| JULY 8 - BIRTHS | |
| Henri Cartan | |
(source) |
 Born 8
July 1904
Henri (-Paul) Cartan, mathematician born in Nancy, France. His father, Elie Cartan, was also a mathematician. Henri made fundamental advances in the theory of analytic functions, worked on the theory of sheaves, homological theory, algebraic topology and potential theory. Along with others, such as Weil and Dieudonné, Henri Cartan wrote under the name Bourbaki. Bourbaki's Eléments de mathématique contains more than 30 volumes and aims to present mathematics so as to illustrate the axiomatic structure of modern mathematics. |
| Elisabeth Kubler-Ross | |
(source) |
Born 8
July 1926; died 24 Aug 2004.
Swiss-American psychiatrist who was a leading authority on the psychology of dying. She is best-known for twelve books, beginning with On Death and Dying (1969), in which she proposed that the terminally ill go through five stages in their attitude. These are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and, perhaps, acceptance. The book offers strategies for caregivers. The work grew from a seminar she founded at the Billings Hospital of the University of Chicago where dying patients talked about their thoughts upon the approach of death. The best-selling success of the book led her into a career of clinical practice to the treatment of dying patients of all ages. Her lectures changed institutional attitudes towards the terminally ill.«  On
Death and Dying, by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. |
| Audrey Richards | |
 |
Born 8
July 1899 (died 1984)
Audrey I(sabel) Richards, English social anthropologist, educator, researcher among several E. African peoples, esp. the Bemba. She did fieldwork in Northern Rhodesia (Zambia), Uganda, and the Transvaal. Among her subjects of study were social psychology, food culture, nutrition, agriculture, land use, and economic organization. She recorded, for example, how long it took to complete a typical task, such as building a fence or making a garden, average work days in different seasons, time to prepare food. |
| Igor Yevgenyevich Tamm | |
|
Born 8
July 1895 (died 12 Apr 1971)
Soviet physicist who shared the 1958 Nobel Prize for Physics with Pavel A. Cherenkov and Ilya M. Frank for his efforts in explaining Cherenkov radiation. Tamm was an outstanding theoretical physicist, after early researches in crystallo-optics, he evolved a method for interpreting the interaction of nuclear particles. Together with I. M. Frank, he developed the theoretical interpretation of the radiation of electrons moving through matter faster than the speed of light (the Cerenkov effect), and the theory of showers in cosmic rays. He has also contributed towards methods for the control of thermonuclear reactions. |
| Pyotr Kapitsa | |
(source) |
Born 8
July 1894; died 8 Apr 1984.
Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa, Russian physicist, was a corecipient of the 1978 Nobel Prize for Physics for his basic strong magnetic field inventions and discoveries in the area of low-temperature physics. He discovered that helium II (the stable form of liquid helium below 2.174 K, or -270.976 C) has almost no viscosity (i.e., resistance to flow). Late in the 1940's Kapitza changed his focus, inventing high power microwave generators - planotron and nigotron (1950-1955) and discovered a new kind of continuous high pressure plasma discharge with electron temperatures over a million K. |
| Alfred Binet | |
(source) |
Born 8
July 1857 (died 18 Oct 1911)
French experimental psychologist, the director of the psychological laboratory of the Sorbonne, Paris (1894). He made fundamental contributions to the measurement of intelligence.With Theodore Simon, Binet produced a series of graded tasks typical of the intellectual development of children of different ages (1905). This scale was extended (1908-11), and the tasks were assigned to the age level at which average children could manage them. Thus children could be scored for the level, or mental age, they reached. This test formed the basis for the Stanford-Binet Tests. |
| Sir Arthur Evans | |
|
Born 8
July 1851 (died 1941)
British archaeologist, born in Nash Mills, Hertfordshire. Evans first visited Crete in 1894 to study and decipher an unknown script seen on seal stones. He subsequently systematically excavated the Palace of Minos there, at Knossos (1900-31). A number of parts of the Palace were restored. Evans was convinced that most of the damage to the ancient palace was caused by earthquakes. His work brought him international fame for his intuition, imagination and scholarship. It is to him that we owe the discovery of the Minoan Civilisation. |
| Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin | |
 |
Born 8
July 1838; died 8 Mar 1917.
Germany aviation pioneer who built the first rigid dirigible airships, named Zeppelins. He patented his idea on 31 Aug 1895 and formed a company to build airships in 1898. Many thought his invention incredible, and called him "Foolish Count". His first airship took off in 2 Jul 1900 at Lake Constance, where it had been assembled in a floating assembly shed. He continued to improve the design and built a fleet of airships for commercial passenger service. During WW I, Zeppelins were used to bomb Britain beginning 19 Jan 1915 with attacks on Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn. After the war, passenger service included transatlantic flights. Zeppelin use ended after the 6 May 1937 Hindenburg fire disaster at Lakehurst, N.J., U.S.A.« |
| John S. Pemberton | |
|
Born 8
July 1831; died 16 Aug 1888
John Styth Pemberton was a pharmacist, who invented Coca-Cola in 1885. At first it was a tonic, French Wine Coca. Later he modified the formula by omitting the alcohol and adding other vegetable essences. The new syrup was meant to be a sure cure for headaches. On May 29, 1886 Coca-Cola was advertised for the first time in the Atlanta Daily. Pemberton later sold the recipe, equipment and machinery to manufacture the drink to Asa G. Candler for $1200. 
