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Physics Time-Line 1900 to 1949:
1900: Lord Rayleigh, statistical derivation of short wavelength black body law
1900: Ernest Rutherford, first determination of a radioactive half-life
1900: Antoine Henri Becquerel, suggests that beta rays are electrons
1900: Lummer, Pringsheim, Rubens, Kurlbaum, failure of Wien's black body law at short wavelengths
1900: Max Planck, light quanta in black body radiation, Planck's black body law and Planck's constant
1900: Paul Villard, gamma rays
1900: Friedrich Dorn, element 86, radon
1900: Pyotr Lebedev, radiation pressure measured
1901: Max Planck, determination of Planck's constant, Boltzmann's constant, Avogadro's number and the charge on electron
1901: Guglielmo Marconi, Transmission of Morse signals across the Atlantic
1902: Philipp Lenard, intensity law in photoelectric effect
1902: Rutherford and Soddy, theory of transmutation by radiation and first use of the term "atomic energy"
1902: Kelvin, Thomson, plum pudding model of the atom
1903: Ernest Rutherford, alpha particles have a positive charge
1903: Curie and Laborde, radioactive energy released by radium is large
1903: Johannes Stark, the power of the sun may be due to genesis of chemical elements
1903: Philipp Lenard, model of atom as two separated opposite charges
Albert Einstein
1904: Albert Einstein, energy-frequency relation of light quanta
1904: Hendrik Lorentz, the completed Lorentz transformations
1904: Hantaro Nagaoka, planetary model of the atom
1904: Ambrose Flemming, diode valve and rectifier
1904: Henri Poincare, conjectured light speed as physical limit
1904: Ernest Rutherford, age of Earth by radioactvity dating
1905: Albert Einstein, explains Brownian motion by kinetic theory
1905: Albert Einstein, light-quantum theory for photoelectric law
1905: Albert Einstein, special relativity
1905: Paul Langevin, atomic theory of paramagnetism
1905: Percival Lowell, postulates a ninth planet beyond Neptune
1905: Bragg and Kleeman, alpha-particles have discrete energies
1905: Hermann Nernst, third law of thermodynamics
1905: Albert Einstein, equivalence of mass and energy
1906: Albert Einstein, quantum explanation of specific heat laws for solids
1906: Joseph Thomson, Thomson scattering of X-ray photons and number of electrons in an atom
1906: Ernest Rutherford, alpha particles scatter in air
1906: Lee de Forest, triode valve
1907: Albert Einstein, equivalence principle and gravitational redshift
1907: Urbain and von Welsbach, element 71, lutetium
1908: Hermann Minkowski, geometric unification of space and time
1908: Hans Geiger, Geiger counter for detecting radioactivity
1908: Heike Kammerlingh-Onnes, liquid helium
1908: Geiger, Royds, Rutherford, identify alpha particles as helium nuclei
1909: Albert Einstein, particle-wave duality of photons
1909: Johannes Stark, momentum of photons
1909: Geiger and Marsden, anomolous scattering of alpha particles on gold foil
1909: Robert Millikan, measured the charge on the electron
1910: Albert Einstein, why the sky is blue
1910: Matthew Hunter, isolation of element titanium
1910: Theodor Wulf, excess atmospheric radiation
1911: Victor Hess, high altitude radiation from space
1911: Heike Kammerlingh-Onnes, superconductivity
1911: Ernest Rutherford, Infers the nucleus from the alpha scattering result
1912: Joseph Thomson, mass spectrometry and separation of isotopes
1912: Henrietta Leavitt, period to luminosity relationship for Cepheid variable stars
1912: Robert Millikan, measurement of Planck's constant
1912: Peter Debye, derivation of specific heat laws to low temperatures
1912: Charles Wilson, cloud chamber
1912: Max Von Laue, X-rays are explained as electromagnetic radiation by diffraction
1912: Albert Einstein, curvature of space-time
1912: Vesto Melvin Slipher, observes blue-shift of andromeda galaxy
1912: Gustav Mie, non-linear field theories
1913: Niels Bohr, quantum theory of atomic orbits
1913: Niels Bohr, radioactivity as nuclear property
1913: Jean-Baptiste Perrin, theory of size of atoms and molecules
1913: Fajans and Gohring, element 91, protactinium
1913: Bragg and Bragg, X-ray diffraction and crystal structure
1913: Hans Geiger, relation of atomic number to nuclear charge
1913: Johannes Stark, splitting of hydrogen spectral lines in electric field
1913: Frederick Soddy, the term "isotope"
1914: James Chadwick, primary beta spectrum is continuous and shows an energy anomaly
1914: Harry Moseley, used X-rays to confirm the correspondence between electric charge of nucleus and atomic number
