German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen accidentally discovered X-rays On November 8, 1895
He was studying the effects of passing an electrical current through gases at low pressure
These are highly energetic electromagnetic radiation capable of penetrating most solid objects
This discovery instantly revolutionized the fields of physics and medicine.
November 8: Jack St Clair Kilby’s birthday
Jack St. Clair Kilby was born on 8 November, 1923, in Jefferson City, Missouri.
He was an American electrical engineer who invented the first integrated circuit (IC), monolithic integrated circuit — the microchip — on September 12, 1958 at Texas Instruments (TI)
In 2000, Kilby was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his part in the invention of the integrated circuit.
His invention of the laid the conceptual and technical foundation for the entire field of modern microelectronics. It was this breakthrough that made possible the sophisticated high-speed computers and large-capacity semiconductor memories of today’s information age.
He also explored the use of silicon technology for generating electrical power from sunlight.
November 8: Christiaan Barnard’s birthday
Christiaan Neethling Barnard was born on November 8, 1922
He was a South African surgeon who performed the world’s first human heart transplant operation.
In a five-hour operation on 3 Dec 1967, Barnard successfully replaced the diseased heart of Louis Washkansky (55) with a healthy heart from Denise Darvall, a woman in her mid-20s with the same blood type, who died in hospital after an automobile accident.
November 8: T Edmond Halley’s birthday
Edmond Halley was born on 8 November 1656
Halley was an English astronomer and mathematician who was the first to calculate the orbit of the comet later named after him.
Halley suggested that the comet will return approximately every 76 years. Thus he correctly predicted it would return in 1758. Halley’s Comet will next appear in the night sky in the year 2062.
