Portal:History of science/Selected anniversaries/July 4

July 4:

• 1054 - A supernova is observed by the Chinese, the Arabs and possibly Amerindians near the star ζ Tauri. For several months it remains bright enough to be seen during the day. Its remnants form the Crab Nebula

• 1742 - Death of Guido Grandi, Italian mathematician (b. 1671)

• 1854 - Birth of Victor Babeş, Romanian bacteriologist (d. 1926)

• 1850 - Death of William Kirby, English entomologist (b. 1759)

• 1868 - Birth of Henrietta Swan Leavitt, American astronomer (d. 1921)

• 1910 - Death of Giovanni Schiaparelli, Italian astronomer (b. 1835)

• 1934 - Leó Szilárd patents the chain-reaction design for the atomic bomb

• 1934 - Death of Maria Sklodowska-Curie, Nobel Prize in Chemistry and Physics (b. 1867)

• 1977 - Death of Gersh Budker, Russian physicist (b. 1918)

• 1986 - Death of Oscar Zariski, Russian mathematician (b. 1899)

• 1997 - Death of John Zachary Young, English zoologist (b. 1907)