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April
- probably comes from the Latin "aperire" meaning to
open referring to the opening of spring buds and flowers. April is Cancer Control Month, Keep America Beautiful Month, Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Month, and National Automobile Month. We'll celebrate Easter, Passover (usually) and take note of International Children's Book Day, Astronomy Day, Arbor and Earth Day. If you were wondering why the date of Easter changes from year to year it's because Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon of the Vernal Equinox. Science Gnus is an almanacish compendium of News of Science, History, Science, Mathematics,Items of Interest and Science as well as Professor Sy Yentz, Dr. Matt Matician, the Activity of the Month, Factorinos, Trivia Question, Bonus Trivia Question, Extinct, Trivia Answers, Jokes,Obscure Questions, and Word of the Month Science Gnus is an almanacish compendium of News of Science, History, Science, Mathematics,Items of Interest and Science as well as Professor Sy Yentz, Dr. Matt Matician, the Activity of the Month, Factorinos, Trivia Question, Bonus Trivia Question, Extinct, Trivia Answers, Jokes,Obscure Questions, and Word of the Month |
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1. April Fool's Day- A
day traditionally featuring jokes and pranks.
1582, Pope Gregory XIII ordered a new calendar cleverly known as the Gregorian Calendar to
replace the old Julian Calendar (cleverly named after Julius Caesar). The new
calendar called for New Year's Day to be celebrated Jan. 1. Allegedly those celebrating the old date were
called April Fools. There are no really
satisfactory explanations, all have holes in them, but then just watch the
evening news or read the newspapers – every day is Fool’s Day. Most ancient cultures celebrated the New Year
around the time of the Vernal Equinox, the first day of spring. Seemed like a good time to bring in a new
year. In 1582,
1578-
Just like a romance novel ......... a pulsating, throbbing thrill. Happy
Birthday, William Harvey the English doctor who discovered the circulation of
blood and the functioning of the heart.
1789- The
1815- Happy Birthday, Otto von Bismarck, German Chancellor
paved the way for the rise of the modern German state. Known as the "Iron Chancellor",
1826 - Samuel Morey patented the internal
combustion engine. Morey is one of the highest achieving yet least-known
American inventors in history even though he secured at least 20 patents from
1793 to 1833 and was a true pioneer of steam propulsion. Yes, it was “the
Morey, the merrier”. Morey’s work with engines also influenced Robert
Livingston and Robert Fulton in the development of the steam boat.
1853-
1865- The Battle of Five Forks, dealt a death blow for
Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia as supply lines were now cut off (the
surrender at Appomattox was two weeks
away).
1873- Happy Birthday, Sergey Rachmaninoff, last of the
great Russian romantic composers (other Russian romantic composers? Think
Tchaikovsky).
1873
– In the worst single
ship disaster to occur off the Canadian Coast prior to the Titanic’s visit in
1912, the Luxury steamship S.S. Atlantic,
of the White Star Line, ran aground on Mar's Head, Lower Prospect, Nova Scotia. Lifeboats were lowered by the crew but were
washed away as the ship began to sink, killing 562.
1875- Sir Francis Galton published the first newspaper weather
map - in The Times,
1890- The electric trolley car was patented by Belgian
inventor, Charles Van Depoele. He had designed the first commercial electric
railway in the
1889- The first commercial dishwashing machine was marketed
for sale in
1924 – They had him in jail
and they let him out. Adolf Hitler was sentenced to five years in jail for his
participation in the "Beer Hall Putsch" – his almost comedic attempt
to take over
1929 - The
yo-yo was introduced in
1932 – Happy Birthday, Norman Abramson, American computer
scientist who created ALOHAnet, - which sounds like a way to trap tourists in
1933
– Happy Birthday,
Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, French physicist
who shared the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1997 (with Steven Chu and William
D. Phillips) for developing methods using laser light to cool gases to the
micro-kelvin temperature range (nearly absolute zero to a fraction of a
millionth of a degree.) This was a long way from Ernest Rutherford’s early
1900’s experiments of shooting alpha particles at foil to locate the nuclei of
atoms. With this technique the motion of the chilled atoms is thereby sufficiently
slowed to permit their study with very great accuracy, and their inner
structure can be determined.
