TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY
NEWSLETTER • 18 JUNE
In the last century, on 18 Jun 1999, the Today in Science History website was only a few days old. The first page written was on 3 Jun 1999. It took days to research and compile the information back then. The next major effort was the 18 Jun page. Still today, it has the most subsidiary pages written for more information on each of the scientists born on this day. Accomplishing that was the work of several days, which made such intense effort impractical when there were 366 basic calendar pages to write. So when you look at today's web page for 18 Jun — please click each of the “Read More” icons and visit part of this site's own history.
To highlight one of today's pages, let’s pick Alexander Wetmore, born 18 Jun 1886. Unless you are an ornithologist, you may never have seen his name before. Our biography of Alexander Wetmore page includes a small photo of this scientist at age 16 - at his desk holding a bird. Like so many other scientists, he exemplifies how the lifelong passion was firmly implanted in youth.
Wetmore went on to become a bird taxidermist for the Denver Museum of Natural History, and by 1925 had joined the Smithsonian Institution. Twenty years later, he became the Smithsonian’s sixth Secretary. But there is so much more that he contributed in his long career in his field, which you can sample by reading the web page. Enjoy!
On 18 Jun 1886, Alexander Wetmore was born, an American ornithologist who in 1925 joined the Smithsonian’s U.S. National Museum. From 1945 he served seven years as the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, and then continued research there for another 25 years. [Today's book pick is: Song and Garden Birds of North America, by Alexander Wetmore] and published by National Geographic Society. In this 400-page reference guide, over 327 species are portrayed in color and fully described, with secrets of their lives, courting rituals and battle for territory. To name just a few, it covers owls, woodpeckers, fly catchers, crows, jays, orioles, creepers, thrushes, swallows, tanagers, wrens, warblers, hummingbirds, finches and sparrows.
It is available from Amazon, typically about Used from $0.75. (As of earlier time of writing - subject to change.)
 | My interest in science was excited at age nine by an article on astronomy in National Geographic; the author was Donald Menzel of the Harvard Observatory. For the next few years, I regularly made star maps and snuck out at night to make observations from a locust tree in our back yard. — Dudley R. Herschbach, American chemist and educator (born 18 Jun 1932).  |
 | It was my science that drove me to the conclusion that the world is much more complicated than can be explained by science. It is only through the supernatural that I can understand the mystery of existence. — Allan Rex Sandage, American astronomer (born 18 Jun 1926). |
 | The word “dis-aster,” in fact, means “bad star.” — Kenneth L. Franklin, American astronomer (died 18 Jun 2007). |
| 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 | |
| | Allan Rex Sandage, born 18 Jun 1926, is a American astronomer who (with Thomas A. Matthews) discovered (1960), the first optical identification of a quasi-stellar radio source, a starlike object that is a strong emitter of radio waves. Although a strange source of radio emission, in visible light, it looked like a faint star. Yet this object was emitting more intense radio waves and ultraviolet radiation than a typical star. What name was given to such a “quasi-stellar radio source”? |
 | On 18 Jun 1845, a French scientist was born who was a physician, pathologist, and parasitologist. As a French military surgeon in Algeria, he discovered the parasite that causes human malaria in the red blood cells. He founded the medical field of protozoology, doing important work on other protozoal diseases, including sleeping-sickness and kala-azar. For this he received the 1907 Nobel Prize for medicine. Can you name this man? |
 | Pietro Angelo Secchi, born 18 Jun 1818, was an Italian Jesuit priest and astrophysicist, who made the first survey of the spectra of over 4000 stars and suggested that stars be classified according to their spectral type. He studied the planets, especially Jupiter, which he discovered was composed of gasses. Secchi also studied the dark lines which join the two hemispheres of Mars. What did Secchi call the dark lines on Mars? |
| Deaths | |
 | Arthur Edwin Kennelly (1861-1939) was an Irish-American electrical engineer who was a prominent contributor to the science of electrical engineering. For six years he worked for Thomas Edison at West Orange Laboratory, then branched out as a consultant. Upon his co-discovery of the radio reflecting properties of part of the upper atmosphere, the stratum was called the Kennelly-Heaviside layer. In which atmospheric layer is this found? |
| Events | |
 | On 18 Jun 1993, the first lab test was released confirming a small dog in Tucson, Arizona, had been killed by a swarm of non-native bees. The media dubbed them “killer bees.” Arizona was the second state to be invaded, after the species spread into Texas from Mexico. Since the 50s, the bees had extended their range northward. They spread up through Central America, from Brazil, where they resulted from cross-breeding honey bees with imported bees for experimental work. From which country were the experimental bees originally imported into Brazil? (That country is part of the alternate familiar name for killer bees.) |
 | On 18 Jun 1965, the first large solid-fuel rocket - a Titan 3C - rocket was launched into orbit. Many military and NASA payloads have been put into orbit with the generations of this launch vehicle family. What are some of the benefits of solid-fuel over liquid-propellant rockets? |
 | On 18 Jun of a certain year, the first genetically engineered vaccine was announced. It was designed to prevent hoof and mouth disease. In what decade did this happen? |
Fast answers for the previous newsletter for June 17: Wheaties • John Robert Gregg • the enzyme action involved • Amelia Earhart • the decade including the year 1950 • PanAm.
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