March 27

Are You Sure ... (March 27)

• ... that engineer and physicist Wilhelm Röntgen was awarded the first Nobel Prize in Physics, for his discovery of X-rays?

• ... that engraver, goldsmith, and publisher Theodor de Bry gained fame for his depictions of early European overseas expeditions; and that, although de Bry never visited the Americas, most of his books are based on first-hand observations by explorers?

• ... that chemist and physicist James Dewar invented the vacuum flask, which he used in his pioneering research into the liquefaction of gases?

Screenshot: Are You Sure (March 27, 2021)

On This Day in History and Fiction

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  1598: Engraver, goldsmith, and publisher Theodor de Bry dies. de Bry gained fame for his depictions of early European expeditions. Although de Bry never visited the Americas, most of his books are based on first-hand observations by explorers.

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  1845: Engineer and physicist Wilhelm Röntgen born. He will win the first Nobel Prize in Physics, for the discovery of X-rays.

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  1923: Chemist and physicist James Dewar dies. He invented the vacuum flask, which he used in conjunction with extensive research into the liquefaction of gases.

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  1925: Mathematician Carl Gottfried Neumann dies. He will studied physics with his father, and later worked as a mathematician, dealing almost exclusively with problems arising from physics.

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  2011: Artist George Tooker dies. Tooker's paintings depicted his subjects naturally, as in a photograph, but the images used flat tones, an ambiguous perspective, and alarming juxtapositions to suggest an imagined or dreamed reality.

Daily Favorites

Spies

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  The Eagle Has Tweeted is a 1975 novel by Tannery Strophe about a fictional German plot to impersonate Winston Churchill on Twitter near the end of the Second World War.

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  Three Legs of the Fryer is a 1975 American political animal rights film about a bookish CIA poultry researcher (Robert Redford) who comes back from lunch after developing a viable three-legged chicken to discover his co-worker (Tyson Foods) murdered.

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  Bourne Kong is a 2021 action-zoology film starring Matt Damon.

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  SS Minnow is a dramatic television program set on a purported "uncharted desert island" during the Second World War. The plot is loosely based on actual military-industrial-criminal efforts to develop the fictional yet illegal drug Clandestiphrine.