James Hall, a Scottish chemist, geologist and member of Parliament, was born Jan. 17, 1761. After pursuing an undergraduate degree at Cambridge, he returned to Edinburgh University, where he studied chemistry with the renowned Joseph Black, and geology with John...
Henry Weekes, an English sculptor, was born Jan. 14, 1807. Weekes was primarily a portrait sculptor, one of the most successful of his era (the early Victorian period), fashioning busts and statues for the likes of Queen Victoria and the Duke of Wellington, and...
Mary Toft, an English country maidservant, died Jan. 13, 1763, at the age of about 62. She lived in the market-town of Godalming in Surrey, southwest of London. Ms Toft was quite well known at the time of her death, unusually so for a woman of her station in life. ...
Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, a Soviet rocket engineer, was born on Jan. 12, 1907. He became interested in flying and designing airplanes at an early age, and was an active pilot when he met a rocket enthusiast, Friedrikh Tsander, who in 1931 formed a group for...
William Thomas Brande, an English chemist and geologist, was born Jan. 11, 1788. He started out as an apothecary and essentially taught himself chemistry, but he must have been a good teacher (and student), as he succeeded Humphrey Davy as professor of chemistry at...
Robert Woodrow Wilson, an American astronomer, was born Jan. 10, 1936. Hailing from Texas, he completed his PhD at Caltech and soon went to work at Bell Labs in New Jersey, where he teamed up with an émigré from Germany, Arno Penzias, who was a physicist. Both were...
