arthur E. Summerfield declared
the experiment a success: "Before man reaches the moon, mail will be delivered
within hours from New York to California, to Britain, to India or Australia." |
| Propane locomotive | |
(source) |
In 1953, the first U.S. propane fuelled gas-turbine locomotive was placed
in service by the Union Pacific Railroad. It delivered more than 4,800
h.p. (more than three diesel units) and had the advantage of clean burning,
which kept the turbine blades free from carbon deposits with less wear.
Delivered in May 1953, UP 57 was a GE 4500 gas turbine electric locomotive
(GTEL) equipped
to burn propane, which required the . Road tests were run between Los Angeles
and Las Vegas. However, the high volatility of propane required extra safety
precautions for the pressurized tender, which seemed to offset
the advantages. So, although the test was considered a success, the locomotive
was converted back to burn residual fuel oil in Jan 1954. [Image
right (source)] |
| Neptunium | |
(source) |
In 1940, discovery of element 93, neptunium
(symbol Np) was announced by Edwin M. McMillan and Philip H. Abelson working
at the University of California at Berkeley. While studying nuclear fission,
McMillan had discovered neptunium as a decay product of uranium-239 by
beta decay. They were able to prove that its chemical and nuclear properties
were unique, and thus a new element. Its later isolation in metallic form
(Oct 1944) provided final proof. It was named neptunium after Neptune,
the planet immediately beyond Uranus. As the first element heavier than
uranium, it was called a transuranium element. For his discovery, McMillan
was
awarded
a share of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1951. [Image:
Edwin McMillan recreating the search for neptunium at the time of the announcement
of the discovery] |
| Titan Arum | |
(source) |
In 1937, a specimen of the world's largest flower, first bloomed
in the U.S. in the NY Botanical Garden. The giant Sumatran Titan Arum,
Amorphophallus
titanum, measured 8½-ft high and 4-ft diam. Its putrid
rotting-corpse fragrance repelled visitors. Native in Sumatran jungles
of Indonesia, it is known
there as the "corpse flower." Dr. Odoardo Beccari, an Italian botanist,
was the first western expert to find the Titan
Arum in the Pading Province during 1878. Seeds he sent back to his
patron, the Marchese Corsi Salviati were grown in Italy, and a few plants
were at Beccari's request sent to Kew Gardens in England in 1879. One of
those seedlings flowered in June 1887. Another plant bloomed there in 1926,
to wide attention. [Image: Titan
Arum in full bloom at Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden, 15 May 2001,
at 80-1/4 in. This is the first in the U.S. to produce a second bloom,
having first flowered at 5-ft in 1998.] |
| Nova | |
(source) |
In 1918, Nova Aquila, the brightest nova
since Kepler's nova of 1604,
was discovered in
the constellation
of Aquila the eagle, a 1st magnitude star 6 degrees north of the Scutum
star cloud. For the months that it shone, it was the brightest star in
the sky, briefly half a million times brighter than the sun, but seen from
1200 light years (70,000 trillion miles) away. Between 1899 and 1936 there
were 20 fairly bright novae,
and five of those were in this same small area of the sky, the constellation
Aquila. Seven years later Nova Aquila had faded to a bluish star
apparently much smaller and denser than our sun. (Aquila belonged to Zeus,
and was the eagle that carried the mortal Ganymede to the heavens to serve
as Zeus' cup bearer.) |
| Edison patent | |
(USPTO) |
In 1915, Thomas A. Edison received a patent on a "Sound-Recording Apparatus"
(U.S. No. 1,142,507) one of many patents he held in this field. This patent
presented improvements on this design as given in two earlier filings in
the same year. The apparatus described is a flexible circular diaphragm
bearing against a stylus at its centre that is held on a spring lever secured
to a rigid support. It was so designed to provide sensitivity for recording
sounds, whether weak or strong, and to record them more truly. The diaphragm
is mounted on a sensitive support across an opening in the sound box. Its
form is with a flexible annular portion and a stiff central region, to
cause movement similar to a piston. Suggested materials included acetyl
cellulose or paper. |
| U.S. National Conservation Commission | |
(source) |
In 1908, the U.S. National Conservation Commission was appointed
by President Roosevelt which prepared the first inventory of the natural
resources of the United States. It was divided into four sections, water,
forests, lands, and minerals, each section having a chairman, and with
Gifford
Pinchot as chairman of the executive committee. Its three-volume
report
was given at the the Joint Conservation Congress (Dec 1908), attended by
20 governors, representatives of 22 state conservation commissions, and
leaders from various national organzations. These were outcomes of the
three-day Conference of Governors which opened
at the White House on 13 May 1908, called by Roosevelt to consider the
problems of conservation.
