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460 BCE
Democritus is born
Democritus is born in Abdera, on the coast of Thrace. -
431 BCE
Sparta invades Athens and the Peloponnesian war begins .
The Peloponnesian War was a war fought in ancient Greece between Athens and Sparta—the two most powerful city-states in ancient Greece at the time. The war shifted power from Athens to Sparta, making Sparta the most powerful city-state in the region. -
421 BCE
Democritus discovers the atom.
He came up with the idea of the atom as the building block of all matter. He believed that atoms were tiny, uncuttable solid particles surrounded by space and moving randomly -
370 BCE
Democritus dies
Democritus dies in Athens. Possibly blind but definitely in poverty. -
John Dalton is born
John Dalton was born on 6 September 1766 into a Quaker family in Eaglesfield, near Cockermouth, in Cumberland, England. -
Michael Faraday is born
Faraday was born in Newington Butts, Surrey, just outside of London, England on September 22, 1791. -
French Revolution
King Louis XVI was executed by French Rebels during the French Revolution. He was killed by the guillotine. -
John Dalton makes his discovery
Dalton believed that all matter was comprised of indivisible and indestructible atoms with distinct masses and properties, the combination of which determined the physical nature of their constituent elements. He also believed that each element consists of its unique brand of indivisible atom; atoms of one element are all alike but they differ from atoms of other elements. Importantly, Dalton assigned atomic weights to the atoms of the 20 elements he knew of at the time. -
Michael Faraday makes his discovery
Michael Faraday discovered that atoms have an electrical component. He discovered this when studying the properties and reactions of electrolysis, which runs an electrical current through water or other liquids. -
John Dalton dies
John Dalton dies in Manchester, England -
Eugen Goldstein is born
Goldstein was born in 1850 at Gleiwitz Upper Silesia, now known as Gliwice, Poland, to a Jewish family. -
JJ Thomson is born
Thomson was born on December 18, 1856, in Cheetham Hill, located just north of Manchester, England. -
Michael Faraday dies
He died on 25 August 1867 at Hampton Court. -
Robert Millikan is born
Robert Andrews Millikan was born on the 22nd of March, 1868, in Morrison, Illinois. -
Ernest Rutherford is born
Ernest Rutherford was born in Brightwater, New Zealand. -
James Chadwick is born
James Chadwick was born in Bollington, England -
Neils Bohr is born
Niels Bohr was born and educated in Copenhagen, Denmark. -
Eugen Goldstein makes his discovery
In 1886 Eugen Goldstein discovered evidence for the existence of this positively charged particle. Using a cathode ray tube with holes in the cathode, he noticed that rays were traveling in the opposite direction from the cathode rays. Goldstein concluded that in addition to the electrons, or cathode rays, that travel from the negatively charged cathode toward the positively charged anode, there is another ray that travels in the opposite direction, from the anode toward the cathode. -
Construction begins on the Eiffel Tower
The Eiffel Tower was built by Gustave Eiffel it was built to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. It was completed on March 31st, 1889 in Paris, France. -
JJ Thomson makes his discovery
Thomson discovered the electron and then went on to propose a model for the structure of the atom. His work also led to the invention of the mass spectrograph. -
Erwin Schrodinger is born
Erwin Schrödinger was born on August 12, 1887, in Vienna. -
Ernest Rutherford makes his discovery
He discovered alpha and beta rays, set forth the laws of radioactive decay, and identified alpha particles as helium nuclei. He pictured the atom as a heavy, positively-charged nucleus, around which much lighter, negatively-charged electrons circulate, -
Werner Heisenberg is born
Werner Karl Heisenberg was born on 5 December 1901 in Würzburg, Germany. -
Robert Millikan makes his discovery.
In 1910 Robert Millikan succeeded in precisely determining the magnitude of the electron's charge. Small electrically charged drops of oil were suspended between two metal plates where they were subjected to the downward force of gravity and the upward attraction of an electrical field. -
Niels Bohr makes his discovery
Niels Bohr proposed a model of the atom in which the electron could occupy only certain orbits around the nucleus. This atomic model was the first to use quantum theory, in that the electrons were limited to specific orbits around the nucleus. -
Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia
On July 28th, 1914 Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Resulting in a four-year conflict between the Allies and the Central Powers which killed eighteen million people. -
Werner Heisenberg makes his discovery
Werner Heisenberg formulated a type of quantum mechanics based on matrices. He proposed uncertainty relation, setting limits for how precisely the position and velocity of a particle can be determined. -
Erwin Schrodinger makes his discovery
The Schrödinger model assumes that the electron is a wave and tries to describe the regions in space, or orbitals, where electrons are most likely to be found. -
Eugen Goldstein dies
Eugen Goldstein died Dec. 25, 1930, in Berlin. -
James Chadwick makes his discovery
Physicists knew that most of the mass of the atom was located in a nucleus at its center and that this central core contained protons. Chadwick announced that the core also contained a new uncharged particle, which he called the neutron. -
Hitler appointed chancellor of Germany
On January 30th, 1933 Adolf Hitler is appointed chancellor of Germany by President Paul von Hindenburg following a series of electoral wins for the Nazi Party. -
Ernest Rutherford dies
Ernest Rutherford died in Cambridge, England -
World War Two begins
On September 1st, 1939 Adolf Hitler orders the German army to invade Poland. This action leads to World War Two in which 38 million people are killed. -
JJ Thomson dies
He died August 30, 1940, in Cambridge, England -
Erwin Schrodinger dies
On 4 January 1961, Schrödinger died of tuberculosis, aged 73, in Vienna. -
Neils Bohr dies
Niels Bohr died in Copenhagen on November 18, 1962. -
Robert Millikan dies
He died on the 19th of December, 1953, in San Marino, California. -
James Chadwick dies
James Chadwick died on July 24th, 1974 in Cambridge, England -
Werner Heisenberg dies
He died at his home in Munich, Germany on 1 February 1976.