1938- Panda kaput. Su Lin,
the first panda to live in captivity outside China, died after a twig lodged in
its throat. The clever keepers at Brookfield Zoo, Chicago, U.S. had added oak
twigs to the panda's usual diet of bamboo even though there was no record of
panda’s ever eating oak twigs…..why not just give them hamburgers????. The panda had been brought from
1939 – The end of the
Spanish Civil War as Generalísimo Francisco Franco announced that the last of
the Republican forces had surrendered. The war had lasted from 1936-1939
between those loyal to the newly- established Republican government (which came
power after the fall of the Spanish monarchy) and those who favored a
conservative, militaristic system. The outcome of the Spanish Civil War altered
the balance of power in Europe, as tested the military power of
1945- American forces invaded the Japanese held
1946 - During the early
morning an earthquake of magnitude 7.4 occurred in an area of the Aleutian
Trench located approximately 90 miles south of Unimak Island, part of the
1960-
Tiros I, a two-camera weather
satellite was launched. After 2 months
it had taken over 20,000 pictures of clouds.
The goal was to improve satellite applications
for Earth-bound decisions, such as "should we evacuate the coast because
of the hurricane?" or “Will I need my sun block SPF 30 at the beach
today?”…….no, not really for the second question. Professor Sy Yentz has his sunbathing sense
of humor. TIROS proved extremely successful for weather forecasting but to this
day, people are still reluctant to evacuate their homes.
1963 - Oh Dirk! Oh Audry! Oh, the awful writing. Oh the awful
acting….The soap opera
1970 – Goodbye to the “Marlboro Man”, silly jingles and
cigarettes as suave accessories……. when President Richard Nixon signed a
measure banning cigarette advertising on radio and TV.
1976 - Apple Computer
is formed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. The first home computer with a GUI or
graphical user interface was the Apple Lisa. The very first graphical user
interface was developed by the Xerox Corporation at their Palo Alto Research
Center (PARC). They hit the mother lode with the 1984 release of the Macintosh.
1979- Perhaps his increasingly bizarre behavior in years to come was due to
exposure to radiation. President Jimmy Carter, who
had trained as an engineering officer for nuclear power plants – yet continued
to say “nucular” visited the
1981
– Always up to date with modern trends, daylight saving time was finally
introduced in the
1984
– “What’s Going On?” On the day before his forty fifth birthday, Singer
Marvin Gaye was shot to death by his father at age 44. Gaye, one of Motown’s
principal artists, had a series of hits beginning with Stubborn Kind of Fellow in 1962 and continuing with hits such as I Heard it Through the Grapevine, and What’s Going On. He also teamed with Tammi Terrell for Ain’t No Mountain High Enough. Addled by
drug use, paranoia, and contentious relationship with his father, Gaye was shot
point blank after a violent argument.
2001
- Same-sex marriage
became legal in the
2002
- The
2. 742 – Happy
Birthday, Charlemagne, King of the Franks, King of the Lombards and Charles I
of the
International Children‘s Book Day- marks the birthday of Hans Christian
Anderson in 1805.
1513- Juan Ponce DeLeon, while searching for a beach front condo, made
the first European landing on the
1725- Happy
Birthday, Giovanni Casanova, Italian ecclesiastic, writer, soldier, spy, and
diplomatist, chiefly remembered as the prince of Italian adventurers and as the
man who made the name Casanova synonymous with “libertine.” His autobiography,
which perhaps exaggerates some of his escapades, is an excellent description of
18th-century society. He also wrote a History
of
1792- The
U.S Mint was established in
1814 – Happy Birthday, Erastus
Bigalow, American
industrialist who is famous as the developer of the power loom for making lace
and many types of carpet. Yes, he was a “loomatic”.
