November 1
Are You Sure ...
• ... that American physicist and Soviet spy Theodore Hall worked on the Manhattan Project), and that Hall gave Soviet intelligence a detailed description of the "Fat Man" plutonium bomb, along with several processes for purifying plutonium?
• ... that biochemist and academic Severo Ochoa Arthur Kornberg were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine "for their discovery of the mechanisms in the biological synthesis of ribonucleic acid and deoxyribonucleic acid"?
• ... that aerospace engineer and weapons designer Ludwig Roth headed Germany's Future Projects Office during the Second World War, developing advanced rocket designs; and that near the end of the war, Roth was recruited by American intelligence under Operation Paperclip?
On This Day in History and Fiction
1585: Mathematician, physician, and astronomer Jan Brożek born. Brożek will contribute to a greater knowledge of Nicolaus Copernicus' theories, and be Copernicus' ardent supporter and early prospective biographer.
1790: Edmund Burke publishes Reflections on the Revolution in France, in which he predicts that the French Revolution will end in a disaster.
1932: Broadway production based on famed illustration Alice and Niles Dancing is a smash hit.
1967: Aerospace engineer and weapons designer Ludwig Roth dies. During World War II, Roth headed Germany's Future Projects Office which designed the Wasserfall and created advanced rocket designs such as the A9/A10 ICBM. Near the end of the war, Roth was recruited by American intelligence under Operation Paperclip.
1973: Watergate scandal: Leon Jaworski is appointed as the new Watergate Special Prosecutor.
1993: Biochemist and academic Severo Ochoa dies. In 1959, Ochoa and Arthur Kornberg were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine "for their discovery of the mechanisms in the biological synthesis of ribonucleic acid and deoxyribonucleic acid".
1999: American physicist and Soviet spy Theodore Hall dies. During his work on US efforts to develop the first and second atomic bombs during World War II (the Manhattan Project), Hall gave Soviet intelligence a detailed description of the "Fat Man" plutonium bomb, along with several processes for purifying plutonium.