This Week in the History of Chemistry		January	February	March	April
		May	June	July	August
		September	October	November	December

See also This Month in the History of the Periodic Table (with links to a searchable online map).

June 8-21

50-year, 100-year, 150-year, etc. anniversaries appear in bold red.
See also Today in Science History by Ian Ellis.

• Francis Harry Compton Crick born 1916: double-helix structure of DNA; Nobel Prize (Medicine), 1962. Link to an interview with him.
• Jacques Dubochet born 1942: cryo-electron microscopy of biomolecules; Nobel Prize, 2017
• Edwin Mattison McMillan and Philip Abelson announced discovery of neptunium (Np, element 93), 1940.
• John Roberts born 1918: physical organic chemistry (mechanisms, small-ring compounds, substituent effects on reactivity)
• Kenneth Geddes Wilson born 1936: phase changes; renormalization group; Nobel Prize (physics), 1982.

• Henry Hallett Dale born 1875: isolation of acetylcholine and demonstration of its role as a neurotransmitter; Nobel Prize (medicine), 1936.
• Hermann von Fehling born 1812: Fehling's solution as oxidizing agent and analytical reagent for aldehydes and sugars; composition of paraldehyde and metaldehyde; preparation of phenyl cyanide.
• Sarah Ratner born 1903: nitrogen metabolism and urea synthesis; Garvan Medal, 1961

• Ferdinand Tiemann born 1848: Reimer-Tiemann reaction; Tiemann rearrangement of amide oximes; synthesis of vanillin (the main component of vanilla extract) and of ionones (odor of violets).

• François Antoine Henri Descroizilles born 1751: titration (of bleach) and volumetric glassware
• Carl von Linde born 1842: equipment for the liquefaction of air.

• Wallace Reed Brode born 1900: chemical spectroscopy; president of American Chemical Society and the research organization Sigma Xi.
• Lyman Creighton Craig born 1906: separation of biomolecules; molar mass of insulin; ergot alkaloids and lysergic acid.
• Philippe-Auguste Guye born 1862: precise determination of atomic weights; electrochemical synthesis of nitric acid.
• Fritz Albert Lipmann born 1899: discovered coenzyme A and central role of ATP in metabolism; Nobel Prize (Medicine), 1953.
• Bert Sakmann born 1942: single-ion channels in cells; Nobel Prize (Medicine), 1991.

• Lloyd Conover born 1923: invented tetracycline (US patent 2,699,054).
• Charles Goessmann born 1827: analysis of peanuts; chemistry of sorghum and sugar beets; president of American Chemical Society.
• James Clerk Maxwell born 1831: electromagnetic theory (Maxwell's equations), thermodynamics (Maxwell relations), kinetic theory of gases (Maxwell velocity distribution). (Read Maxwell's words on "Maxwell's demon", a review of the atomic-molecular theory, and of the kinetic theory of gases.)
• Paul Modrich born 1946: DNA repair; Nobel Prize, 2015.
• Henry Moseley shipped out from England to Turkey in the Great War, 1915. The discoverer of atomic numbers was later killed at Gallipoli.

• James Whyte Black born 1924: principles of drug treatment; Nobel Prize (Medicine), 1988.
• Charles-Augustin de Coulomb born 1736: law of electric force (Coulomb's law); unit of electric charge (Coulomb). (Thanks to Lucio Gelmini for pointing out Coulomb's birthday.)
• United States Environmental Protection Agency issued an order banning use of DichloroDiphenylTrichloroethane (DDT, more precisely, 1,1,1-trichloro-2,2-bis(4-chlorophenyl)ethane) effective December 31, 1972.
• Karl Landsteiner born 1868: discovered human blood groups; Nobel Prize (Medicine), 1930.
• John Ulric Nef born 1862: valence of carbon; chemistry of isocyanides, nitromethanes, and fulminates.