1827-
Lead pencils, which are really graphite pencils, were first manufactured by Joseph Dixon, who
built his factory in Salem, Mass. Dixon was responsible for the development of
the graphite industry in the U.S
1834-
Happy Birthday, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, French sculptor of Statue of Liberty
1840- Happy
Birthday, Emile Zola, French novelist Emile Zola
novelist. Among Zola's most important works is his famous Rougon-Macquart cycle (1871-1893), which included such novels as L’Assommoir (1877), about the suffering
of the Parisian working-class, Nana (1880),
dealing with prostitution, and Germinal
(1885), depicting the mining industry. Zola's open letter J'ACCUSE on January
13, 1898, reopened the case of the Jewish Captain, Alfred Dreyfus, sentenced to
1845- "Smile."........H.L. Fizeau & J. Leon Foucault took the first photograph of the Sun. Leon Foucault is a bit more famous for his pendulum, Foucault’s Pendulum, which proved the rotation of the Earth.
1875-
Happy Birthday, Walter P. Chrysler, the industrialist, inventor and
manufacturer who founded the Chrysler Corporation in1925 , and developed the
six-cylinder engine.
1889- Charles M. Hall patented the
anelectrolytic process to extract aluminum from its ore. He had invented the
process on Feb. 23 1886. Although aluminum is the most abundant metal in the
earth's crust, it is not found naturally in pure form, and thus it must be
separated from its surrounding ore.
Thanks to Hall it can be done inexpensively.
1917-
President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress to declare war against
1934
– Happy Birthday, Paul Cohen, American mathematician who received the Fields Medal (1966)
for his fundamental work on the foundations of set theory. Cohen invented a
technique called "forcing" to prove the independence in set theory of
the axiom of choice and of the generalized continuum hypothesis. The continuum
hypothesis problem was the first of Hilbert's famous 23 problems delivered to
the Second International Congress of Mathematicians in
1935- William Watt ( brother of Say Watt?, Some Watt and Kumq Watt) was granted a patent for RADAR (Radio Detecting And Ranging).
1953 - The journal Nature published a
paper from Francis Crick and James Watson, with the catchy title of Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids:
A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid, in which they described a double
helix structure for DNA
1978 -Velcro,
one of the great developments of Western civilization, was released (or is it
attached?). It was developed by Swiss
engineer Georges de Mestral, who had noticed how thistle burrs clung to his
clothing during a hike in the mountains. Using a microscope, he discovered
their natural hook-like shape. Velcro uses two tapes, one with stiff
"hooks" like the burrs which clings to the second tape with soft
"loops" like the fabric of his pants. The trademarked name Velcro
comes from "vel" or velvet and "cro" from the French word
crochet which means hook.
1979- The world’s first
anthrax epidemic began in
2002 – The desecration of the Church of the
Nativity (tradition birthplace of Jesus) as Muslim gunmen forced their way into
the church and used it as a base of operations as they began a 39 day stand off
with Israeli forces who had taken control of
1043 - Edward the Confessor – the
last Saxon King -was crowned King of England. Of course in 1066 when Edward
went kaput, his crown went to Harold Godwine….Edward’s brother-in-law. This was disputed by William the Bastard of
Normandy who invaded
1367 – Happy Birthday, King Henry IV of England. Made famous by Shakespeare as Bolingbroke,
Henry (
1449 - King Henry VI of
1683 – Happy Birthday, English
naturalist, Mark Catesby. Catesby traveled to
1778- Happy Birthday, Pierre-Fidèle
Bretonneau, French epidemiologist who in 1825 performed the first successful
tracheotomy – an incision of and entrance into the trachea through the skin and
muscles of the neck.
1783 – Happy Birthday, Washington Irving, American author who wrote The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Interestingly, both Sleepy
Hollow and Rip Van Winkle appear
in his book The Sketch Book of Geoffrey
Crayon,
1798
-Happy Birthday, Charles
Wilkes, American oceanographer, who named the continent of
1823 – Happy Birthday, William Marcy “Boss”
1829-
James Carrington of
1837- Happy Birthday, John Burroughs, American
conservationist. He was born in
1860- Giddyup!
