Template:Selected anniversaries/August 20: Difference between revisions

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||1779 – Jöns Jacob Berzelius, Swedish chemist and academic (d. 1848)
||1779 – Jöns Jacob Berzelius, Swedish chemist and academic (d. 1848)
||1831: Eduard Suess born ... geologist who helped lay the basis for paleogeography and tectonics (the study of the architecture and evolution of the Earth's outer rocky shell). He was an authority on structural geology, especially of mountains, and postulated the existence of the giant land mass Gondwanaland. Pic.


||1858 – Charles Darwin first publishes his theory of evolution through natural selection in The Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London, alongside Alfred Russel Wallace's same theory.
||1858 – Charles Darwin first publishes his theory of evolution through natural selection in The Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London, alongside Alfred Russel Wallace's same theory.
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||Salomon Bochner (b. 20 August 1899) was an American mathematician, known for work in mathematical analysis, probability theory and differential geometry.
||Salomon Bochner (b. 20 August 1899) was an American mathematician, known for work in mathematical analysis, probability theory and differential geometry.


||1915 – Paul Ehrlich, German physician and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1854)
||1908: Valentin Petrovich Glushko born ... rocket scientist who was a pioneer developer of rocket engines (1946-74). From 1929, he worked in Leningrad in GDL - the Gas Dynamics Laboratory, the military rocket research organization, founded in 1921. He worked with renowned rocket designer Sergey Korolyov (1932-1966). In Aug 1957, they successfully launched the first intercontinental ballistic missile and in October of the same year, sent the first artificial satellite, Sputnik I, into orbit. He became chief designer for the Soviet space program in 1974, helping to oversee development of the Mir space station. During his life, he designed the most succesessful rocket engines in the Soviet space program. Pic.
 
||1908: Kingsley Davis born ... sociologist and demographer who was a world-renowned expert on population trends; he coined the terms population explosion and zero population growth and promoted methods of bringing the latter about. His specific studies of American society led him to work on a general science of world society, based on empirical analysis of each society in its habitat. Later, however, he came to be concerned about low birthrates in developed countries, fearing a shortage of educated leaders. Pic: https://www.sociosite.net/sociologists/davis_kingsley.php
 
||1912: Jerome Murray born ... inventor of the peristaltic pump that made open-heart surgery possible. It met the need to pump blood without damaging the cells through a method of expansion and contraction that imitates the way that peristalsis moves the contents of the digestive tract. In addition, the pump was adapted for kidney dialysis and for food processing (to pump soup into cans without crushing the peas or the celery). He decided to invent the airplane boarding ramp when on a day in 1951 at the Miami International Airport he saw passengers having to walk in the rain to the terminal. In all, he held 75 patents including a television antenna rotator, electric carving knife, high-speed dentist drill, power car seat and an audible pressure cooker. No pic. Obit: https://www.nytimes.com/1998/02/11/business/jerome-murray-85-a-many-faceted-inventor.html


||1917 – Adolf von Baeyer, German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1835) Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf von Baeyer (German: [ˈbaɪɐ]; 31 October 1835 – 20 August 1917) was a German chemist who synthesised indigo, developed a nomenclature for cyclic compounds (that was subsequently extended and adopted as part of the IUPAC organic nomenclature).
||1913: Roger Wolcott Sperry born ... neurobiologist, corecipient with David Hunter Hubel and Torsten Nils Wiesel of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1981 for their investigations of brain function, Sperry in particular for his study of functional specialization in the cerebral hemispheres. He was responsible for overturning the widespread belief that the left brain is dominant by showing that several cognitive abilities were localized in the right brain. He also provided experimental proof for the specificity of the reconnection of regenerating severed neurons in newts, which later led to new theories on how neurons grow. After 1965, his work turned more to psychology and philosophy. Pic.


||1920 – The first commercial radio station, 8MK (now WWJ), begins operations in Detroit.
||1915: Paul Ehrlich dies ... physician and academic, Nobel Prize laureate.


||Tom Mike Apostol (August 20, 1923 – May 8, 2016) was an American analytic number theorist and professor at the California Institute of Technology, best known as the author of widely used mathematical textbooks.
||1917: Adolf von Baeyer dies ... chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate ...  synthesised indigo, developed a nomenclature for cyclic compounds (that was subsequently extended and adopted as part of the IUPAC organic nomenclature).
 
||1920: The first commercial radio station, 8MK (now WWJ), begins operations in Detroit.
 
||1922: Akutsu Tetsuzo born ... surgeon who built the first artificial heart that was implanted and kept an animal alive. He was a thoracic surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic in 1957 when he was asked by Dr. Willem Kolff to collaborate in the pioneering project. On 12 Dec 1957, it kept a dog alive for 90 minutes. Thus, a new frontier was opened for artificial heart development for humans. Akutsu became assistant director at the Texas Heart Institute, and continued to develop his total artificial heart. Dr Denton Cooley had already implanted the first artifial heart in a human in 1969, but Akutsu was on his team for the implantation of the second human artificial heart at THI in 1981. After that, he returned to Japan and continued taking a major leadership role as a world expert developing the field. He published ''Heart Replacement: Artificial Heart''. Pic: https://www.todayinsci.com/8/8_20.htm
 
||1923: Tom Mike Apostol born ... analytic number theorist and professor at the California Institute of Technology, best known as the author of widely used mathematical textbooks.


