Howard Florey (1898–1968) was an Australian pharmacologist and pathologist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945 with Ernst Chain and Alexander Fleming for his role in the development of the antibiotic penicillin. While Fleming received most of the credit for the drug's discovery, it was Florey and his team at the University of Oxford in England who developed techniques for growing, purifying and manufacturing it, tested it on animals and carried out the first clinical trials. Later trials in Britain, the United States and North Africa were highly successful. In addition to his work on penicillin, Florey studied other antibiotics, including lysozyme and the cephalosporins, and researched contraception. He was elected President of the Royal Society in 1960, became the provost of The Queen's College at Oxford in 1962, and served as the chancellor of the Australian National University from 1965 until his death. Florey's discoveries are estimated to have saved more than 80 million lives.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Florey

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1760:

George III became King of Great Britain and Ireland, succeeding his grandfather George II. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_III

1920:

Irish playwright and politician Terence MacSwiney died after a hunger strike in Brixton Prison, bringing the Irish struggle for independence to international attention. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terence_MacSwiney

1927:

The Italian cruise liner SS Principessa Mafalda sank when a propeller shaft broke and fractured the hull, resulting in 314 deaths. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Principessa_Mafalda

1980:

Proceedings on the Hague Abduction Convention, a multilateral treaty providing an expeditious method to return a child taken from one member nation to another, concluded at The Hague. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hague_Convention_on_the_Civil_Aspects_of_International_Child_Abduction

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

sublime: 1. (chiefly poetic, archaic or obsolete) High, tall, towering; also, positioned in a high place; high-up, lofty. 2. (figuratively) 3. Of an aspect of art or nature: causing awe or deep respect due to its beauty or magnificence; awe-inspiring, impressive. 4. Of flight: ascending, soaring. 5. Of an idea or other thing: requiring great intellectual effort to appreciate or understand; very elevated, refined, or subtle. 6. Of language, style, or writing: expressing opinions in a grand way. 7. Of a person or their actions or qualities: intellectually, morally, or spiritually superior. 8. Of an office or status: very high; exalted; also, used as an honorific (often capitalized as Sublime) to refer to someone of high office or status, especially the Ottoman sultan; or to things associated with such a person. 9. Of a thing: consummate, perfect; (informal, loosely) excellent, marvellous, wonderful. 10. (chiefly poetic, archaic) Of a person: dignified, majestic, noble. 11. (chiefly poetic, archaic) Of a person: haughty, proud. 12. (informal, chiefly in the negative) Complete, downright, utter. 13. (obsolete) 14. (figuratively) 15. Elevated by joy; elated. 16. Of a substance: purified, refined; hence, of the highest quality. 17. (poetic, postpositive) Of arms: lifted up, raised. 18. (anatomy) Of a muscle (especially the flexor digitorum superficialis muscle of the forearm which lies above the flexor digitorum profundus muscle): positioned above another muscle; superficial. 19. (pathology) Of breathing: very laboured. [...] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sublime

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

We do not protect freedom in order to indulge error. We protect freedom in order to discover truth.   --Henry Steele Commager https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henry_Steele_Commager