[Image:
Gifford Pinchot] |
| U.S. postal card | |
|
In 1873, in the the first U.S. postal card was authorized under an Act
of Congress (17 Stat. L. 304) along with wider legislation by which the
existing U.S. Post Office Department became an executive department. On
a light buff card, about 3" x 5", a one cent stamp was printed in the upper
right-hand corner in velvet-brown. It showed the profile of the Goddess
of Liberty looking to the left and surrounded by an engraved border. The
were first issued 1 May 1873. The Liberty head was used until 24 Aug 1885,
when a postal card was issued showing a portrait of Thomas Jefferson. The
first U.S. airmail postcard was a four cent card issued 10 Jan 1949, printed
with stamp showing an orange-red eagle in flight. |
|
| Vacuum cleaner | |
 |
In 1869, Ives W. McGaffney of Chicago obtained the first American patent
for a "sweeping machine" (U.S. No. 91,145). This first suction-type vacuum
cleaner was a light hand-powered device for surface cleaning. The mechanism
consists of a handle to turn a pulley which uses a belt to drive a fan
in a casing, thus producing a strong current of air, "controlled to take
up dust and dirt, and carry the fine particles into a porous air-chamber,
so constructed as to allow the air to escape while the dust is retained."
The air-chamber could be "a bag made of fine and firm cotton, with an elastic
band or cord fixed in a hem around its mouth, which is drawn closely over
the discharge-opening of the fan." Its top end is suspended on a cross-bar
on the handle. |
| American ice cream | |
|
In 1786, the first commercially-made ice cream in the U.S. was advertised
in New York City by Mr. Hall of 76 Chatham Street (now Park Row). For non-commercial
production of ice-cream, an earlier date of 17 May 1784 is recorded
in George Washington's expense ledger for the purchase of "a cream machine
for ice".* |
|
| Achromatic lenses | |
(source) |
In 1758, optician John Dolland, having created achromatic lenses, reported
this to the Royal Society. Isaac Newton had described the blurring effect
due to chromatic abberation, but could not solve the problem in simple
lenses, which was important in the preparation of lenses for telescopes
and microscopes. A concave face of a lens of flint glass (which has a greater
color dispersion than crown glass) is cemented to a convex face of a crown
glass lens. Thus the dispersion properties causing chromatic aberration
are removed from both lenses simultaneously. Although Dollond patented
the discovery of the achromatic lens in the mid-18th century, it is widely
believed that he was not its inventor, but learned about it from lens maker
George Bass. |
| Descartes publishes | |
 |
In 1637, the book
Discourse on Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason, and Seeking Truth
in the Sciences, was published by René Descartes, regarded as
a major work in science and mathematics. He expresses his disappointment
with traditional philosophy and with the limitations of theology; only
logic, geometry and algebra hold his respect, because of the utter certainty
which they can offer. Ushering in the "scientific revolution" of Galileo
and Newton, Descartes' ideas swept aside ancient and medieval traditions
of philosophical methods and investigation.
Discourse
on Method by René Descartes |
| Lacking authentication: "In 1824, the washing machine was patented by Noah Cushing of Quebec." | |
