Born: 1902Birthplace: Amoy, China Transistor—Bardeen, Shockley and Brattain shared the 1956 Nobel Prize for Physics for the invention of the transistor. The transistor replaced the vacuum tube and…
Born: 1893Birthplace: Hamilton, Ohio Thio-barbituric acid derivatives—Volwiler and Tabern came up with Pentothal when they were seeking an anesthetic which could be injected directly into the…
Born: 1923Birthplace: Orange, N.J. Tetracycline—Conover's invention of tetracycline in 1952 was the first creation of an antibiotic made by chemically modifying a naturally-produced drug.…
Born: 1926Birthplace: Stratford, Conn. Magnetic core memory—Olsen and his Digital Equipment Corporation developed the first successful minicomputer. Digital also developed the MicroVAX which placed…
Born: 1922Birthplace: Boston, Mass. High resolution-image-scanning radar and sonar—Rines' radar and sonar inventions have been used by the military in the Persian Gulf War. In peacetime they have…
Born: 1832 Water tube steam boiler—Thomas Edison once proclaimed it to be “…the best boiler God has permitted man yet to make.” Even today, nearly half of the electricity produced in the United…
scientist, writerBorn: 3/30/1909Birthplace: Vienna, Austria Vienna-born polymath who wrote about subjects ranging from classical music to psychology to white ants. But he's best known for his…
human sexuality expertBorn: 12/27/1915Birthplace: Cleveland, Ohio human sexuality expert who, with his second wife and co-researcher, Virginia Johnson, studied sexual behavior and demystified the…
(Wynstan Hugh Auden)poet, dramatistBorn: 2/21/1907Birthplace: York, England Considered the poet of the British left for confronting the social problems of pre-WWII Britain, Auden moved to the…
