December 20, 1951: EBR-I (Experimental Breeder Reactor-I) ushered in new era in nuclear history when it became first reactor to generate useable amounts of electricity from nuclear energy. It accomplished this feat by lighting four light bulbs at National Reactor Testing Station of Argonne National Laboratory in Butte County, Idaho. EBR-I was registered as National Historic Landmark in 1966. December 20, 1987: Passenger ferry crashed & sank after colliding with oil tanker near Manila in Philippines. Ferry was severely overcrowded, carrying more than twice its stated capacity. Nearly everyone on board (4,386 people) died. December 20, 1946: Earthquake (8.1-magnitude) struck Japan where 1,362 people died. December 20, 1942: Earthquake (7.3-magnitude) struck Turkey where 1,100 people died. December 20, 1940: Largest earthquake (5.5-magnitude) in New Hampshire history occurred. December 20, 1907: Coal mine explosion occurred in Yolande, Alabama where 91 miners died. December 20, 1901: Robert Jemison Van de Graaff, American physicist, was born. He invented Van de Graaff generator, which is used as particle accelerator in atomic research. His generator has been used in medical (such as high-energy X-ray production) & industrial applications (sterilization of food). December 20, 1880: New York City’s Broadway was first lit by electricity. It soon became known as the Great White Way. December 20, 1879: Thomas Edison, American inventor, privately demonstrated incandescent light at his laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey. After 13 months of experimentation, Edison found a suitable material for the filament. He discovered carbonized cotton filaments could operate for 40 hours in a vacuum inside a glass bulb. December 20, 1868: Harvey Firestone, American industrialist, was born. He developed pneumatic tires first used on Model T Fords. After moving to Akron, Ohio, he started Firestone Tire & Rubber Company. In late 1930s, nearly a quarter of all tires used in United States were made by Firestone. December 20, 1852: Kitasato Shibasaburo, Japanese bacteriologist, was born. With Alexandre Yersin, he co-discovered the infectious agent of bubonic plague. As a bacteriologist at Robert Kochs laboratory in Germany, Shibasaburo worked with Emil von Behring on tetanus & diphtheria to demonstrate value of antitoxin in conferring passive immunity. They showed that non-immune animals, injected with increasing sub-lethal doses of tetanus toxin, became resistant to the disease. Their milestone paper laid the basis for all future treatment with antitoxins & founded the new field of serology.
Posted on: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 14:42:03 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015