| JUNE 27 - BIRTHS | |
| Daniel Gray Quillen | |
 Born 27
Jun 1940
American mathematician who was awarded the Fields Medal in 1978 for contribution of geometric and topological techniques to the study of algebraic K-theory. |
|
| Merle Antony Tuve | |
(source) |
Born 27
Jun 1901; died 20 May 1982.
American research physicist and geophysicist who (with Gregory Breit) made the first use pulsed radio waves to explore the ionosphere. He devised the necessary detecting equipment to measure the time between receiving a direct radio pulse and a second pulse reflected from the ionosphere. The observations he made provided the theoretical foundation for the development of radar. Tuve, with Lawrence R. Hafstad and Norman P. Heydenburg, made the first and definitive measurements of the nuclear force between proton-proton force at nuclear distances. During WW II he developed the proximity fuse. Following the war, he made important contributions to experimental seismology, radio astronomy, and optical astronomy.« |
| Pierre Montet | |
| Born 27
Jun 1885; died 19 June 1966.
French Egyptologist who conducted major excavations of the New Empire (c. 1567-c. 525 BC) capital at Tanis, in the Nile Delta, discovering, in particular, funerary treasures from the 21st and 22nd dynasties. |
|
| Heber Doust Curtis | |
| Born 27
Jun 1872; died 9 Jan 1942
American astronomer whose study of nebulae indicated they lay far outside our own galaxy. After his early work measuring radial velocities of the brighter stars, he turned in 1910 to study spiral nebulae which he believed were isolated independent star systems. By 1917, from study of nebula photography he concluded the nebulae lay well beyond our galaxy. He estimated the Andromeda nebula to be 500,000 light-years away. At a meeting of the National Academy of Sciences (1920) he engaged in a famous debate with Harlow Shapley who proposed that our galaxy was 300,000 light-years in diameter and included the spiral nebulae. In 1924, when Edwin Hubble confirmed that the Andromeda nebula was, in fact, far beyond our own galaxy. |
|
| Frank Rattray Lillie | |
(source) |
Born 27
Jun 1870; died 5 Nov 1947
American zoologist and embryologist, known for his discoveries concerning the fertilization of the egg (ovum) and the role of hormones in sex determination. In 1914, Lillie hypothesized the existence of a substance, fertilizin, in the jelly coat of eggs which causes sperm cells to clump together. In 1916, he demonstrated the role of sex hormones in freemartinism. His embryological investigations reached into all aspects of cellular and embryonic development. He is best known for his dedicated efforts in shaping the Marine Biological Laboratory and the Oceanographic Institute at Woods Hole, Mass. He wrote The Development of the Chick (1908), a leading embryology text, and The Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory (1944). Image: 28-hour chick embryo. |
| Hans Spemann | |
| Born 27
Jun 1869; died 12 Sep 1941
German embryologist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine (1935) for his discovery of the effect now known as embryonic induction. This is the influence exercised by various parts of the embryo that directs the development of groups of cells into particular tissues and organs. Working extensively on the early development of the newt, he showed that the in the earliest stage, tissues may be transplanted to different areas of the embryo, and it then develops based on the new location and not from where it came. For example, early tissue cut from an area of nervous tissue might be moved to an area of skin tissue where it then grows into the same form as the surrounding skin. |
|
| Augustus De Morgan | |
(source) |
Born 27
Jun 1806; died 18 Mar 1871.
Indian-born English mathematician and logician who did important work in abstract symbolic logic, the theory of relations, and formulated De Morgan's laws: one is "NOT (A AND B) = (NOT A) or (NOT B)" and the other is "NOT (A OR B) = (NOT A) AND (NOT B)". These laws continue to be applied in modern proof theory and for software programming. When he defined and introduced the term "mathematical induction" (1838), he gave the process a rigorous basis and clarity that it had previously lacked. He originated the use of the slash to represent fractions, as in 1/5 or 3/7. In Trigonometry and Double Algebra (1849) he gave a geometric interpretation of complex numbers.« 
 Memoir
of Augustus De Morgan, by Sophia Elizabeth (Frend) De
Morgan. |
| Thomas Say | |
(source) |
Born 27
Jun 1787; died 10 Oct 1834.
