Today in Science (0104)

Events

1885 - The first successful appendectomy is performed by William W. Grant.

1958 - Sputnik 1 falls to Earth from its orbit

1959 - Luna 1 becomes the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon.

2004 - Spirit, a NASA Mars Rover, lands successfully on Mars

Births

1643 - Isaac Newton, English natural philosopher

1894 - Manuel de Abreu, Brazilian physician

1900 - James Bond, American ornithologist

1940 - Brian David Josephson, British physicist and Nobel Prize laureate

1945 - Richard R. Schrock, American chemist and Nobel Prize laureate

Deaths

1761 - Stephen Hales, English physiologist

1961 - Erwin Schrödinger, Austrian physicist and Nobel Prize laureate

1995 - Sol Tax, American anthropologist

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