Friday, February 1, 2008

Today in History: February 1

  • 1838 Swedish-American inventor John Ericsson patents the screw propellor, for ships.
  • 1905 Italian-American physicist Emilio Segrè born; Nobel 1959 (with Owen Chamberlain) for discoverying the antiproton; discovered (by making) the 43rd element, Technetium, and the 85th element Astatine.
  • 1908 Hungarian-American filmmaker George Pál born; Heinlein's Destination Moon (1950), When Worlds Collide (1951), and H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds (1953) and The Time Machine (1960).
  • 1911 First use of fingerprints as evidence; convicts murderer in Illinois.
  • 1944 Avery, MacLeod, and McCarty discover DNA as the hereditary agent in a virus; founding molecular genetics.
  • 1959 Texas Instruments patents the integrated circuit; ushering in computer chips.
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