| Date | Text | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100 years anniversary | ||||
| 03 Feb 1925 | John Fiedler: Platville, Wisconsin -- Actor (Mr Peterson-Newhart) | |||
| 03 Feb 1925 | Joop C Swart: Dutch publisher / founder (World Press Photo) | |||
| 03 Feb 1925 | Jaap Eden: Dutch World champion bicyclist / speed skating, dies at 51 | |||
| 03 Feb 1925 | John Fiedler, American actor and singer (d. 2005) | |||
| 03 Feb 1925 |
Missing link fossil In 1925, a report of the first "missing link" fossil, found by Raymond Dart, was published in a newspaper. The Star of Johannesburg, South Africa announced the find, instead of the professional journal Nature, when the editors of the journal changed their mind. In 1924, Dart found the skull that made him famous. Mr. Dart with his students made the find in the Taung limestone works in the Harts Valley of Bechuanaland. When an endocranial cast was found, at first it seemed to be just another primate skull. Then, Dart noticed how amazingly close to human it looked. Dart had discovered the Taung child, who was only three years old at the time of death. He named it Australopithecus africanus. "Australis" meaning south and "pithecus" meaning ape. |
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| 03 Feb 1925 |
death Oliver Heaviside Died 3 Feb 1925 at age 74 (born 18 May 1850). English physicist and electrical engineer who predicted the existence of the ionosphere. In 1870, he became a telegrapher, but increasing deafness forced him to retire in 1874. He then devoted himself to investigations of electricity. In 1902, Heaviside and Arthur Kennelly predicted that there should be an ionised layer in the upper atmosphere that would reflect radio waves. They pointed out that it would be useful for long distance communication, allowing radio signals to travel to distant parts of the earth by bouncing off the underside of this layer. The existence of the layer, now known as the Heaviside layer or the ionosphere, was demonstrated in the 1920s, when radio pulses were transmitted vertically upward and the returning pulses from the reflecting layer were received. |
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Oliver Heaviside (born 1850), physicist. | |||
| 75 years anniversary | ||||
| 03 Feb 1950 | Karl Seitz: President of Austria, dies at 80 | |||
| 03 Feb 1950 | Nuclear physicist Klaus Fuchs arrested on spy charges | |||
| 03 Feb 1950 | Sid Field, English actor and singer (b. 1904) | |||
| 03 Feb 1950 | Morgan Fairchild, American actress | |||
| 03 Feb 1950 | Michael W. Dickinson, English jockey and trainer | |||
| 50 years anniversary | ||||
| 03 Feb 1975 | John Secondari: Newscaster (Open Hearing), dies at 55 | |||
| 03 Feb 1975 | Robert Evett: Composer, dies at 52 | |||
| 03 Feb 1975 | Billy Herman, Earl Averill, and Bucky Harris elected to Hall of Fame | |||
| 03 Feb 1975 | Umm Kulthum, Egyptian singer-songwriter and actress (b. 1904) | |||
| 03 Feb 1975 | William D. Coolidge, American physicist and engineer (b. 1873) | |||
| 03 Feb 1975 | Brad Thorn, New Zealand rugby player | |||
| 03 Feb 1975 |
death William Coolidge Died 3 Feb 1975 at age 101 (born 23 Oct 1873). William David Coolidge was an American physicist, engineer and physical chemist whose improvement of tungsten filaments (U.S. patent No.1,082,933, issued 30 Dec 1913) was essential in the development of the modern incandescent lamp bulb and the X-ray tube. Coolidge's X-ray tube (1916, U.S. patent No. 1,203,495) completely revolutionized the generation of X-rays and remains to this day the model upon which all X-ray tubes for medical applications are patterned. He worked on many other devices such as high-quality magnetic steel, improved ventilating fans, and the electric blanket. During World War II he contributed research to projects involving radar and radar countermeasures. He was awarded 83 patents during his lifetime. |
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| 25 years anniversary | ||||
| 03 Feb 2000 | Alla Rakha, Indian tabla player (b. 1919) | |||
| 20 years anniversary | ||||
| 03 Feb 2005 | Zurab Zhvania, Georgian biologist and politician, 4th Prime Minister of Georgia (b. 1963) | |||
| 03 Feb 2005 |
death Ernst Mayr Died 3 Feb 2005 at age 100 (born 5 Jul 1904). German-born American biologist known for his work in avian taxonomy, population genetics, and evolution. In 1928, he led the first of three expeditions to New Guinea and the Solomon Islands where he studied the effects of geographic distribution among various animal species. He led development of the modern synthetic theory of evolution (the interplay of gene mutation and recombination, changes in structure and function of chromosomes, reproductive isolation and natural selection). In 1940, he proposed a definition of species that became accepted in scientific circles. He began bird watching as a young boy, and by the age of ten, he could recognize all of the local bird species by call as well as sight. |
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Ernst Mayr (b. 1904), evolutionary biologist. | |||
| 15 years anniversary | ||||
| 03 Feb 2010 | Frances Reid, American actress (b. 1914) | |||
| 03 Feb 2010 | Dick McGuire American basketball player and coach (b. 1926) | |||
| 03 Feb 2010 | AC/DC singer Brian Johnson, joined a growing group of critics of Bob Geldof and U2 singer Bono over their very public charity work, saying they should stop lecturing audiences about charity work and instead do their good deeds in private. Johnson said "When I was a working man I didn't want to go to a concert for some bastard to talk down to me that I should be thinking of some kid in Africa. I'm sorry mate, do it yourself, spend some of your own money and get it done. It just makes me angry." | |||
| 10 years anniversary | ||||
| 03 Feb 2015 | A collision between a commuter train and a passenger vehicle kills six in Valhalla, New York. | |||
| 03 Feb 2015 | Charlie Sifford, American golfer (b. 1922) | |||
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