• Alain Aspect born 1947: quantum entanglement; Nobel Prize (physics), 2022
• Carl Auer von Welsbach announced separation of didymium into neodymium (Nd, element 60) and praseodymium (Pr, 59), 1885.
• John Fenn born 1917: mass spectroscopy of biological molecules; Nobel Prize, 2002
• Antoine de Fourcroy born 1755: collaborated with Antoine Lavoisier and Claude Berthollet in some of their research and Méthode de nomenclature chimique.
• Charles Goodyear patented vulcanization process for rubber, 1844 (US patent 3,633).
• Samuel Colville Lind born 1879: radioactivity and photochemistry; invented electroscope for radium measurements (Lind electroscope); proposed ionization theory of the chemical effects of radium rays.

• Henry Enfield Roscoe announced isolation of vanadium metal, 1869.
• Georg Wittig born 1897: organophosphorus chemistry (e.g. Wittig olefination) and Wittig rearrangement; Nobel Prize, 1979.

• William Crookes born 1832: discovered thallium (Tl, element 81); invented radiometer; separation of rare earths; spectroscopy; founder and editor of Chemical News; cathode ray studies (Crookes tube).
• Hiram Stevens Maxim received US patent number 430,212 for smokeless gunpowder, 1890.
• John Henry Pepper born 1821: science educator, popularizer, and showman; inventor of "Pepper's ghost," a stage special effect. [Thanks to Bill Palmer at Charles Darwin University for drawing my attention to Pepper.]
• William Perkin, Jr. born 1860: synthesis of terpenes and alkaloids; son of William Henry Perkin.
• Byron Riegel born 1906: oral contraceptives; president of the American Chemical Society.
• Howard Ensign Simmons, Jr. born 1929: organic synthesis and industrial research management at DuPont.

• Charles Baskerville born 1870: processes for refining and hydrogenating oils; plastics; reinforced lead; anesthetics.
• Dudley Herschbach born 1932: molecular beam studies of reaction dynamics; Nobel Prize, 1986.
• Edward David Hughes born 1906: physical organic chemistry.
• Jerome Karle born 1918: X-ray crystallography; Nobel Prize, 1985.
• Emil Knoevenagel born 1865: organic synthesis; Knoevenagel condensation.

• Ernst Boris Chain 1906: extraction and purification of penicillin; Nobel Prize (medicine), 1945.
• Paul Flory born 1910: physical chemistry of macromolecules; Nobel Prize, 1974.
• Rebeca Gerschman born 1903: free radicals in oxygen toxicity
• Cyril Norman Hinshelwood born 1897: chemical kinetics; Nobel Prize, 1956.
• Friedrich Wilhelm Sertürner born 1783: discovered morphine (extracted it from opium).

• Mary Lowe Good born 1931: inorganic and industrial chemistry; science policy; president of American Chemical Society.
• W. R. Grace incorporated, 1899.
• Lloyd Augustus Hall born 1894: food chemistry, particularly preservation of meats, fats, and oils.
• Frederick Gowland Hopkins born 1861: nutritional chemistry; vitamins; essential amino acids; Nobel Prize (Medicine), 1929.
• L. B. Magnusson and T. J. LaChapelle isolated first microscopic amount of a neptunium (Np, element 93) compound at wartime Metallurgical Laboratory, University of Chicago, 1944.

• Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac and Louis Thénard announced the isolation of boron (B, element 5), 1808.
• Clara Immerwahr Haber born 1870: electro-affinity (now known as electronegativity); left chemistry research after marrying Fritz Haber; suicide, 1915
• Charles Thomas Jackson born 1805: analytical chemist and geologist; ether as an anaesthetic (controversy with his student, William Morton).
• Joyce Jacobson Kaufman born 1929: quantum chemical and other physicochemical techniques applied to pharmacological and toxicological problems
• Giuliana Tesoro born 1921: chemical modification of polymers, particularly with applications to textiles

Dates are given according to the Gregorian calendar to the extent I could find them. (Note: this applies particularly to 19^th-century Russians.)

Back to the top of the Classic Chemistry site