File:John_Fleming_in_Fleming_tube.jpg|link=John Ambrose Fleming (nonfiction)|1923: Miniaturized version of [[John Ambrose Fleming (nonfiction)|John Ambrose Fleming]] delivers lecture from within Fleming tube.
File:John_Fleming_in_Fleming_tube.jpg|link=John Ambrose Fleming (nonfiction)|1923: Miniaturized version of [[John Ambrose Fleming (nonfiction)|John Ambrose Fleming]] delivers lecture from within Fleming tube.


||Herbert Hall Turner FRS (d. 20 August 1930) was a British astronomer and seismologist.
||1930: Herbert Hall Turner dies ... astronomer and seismologist.


||Edward Weston (d. August 20, 1936) was an English-born American chemist noted for his achievements in electroplating and his development of the electrochemical cell, named the Weston cell, for the voltage standard. Pic.
||1936: Edward Weston dies ... American chemist noted for his achievements in electroplating and his development of the electrochemical cell, named the Weston cell, for the voltage standard. Pic.


||Leon Chwistek (d. 20 August 1944) was a Polish avant-garde painter, theoretician of modern art, literary critic, logician, philosopher and mathematician.
||1944: Leon Chwistek dies ... avant-garde painter, theoretician of modern art, literary critic, logician, philosopher and mathematician.


File:Percy Williams Bridgman.jpg|link=Percy Williams Bridgman (nonfiction)|1961: Physicist and academic [[Percy Williams Bridgman (nonfiction)|Percy Williams Bridgman]] dies. He won the 1946 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the physics of high pressures.
File:Percy Williams Bridgman.jpg|link=Percy Williams Bridgman (nonfiction)|1961: Physicist and academic [[Percy Williams Bridgman (nonfiction)|Percy Williams Bridgman]] dies. He won the 1946 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the physics of high pressures.
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File:Alice Beta.jpg|link=Alice Beta|1962: Mathematician and crime-fighter [[Alice Beta]] publishes new class of [[Gnomon algorithm functions]] which detect and prevent [[crimes against mathematical constants]].
File:Alice Beta.jpg|link=Alice Beta|1962: Mathematician and crime-fighter [[Alice Beta]] publishes new class of [[Gnomon algorithm functions]] which detect and prevent [[crimes against mathematical constants]].


||1962 – The NS Savannah, the world's first nuclear-powered civilian ship, embarks on its maiden voyage.
||1962: The NS Savannah, the world's first nuclear-powered civilian ship, embarks on its maiden voyage.
 
||1968: Theodore Christian Schneirla dies ... comparative psychologist whose empirical work was based on observations on the behavior patterns of army ants. His "biphasic A-W theory" reduced all behavior to two simple responses: approach and withdrawal -- we approach what causes pleasure, and we withdraw from what causes unpleasure or pain.  


||1975 – Viking program: NASA launches the Viking 1 planetary probe toward Mars.
||1975: Viking program: NASA launches the Viking 1 planetary probe toward Mars.


||1977 – Voyager program: NASA launches the Voyager 2 spacecraft.
||1977: Voyager program: NASA launches the Voyager 2 spacecraft.


||Wolfgang Gröbner (d. 20 August 1980) was an Austrian mathematician. His name is best known for the Gröbner basis, used for computations in algebraic geometry. However, the theory of Gröbner bases for polynomial rings was developed by his student Bruno Buchberger in 1965, who named them for Gröbner.
||1980: Wolfgang Gröbner ... mathematician. His name is best known for the Gröbner basis, used for computations in algebraic geometry. However, the theory of Gröbner bases for polynomial rings was developed by his student Bruno Buchberger in 1965, who named them for Gröbner.


||Norris Edwin Bradbury (d. 20 August 1997), was an American physicist who served as Director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory for 25 years from 1945 to 1970. He succeeded Robert Oppenheimer, who personally chose Bradbury for the position of director after working closely with him on the Manhattan Project during World War II. Bradbury was in charge of the final assembly of "the Gadget", detonated in July 1945 for the Trinity test. Pic.
||1997: Norris Edwin Bradbury dies ... physicist who served as Director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory for 25 years from 1945 to 1970. He succeeded Robert Oppenheimer, who personally chose Bradbury for the position of director after working closely with him on the Manhattan Project during World War II. Bradbury was in charge of the final assembly of "the Gadget", detonated in July 1945 for the Trinity test. Pic.


||2001 – Fred Hoyle, English astronomer and author (b. 1915)
||2001: Fred Hoyle, English astronomer and author (b. 1915)


||Sergey Mergelyan (died 20 August 2008) was an Armenian mathematician who made major contributions to Approximation Theory.  Pic.
||2008: Sergey Mergelyan (died 20 August 2008) was an Armenian mathematician who made major contributions to Approximation Theory.  Pic.


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