On This Day for April 30 - George Washington inaugurated, Édouard Manet is featured, and more

This message contains graphics. If you do not see the graphics, click here to view. April 30 FEATURED BIOGRAPHY Édouard Manet READ MORE   FEATURED EVENT 1789 George Washington inaugurated READ MORE   Advertisement Advertisement   MORE EVENTS ON THIS DAY 2013: Willem-Alexander became king of the Netherlands after his mother, Queen Beatrix, abdicated; she had ascended the throne 33 years earlier. [ Take our quiz about kings and emperors.] 1989: Italian director Sergio Leone—who popularized the "spaghetti western" with his hugely successful Dollar trilogy, which included the masterpiece The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966)—died in Rome. [ Test your knowledge of cinema.] 1933: American country singer and songwriter Willie Nelson was born. [Test your knowledge of musical forms and styles.] 1897: English physicist J.J. Thomson announced that he had discovered the electron, which helped revolutionize the knowledge of atomic structure; he later was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. [Test your knowledge of physics.] 1975: The South Vietnamese capital of Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) fell to North Vietnamese troops during the Vietnam War. [Discover the key events of the Vietnam War.] 1945: German dictator Adolf Hitler and his wife, Eva Braun, committed suicide in a bunker in Berlin. [How much do you know about Adolf Hitler?] SEE ALL EVENTS ON THIS DAY ALSO BORN ON THIS DAY 1959 Stephen Harper prime minister of Canada 1961 Isiah Thomas American basketball player 1777 Carl Friedrich Gauss German mathematician 1956 Lars von Trier Danish filmmaker 1946 Carl XVI Gustaf king of Sweden 1662 Mary II queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland 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 © 2021 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. Privacy Policy • Help

Newsletter for Friday 30 April.

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TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY

NEWSLETTER • 30 APRIL

Feature for Today

On 30 Apr 1897, at the Royal Institution Friday Evening Discourse, Joseph John (J.J.) Thomson first announced the existence of the electron (as they are now known). During this lecture, he called it by a different name, meaning “small body.”

Thomson described his discovery and calculations that the particle of matter was a thousand times smaller than the atom.

Although as director of the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge, Thomson was one of the most respected British physicists, the scientists present found the news hard to believe. It had long been held that the atom was the smallest and indivisible part of matter that could exist.

Nevertheless, the electron was the first elementary particle to be discovered.

You can read Thomson's own words, as delivered at that meeting, in his paper, Cathode Rays, from the Proceedings of the Royal Institution, 1897.

Book of the Day

On 30 Apr 1834, John Lubbock (Lord Avery) was born, an English banker, politician, naturalist and archaeologist who coined the terms Neolithic and Paleolithic. His career was astonishingly productive in a broad range of interests. He was a man always in search of knowledge and sharing knowledge. He wrote many books, including widely read work in natural history. Today's book pick is: , by . In this pioneering work, mostly related to ants, he gives considerable detail including formation and maintenance of nests, relation of ants to plants and animals, behavior, recognition of friends, power of communications and senses. He also used obstacles and mazes to test the intelligence of ants, thus anticipating animal psychologists like Kohler. While Lubbock was young, his father was persuaded by Charles Darwin to give him a microscope. Thus Lubbock acquired his love and respect of nature and science - with a legacy from Darwin! With his own writing skills, was to make plain to the layman the aims and conclusions of specialists.

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

Quotations for Today

	Mathematics is the queen of the sciences and arithmetic [number theory] is the queen of mathematics. She often condescends to render service to astronomy and other natural sciences, but in all relations, she is entitled to first rank. — Carl Friedrich Gauss, German mathematician (born 30 Apr 1777).
	If we are ever in doubt what to do, it is a good rule to ask ourselves what we shall wish on the morrow that we had done. — John Lubbock (Lord Avebury), English banker, politician, naturalist and archaeologist (born 30 Apr 1834).
	Part of the charm in solving a differential equation is in the feeling that we are getting something for nothing. So little information appears to go into the solution that there is a sense of surprise over the extensive results that are derived. — George Robert Stibitz, , American mathematician (born 30 Apr 1904).

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
	Eugen Bleuler, born 30 Apr 1857, was a Swiss psychiatrist, who introduced the now current term (1908) to describe the disorder previously known as dementia praecox. For his studies of this disorder, he was one of the most influential psychiatrists of his time. What name did Bleuler give to dementia praecox, by which is now known?
Deaths
	Robert Fitzroy (1805-1865) was the British naval officer who commanded the round the world voyage on which Charles Darwin sailed as the ship's naturalist. That voyage provided Darwin with much of the material on which he based his theory of evolution. When Fitzroy retired he devoted himself to meteorology. He devised a storm warning system that was the prototype of the daily weather forecast, invented a barometer, and published The Weather Book (1863). What was the name of the vessel carrying Darwin that Fitzroy commanded?
Events
	On 30 Apr 1960, the oldest banded U.S. bat was identified, from the date read on the band. It was a female little brown bat (the most abundant bat species in the U.S.) What do you think was the age of this oldest U.S. bat?
	On 30 Apr 1955, the element 101, was announced. It was named in honour of a scientist that contributed to the periodic table of the elements. What is the name of element 101?
	On 30 Apr 1897, at the Royal Institution Friday Evening Discourse, Joseph John Thomson (1856-1940) first announced the existence of electrons - as they are now named. Earlier in the year, he had made the surprising discovery of this particle of matter a thousand times smaller than the atom. He referred to it by a name he based on the Latin words for “small body.” (Later, the electron became known by its present name, based on the Greek word for “amber”.) What was Thomson’s original name for the electron?

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 April 30 web page of Today in Science History. Or, try this link first for just the brief answers.

Fast answers for the previous newsletter for April 29: to simulate the effect of lightning in the primordial atmosphere of Earth, and investigate the more complex organic molecules formed that may have been a route to life on Earth • whale oil • cobalt • the decade including the year 1879 • rubber.

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