Science Teachers’ Assocation of NSW inc 2018–19 Calendar
MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
World AIDS Day
1942, Enrico Fermi
and his team achieved
the first artificial, self-
sustained, nuclear chain
reaction, using uranium,
in a makeshift lab under
the Univ of Chicago’s
football stands.
1
3 4
Human Rights Day 1997, more than 150
countries agreed at
a global warming
conference in Kyoto,
Japan, to control the
Earth’s greenhouse gases.
10 11
1903, the first manned,
powered, sustained &
controlled airplane flights
were achieved by the
Wright brothers with The
Flyer, a wood and fabric
biplane.
17
18
Christmas Day
24
31
12
1944 birth of Richard
Leakey, Kenyan
anthropologist, son
of Louis and Mary
Leakey. They made
key discoveries for
our understanding of
human origins and
inspired a generation of
researchers.
19
7
1967, the first synthesis
of active DNA in a test
tube was announced
by Arthur Kornberg. He
isolated a single strand of
viral DNA and replicated
it using DNA from E. coli.
13 14
1999, astronauts
finished repair work
on the Hubble Space
Telescope to correct a
flaw in the mirror, after
which images were
received of a clarity not
possible from terrestrial
observatories.
25
1
26
20
8
27
9
15
9
16
1901 death of Henry
Gilbert who for 50 years
co-directed the first
agricultural research
station in Hertfordshire,
UK. They studied
nitrogen requirements
and initiated super-
phosphate fertiliser.
21
28
2004, Spirit, a robot
rover landed on Mars
to analyse the planet’s
rocks, looking for
evidence of water and
taking the only photo
of Earth from another
planet.
1816 death of Louis
Guyton de Morveau,
French chemist who
collaborated with
Antoine Lavoisier et al,
to establish systematic
chemical nomenclature,
helping to distinguish
elements & compounds.
2
8
1590 death of Ambroise
Paré, French physician,
one of the greatest
surgeons of the European
Renaissance, known as
the “father of modern
surgery” for his many
innovations in operative
methods.
The Falls Music
and Arts Festival
1949: first images of
chromosomes & genes
were published in
Science. An electron
microscope was used
to study salivary gland
sections of fruit fly. The
structure of DNA was
unknown until 1953.
7
6 1850 death of Henri Hess,
Swiss-Russian chemist
whose studies of heat
in chemical reactions
formed the foundation of
thermochemistry.
Boxing Day
1989, the Montreal
Protocol, an international
agreement (adopted 16
Sep 1987) to reduce the
use of ozone-depleting
substances, came into
force.
1993, the last samples
of smallpox virus
were scheduled for
destruction. On 23
Dec, a decision saved
frozen vials in Moscow
and Atlanta for future
research.
5
2
1993, the US made
their Global Positioning
System, accurate within
100m and using 24 GPS
satellites in assigned
orbits, available for
navigation use at SPS
levels for civil users.
1916 birth of Hilary
Koprowski, Polish
virologist who found an
oral vaccine for polio,
using attenuated virus,
rather than injections
of dead virus as used by
Jonas Salk.
1967, in Cape Town, Dr.
Christiaan Barnard, with
a team of 20 surgeons
performed the first
human heart transplant.
The patient only survived
18 days but paved the
way for
future success.
3 4
1863, London’s
Metropolitan, world’s first
underground passenger
railway, opened to
fare-paying passengers
with 7 stations between
Farringdon St. and
Paddington. 1922, Leonard
Thompson, at age 14,
was about to die when
he was the first person
to receive an insulin
injection for diabetes. He
lived another 13 yrs.
10 11
22
1954 death of William M.
Burton, US chemist; in
1913 patented a thermal
cracking process that
doubled the proportion
of gasoline yield from
crude oil using high heat
and pressure; superceded
by the 1937 catalytic
process.
23
29 30
1896, the first public
account was published in
an Austrian newspaper,
Wiener Presse, after the 8
Nov 1895 observation by
Wilhelm Röntgen, of the
new form of radiation to
be known as X-rays. 1851, the rotation of
the Earth was proved
experimentally by
Leon Foucault in the
cellar of his house with
a 2 metre pendulum.
He demonstrated his
discovery to Napoleon on
31 Mar 1851.
5 6
12 13
The school theme for National Science Week in 2018 is ‘Game Changers and Change Makers’
Almost by definition, inventors and scientists are change makers. This calendar presents
— 4 . —
a selection of people and events that have changed the way we live and extended our knowledge and understanding of the world.