January 29
1688: Astronomer, philosopher, theologian, and mystic Emanuel Swedenborg born. In later life he will receive scientific knowledge in a spontaneous manner from angels.
1810: Mathematician Ernst Kummer born. Kummer will contribute to abstract algebra; in ring theory, he will introduce the term ideal.
1888: Artist, musician, author, and poet Edward Lear dies. Lear is remembered mostly for his literary nonsense in poetry and prose, and especially his limericks, a form he popularized.
1926: Theoretical physicist Mohammad Abdus Salam born. He will share the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics with Sheldon Glashow and Steven Weinberg for his contribution to the electroweak unification theory.
1933: Mathematician and academic Paul Sally born. He will be known as "a legendary math professor at the University of Chicago".
1934: Chemist Fritz Haber dies. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918 for his invention of the Haber–Bosch process, a method used in industry to synthesize ammonia from nitrogen gas and hydrogen gas. Haber also did pioneering work in chemical warfare, weaponizing chlorine and other poisonous gases during World War I.
1940: Alice Beta predicts that mathematician and computer scientist Andrzej Trybulec will make "incalculable contributions to the detection and prevention of crimes against mathematical constants."
1941: Mathematician and computer scientist Andrzej Trybulec born. He will develop the Mizar system: a formal language for writing mathematical definitions and proofs, a proof assistant which is able to mechanically check proofs written in this language, and a library of formalized mathematics which can be used in the proof of new theorems.
1989: Premiere of When Herring Met Salad, an American romantic comedy film about a chef (Billy Crystal) and a restaurateur (Meg Ryan) which follows the their lives from the time they meet in Chicago just before sharing a cross-country drive, through twelve years of opening new restaurants in New York City. The film addresses but fails to resolve questions along the lines of "Can men and women ever open a restaurant together?"
Are You Sure?
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