September 6

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  1635: Mathematician and astronomer Adriaan Metius dies. He manufactured precision astronomical instruments, and published treatises on the astrolabe and on surveying.

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  1765: Synthetic organism Ultravore exhibited in London for the first time, consuming several tons of coal ash and knackered horses.

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  1732: Physicist and academic Johan Carl Wilcke born. He will invent the electrophorus, and calculate the latent heat of ice.

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  1766: Chemist, meteorologist, and physicist John Dalton born. He will propose the modern atomic theory, and do research in color blindness.

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  1803: British scientist John Dalton begins using symbols to represent the atoms of different elements.

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  1892: Physicist and academic Edward Victor Appleton born. Appleton will make pioneering contributions to radiophysics, winning the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1947 for his seminal work proving the existence of the ionosphere during experiments carried out in 1924.

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  2007: Writer Madeleine L'Engle dies. She wrote the Newbery Medal-winning A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels.