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September 10-23

• Arthur Holly Compton born 1892: cosmic rays and X-rays; Compton scattering; Nobel prize in Physics, 1927
• John Kidd born 1775: codiscoverer of naphthalene in coal tar; author of 1833 treatise On the Adaptation of External Nature to the Physical Condition of Man, intended to show how God was manifest in creation.
• Carl Mosander born 1797: discovery of erbium (Er, element 68), lanthanum (La, 57), terbium (Tb, 65); discovered "didymium" (later resolved into neodymium and praseodymium)

• Aleksandr Erminingeldovich Arbuzov born 1877: organophosphorus compounds.
• Carl Shipp ("Speed") Marvel born 1894: organic chemist; polymer synthesis
• Surveyor 5 lands on the moon, 1967, and begins elemental analysis of surface.

• Irène Joliot-Curie, daughter of Marie and Pierre Curie, born 1897: production of artificial radioisotopes; Nobel Prize, 1935 with husband Frédéric. View a table of radioisotopes.
• Akira Suzuki born 1930: palladium-catalyzed cross couplings in organic synthesis; Nobel Prize, 2010.

• Burris Cunningham and Louis Werner isolated first microscopic amount of a compound of americium (Am, element 95) at wartime Metallurgical Laboratory, University of Chicago, 1945. (See a photo of Cunningham and Werner ink to more information about the history and uses of americium.)
• Polaroid incorporated 1937. See National Historical Chemical Landmark.
• Robert Robinson born 1886: plant pigments, phenanthrene derivatives, and alkaloids; Nobel Prize, 1947
• Leopold Ruzicka born 1887: polymethylenes (i.e., cyclic alkanes), terpenes; synthesis of sex hormones; Nobel Prize, 1939
• Dorothy Maud Wrinch born 1894: structure of proteins

• Karl Taylor Compton born 1887: interactions of electrons with atoms, metals, and gases; president of MIT.
• Charles Francois de Cisternay DuFay born 1698: repulsion between like electrical charges; phosphorescence; double refraction.
• Ferid Murad born 1936: role of nitric oxide signaling in cardiovacular system; Nobel (medicine), 1998.

• Neil Bartlett born 1932: prepared first noble gas compound, XePtF₆. [The first stable argon compound was reported in August 2000.] Thanks to Matt Morello for bringing Bartlett's birthday to my attention.
• Michael McElroy and Thomas Donahue presented a detailed chemical dynamic model for a moist Martian atmosphere, 1972. -->
• Traugott Sandmeyer born 1854: organic synthesis; Sandmeyer reaction; isatin synetheses (Sandmeyer diphenylurea isatin synthesis and Sandmeyer isonitrosoacetanilide isatin synthesis).
• Patsy Sherman born 1930: fluoropolymer stain repellent treatment for fabrics (Scotchguard(TM)), US patent 3,574,791

• Great Lakes Chemical Co. incorporated 1970. (Great Lakes and Crompton have merged to form Chemtura.)
• Albrecht Kossel born 1853: chemistry of cells and proteins; Nobel prize (Medicine), 1910
• The Montreal Protocol on Substances that deplete the Ozone Layer was signed by 24 nations, 1987.
• Guillaume-François Rouelle born 1703: classification of salts.
• Albert Szent-Györgyi born 1893: ascorbic acid (Vitamin C); bioenergetics, carbohydrate metabolism, and cellular oxidation; Nobel prize (Medicine), 1937

• Peter Cooper Hewitt obtains US patent 682,695 for mercury vapor lamp, 1901

• Edwin Mattison McMillan born 1907: transuranium elements; co-discoverer of neptunium (Np, element 93) and plutonium (Pu, 94); Nobel Prize, 1951
• Marinus Los born 1933: imidazolinones as low-toxicity herbicides

• First underground nuclear test explosion, 1957. Previous US nuclear weapons tests were all above ground.

• James Dewar born 1842: liquefied hydrogen; invented vacuum flask (Dewar flask); phosphorescence at low temperatures; co-developer of cordite
• Organization, in Philadelphia, of American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1848.

• Louis-Paul Cailletet born 1832: liquefaction of gases
• Louis Pasteur sampled pure air of French Alps, 1860. His experiments comparing this air to city air contribute to germ theory of disease and demise of the theory of spontaneous generation.

• A HREF="http://books.google.com/books?id=wskKAAAAIAAJ">Michael Faraday born 1791: electrochemist and physicist; electromagnetic induction; Faraday's laws of electrolysis; rotation of plane-polarized light in magnetic field; liquefaction of chlorine; Faraday constant is named after him. See also a letter by Faraday on the condition of the Thames, his lecture on the chemical history of a candle, and his collected papers on electricity (volumes 1, 2, and 3).

• John Sheehan born 1915: synthesized penicillin-V (US patent 3,939,151)
• Clifford Shull born 1915: neutron diffraction; Nobel prize (physics), 1994.

Dates are given according to the Gregorian calendar to the extent I could find them. (Note: this applies particularly to 19^th-century Russians.)

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