| SEPTEMBER 19 - BIRTHS | |
| Elizabeth Stern | |
 Born 19
Sep 1915; died 18 Aug 1980.
Elizabeth Stern (married name Elizabeth Stern Shankman) was a Canadian-born American, one of the first pathologists to work on the progression of a cell from normality to cancerous. Her breakthrough studies of cervical cancers have changed the disease from fatal to one of the most easily diagnosed and treatable. Her studies showed that a normal cell advanced through 250 distinct stages before becoming cancerous and thus is the most easily diagnosed of all cancers. She was the first to linking a virus in herpes simplex to cervical cancer. She was also the first to report the linkage between oral contraceptives and cervical cancer. |
|
| Torunn Garin | |
| Born 19
Sep 1947; died 26 Apr 2002.
Torunn Atteraas "Teri" Garin was a Norwegian chemical engineer who helped develop the sweetener aspartame as a sugar substitute while working for General Foods (1971-85). Earlier in her career, she researched ways to minimize water pollution caused by food production and how to replace cancer-causing chemicals with natural dyes. She held two patents for her invention of a process to extract caffeine from coffee. Her professional education began at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, followed by a degree in chemical engineering from Columbia University (1971) and then a master's degree in environmental engineering from what is now the Polytechnic University, Brooklyn (1977)*. « |
|
| James W. Alexander | |
(source) |
Born 19
Sep 1888; died 23 Sept 1971.
James Waddell Alexander was an American mathematician and a founder of the branch of mathematics originally known as analysis situs, now called topology. In 1912, he joined the faculty of the mathematics department at Princeton. Soon after, Alexander generalised the Jordan curve theorem and, in 1928, he discovered the Alexander polynomial which is much used in knot theory. |
| Charles Mauguin | |
(source) |
Born 19
Sep 1878; died 25 Apr 1958.
Charles-Victor Mauguin was a French mineralogist and crystallographer who was one of the first to make a systematic study of the silicate minerals. Using X-ray diffraction techniques, he determined the structure of a large number of micas. He also published the atomic structure of cinnabar, calomel and graphite and devised a system of symbols for designation of symmetry properties of crystals, adopted (1935) as international standard.« |
| Fritz Schaudinn | |
(source) |
Born 19
Sep 1871; died 22 Jun 1906.
Fritz Richard Schaudinn was a German zoologist and microbiologist who, with dermatologist Erich Hoffmann, discovered (1905) the spirochaete which causes syphilis, Spirochaeta pallida, now known as Treponema pallidum. Schaudinn determined the amoebic nature of tropical dysentery, worked on trypanosomes (flagellated protozoans which include the causal agent of African sleeping sickness, an infection of the bloodstream) and researched malaria. He also demonstrated that human hookworm infection is contracted through the skin of the feet. He made important contributions to zoology and helped develop protozoology as an experimental science. He also discovered the alternation of generations in Foraminifera and Coccidae.« |
| Carl Erich Correns | |
Born 19
Sep 1864; died 14 Feb 1933.
German botanist and geneticist who in 1900, independent of, but simultaneously with, the biologists Erich Tschermak von Seysenegg and Hugo de Vries, rediscovered Gregor Mendel's historic paper outlining the principles of heredity. In attempting to ascertain the extent to which Mendel's laws are valid, he undertook a classic study of non-Mendelian heredity in variegated plants, such as the four-o'clock (Mirabilis jalapa) which he established (1909) as the first conclusive example of extrachromosomal, or cytoplasmic, inheritance (cases in which certain characteristics of the progeny are determined by factors in the cytoplasm of the female sex cell). |
|
| Florentino Ameghino | |
(source) |
Born 19
Sep 1853; died 6 Aug 1911.
