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465
The term "atom" was coined
A man named Democritus first came up with the idea that matter was made of particles, and coined the term "atom". -
May 4, 1100
Oldest recorded instance of lodestone being used as a compass.
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Birth of Robert Boyle
Robert Boyle introduced the laws of gases, as well as proposing the idea that small particles were combined to make molecules. -
Otto von Guerike constructs the first vacuum pump
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Joseph Priestly discovers oxygen and carbon monoxide
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C.W. Scheele discovers metal oxidization (rust)
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Birth of A.L. Lavioser, who discovered nitrogen as well as the composition of many organic materials. Sometimes regarded as the "Father of Chemistry"
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Birth of A. Volta, who invented the first electric battery
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Benjamin Franklin demonstrates that lightning is electricity
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Count Rumford discovers that heat is a form of energy
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Dmitri Mendeleev compiles the first edition of the Periodic Table
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Charles Martin Hall figures out how to manufacture aluminum
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Sir James Chadwick discovers the neutron
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Birth of Harold C Urey, who would become one of the leaders of the Manhattan Project
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The chemical mechanism to set off the first atomic bomb is created
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Birth of F.H.C. Crick, who discovered the structure of the DNA molecule