"For
God, Country, and Coca-Cola: The Definitive History of the Great American
Soft Drink and the Company That Makes It" by Mark Pendergrast. |
| Gabriel Gustav Valentin | |
(source) |
Born 8
July 1810; died 24 May 1883.
German-Swiss physiologist who was the first person to note the digestive activity of pancreatic juice (1844)*. With Purkinje, one of his medical school teachers, he discovered in 1834 that certain cells on the inner surface of the oviduct contained cilia, tiny threadlike structures that beat in coordinated fashion independently of the nervous system and thus force the ovum to move along the tube. They investigated the occurence of ciliated cells elesewhere among vertebrates)*. In 1836, he identified the neuron nucleus and nucleolus. In 1841 he was the first to observe one type of Trypanozoma (they are now know to cause sleeping sickness). The Valentin knife was named after him. [Image: Drawing of a neuron by Valentin, showing the protoplasm (a), the nucleus (c), the nucleolus (d) and the axonal cone (b)] |
| Samuel David Gross | |
|
Born 8
July 1805; died 1889.
Samuel David Gross, born nr. Easton, Pa., was a surgeon, teacherof medicine, and author of an influential textbook on surgery and the widely read Elements of Pathological Anatomy (1839). He was a prominent Philadelphia surgeon who pioneered methods for suturing nerves and tendons. Other specialties included operations for bladder stone and intestinal wounds; he invented new techniques and instruments. Later he served as president of the American Medical Association (1847). Thomas Eakins portrayed him in a famous painting, The Clinic of Dr. Gross (1875). |
| Dominique-Jean Larrey | |
| Born 8
July 1766; died 25 Jul 1842.
(Baron) French military surgeon in the service of Napoleon. Larrey was the first to note the contagiousness of trachoma (1802) and published the first description of trench foot (1812). He introduced to the battlefield: field hospitals, ambulance service, first-aid practices and the triage system of treating patients. Larrey introduced properly sprung horse-drawn carts to evacuate casualties quickly into newly established mobile field hospitals. From that moment on, surgeons had a reasonable chance of operating on the worst wounds before it was too late. The success of Larrey's approach earned him the position as Chief Surgeon of the Guard in all Napoleon Bonaparte's major campaigns from 1805 onwards. |
|
| JULY 8 - DEATHS | |
| Pete Conrad | |
(NASA) |
 Died
8 July 1999 (born 2 Jun 1930)
Charles Peter Conrad, American astronaut, was the third man to walk on the moon during the Apollo 12 mission (14-24 Nov, 1969). He had other experience in space on Gemini 5 (launched 21 Aug 1965, logging a new space endurance record of 8 days), on Gemini 11 (launched 18 Sep 1966, first orbit rendezvous and docking), and the Skylab 2 mission (1973). After service as a U.S. Navy test pilot, Conrad had been selected in 1962 to join NASA's second group of astronauts. On 14 Feb1996, Conrad was a crew member for a record-breaking flight around the world in a Lear jet. He died at age 69 from internal injuries after he crashed on his motorcycle.« [Image: Conrad from Skylab2 crew photo.] Rocketman:
Astronaut Pete Conrad's Incredible Ride to the Moon and Beyond,
by Nancy Conrad, et al. |
| Hyman Rickover | |
|
Died
8 July 1986 (born 27 Jan 1900)
Hyman (George) Rickover, born in Makow, Russia (now Poland), immigrated to the US (1906) and graduated from the Naval Academy in 1922. He eventually became an Admiral. He is known as the Father of the Nuclear Navy for his leadership to build the atomic-powered submarine, USS Nautilus (1954). He served on active duty with the United States Navy for more than 63 years, receiving exemptions from the mandatory retirement age due to his critical service in the building of the United States Navy's nuclear surface and submarine force. |
| Robert Burns Woodward | |
|
Died
8 July 1979 (born 10 Apr 1917)
Born in Boston, Mass, Robert Burns Woodward is an organic chemist, best-known for his syntheses of complex organic substances, including quinine (1944), cholesterol and cortisone (1951), and vitamin B12 (1971). With the synthesis of chlorophyll, the green plant pigment, he increased knowledge about the molecule that absorbs and transforms the radiant energy of the sun that is important to plant life.He also determined the structure of the peculiar fish poison tetrodotoxin, that has caused numerous fatalities in Japan. Woodward was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1965. |