Argentine paleontologist and anthropologist who made significant contributions to the field of vertebrate paleontology and established the Pampas region of Argentina as a rich source of fossils. He discovered over 6,000 fossil species and classified 35 suborders of mammals. Ameghino's controversial discoveries of stone implements, carved bones, and other signs of a human presence in Argentina during the Pliocene, Miocene, and earlier periods served to increase his worldwide fame.« |
| William Lever | |
(source) |
Born 19
Sep 1851; died 7 May 1925.
(1st Viscount Leverhulme) British soap manufacturer and philanthropist. In 1886, the Lever Brothers soap manufacturing company was formed by William and his brother James (though James was not an active participant in running the business). It was one of the first companies to manufacture soap from vegetable oils instead of tallow. From 1888, Lever established Port Sunlight, a model community providing housing and support for the company's workers, who enjoyed conditions, pay, hours, and benefits far better than found in similar industries. By 1900 the factory was producing other brands such as Lifebuoy, Lux Flakes, Monkey Brand, Vim scouring powder and Rinso. In 1914, soap production reached 60,000 tonnes.«  The
King of Sunlight: How William Lever Cleaned Up The World,
by Adam Macqueen. |
| George Cadbury | |
(source) |
Born 19
Sep 1839; died 1922.
English businessman, Quaker, social reformer and chocolate manufacturer, born in Birmingham. In 1856, at age 21, he joined his father's chocolate business, with his elder brother, Richard, who had joined in 1850. Their father retired in April 1861 due to failing health, and they took over his declining enterprise and built it into the highly prosperous Cadbury Brothers cocoa- and chocolate- manufacturing firm. George was perhaps more important for his improvements in working conditions and for his successful experiments with a new cocoa bean processing technique. The new pure unadulterated Cadbury's cocoa essence was heralded as a major breakthrough and it resulted in the passing of the Adulteration of Foods Acts in 1872 and 1875. |
| Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Delambre | |
| Born 19
Sep 1749; died 18 Aug 1822.
French astronomer who became famous for the astronomical he prepared that plot the location of Uranus. He later worked with the Bureau de Longitudes.« |
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| SEPTEMBER 19 - DEATHS | |
| Orville Redenbacher | |
(source) |
 Died
19 Sep 1995 (born 16 July 1907)
American agronomist and popcorn business founder, born in Brazil, Ind., Popcorn King whose devotion to creating and promoting a fluffier, tastier popcorn turned him into a bow-tied advertising icon. His interest in popcorn blossomed early. It was the favorite snack on his family's farm, and Redenbacher grew it to earn extra spending money. In the early '40s, while managing a 12,000-acre farm where he was growing popcorn, Redenbacher and a friend, Charles Bowman, used the fields to experiment with corn hybrids from Purdue University. Several decades and 30,000 hybrids later, they introduced gourmet popcorn. |
| W.F. Albright | |
(source) |
Died
19 Sep 1971 (born 24 May 1891)
William Foxwell Albright was a Chilean-born American archaeologist who excavated primarily biblical sites and an expert on the culture and history of the Near East. He spent a decade from 1919 at the American School of Oriental Reseach in Jerusalem. During this time, he directed excavations in Palestine at Gibeah, Tell Beit Mirsim, Bethel and Ader. After further work, he produced three volumes of Excavation of Tell Beit Mirsim. His most famous work, From the Stone Age to Christianity (1940) traced the growth of man's belief in God. In 1947, Albright was the first outside expert to declare that the Dead Sea scrolls were genuine. He called their discovery "the most momentous discovery in modern time pertaining to the Bible."« Archaeology
and the Religion of Israel, by William Foxwell Albright
et al. |
| Chester F. Carlson | |
(source) |
Died
19 Sep 1968 (born 8 Feb 1906)
