On August 24, 79, the first recorded explosion of Mount Vesuvius, Italy, was witnessed by the 18-year-old nephew of the Commander of the Roman Fleet. His uncle sailed with ships to rescue survivors, leaving the teen to observe the eruption from home across the…
On May 20, 1570, the world’s first true modern atlas, was published in Antwerp. Compiled by Flemish geographer and cartographer Abraham Ortelius (Ortels), Theatrum Orbis Terrarum [Theatre of the World] was a bound collection of maps and explanatory text. The maps could be bound…
On September 3, 1874, Norwegian mathematician and geophysicist Fredrik Carl Mülertz Størmer was born. Although he investigated several astrophysical phenomena during his lifetime such as meteor trails and solar corona, Størmer was particularly involved in the study of the polar auroras. The aurora phenomena…
On July 28, 1635, microscopist, astronomer, architect, Robert Hooke was born. As a student, Hooke was at ease in his studies of art, languages, music, and mathematics. At Oxford, he met and entered into creative friendships with his professors and peers in various sciences.…
On July 25, 1920, biophysicist, crystallographer, and pioneer molecular biologist Rosalind Elsie Franklin was born. She studied natural sciences at Newnham College, Cambridge. Pursuing graduate studies but wishing to contribute to a national effort, Franklin joined the British Coal Utilization Research Association, measuring and…
On July 18, 1720, English naturalist Gilbert White was born. A country cleric, White systematically recorded careful and detailed observations of all Nature in his surroundings. He experimented with different plants from flowers to potatoes to fruit trees in his garden that is still…
On June 10, 1834, naturalist Charles Darwin passed through the “East and West Furies”, the Tower Rocks, to reach the open waters of the Pacific Ocean aboard HMS Beagle. HMS Beagle was, to its time, as modern and science-packed as any space station. Its…
On May 13, 1857, Dr. Ronald Ross was born into an age when many suspected that putrid air was the culprit that killed hundreds of thousands of people and who called this killer disease malaria from the Italian mal’aria [“bad air”]. Toward the end…
On January 4, 1809, inventor and educator Louis Braille was born near Paris. He played and “helped’ his father who made harnesses and other leather goods in his workshop. On one fateful day, playing with an awl, a sharp, pointed tool for piercing leather,…
On December 30, 1863, American physician and bacteriologist William Hallock Park was born. He specialized in nose and throat diseases in New York City and soon became interested in the new science of bacteriology. In NYC, a lengthy epidemic of diphtheria had become the…