The Pony Express was started from
1882 – As the song goes, “The dirty little coward who shot Mr. Howard has laid
poor Jessie in his grave”. Outlaw Jesse
James was shot in the back by as he straightend a picture on his living
room wall by Robert Ford, a member of his gang who hoped to collect the bounty
for Jesse’s capture “dead or alive”. In
case you were wondering, Jesse’s brother Frank later surrendered, was acquitted
in two trials and died of old age. Jesse lives on as he has been played in the
movies by Tyrone Power (1939 – with Henry Fonda as Frank James), Robert Wagner
(1957), John Lupton (1966 – Lupton was a 1950’s lead in the TV Western, Broken Arrow), Audie Murphy (1969),
Robert Duvall (1972), James Keach (1980), Kris Kristofferson (1986), Rob Lowe
(1994), J. D. Souther (1999), Colin Farrell (2001), and Brad Pitt (2007 – with
playwright Sam Shepherd as Frank).
1898 -Happy Birthday, Katherine Esau, German-American
botanist. Follow this carefully now, she was born in Yekaterinoslav, Russian
Empire (now Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine) to a family of Mennonites of German
descent but moved to the U.S. She was famous
for her research into the effects of viruses upon plant tissues, and her
studies of plant tissue structures and physiology. Plant tissues are, obviously
used by plants to blow or wipe their stamens when they have a cold. No, no, no Professor Sy Yentz has his phloem
sense of humor. She was the sixth woman elected to the National Academy of
Sciences in 1957, and in 1989 she was awarded the National Medal of Science.
1924
– Happy Birthday Actor
(and strange human being), Marlon Brando born in
1924
– Born on the same day
as Marlon Brando, Happy Birthday, Doris Day, virginal American actress who
staved off the attentions (at least until the end of the movie) of Rock Hudson,
Clark Gable, Cary Grant, and others in a
series of frothy late 1950’s early 60s movie comedies – Pillow Talk, Teacher’s Pet, Lover Come Back, and That Touch of Mink.
1926 – Happy Birthday, Virgil Grissom – one of the original seven American
astronauts. Grissom had flown 100 combat missions
with the 334th Fighter Interceptor Squadron in
1934-
Happy Birthday, Jane Goodall, British anthropologist famous for her work with
chimpanzees and appetite for bananas.
Goodall became the world's foremost
authority on chimpanzees, having closely observed their behavior in the jungles
of the Gombe Game Reserve in Africa, living in the chimps' environment and
gaining their confidence……..by lending them money, allowing them to use her TV
and promising to get Regis Philbin’s autograph.
1934- Same day as Jane Goodall was born, inventor Percy
Shaw of
1936- Richard Bruno Hauptmann, convicted in the 1932
kidnapping and murder of the 20-month-old son of Charles A. Lindbergh, was
executed by electrocution. On March 1, 1932, Charles Lindbergh Jr., the son of
the famous American aviator who made the first solo, nonstop transatlantic
flight in 1927, was kidnapped from the nursery of the Lindbergh home in
1946 - Lt. General Masaharu Homma, the Japanese commander
responsible for the Bataan Death March, was executed in the
1948- President Truman signed the Marshall Plan, which allocated
more than $5 billion in aid for 16 European countries. Eventually over $12 billion was given. The
1956- Elvis Presley performed his #1 hit Heartbreak Hotel on the Milton Berle TV
show. Elvis was also in a skit with
Milton Berle playing his long lost twin brother Melvin Presley.
Accompanying Elvis on his songs were his back up band, Scotty Moore, Bill Black and D.J.