American self-taught naturalist often considered to be the founder of descriptive entomology in the United States. His taxonomic work was quickly recognized by European zoologists. Say was a founding member of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. He was chief zoologist of Major Stephen Long's exploring expedition to the tributaries of the Missouri River in 1819 and in 1823 for the expedition to the headwaters of the Mississippi. During the 1819 expedition, Say first described the coyote, swift fox, western kingbird, band-tailed pigeon, Say's phoebe, rock wren, lesser goldfinch, lark sparrow, lazuli bunting, and orange-crowned warbler. His important work, American Entomology, remains a classic. He also wrote on paleontology and conchology. [Note: Some sources give his birth date as 27 July 1787*.] |
| Alexis Bouvard | |
(source) |
Born 27
Jun 1767; died 7 June 1843
French astronomer and director of the Paris Observatory, who is noted for discovering eight comets and writing Tables astronomiques of Jupiter and Saturn (1808) and of Uranus (1821). Bouvard's tables accurately predicted orbital locations of Jupiter and Saturn, but his tables for Uranus failed, leading him to hypothesize that irregularities were caused by an unknown perturbing body. This spurred observations leading to the discovery of Neptune by Adams and Leverrier. |
|
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| JUNE 27 - DEATHS | |
| Zheng Zuoxin | |
(source) |
 Died
27 Jun 1998 (born 18 Nov 1906)
(a.k.a. Tso-Hsin Cheng) Chinese ornithologist, considered the founder of modern Chinese ornithology, who was internationally renowned for his scientific study of birds. His love of nature and the colorful forest birds began in his childhood, when he learned to identify many birds by their calls. He did graduate work in the U.S. leading to a doctorate in Jun 1930, then returned to China. He spent 60 years doing field work and research in ornithology and conservation. In 1934 he co-founded the China Zoological Society. He was the deputy-director of Beijing Museum of Natural History. His 30 books, including the first checklist of Chinese birds. In 1987, his book A Synopsis of the Avifauna of China was published in English translation.« A
Synopsis of the Avifauna of China, by Zheng Zuoxin. |
| Maxie Anderson | |
Double Eagle II (source) |
Died
27 Jun 1983 (born 10 Sep 1934)
Maxie Leroy "Max" Anderson who (with fellow Albuquerque, NM, residents Ben Abruzzo and Larry Newman) made the first transatlantic balloon flight aboard their Double Eagle II balloon, 3108 miles from Presque Isle, Maine to Miserey, France. After a dozen failed attempts, their successful crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by gas balloon was achieved 11-16 August 1978, (landing 17 Aug), setting a new duration record with a flight time of 137 hours. Two years later, 12-18 May 1980, with his son Kristian, he made the first nonstop balloon flight across North America. This record helium balloon flight aboard the Kitty Hawk began at San Francisco, California, lasted four days and ended near Matane, Quebec, Canada, 3,100 miles from their launch site. His later round-the-world attempts failed. He was killed in 1983 when refused permission to fly across the East German border and a faulty release clamp used at landing caused them to crash. |
| Louis Winslow Austin | |
(source) |
Died
27 Jun 1932 (born 30 Oct 1867)
American physicist known for research on long-range radio transmissions. In 1904 he began work on radio transmissions for the U.S. Bureau of Standards. In 1908 Austin became head of a naval radiotelegraphy laboratory (later to become the Naval Research Laboratory) and became chief of the bureau's laboratory for special radio transmission research (1923-32). His work involved long-range transmission experiments, most notably a study (1910) that tested radio contact between ships travelling between the US and Liberia. Austin and collaborator Louis Cohen developed the Austin-Cohen formula for predicting the strength of radio signals at long distances. Austin's later work centred on the study of radio atmospheric disturbances, i.e., "static." |
| Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz | |
(source) |
Died
27 Jun 1907 (born 5 Dec 1822)
(née Cary) U.S. naturalist and educator who was the first president of Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Mass. She married the Swiss naturalist, Louis Agassiz, in 1850. They traveled together on scientific expeditions, and founded the Anderson school of Natural History, a Marine laboratory, located on Penikese Island in Buzzard's Bay, Mass. When her husband died in1873, Elizabeth became interested in the idea of college for women to be taught by the "Harvard Annex" in Cambridge. In 1894 the Annex became Radcliffe College. She served as president until 1899, then honorary president until 1903. Her books include A First Lesson in Natural History (1859), A Journey in Brazil (1867) |
| Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg | |
| Died
27 Jun 1876 (born 19 Apr 1795)
