Mark Oliphant (8 October 1901 – 14 July 2000) was an Australian
physicist who made the first experimental demonstration of nuclear
fusion. Born and raised in Adelaide, he studied in England under Ernest
Rutherford at the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge.
There, he used a particle accelerator on deuterons, and discovered
helium-3 and tritium. During the Second World War he headed the group at
the University of Birmingham that created the cavity magnetron, which
made microwave radar possible. He served on the MAUD Committee, which
found that an atomic bomb was feasible, and on the Manhattan Project
with his friend Ernest Lawrence at the Berkeley Radiation Laboratory,
developing electromagnetic isotope separation. After the war, he
returned to Australia as the first director of the Research School of
Physical Sciences and Engineering at the Australian National University.
He retired from the university in 1967, and served as Governor of South
Australia from 1971 to 1976.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Oliphant>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1918:
World War I: After his platoon suffered heavy casualties during
the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in France's Forest of Argonne, American
Corporal Alvin York led the 7 remaining men on an attack against a
German machine gun nest, killing 28 German soldiers and capturing 132
others.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvin_York>
1952:
Three trains collided at Harrow & Wealdstone station in London,
killing 112 people and injuring 340.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrow_and_Wealdstone_rail_crash>
1962:
The German news magazine Der Spiegel revealed the
unpreparedness of the West German armed forces against the communist
threat from the east, and was accused of treason shortly afterwards.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiegel_affair>
1969:
Demonstrations organized by the Weather Underground known as
the Days of Rage began in Chicago.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Days_of_Rage>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
slivovitz:
1. (countable, uncountable) A type of rakija made mostly in Eastern
European countries from distilled, fermented plum juice.
2. (countable) A serving of this alcoholic drink.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/slivovitz>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Man is the animal who weeps and laughs – and writes. If the
first Prometheus brought fire from heaven in a fennel-stalk, the last
will take it back – in a book.
--John Cowper Powys
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Cowper_Powys>