MnAugust 2020 has arrived and with it come lots of opportunities to Do Some Science! In addition to the Perseid Meteor Shower, August is also home to a National Honeybee Awareness Day, World Mosquito Day, and National Aviation Day. Take a look at what August brings for the science lover in you. August 1: John F. Mahoney was born on this day in 1889. He developed a penicillin treatment for syphilis.
August 1: Astronomer, Maria Mitchell was born on this day in 1818. She is the first female member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the discoverer of comet C/1847 T1 (1847) also known as “Miss Mitchell’s Comet.”
August 1: British chemist and philosopher, Joseph Priestly discovered oxygen on this day in 1774.
August 2: Inventor of the early telephone, Elisha Grey was born on this day in 1835
August 3: Full Sturgeon Moon (also known as the Full Green Corn Moon and Grain Moon)
August 4: Nicolas-Jacque Conte was born on this day in 1755. He is invented the modern pencil.
August 5: American astronaut, Neil Armstrong was born on this day in 1930. On July 21, 1969, he became the first man to walk on the moon.
August 6: On this day in 1935, William Coolidge obtained the patent for the cathode ray tube; making television and other electronics possible
August 7: Molecular biologist, Lydia Villa-Komaroff was born on this day in 1947. Her work with recombinant DNA contributed to the development of insulin from bacteria. She was also the third Mexican-American to be awarded a science Ph.D.
August 8: Nature writer and ornithologist, Florence Bailey was born on this day in 1863. She popularized natural history and published several books about birds and ornithology.
August 8: English biologist, William Bateson was born on this day in 1861. He is credited with inventing the term “genetics.”
August 9: Swiss developmental psychologist and zoologist, Jean Piaget, was born on this day in 1896.
August 11: Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple computers, was born on this day in 1950
August 11-12: Perseids Meteor Shower
August 14: Biologist, Earnest Just, was born on this day in 1883. He is best known for his contributions to the field of marine biology.
August 15: National Honey Bee Awareness Day
August 15: Leon Theremin was born on this day in 1896. He invented the musical instrument known as the Theremin.
August 17: Frederick Russell was born on this day in 1870. He developed the first successful typhoid fever vaccine.
August 18: World Daffodil Day
August 18: On this day in 1949, Henry Bosenberg of New Brunswick, NJ received the first Plant Patent for a climbing rose.
August 19: National Aviation Day
August 20: Voyager 2 was launched on this day in 1977. It is the only Earth spacecraft to visit Uranus and Neptune and is currently on its way to interstellar space.
August 20: World Mosquito Day
August 21: The first practical adding & listing machine (calculator) was patented by William Burroughs on this date in 1988.
August 22: Heart surgeon, Denton Cooley was born on this day in 1920. He performed the first artificial heart transplant.
August 23: Physician and medical professor, Antonio Novello was born on this day in 1944. She served as the US Surgeon General from 1990 to 1993 and is the first woman and Latinx person to hold that position.
August 23: Italian astronomer and physicist, Galileo Galilei demonstrated the telescope on this day in 1609.
August 24: The inventor of Styrofoam, Ray McIntire was born on this day in 1918.
August 26: French scientist, Antoine Lavoisier, was born on this day in 1743. Many consider him to be the “father of modern chemistry.”
August 27: German chemist and engineer, Carl Bosch was born on this day in 1874. He invented the process used to create synthetic fertilizer.
August 28: The first issue of Scientific American was published on this day in 1845.
August 29: German mathematician, Bartholomeus Pitiscus, was born on this day in 1561. He is credited with inventing trigonometry.
August 31: On this day in 1897, Thomas Edison patented a kinetographic camera.
