1956 in science

Physics

• November 15 – Cooper pairs are first described by Leon Cooper.
• November 21 – DIDO heavy water enriched uranium nuclear reactor opens at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Harwell, Oxfordshire, England.
• Existence of the antineutrino is experimentally confirmed by the Cowan–Reines neutrino experiment carried out by Clyde L. Cowan and Frederick Reines.
• Existence of the antineutron is experimentally confirmed by University of California, Berkeley physicist Bruce Cork.

Psychology

• January 1 – Leon Festinger, Henry W. Riecken and Stanley Schachter's book When Prophecy Fails provides a classic study of disconfirmed expectancy.

Technology

• April 14 – 2-inch quadruplex videotape, the first practical and commercially successful analog recording videotape format, is released for the broadcast television industry by Ampex of Redwood City, California.
• April 17 – Eugene Houdry is granted a patent for the automobile catalytic converter.
• June 8 – General Electric/Telechron introduces model 7H241 "The Snooz Alarm", first snooze alarm clock.
• August 27 – Calder Hall nuclear power station in England is first connected to the National Grid. This Magnox plant is the world's first nuclear power plant to deliver electricity in commercial quantities. Official opening is on October 17.
• November 11 – First flight of Convair B-58, the first supersonic jet bomber capable of Mach 2 flight, designed by Robert H. Widmer.
• First Chamberlin electro-mechanical keyboard instrument, developed and patented by Wisconsin inventor Harry Chamberlin, is introduced.

Awards

• Nobel Prizes
• Physics – William Bradford Shockley, John Bardeen, Walter Houser Brattain
• Chemistry – Sir Cyril Norman Hinshelwood, Nikolay Nikolaevich Semenov
• Medicine – André Frédéric Cournand, Werner Forssmann, Dickinson W. Richards

Births

• February 28 – Penny Sackett, American-born Australian astronomer and Chief Scientist.
• April 16 – David M. Brown (died 2003), American astronaut.
• April 19 – Anne Glover, Scottish biologist.
• May 3 – Carlo Rovelli, Italian-born theoretical physicist.
• May 20 – Marlene Zuk, American biologist.
• July 1 – Gregg L. Semenza, American cell biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
• July 25 – Frances Arnold, American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
• September 9 – Avi Wigderson, Israeli-born mathematician.
• October 17 – Mae Jemison, African American engineer and astronaut.
• October 19 – Carlo Urbani (died 2003), Italian physician, discoverer of SARS.
• December 23 – Simon Wessely, English psychiatrist.
• David Nott, Welsh-born surgeon.
• Zhuo-Hua Pan, Chinese-born neuroscientist

Deaths

• February 3 – Émile Borel (born 1871), French mathematician.
• February 28 – Frigyes Riesz (born 1880), Hungarian mathematician.
• March 17 – Irène Joliot-Curie (born 1897), French radiochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
• March 22 – George Sarton (born 1884), Belgian American historian of science.
• May 24 – Martha Annie Whiteley (born 1866), English chemist and mathematician.
• August 25 – Alfred Kinsey (born 1894), American biologist, professor of entomology and zoology, and sexologist who founded the Institute for Sex Research at Indiana University (Bloomington).
• September 22 – Frederick Soddy (born 1877), English radiochemist.
• October 30 – María Teresa Ferrari (born 1887), Argentine physician.
• November 10 – Henry Luke Bolley (born 1865), American plant pathologist.
• November 24 – Sir Lionel Whitby (born 1895), English haematologist, clinical pathologist, pharmacologist and army officer.

References