1965- SNAP 10A, the
first nuclear reactor in space, was launched from Vanden berg Air Force Base,
1966- Luna 10 (U.S.S.R.) became the first
spacecraft to orbit the Moon.(See March 31). The scientific instruments on board included a gamma-ray
spectrometer, triaxial magnetometer, a meteorite detector, and lots of those
thingees that, you know, do science stuff.
1969- Dr. Denton A. Cooley implanted the first
total artificial heart (the Liotta Total Artificial Heart) at the Texas Heart
Institute in
1973
– A
huge technological breakthrough and a curse. As Peggy Noonan said, “Cell phones
are wonderful, they empower the obnoxious and amplify the ignorant”. The first portable phone call was placed by
inventor Martin Cooper. The phone was 10 inches in height, 3 inches deep and an
inch-and-a-half wide and weighed 30-oz. Cooper walked down the streets of
1973- And on the same day as the first portable phone was demonstrated -Francis W. Dorion patented a "dual razor blade assembly.” Now people could get twice as many cuts plus they could hold their portable phones to their clean shaven faces.
1974
– The worst tornado outbreak in
2007 - An official new world record for
conventional-train speed of 574.8 km/h (357.2 mph) was set by a French TGV on
the LGV Est high speed line east of
4. 1688 – Happy Birthday, Joseph-Nicolas
Delisle, of “Delisles of Capri”, French astronomer who proposed that the series
of colored rings sometimes observed around the Sun is caused by diffraction of
sunlight through water droplets in a cloud right here on Earth.
1818- Congress decreed that the
1821-Happy
Birthday, Linus Yale, American inventor and manufacturer of locks. Yale's lock used a flat key with serrated
edges like the ones we still use today. When inserted into the lock, the key
pushes the bottom pins into the right position, which allows the user to turn
the key and unlock the lock. The cylinder lock perfected by Yale is based on a
mechanism first employed by the ancient Egyptians over 4000 years ago.
1823-
Happy Birthday, Charles Wilhelm Siemens, yes, he was an Able Bodied Siemens,
German/British scientist who invented a gas-heated, open-hearth furnace. Repairs to the furnace were called "open
hearth surgery."
1841-Only 31 days after assuming
office (presidential inaugurations were held on March 4 in those days), William
Henry Harrison, the ninth president of the
1846-
Happy Birthday, Raoul Pictet, Swiss
chemist who was a pioneer of cryogenics which is the production of low
temperatures or the study of low-temperature phenomena. Needless to say his
work was met with a chilly reception by the Scientific community.
1902 -
British financier Cecil Rhodes left $10 million in his will to provide
scholarships for Americans at
1915 - Happy
Birthday, Muddy Waters, American blues musician. Among his hits were; I Can't Be Satisfied,
I Feel Like Going Home, Train Fare Blues
but his influence on Rock & Roll is inestimable.
1932- Professor C.G King ( brother of Chicken Alla
King, B.B King and
Vi King) isolated Vitamin C after 5 years of research. This isolation gave C a complex but then Vitamin B already had a complex and now C was complex and.....oh, it's so confusing.
1933- Four years before
the Hindenburg disaster, the Akron, a dirigible crashed in New
Jersey, (also where the Hindenburg exploded
and crashed), killing 73 people in one of the first air disasters in history.
The
1938- Happy Birthday, Ananda Chakrabarty, Indian-American biochemist who patented
the first genetically engineered life-form (Paris Hilton). The U.S. Supreme
Court, on June 16, 1980 ruled that new forms of life could be patented if they
are the outcome of human ingenuity.
1968
- Martin Luther King was assassinated by James Earl Ray while
standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in
1972-
The first electric power generated in the
1978- Francisco Garcia was granted a patent "orthodontic
pliers." No, no no, it’s not what you think. They weren’t used for pulling teeth. The
pliers were primarily f for bending the alignment wire end during orthodontic
techniques…..think braces.
1983- The
first flight of the shuttle, Challenger. It was named after the British Naval research vessel HMS
Challenger that sailed the
Back to Calendar
5. 456 - St. Patrick returned to