Chester Floyd Carlson was an American physicist who invented xerography (22 Oct 1938), an electrostatic dry-copying process that found applications ranging from office copying to reproducing out-of-print books. The process involved sensitizing a photoconductive surface to light by giving it an electrostatic charge Carlson developed it between 1934 and 1938, and initially described it as electrophotography It was immediately protected by Carlson with an impenetrable web of patents, though it was not until 1944 that he was able to obtain funding for further development. In 1947 he sold the commercial rights for his invention to the Haloid Company, a small manufacturer of photographic paper (which later became the Xerox Corporation). Copies
in Seconds... Chester Carlson and the Birth of the Xerox Machine,
by David Owen. |
| C. G. Seligman | |
(source) |
Died
19 Sep 1940 (born 24 Dec 1873)
C(harles) G(abriel) Seligman was a pioneer in British anthropology who conducted significant field research in Melanesia, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), and, most importantly, the Nilotic Sudan. After his education as a physician he went with the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to the Torres Straits (1898-9). Subsequently, his interests turned from medical research towards anthropology, and revisited New Guinea (1904) to distinguish the characteristic racial, cultural, and social traits of the peoples of the region. In the 1920's, he pioneered a psychoanalytic approach: studying cross-cultural similarity of dreams. He concluded that the psychology of the unconscious could provide an approach to some basic anthropological problems. |
| Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky | |
(source) |
Died
19 Sep 1935 (born 17 Sep 1857)
Russian pioneer space theorist who, while a provincial Russian schoolteacher, worked out many of the principles of space travel. In 1883, he noted that vehicle in space would travel in the opposite direction to gas that it emitted, and was the first to seriously propose this method propulsion in space travel. He wrote various papers, including the 1903 article "Exploration of Space with Reactive Devices." The engineering equations he derived included parameters such as specific impulse, thrust coefficient and area ratio. He established that the most efficient chemical combination would be that of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. He was later recognized by the Soviet Union as the "father of cosmonautics." He also built the first wind tunnel.« Selected
Works of Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky, by Konstantin E.
Tsiolkovsky. |
| David Starr Jordan | |
(source) |
Died
19 Sep 1931 (born 19 Jan 1851)
American naturalist, educator, and the foremost American ichthyologist of his time. Jordan was a renowned expert in many fields. For example, he served as an expert witness on the validity of the theory of evolution at the Scopes trial in Tennessee. He was known for his work in education, philosophy, and as a peace activist. He often approached the subject of peace from a biological angle, arguing that war was detrimental to the health of the species because it removed the strongest individuals from the gene pool. Although he campaigned vigorously against US involvement in World War I, once war was declared, he advocated aggressive measures to end the conflict quickly. |
| Francis Darwin | |
| Died
19 Sep 1925 (born 16 Aug 1849)
English botanist who was the third son of Charles Darwin, and published the results of his collaboration with his father in the publication of The Movement of Plants (1880). |
|
| Georg August Schweinfurth | |
(source) |
Died
19 Sep 1925 (born 29 Dec 1836)
German botanist who travelled in the interior of East Africa (from 1868) and studied the inhabitants together with the flora and fauna of the region. During this journey, in Mar 1870, he discovered the River Welle (Uele), explored the upper Nile basin, and charted the western feeders of the White Nile. He wrote about the cannibalistic practices of the Mangbettu, and his discovery of the pygmy Akka confirmed the existence of dwarf races in tropical Africa (The Heart of Africa, 1873). During 1875-88, he lived in Cairo, where he founded the Royal Geographical Society of Egypt. He made historical, geological, ethnographical and botanical investigations ranging from there to the Arabian desert.« The
heart of Africa: Three years' travels and adventures...,
by Georg August Schweinfurth. |
| Giacomo Doria | |
| Died
19 Sep 1913 (born 1 Nov 1840)
