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July 25-August 7

• Colgate-Palmolive incorporated 1923
• Rosalind Franklin born 1920: X-ray crystallography of DNA; view Franklin typescript on structure of sodium thymonucleate.
• Andreas Libavius died 1616 (birth date unknown in 1540): author of Alchemia (or Alchymia) (perhaps first chemical textbook), fuming liquor of Libavius, ammonium sulfate, chemical analysis.

• Isaac Babbitt born 1799: invented babbitt's metal for bearings (an alloy of tin, antimony, and copper)
• A marriage of minds: Pierre Curie and Marja Sklodowska wed, 1895.
• Paul Walden born 1863: electrical conductivity and electrolytic dissociation; Walden inversion.

• Bertram Borden Boltwood born 1870: early radioactivity and radiochemistry research.
• Friedrich Dorn born 1848: discovered radon (Rn, element 86), an "emanation of radium" in 1900. (Note that Ernest Rutherford discovered an "emanation of thorium" (later recognized as an isotope of radon) in the same year.)
• Hans Fischer born 1881: research on hemin, chlorophyll, porphyrins, and related compounds; Nobel prize, 1930

• James Curtis Booth born 1810: methods for refining gold-silver bullion at US Mint, Philadelphia.

• Heinz Fraenkel-Conrat born 1910: separated viral RNA from protein and showed that RNA was the active agent, turning attention to the role of nucleic acids in heredity.
• Walter Julius Reppe born 1892: industrial organic chemistry (at BASF); high-pressure reactions of acetylene.
• Isidor Isaac Rabi born 1898: atomic and molecular beam spectroscopy; nuclear magnetic properties; Nobel Prize (Physics), 1944

• The "Charles" of Antwerp, Belgium, becomes the "first oil tanker", 1869, carrying oil from the U.S. to Europe in iron tanks below decks.

• August Beer born 1825: Beer-Lambert law relating absorption of light to concentration of absorbing material
• Paul Delos Boyer born 1918: enzymatic mechanism of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) synthesis; Nobel Prize, 1997.

• Joseph Henry Gilbert born 1817: nitrogen fertilizers
• Charles Robert Harington born 1897: biochemist; synthesized thyroxine with G. Barger
• George de Hevesy born 1885: radioisotopes; co-discoverer of hafnium (Hf, element 72); Nobel prize, 1943.
• Richard Kirwan born 1733: specific heats; defender of phlogiston eventually converted to antiphlogistic theories.
• Joseph Priestley first prepared oxygen, 1774.

• Albert Einstein sent letter about military implications of atomic energy to President Franklin Roosevelt, 1939.
• Leopold Gmelin born 1788: Gmelin's salt (potassium ferricyanide); test for bile pigments; History of science and chemistry [auf Deutsch]; Handbuch der anorganischen Chemie. [Link to information on the GMELIN database.]
• Benjamin Rush, professor of chemistry at College of Philadelphia, signed Declaration of Independence, 1776.
• Friedrich Stromeyer born 1776: discoverer of cadmium (Cd, element 48); analysis of minerals.

• John Wilfred Linnett born 1913: molecular structure; combustion and flame kinetics.
• Koichi Tanaka born 1959: mass spectrometric analysis of biological macromolecules; Nobel prize 2002.
• Louis Pasteur reads a paper to the Lille Society implicating micro-organisms in the fermentation of wine, 1857.
• George Whitesides born 1939: use of enzymes in organic synthesis; combination of chemistry, biology, biochemistry and material science.
• Alexander Williamson reads paper on synthesis of ethers to British Association, 1850.

• Jeanette Grasselli Brown born 1928: vibrational spectroscopy; edited Atlas of Spectral Data and Physical Constants for Organic Compounds; Garvan Medal, 1985
• Robert Williams is awarded US patent 2,049,988 for a process for obtaining vitamins, 1936.

• Seymour Richard Lipsky born 1924: electron capture detector; high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC).
• Thomas Burr Osborne born 1859: proteins and their amino acid content; Vitamin A and cod-liver oil.
• Standard Oil of New Jersey incorporated, 1882 (now part of ExxonMobil).

• Alexander Fleming born 1881: discoverer of penicillin; Nobel prize (Medicine), 1945.
• William Hyde Wollaston born 1766: discoverer of palladium (Pd, element 46) and rhodium (Rh, 45); equivalent weights. (View his paper on acid salts.)

• (John) Paul Hogan born 1919: polyolefin plastics, including high-density polyethylene (HDPE).
• Arthur Michael born 1853: entropy-based theory of organic reactions; Michael addition reaction
• George Pimentel announced evidence of methane and ammonia detected near Mars by Mariner 7 spacecraft, 1969.

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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