James Chadwick (1891–1974) was an English physicist who was awarded the 1935 Nobel Prize in physics for his discovery of the neutron, and who led the British team that worked on the Manhattan Project during the Second World War to produce atomic bombs. He studied under Ernest Rutherford in Manchester and Hans Geiger in Berlin, where he demonstrated that beta radiation produced a continuous spectrum, not discrete lines as had been thought. He later became Rutherford's Assistant Director of Research at the Cavendish Laboratory of the University of Cambridge. Chadwick's research led to his discovery of the neutron in 1932; he later measured its mass. In 1935 he became a professor at the University of Liverpool, which he made an important centre for the study of nuclear physics. During the Second World War, Chadwick carried out research as part of the Tube Alloys project to build an atomic bomb, and wrote the final draft of the MAUD Report, which inspired the U.S. government to begin serious atomic bomb research efforts. He later served as the British scientific advisor to the U.N. Atomic Energy Commission and as Master of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Chadwick
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1572:
Eighty Years' War: Soldiers of the Spanish Tercios waded across the river Scheldt at its mouth, walking overnight in water to chest height, to relieve the siege of Goes in the Spanish Netherlands. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relief_of_Goes
1740:
Per the terms of the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713, Maria Theresa assumed the throne of the Habsburg Monarchy in Austria. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Theresa
1944:
World War II: Fulfilling a promise he made two years previous, General Douglas MacArthur landed on Leyte to begin the recapture of the entire Philippine Archipelago. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Leyte
1977:
Three members of the American rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd died when their chartered plane crashed in Gillsburg, Mississippi. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1977_Convair_CV-300_crash
2011:
Libyan Civil War: Muammar Gaddafi, the deposed leader of Libya, was captured during the Battle of Sirte and killed less than an hour later. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Muammar_Gaddafi
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
unciform: Of the shape of a hook; hook-shaped. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/unciform
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
The revelation of the Divine Reality hath everlastingly been identical with its concealment and its concealment identical with its revelation. That which is intended by "Revelation of God" is the Tree of divine Truth that betokeneth none but Him, and it is this divine Tree that hath raised and will raise up Messengers, and hath revealed and will ever reveal Scriptures. From eternity unto eternity this Tree of divine Truth hath served and will ever serve as the throne of the revelation and concealment of God among His creatures, and in every age is made manifest through whomsoever He pleaseth. --The Báb https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/B%C3%A1b