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>
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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>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
unciform:
Of the shape of a hook; hook-shaped.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/unciform>
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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>