On This Day for December 31 - Ottawa made capital of Canada, Anthony Hopkins is featured, and more

This message contains graphics. If you do not see the graphics, click here to view. December 31 FEATURED BIOGRAPHY Anthony Hopkins READ MORE   FEATURED EVENT 1857 Ottawa made capital of Canada READ MORE   Advertisement Advertisement   MORE EVENTS ON THIS DAY 2019: The World Health Organization first learned of "viral pneumonia" cases in Wuhan, China; the disease was later determined to be COVID-19, which became a global pandemic the following year. [Learn about COVID-19 with these 20 questions.] 2004: Taipei 101, then the tallest building in the world, reaching a height of 1,667 feet (508 metres), opened in Taipei, Taiwan. [Can you match the famous building to its city?] 1999: The United States officially handed over control of the Panama Canal to Panama. [ Take our quiz about canals and straits.] 1991: The Soviet Union legally ceased to exist, Russia and other former Soviet republics having declared themselves independent and having founded the Commonwealth of Independent States on December 21, 1991. [ Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about Russia.] 1972: Baseball great Roberto Clemente died in an airplane crash en route to Nicaragua with relief supplies collected for earthquake survivors. [See if Roberto Clemente made our list of the 10 greatest baseball players of all time.] 1880: George C. Marshall, the U.S. Army chief of staff during World War II (1939–45), U.S secretary of state (1947–49) and of defense (1950–51), architect of the Marshall Plan for European recovery, and recipient of the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1953, was born. [ Take our quiz about famous war personalities.] SEE ALL EVENTS ON THIS DAY ALSO BORN ON THIS DAY 1977 PSY South Korean singer and rapper 1937 Anthony Hopkins Welsh actor 1943 Ben Kingsley British actor 1941 Alex Ferguson Scottish football player and manager 1935 Salman ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAziz king of Saudi Arabia 1965 Nicholas Sparks American author SEE ALL BIOS ON THIS DAY   Advertisement   FOLLOW: To unsubscribe from Britannica e-mails, click here. Encyclopædia Britannica 325 N. LaSalle Street, Suite 200 Chicago, Illinois 60654 United States © 2020 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. Privacy Policy • Help

Newsletter for Thursday 31 December.

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TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY

NEWSLETTER • 31 DECEMBER

Feature for Today

Book of the Day

On 31 Dec 1929, Jeremy Bernstein was born, an American physicist, educator and writer widely known for the clarity of his writing for the lay reader on the major issues of modern physics. He was a staff writer for the New Yorker for over 30 years until 1993. Today's book pick is: A Palette of Particles, by Jeremy Bernstein, published in Apr 2013. From molecules to stars, much of the cosmic canvas can be painted in brushstrokes of primary color: the protons, neutrons, and electrons we know so well. But for meticulous detail, we have to dip into exotic hues—leptons, mesons, hadrons, quarks. Bringing particle physics to life as few authors can, Jeremy Bernstein here unveils nature in all its subatomic splendor.

In this graceful account, Bernstein guides us through high-energy physics from the early twentieth century to the present, including such highlights as the newly discovered Higgs boson. Beginning with Ernest Rutherford’s 1911 explanation of the nucleus. An eyewitness to developments at Harvard University and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, Bernstein laces his story with piquant anecdotes of such luminaries as Wolfgang Pauli, Murray Gell-Mann, and Sheldon Glashow. Bernstein draws readers into the excitement of a field where the more we discover, the less we seem to know.

It is available from Amazon, typically about New from $11.85. Used from $4.99. (As of earlier time of writing - subject to change.)

Quotations for Today

	For chemistry is no science form’d à priori; ’tis no production of the human mind, framed by reasoning and deduction: it took its rise from a number of experiments casually made, without any expectation of what follow’d; and was only reduced into an art or system, by collecting and comparing the effects of such unpremeditated experiments, and observing the uniform tendency thereof. So far, then, as a number of experimenters agree to establish any undoubted truth; so far they may be consider'd as constituting the theory of chemistry. — Hermann Boerhaave, Dutch physician, botanist and chemist (born 31 Dec 1668).
	The evolution of the human race will not be accomplished in the ten thousand years of tame animals, but in the million years of wild animals, because man is, and always will be, a wild animal. — Sir Charles Galton Darwin, English mathematical physicist (died 31 Dec 1962).
	The road to a clinic goes through the pathologic museum and not through the apothecary's shop. — Sir William Withey Gull, English physician (born 31 Dec 1816).

Quiz

Before you look at today's web page, see if you can answer some of these questions about the events that happened on this day. Some of the names are very familiar. Others will likely stump you. Tickle your curiosity with these questions, then check your answers on today's web page.
Births
	On 31 Dec 1864, Robert Grant Aitken was born, an American astronomer who specialized in the study of certain stars, of which he discovered more than 3,000. He worked at the Lick Observatory from 1895 to 1935, becoming director from 1930. What type of stars did he systematically survey?
	On 31 Dec 1514, a Flemish anatomist was born, a university teacher who insisted on conducting detailed dissections on human cadavers personally. His De humani corporis fabrica (On the structure of the human body) provided detailed information for anatomists. He taught Gabriel Fallopius, who in turn tutored Hieronymous Fabricius, who then taught William Harvey. This lineage can be said to have started the modern science of medicine. Can you name this anatomist?
Deaths
	An English astronomer (1646-1719) established the Greenwich Observatory and was appointed the first Astronomer Royal (1675-1719). He was devoted to astronomical measurement, with the task of accurately providing the positions of stars for use in navigation. Can you name the first Astronomer Royal?
	Sir Charles Galton Darwin (1887-1962), grandson of Charles Darwin, was an English mathematical physicist, who was director of the National Physical Laboratory (1938-1949). He wrote The Next Million Years, a pessimistic study of the sociological implications of population explosion. From 1953 until his death, he was president of a society espousing a radical solution to population control. Of what society was Charles Dalton Darwin the president?
Events
	On 31 Dec 1935, a U.S. patent was issued to Charles Darrow (assigned to Parker Brothers, Inc.). The patent titled it a “Board Game Apparatus” and described it as “intended primarily to provide a game of barter, thus involving trading and bargaining” in which “much of the interest in the game lies in trading and in striking shrewd bargains.” Illustrations included with the patent showed the playing board and pieces and other associated paper and card materials. What was this game patented by Charles Darrow?
	On 31 Dec of a certain year, the “drunkometer,” the first breath test for car drivers, invented by Dr Rolla N. Harger of Indiana University School of Medicine, was officially introduced in Indianapolis. It was the first successful machine for testing human blood alcohol content by breath analysis. In what decade was the drunkometer introduced?

Answers

When you have your answers ready to all the questions above, you'll find all the information to check them, and more, on the December 31 web page of Today in Science History. Or, try this link first for just the brief answers.

Fast answers for the previous newsletter for December 30: Coca-Cola • neutrino • Robert Boyle • Italian, who as a Jew was denied an academic career under Mussolini • blue moon • tungsten.

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