| Shin'ichiro Tomonaga | |
(source) |
Died
8 July 1979 (born 31 Mar 1906).
Japanese physicist who shared the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1965 (with Richard P. Feynman and Julian S. Schwinger of the U.S.) for independently developing basic principles of quantum electrodynamics. He was one of the first to apply quantum theory to subatomic particles with very high energies. Tomonaga began with an analysis of intermediate coupling - the idea that interactions between two particles take place through the exchange of a third (virtual particle), like one ship affecting another by firing a cannonball. He used this concept to develop a quantum field theory (1941-43) that was consistent with the theory of special relativity. WW II delayed news of his work. Meanwhile, Feynman and Schwinger published their own independent solutions. |
| Havelock Ellis | |
(source) |
Died
8 July 1939 (born 1859)
(Henry) Havelock Ellis was an English physician and writer on sex. He travelled widely in Australia and South America before studying medicine in London. In 1879 Ellis began studying medicine at St. Thomas's Hospital in London. At this time, Ellis grew intellectually, in the fields of science, philosophy, sociology, anthropology, and literature. His interest in human biology and his personal experiences led him to compile the seven-volume Studies in the Psychology of Sex (1897--1928), the first detached treatment of the subject, which was highly controversial at the time. |
| Joseph Loschmidt | |
(source) |
Died
8 July 1895 (born 15 May 1821)
Johann Joseph Loschmidt was an Austrian chemist and physicist who was first to propose (1861) some kind of cyclic structure for benzene and many aromatic hydrocarbons. (Four years later, Friedrich Kekulé devised the correct ring structure, for which his name is remembered while Loschmidt's contribution is overlooked.) He deduced the size of air molecules to be around one nanometer, with two approaches: relating the size of gas molecules to the distance travelled between collisions, and considering the packed volume of molecules in a cold liquid. Completing Avogadro's insight that all gases have the same number of molecules in a given volume, Loschmidt measured Avogadro's constant to be 6.03 x 1023 molecules in one mole of a gas (1865).« |
| Torbern Olof Bergman | |
(source) |
Died
8 July 1784 (born 20 Mar 1735)
Swedish chemist and naturalist who experimented with carbon dioxide, which he named "aerial acid," and Priestley called "fixed air." His investigation led him to successfully prepare artificial mineral water. In natural mineral water, he identified hydrogen sulphide. As a pioneer in chemical analysis, he introduced many improvements, studied minerals in particular and contributed to the theory of crystal structure. In 1775, his important paper Essay on Elective Attractions marked the beginning of his extensive work preparing affinity tables for acids and bases. By 1783, he ceased this effort due to failing health, leaving it to others to further develop an understanding of chemical affinity. He wrote an account of the use of the blowpipe in analysis.« Torbern
Bergman, a Man Before His Time, by Joseph A. Schufle. |
| Christiaan Huygens | |
(source) |
Died
8 July 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 contributed to the science of dynamics - the study of the action of forces on bodies. Using a lens he ground for himself, on 25 Mar 1655, he discovered the first moon of Saturn, later named Titan. In 1656, he patented the first pendulum clock, which he developed to enable exact time measurement while observing the heavens. Huygens studied the relation of the length of a pendulum to its period of oscillation (1673) and stated theories on centrifugal force in circular motion which influenced Sir Isaac Newton in formulating his Law of Gravity. Huygens also studied and drew the first maps of Mars. On 14 Jan 2005, a NASA space probe, named after Huygens, landed on Titan. Unrolling
Time : Christian Huygens and the Mathematization of Nature, by
Joella G. Yoder. |
| JULY 8 - EVENTS | |
| Ice cream sundae | |
 |
In 1881, a patron
came into Edward Berner's drug store in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, and sat
down at the soda-fountain counter. Since it was the Sabbath, the customer
couldn't have the desirable, but scandalous, flavored soda water. Berner
compromised by putting ice cream in a dish and poured over it the chocolate
syrup that was previously only served as flavoring in ice-cream sodas.
That was an ice cream Sunday! The name became "sundae", after the day on
which Berner served it. |
| First woman U.S. patent examiner | |
|
In 1873, Anna Nichols of Melrose, Mass., became the first woman U.S. patent
examiner. |
|
| Gun turret | |
|
In 1862, Theodore R. Timby patented the revolving gun turret. |
|
| Machine gun | |
|
In 1856, Charles E. Barnes patents a crank operated machine gun. It was
ahead of its time, but similar to other machine guns invented later.
Although it was invented before the outbreak of the war, there is no evidence
that it was used by either side. (Dr. Richard J. Gatling, a North Carolina
farm boy, patented his renouned six-barrel machine gun on November 4, 1862.) |
|
| Cowpox vaccination | |
(source) |
In 1800, the first successful vaccination performed in the U.S. using cowpox
serum to prevent smallpox was given by Harvard's Dr.
Benjamin Waterhouse upon his five year-old son, Daniel, in Massachusetts.
Waterhouse was one of the best educated American physicians of his time.
Following the latest claims by Edward Jenner, he imported cowpox vaccine
for his son and a servant boy. Waterhouse continued vaccinating with success,
but in the rush to follow him, others administered impure vaccine and some
people died; there was a backlash. Stressing the necessity of pure vaccine,
he continued to promote vaccination and was instrumental in its success
in America. |
