Modern life requires that I remember a host of numbers, such as phone numbers and ZIP codes, along with a raft of passwords, but there are very few numbers I remember since school days. The most significant of these, although not one I often have occasion to use, is Avogadro's number, which was then rounded to 6.023 x 10^23. (It has now been refined to 6.0221367 x 10^23.) That's the number of molecules in the amount of a substance that weighs its molecular weight in grams, oxygen has an atomic weight of 16, occurs as a molecule of two atoms thus having a molecular weight of 32, and 32 grams of gaseous oxygen comprises that really big number of molecules. How big? If you stacked up that many kernels of popping corn it would cover the US to a depth of nine miles! Avagadro the man was born on this day in 1776. His work, which is crucial to modern chemistry, was not well received during his life. Some of it contradicted the work of the leading lights of the day, he valued his family and privacy, and, perhapsmost telling, he was on the wrong side of the Alps when most of the work in chemistry was being done in France. He was the first to realize that most gasses occurred as diatomic molecules, anathema to Dalton and Berzelius. Sounds a lot like the fate of Gregor Mendel's work (born 22 July 1822) a half century later.
Several readers have asked why I refer to the US capital as "Washington City." This suggests that others are probably curious as well. When the same name is used for both a city and a state, there is a choice between the form we use in addresses, e.g. "New York, New York," or the shorter form, "New York City." In deference to international readers that may not know the US abbreviations for every state, it's my policy to never abbreviate states. For the capital, this leaves me with the choice of "Washington, District of Columbia" or "Washington City." The latter may seem old fashioned, but that isn't exactly pejorative when applied to someone who publishes history, is it?
We also have the oldest event to appear in Twisted History to date, the oldest Indian reservation, the last arrest of the great Indian prophet of nonviolence, and the last atomic bomb used in war. It was a bit of a shock to note that the mission commander that bombed Nagasaki was only 25 years old at the time, I'm pretty sure I was unprepared for such a responsibility at that age.
480 BC - King Leonidas of Sparta organized a Greek force of some 7,000 against an invading army of 200,000 Persians under Xerxes, repeatedly leading them into a narrow pass and then turning to slaughter the Persians. Learning of a path around the Greek force from a traitor, Xerxes surrounded the Greeks. Leonidas sent the other Greeks home "to fight another day," and stood with 700 Spartans on a hill at Thermopylae. All were killed on this day, by thrown Persian spears as Xerxes' troops dared not close to sword-fighting distance.
1758 - The first Indian reservation in America was established by the New Jersey Assembly in Burlington County with the purchase of over 3,000 acres. The last 200 members of the Lenni-Lenape (meaning "original people") were put under the supervision of a missionary named John Brainerd who called the reservation Brotherton and hoped the tribe would be self sufficient. It didn't work out, the last sixty members of the tribe moved in with the Oneida in New York in 1802.
1848 - At Buffalo, New York the Free Soil Party convention nominated Martin Van Buren for President. Van Buren actually belonged to a party called the Barn Burners, who had also nominated Van Buren - their platform was the Democratic Party platform of that year with the addition of the Wilmot Proviso (barring extension of slavery). The Democrats thought the alliance was a matter of scorched earth, the result was the election of the Whig Zachary Taylor.
1942 - Mohandas Gandhi was jailed for the last time, Britain could not risk his agitating in time of war, confined at the Aga Khan's palace at Poona.
1945 - A plutonium bomb called "Fat Man" was dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki at 11:02 am, leveling half the city, killing 40,000 and injuring 25,000. The original mission target was Kokura but smoke and clouds prevented visual targeting. Because of the delay and additional distance covered, Major Charles W Sweeney flew the Martin-built Boeing B-29 Superfortress to Okinawa for refueling before returning to Tinian.
Independence Day, Singapore - Marks independence from the Federation of Malaysia on this date in 1965. Singapore had been a British colony, then captured by the Japanese, the British returned, and Singapore gained self rule gradually from 1955 to 1961, but promptly merged with Malaya, Sarawak, and Sabah on 16 September 1962. It didn't last long.
1776
- Amadeo Avogadro, Italian lawyer, chemist - Born Lorenzo Romano
Amadeo Carlo Avogadro at Turin, Italy to Count Filippo Avogadro, a respected
ecclesiastical lawyer and politician. Succeeded his father in 1787 with
title of "conte di Quarequa e di Cerreto." Married Felicita Mazzé and
had six sons. Amadeo was schooled in Turin, bachelor of jurisprudence
in 1792, doctor of ecclesiastical law in 1796, began a successful practice,
and was appointed secretary to the prefecture of the department (district)
of Eridano. Took private lessons in math and science starting in 1801,
with brother Felice performed experiments with electricity in 1803, abandoned
law and started teaching. Appointed demonstrator at the Academy of Turin
in 1806, professor of natural philosophy at the College of Vercelli in
1809. Appointed to cahir of mathematical physics at the University of
Turin in 1820, but the chair was bolished two years later, reestablished
1832, and Avagadro got it back in 1834 - filling it until his retirement
in 1850. Formulated Avogadro's Principle: Equal volumes of all gases under
the same conditions of temperature contain the same number of molecules,
when the number of molecules in a gram-molecular weight was calculated
a decade after his death it became known as Avagadro's number. Died at
Turin on 9 July 1856.
In some sort of crude sense which no vulgarity, no humor, no overstatement
can quite extinguish, the physicists have known sin; and this is a knowledge
which they cannot lose.
- J. Robert Oppenheimer
All theoretical chemistry is really physics; and all theoretical chemists
know it.
- Richard P. Feynman
No, this trick won't work. How on earth are you ever going to explain
in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon
as first love?
- Albert Einstein
If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on
a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children.
- Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
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