Italian naturalist and explorer who conducted important research in systematic zoology. Pursuing his work, he made expeditions to Persia (1862), Borneo (1865-66) and Tunisia (1879). In 1867, he founded the civic museum of natural history in Genoa. The collection he donated became the nucleus of the museum, which he directed for more than 40 years. He was also director of Societa Geografica Italiana (1891-1900). The museum he founded now contains important zoolological, paleontological, botanical, and mineralogical collections from all over the world. These collections are continually growing, now estimated to be more than 3.5 million exhibits. |
|
| William Howe | |
| Died
19 Sep 1852 (born 12 May 1803)
U.S. inventor who pioneered in the development of truss bridges in the U.S. |
|
| Olof Swartz | |
(source) |
Died
19 Sep 1818 (born 21 Sep 1760)
Swedish botanist who left a legacy of a collection of plants from his botanical tours of the West Indies, Jamaica, North America, Puerto Rico, Haiti and Cuba between 1783-87. On his return, he described nearly 900 species, most of them new, in Flora Indiae occidentalis (3 vols., 1797-1806). The Swedish Museum of Natural History now holds the collection, about 6000 specimens of phanerogams and ferns, mostly from the West Indies. It is a part of their Regnellian herbarium. He is also noted for his taxonomic studies of specific plant groups, including orchids, mosses and especially ferns. He also published Nova Genera et Species Plantarum seu Prodromus (1788) and Observationes botanicae (1791).« |
| SEPTEMBER 19 - EVENTS | |
| Iceman | |
(source) |
In 1991, the Iceman, a Stone Age wanderer and the most ancient human being
ever found, was discovered in the Similaun glacier in the Alps on the Italian-Austrian
border. His frozen body was found along with artifacts of his vanished
way of life. An examination of his gut contents showed the man took his
last meal not long before setting out on a hike from which he was never
to return. The meal
was a simple affair, consisting of a bit of unleavened bread made of einkorn
wheat, one of the few domesticated grains used in the Iceman's part of
the world at this time, some other plant, possibly an herb or other green,
and meat. |
| Israel in space | |
(source) |
In 1988, Israel launches its first satellite,
"Offeq-1" (Horizon 1) onboard a Shavit rocket from the Negev Desert over
the Mediterranean, becoming the ninth country in space. As an experimental
satellite it was possibly on an experimental surveillance mission. Its
announced functions: 1) Experimentation in generation of solar power; 2)
Experimentation in transmission reception from space; 3) Verification of
system's ability to withstand vacuum and weightless conditions; 4) Data
collection on space environment conditions and Earth's magnetic field. |
| SF streetcars | |
|
In 1982, streetcars stopped running on Market St. in San Francisco after
122 years of service. |
|
| First US underground nuclear test | |
|
In 1957, the United States conducted its first underground nuclear test,
in the Nevada desert, at Area 12 of the Nevada Test Site. The Atomic Energy
Commission's (AEC) first fully contained underground nuclear detonation
named the Rainier event, detonated in a horizontal tunnel, about 47 meters
(1600 feet) into the mesa and 274 meters (900 feet) beneath the top of
the mesa. |
|
| Carpet sweeper patent | |
(source) |
In 1876, American inventor Melville (Reuben) Bissell (1843-89) received
a U.S. patent for the carpet sweeper (No. 182,346). At his a crockery shop
in Grand Rapids, Mich., his wife Anna's health was affected by dust from
the packing materials. From a desperate need for self-preservation, he
invented
the carpet sweeper. They recognized the sweeper's marketing possibilities
and began to assemble them in a room over the store. The inner workings
and cases were made by women working in their homes. Tufts of hog bristles
were bound with string, dipped in hot pitch, inserted in brush rollers
and finally trimmed them with scissors. Anna
Bissell gathered the parts together in clothes baskets and brought
them back to the store for assembling. |
| Saturn moon | |
|
In 1848, Hyperion, moon of Saturn, discovered by Bond (US) & Lassell
(England). |
|
| Railroad brake patent | |
|
In 1838, Ephraim Morris patented the railroad brake. |
|
| Hot air balloon tested | |
In 1783, Jacques Etienne Montgolfier
launched a duck, a sheep and a rooster aboard a hot-air balloon at Versailles
in France. 
The
Montgolfier Brothers and the Invention of Aviation, 1783-1784,
by Charles Coulston Gillispie. |
|
