Everyone knows what an atom looks like, a little blob of balls with orbiting electrons, but it wasn't until 1911 that this structure was deduced by Ernest Rutherford, who Einstein would later call "a second Newton." He could rightly be called the father of nuclear physics, in a whirlwind of theory and experiment (he published 80 papers in seven years) the New Zealand native discovered and named an amazing part of the basics of atomic structure and radiation. His work was so profound that Arthur Schuster, Professor of Physics at Manchester University, resigned his chair on the condition that Rutherford by called to fill it, just as Isaac Barrow, a mathematics professor at Cambridge, had done for Isaac Newton two centuries before. The list of his collaborators during his career reads like a Who's Who of the nuclear generation - for example, the Hans Geiger he worked with at Manchester was the developer of the Geiger Counter. About the only conclusion of his that turned out wrong was on the amount of energyavailable from atomic fission, he died a year before the Uranium atom was first split. Listing all his prizes is out of the question - his honorary doctorates alone total 20 from schools on three continents.
The reign of the pharaohs of Egypt was long and glorious, but having fallen to Roman armies the last pharaoh took her life on this day. Did she take the asp to her breast, as Shakespeare would have us believe, or was the report that the two pricks were in her arm the truth?
Somehow it feels a little racist or sexist to identify the "first black" or "first woman" to accomplish something, but as an unrepentant booster of the underdogs in history I can't help myself. (Not to mention the fact that such events seem to come with nice exact dates that make them easy to use!) We have a pair of those today, the first black confirmed in his appointment to the US Supreme Court, and the first black astronaut.
30 BC - Imprisoned by Octavian (later Caesar Augustus) and dreading the prospect of being paraded through Rome in chains, Cleopatra VII, the last Pharaoh of Egypt, committed suicide by inviting the bite of an asp which had been smuggled in to her in a basket of figs. Egyptian religious belief held that death by snakebite would secure immortality, Cleopatra was 39 and had been queen for 22 years.
1918 - Returning to his car after speaking to 15,000 workers at the Mikhelson Works in Moscow, Soviet Premier Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was approached by two girls. One handed him a sheet of paper, the other, Dora Kaplan, was a fanatic Menshevik who fired three shots - two of which hit him. He was near death for several weeks and never fully recovered from the bullet that struck his head.
1967 - Thurgood Marshall was confirmed by the Senate to be the ninety-sixth US Supreme Court Justice, the first black to assume the office.
1979 - The comet 'Howard-Koomen-Michels 1979XT', also known as SOLWIND 1 as the first comet detected by the SOLWIND observation satellite, moved behind the sun and either collided with it or completely vaporized because of its near approach, probably the latter. The head of the comet was approximately the same size as planet Earth.
1983 - Guion Stewart (Guy) Bluford, Jr. became the first black astronaut, serving as mission specialist on the eighth mission of the shuttle Challenger at 2:00 am.
Feast of St Rose of Lima, Peru - Native of Lima, Peru, first saint from the Americas, virgin, devoted herself to prayer, fasting, and mortification of the flesh. Wore chains around waist, silver crown with thorns concealed by roses. Died on this day in 1617, canonized by Clement X in 1667.
1871
- Ernest Rutherford, British physicist - Born at Bridgewater, near
Nelson, New Zealand. Did well in school with no particular interest in
science until entering Canterbury College at Christchurch, graduated with
first class degrees in science and mathematics, developed a radio wave
detector. Won scholarship to Cambridge University 1895, graduate work
under J. J. Thomson on conductivity of gas under ionizing radiation, assisted
in Thomson's discovery of the electron. In 1899 became professor at McGill
University in Montreal, Canada, identified alpha, beta, and gamma radiation,
observed the "half life" of thorium. In 1902 formulated "spontaneous transformation"
theory of radioactive decay, dismissed by many as alchemy. Moved to University
of Manchester in 1907, set up center to study radiation with Hans Geiger.
The next year he identified alpha particles as Helium atoms, received
Nbel prize in Chemistry, reportedly put out by being considered a chemist.
Announced the "solar system model" of the atom in 1911, with electrons
in distant orbit around nucleus. Collaborated with Niels Bohr in 1912,
publishing theories on the nature of the atom that slowly gained acceptance.
Little research was done during World War I although he worked with the
admiralty on submarine detection by acoustics, succeeded his old professor
Thomson as Cavendish Proessor of Physics at Cambridge in 1919, increasing
size and reputation of Cavendish labs. Transmuted nitrogen to oxygen,
named the ejected hydrogen nuclei "protons" and named and predicted the
existence of the neutron. Knighted in 1914, Rutherford was president of
the Royal Society from 1925 to 1930 and was created Baron Rutherford of
Nelson in 1931. Died at Cambridge on 19 October 1937, buried in Westminster
Abbey near Sir Isaac Newton.
All science is either physics or stamp collecting.
- Ernest Rutherford
Assassination has never changed the history of the world.
- Benjamin Disraeli
Assassination is the extreme form of censorship.
- George Bernard Shaw
We are all agreed that your theory is crazy. The question which divides
us is whether it is crazy enough to have a chance of being correct. My
own feeling is that it is not crazy enough.
- Niels Bohr
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