George 6. Kauffman California State Universitv
I
Selected Dates in American Chemistry
Atomic bombs are r~stedhy the United States at Hikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. July 2,1952 The Reed College Nuclear Reactor, Portland, Oregon, licensed for 250 kW operation, becomes operational. July 7,1795 James Woodhouse (1770-1809) is elected Professor of "Chymistry" a t the University of Pennsylvania, a position which Joseph Priestley had just declined. July 7, 1818 John Redman Coxe (1773-1864), Professor of Chemistry a t the University of Pennsylvania, is transferred to the chair of materia medica as a result of the controversy over the importance of chemistry to medicine. July 7,1915 In a letter, U S . Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels asks Thomas A. Edison to organize the nation's "keenest and most inventive minds" to find a defense against the submarine. July 9, 1957 The discovery of nobelium (element 102) by British. Swedish. and American scientists is announced a t the Argonne National Lahoratory, Lemont, Illinois. July 10,1809 John Redman Coxe (1773-1864) is elected to the chair of chemistrv at the University of Pennsylvania left vacant by the death of James Woodhouse. The appointment involves .a controversy over the importance of chemistrv to medicine. July 1,1946
446 / Journal of Chemical Education
July 16, 1942 Detonarion of the firat atomic humb u,ith a force 1,f 20.000 tons of TNT at S30 AM at the Trinity Site of the Alamogordo Air Force Base, New Mexico, ushering in the atomic age. July 20,1798 "On Red Precipitate of Mercury, as favourable to the Doctrine of Phlogiston; in a Letter to Dr. Mitchill. July 20, 1798" by Joseph Priestley appears in Medical Repository, 2, 163 (1799). July 23,1936 Announcement of the synthesis of Vitamin B1 by R. R. Williams and Merck, Sharp, and Dohme Research Laboratories in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. July 28,1775 Congressional Resolution, signed by John Hancock authorizes the publication of pamnhlet "General Methods of Makine Salt-~etre: . . Recommended to the Inhahitanti of the lnited Culuniea. hv Their H t w e w u a t ~ v e in s Congress. ~ h i l a d e f ~ hprinted ia by W. and T. Bradford. 1775." The contents were taken mostly frdm 2 articles, one by Benjamin Rush, the other by Benjamin Franklin. Purpose of the pamphlet is to encourage the domestic manufacture of gunpowder. July 31, 1874 The American chemist Thomas Sterry Hunt delivers an address "A Century's Progress in Theoretical Chemistry" (Amer. Chemist, 5, 46 (1874)).
