Today in Science

February 19th

1473 - Birth of Nicolaus Copernicus, mathematician and astronomer

1526 - Birth of Charles de L'Ecluse, Flemish botanist

1553 - Death of Erasmus Reinhold, German astronomer and mathematician

1660 - Birth of Friedrich Hoffmann, German physician and chemist

1799 - Death of Jean-Charles de Borda, French mathematician, physicist, political scientist, and sailor

1804 - Birth of Carl Freiherr von Rokitansky, German physician

1859 - Birth of Svante Arrhenius, Swedish chemist, Nobel laureate

1897 - Death of Karl Weierstraß, German mathematician

1916 - Death of Ernst Mach, Austrian-Czech physicist and philosopher

1941 - Birth of David Gross, American physicist, Nobel laureate

1943 - Birth of Tim Hunt, British biochemist, Nobel laureate

1956 - Birth of Roderick MacKinnon, American biologist, Nobel laureate

1985 - Artificial heart patient William J. Schroeder becomes the first such patient to leave hospital.

1988 - Death of André Frédéric Cournand, French-born physician, Nobel laureate

2002 - NASA's Mars Odyssey space probe begins to map the surface of Mars using its thermal emission imaging system.