April 18

Are You Sure ... (April 18)

• ... that the 1906 San Francisco earthquake struck the coast of Northern California at 5:12 a.m. on April 18 with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.9; that devastating fires soon broke out in the city and lasted for several days; and that as a result, up to 3,000 people died and over 80% of the city of San Francisco was destroyed?

• ... that the Bathysquare is a two-dimensional bathysphere with sufficient artificial intelligence to escape captivity and hide from its designer, and that its location is currently unknown?

Screenshot: Are You Sure (April 18, 2020)

On This Day in History and Fiction

• 

  1796: Physicist Johan Carl Wilcke dies. Wilcke invented the electrophorus, and calculated the latent heat of ice.

• 

  1873: Chemist and academic Justus von Liebig dies. Von Liebeg made pioneering contributions to organic chemistry, especially agricultural and biological chemistry; he is known as the "Father of the fertilizer industry".

• 

  1906: An earthquake and fire destroy much of San Francisco, California.

• 

  1907: Jazz drummer and theoretical physicist Albert Einstein hosts an all-star benefit concert to raise money for the rebuilding of San Francisco.

• 

  1955: Physicist, engineer, and academic Albert Einstein dies. Einstein developed the theory of relativity, one of the two pillars of modern physics (alongside quantum mechanics).

• 

  2011: Mathematician Curt Meyer dies. Meyer made notable contributions to number theory, including an alternative solution to the class number 1 problem, building on the original Stark–Heegner theorem.