Today in Science

February 20th

1762 - Death of Tobias Mayer, German astronomer

1771 - Death of Jean Jacques d'Ortous de Mairan, French geophysicist

1844 - Birth of Ludwig Boltzmann, Austrian physicist

1907 - Death of Henri Moissan, French chemist, Nobel Prize laureate

1937 - Birth of Robert Huber, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate

1962 - While aboard Friendship 7, John Glenn orbits the earth three times in 4 hours, 55 minutes, becoming the first American to orbit the earth.

1972 - Death of Maria Goeppert-Mayer, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate

1983 - Death of Fritz Köberle, Austrian-Brazilian physician

1996 - Death of Solomon Asch, American psychologist