German biologist, microscopist, scientific explorer, and a founder of micropaleontology - the study of fossil microorganisms. He advanced the view that all animals, from the most minute to the largest, possess complete organ systems, such as muscles, sex organs, and stomachs; he believed his concept of "complete organisms" (later refuted by Félix Dujardin) disproved both the theory of spontaneous generation and the validity of the traditional arrangement of animals in a simple-to-complex series. Arguing that a single "ideal type" may be applied to all animals, he worked toward a comprehensive system of classification. He used social behaviour as an important criterion, but he placed humans apart from other animals on the basis of intelligence. |
|
| Sophie Germain | |
(source) |
Died
27 Jun 1831 (born 1 Apr 1776)
French mathematician who is known for her work in number theory and contributions to the applied mathematics of acoustics and elasticity. Germain was self-taught from books, and from lecture notes supplied by male friends attending the Ecole Polytechnique which she, as a woman, was not permitted to attend. Using a male pseudonym, M. LeBlanc, she corresponded with Lagrange who recognised her skill, and subsequently sponsored her work. She accomplished a limited proof of Fermat's last theorem, for any prime under 100 where certain conditions were met. In 1816, she won a prize sponsored by Napoleon for a mathematical explanation of Chladni figures, the vibration of elastic plates. She died at age 55, from breast cancer.« Sophie
Germain: An Essay in the History of the Theory of Elasticity,
by L.L. Bucciarelli, N. Dworsky. |
| James Smithson | |
| Died
27 Jun 1829 (born 1765)
English scientist who provided funds in his will for the founding of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge." He had inherited his fortune chiefly through his mother's family. He was a chemist and minerologist who published 27 scientific papers. The mineral smithsonite (carbonate of zinc) was named for him. |
|
| JUNE 27 - EVENTS | |
| Seasat | |
In 1978, Seasat, an experimental U.S. ocean surveillance satellite was
launched. Each day, Seasat made 14 orbits of the Earth, and in a
period of 36 hours was able to monitor nearly 96% of the oceanic surface.
The measurement equipment on board was able to penetrate cloud cover and
report measurements such as wave height, water temperature, currents, winds,
icebergs, and coastal characteristics. Although it operated for only 99
days before a power failure, it had already shown the viability of
the use of a satellite for collecting oceanic data. The information collected
was shared with scientists and was used to aid transoceanic travel
by ships and aircraft. |
|
| Asteroid imaged | |
|
In 1997, The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraftpassed within
1,200 km (750 mi) of asteroid Mathilde and took many multispectral images.
It was on course to the asteroid Eros, which it was to orbit in 1999 and
study for approximately a year. |
|
| Pole in orbit | |
|
In 1978, the Soviets put a Polish astronomer in orbit on Salyut 6. |
|
| Erasable ink pen | |
|
In 1978, the first pen with truly erasable ink, the Gillette Eraser
Mate, was invented. |
|
| Chlorophyll synthesized | |
|
In 1960, chlorophyll "a" was first synthesized by Robert Burns Woodward.
This molecule consists of 55 carbon atoms linked with 72 hydrogen atoms,
5 atoms of oxygen and 1 atom of magnesium. The research was performed at
the Converse Memorial Laboratory of Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. |
|
| Atomic power | |
(source) |
In 1954, the world's first atomic power station began producing electricity
in Obninsk, U.S.S.R., a small
town 60 miles south of Moscow. The plant used a small, graphite moderated,
water-cooled reactor, and could produce 5 megawatts. The reactor was used
for both civilan power needs and also military purposes, such as research
into the possibility of propelling submarines with nuclear power. It generated
electricity until 1968, but continued in use for experiments and to warm
the town's centrally distributed hot water supply. Final shutdown took
place in 2002 for reason of being unprofitable.«  [Image
(click
to enlarge ): Control room in the Obninsk nuclear power plant.] |
| Baird TV | |
|
In 1932, in Britain, the Baird Laboratories exhibited a range of domestic
TV sets. The screen size was 9 inches by 4 inches.* |
|
| Telegraph | |
 |
In 1847, New York and Boston were linked by telegraph wires. This enabled
the New York newspapers to receive foreign news brought by Cunard's steamers
to the Boston port about 190 miles away. When the Cambria next arrived
in Boston, three New York Newspapers on 18 Jul 1846 carried identical brief
first-day telegraphic summaries of the Cambia's news*.
This telegraph link opened three years after the first U.S. telegraph line
was opened on 24 May 1844 with
a message sent by Samuel Morse 80 miles
from Washington D.C. and Baltimore, Md.« [Image:
The elegraph key and receiver used by Morse on 24 May 1844.] |
