Today in Science

January 23rd

1556 - The deadliest earthquake in history, the Shaanxi earthquake, hits resulting in a death toll perhaps as high as 830,000.

1719 - Birth of John Landen, English mathematician

1785 - Death of Matthew Stewart, Scottish mathematician

1840 - Birth of Ernst Abbe, German physicist

1857 - Birth of Andrija MohoroviÄiÄ, Croatian seismologist

1862 - Birth of David Hilbert, German mathematician

1872 - Birth of Paul Langevin, French physicist

1876 - Birth of Otto Diels, German chemist and Nobel Prize laureate

1907 - Birth of Hideki Yukawa, Japanese physicist and Nobel Prize laureate

1918 - Birth of Gertrude B. Elion, American scientist and Nobel Prize laureate

1929 - Birth of John Charles Polanyi, Canadian chemist, and Nobel Prize laureate