Linus Pauling was an American physical chemist. Widely considered as the most influential chemist of the 20th century and one of the most important scientists of all time, Pauling was one of the first quantum chemists, and in 1954 was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work describing the nature of chemical bonds. Pauling received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1962 for his campaign against above-ground nuclear testing, becoming one of only two people to receive the Nobel Prize in more than one field, the other being Marie Curie.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Pauling

Today's selected anniversaries:

1854 The Suez Canal was given a royal concession by Said to commence operation. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suez_Canal)

1889 Deodoro da Fonseca overthrew Emperor Pedro II to become the first President of the Republic of Brazil. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deodoro_da_Fonseca)

1920 The first general assembly of the League of Nations was held in Geneva, Switzerland. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Nations)

1971 Intel released the world's first microprocessor, the 4004. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microprocessor)

2002 Hu Jintao became General Secretary of the Communist Party of China. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hu_Jintao)

Wikiquote of the day:

"If I want to understand something, I must observe, I must not criticize, I must not condemn, I must not pursue it as pleasure or avoid it as non-pleasure. There must merely be the silent observation of a fact." ~ J. Krishnamurti (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J._Krishnamurti)