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September 7-20

• John Warcup Cornforth born 1917: stereochemistry of enzyme-catalyzed reactions; Nobel Prize, 1975
• Stephen Hales born 1677 (or Sept. 17): pneumatic trough, collection and study of gases
• Friedrich August Kekule von Stradonitz born 1829: ring structure of benzene; tetravalence of carbon; structural theory of organic chemistry

• Derek Barton born 1918: conformational analysis and free radical reactions; Nobel Prize 1969
• Viktor Meyer born 1848: discovered thiophene (read original paper in German) and oximes

• Albert Ghiorso and Glenn Seaborg announced discovery of element 106 in 1974. The nomenclature controversy around element 106 is over; the name seaborgium (Sg) selected by Seaborg's colleagues will stand.
• Milestone case for forensic chemistry begins with the disappearance of a young German girl, later found murdered, in 1898. For the first time, chemical analysis of blood stains contributed to a conviction. (Look at a more recent blood analysis technique.)

• Arthur Holly Compton born 1892: cosmic rays and X-rays; Nobel prize in Physics, 1927
• John Kidd born 1775: codiscoverer of naphthalene in coal tar; author of 1833 treatise On the Adaptation of External Nature to the Physical Condition of Man, intended to show how God was manifest in creation.
• Carl Mosander born 1797: discovery of erbium (Er, element 68), lanthanum (La, 57), terbium (Tb, 65); discovered "didymium" (later resolved into neodymium and praseodymium)

• Aleksandr Erminingeldovich Arbuzov born 1877: organophosphorus compounds. Link to the A. E. Arbuzov Institute of Organic and Physical Chemistry
• Carl Shipp ("Speed") Marvel born 1894: organic chemist; polymer synthesis
• Surveyor 5 lands on the moon, 1967, and begins elemental analysis of surface.

• Irène Joliot-Curie, daughter of Marie and Pierre Curie, born 1897: production of artificial radioisotopes; Nobel Prize, 1935 with husband Frédéric. View a table of radioisotopes.

• Burris Cunningham and Louis Werner isolated first microscopic amount of a compound of americium (Am, element 95) at wartime Metallurgical Laboratory, University of Chicago, 1945. (Link to more information about the history and uses of americium.)
• Polaroid incorporated 1937.
• Robert Robinson born 1886: plant pigments, phenanthrene derivatives, and alkaloids; Nobel Prize, 1947
• Leopold Ruzicka born 1887: polymethylenes (i.e., cyclic alkanes), terpenes; synthesis of sex hormones; Nobel Prize, 1939
• Dorothy Maud Wrinch born 1894: structure of proteins

• Karl Taylor Compton born 1887: interactions of electrons with atoms, metals, and gases; president of MIT.
• Charles Francois de Cisternay DuFay born 1698: repulsion between like electrical charges; phosphorescence; double refraction. (Click here for a brief history of electrical science.)
• Ferid Murad born 1936: role of nitric oxide signaling in cardiovacular system; Nobel (medicine), 1998.

• Neil Bartlett born 1932: prepared first noble gas compound, XePtF₆. [The first stable argon compound was reported in August 2000.] Thanks to Matt Morello for bringing Bartlett's birthday to my attention.
• Michael McElroy and Thomas Donahue presented a detailed chemical dynamic model for a moist Martian atmosphere, 1972.
• Heinrich Emanuel Merck [auf Deutcsh] born 1794: pharmacist; preparation of morphine.
• Traugott Sandmeyer born 1854: organic synthesis; Sandmeyer reaction; isatin synetheses (Sandmeyer diphenylurea isatin synthesis and Sandmeyer isonitrosoacetanilide isatin synthesis).
• Patsy Sherman born 1930: fluoropolymer stain repellent treatment for fabrics (Scotchguard(TM)), US patent 3,574,791

• Great Lakes Chemical Co. incorporated 1970. (Great Lakes and Crompton have merged to form Chemtura.)
• Albrecht Kossel born 1853: chemistry of cells and proteins; Nobel prize (Medicine), 1910
• The Montreal Protocol on Substances that deplete the Ozone Layer was signed by 24 nations, 1987.
• Guillaume-François Rouelle born 1703: classification of salts.
• Albert Szent-Györgyi born 1893: ascorbic acid (Vitamin C); bioenergetics, carbohydrate metabolism, and cellular oxidation; Nobel prize (Medicine), 1937

• Peter Cooper Hewitt obtains US patent 682,695 for mercury vapor lamp, 1901

• Edwin Mattison McMillan born 1907: transuranium elements; co-discoverer of neptunium (Np, element 93) and plutonium (Pu, 94); Nobel Prize, 1951
• Marinus Los born 1933: imidazolinones as low-toxicity herbicides

• First underground nuclear test explosion, 1957. Previous US nuclear weapons tests were all above ground. (Thanks to Lucio Gelmini for brining this to my attention.)

• James Dewar born 1842: liquefied hydrogen; invented vacuum flask (Dewar flask); phosphorescence at low temperatures; co-developer of cordite
• Organization, in Philadelphia, of American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1848.

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

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