1914: Ejnar Hertzsprung, measured distance to Large Magellanic Cloud using Cepheid variable stars
1914: Rutherford, da Costa Andrade, gamma rays identified as hard photons
1915: Albert Einstein, general relativity
1915: David Hilbert, action principle for gravitational field equations
1915: Albert Einstein, prediction of light bending and explanation for perihelion shift of mercury
1916: Robert Millikan, verification of energy law in photoelectric effect
1916: Albert Einstein, prediction of gravitational waves
1916: Albert Einstein, conservation of energy-momentum in general relativity
1916: Karl Schwarzschild, singular static solution of gravitational field equations which describes a minimal black hole
1916: Arnold Sommerfeld, Further atomic quantum numbers and fine structure of spectra, fine structure constant
1917: Harlow Shapley, estimates the diameter of the galaxy as 100000 parsecs
1917: Albert Einstein, introduction of the cosmological constant and a steady state model of the universe
1917: Vesto Melvin Slipher, observes that most galaxies have red-shifts
1917: Albert Einstein, theory of stimulated emission and loss of determinism
1917: Willem de Sitter, describes a model of a static universe with no matter
1917: Arthur Eddington, gravitational energy is insufficient to account for the energy output of stars
1917: Rutherford, Marsden, artificial transmutation, hydrogen and oxygen from nitrogen
1918: Harlow Shapley, measured distance to globular clusters using Cepheid variable stars
1918: Harlow Shapley, determined the size and shape of our galaxy
1918: Reissner and Nordstrom, solution of Einstein's equations which describe a charged black hole
1918: Emmy Noether, The mathematical relationships between symmetry and conservation laws in classical physics
1918: Francis Aston, mass spectrometer
1918: Herman Weyl, guage theory
1919: Ernest Rutherford, existence of the proton in nucleus
1919: Oliver Lodge, prediction of gravitational lensing
1919: Francis Aston, hydrogen fusion to helium will release a lot of energy
1919: Crommelin, Eddington, verification of Einstein's prediction of starlight deflection during an eclipse
1919: Arthur Eddington, predicts the size of red gaints using stellar models
1920: Ernest Rutherford, prediction of neutron
1920: Anderson, Michelson, Pease, size of star Betelgeuse using stellar interferometry
1920: Harkins, Eddington, Fusion of hydrogen could be the energy source of stars
1920: Shapley and Curtis, The Great Debate over the scale and structure of the universe
1921: Theodor Kaluza, unification of electromagnetics and gravity by introducing an extra dimension
1921: Bieler and Chadwick, evidence for a strong nuclear interaction
1921: Stern and Gerlach, measurement of atomic magnetic moments
1921: Charles Bury, electronic structure of elements from their chemistry
1922: Cornelius Lanczos, transformation of De Sitter universe to an expanding form
1922: Alexsandr Friedmann, a model of an expanding/oscillating universe with matter included
1923: Compton and Debye, theory of Compton effect
1923: Arthur Compton, verification of Compton effect confirms photon as particle
1923: Louis de Broglie, predicts wave nature of particles
1923: Davisson and Kunsman, electron diffraction
1923: Coster and von Hevesy, element 72, hafnium
1923: Herman Weyl, De Sitter universe would predict a linear relation between distance and red-shift
1924: Edwin Hubble, measured the distance to other galaxies using Cepheid variables proving that they lie outside our own
1924: Edward Appleton, ionosphere
1924: Satyendra Bose, derivation of Planck's law
1924: Bose and Einstein, statistics of photons and Bose-Einstein condensate
1924: Albert Einstein, statistical physics of quantum boson molecular gas
1924: Wolfgang Pauli, explanation of Zeeman effect and two-valuedness of electron state
1924: Wolfgang Pauli, the exclusion principle
1924: Ludwik Siberstein, claims a redshift law for nebulae
1925: Walter Elsasser, explanation of electron diffraction as wave property of matter
1925: Vesto Melvin Slipher, red-shifts of galaxies suggest a distance/velocity relationship
1925: Robert Millikan, rediscovery of "cosmic rays" in upper atmosphere
1925: Noddack, Tacke, Berg, element 75, rhenium
1925: Werner Heisenberg, transition amplitude theory of quantum mechanics
1925: Born and Jordan, matrix interpretation of Heisenberg's quantum mechanics
1925: Paul Dirac, q-number theory of general quantum mechanics
1925: Pascual Jordan, second quantisation
1925: Goudsmit and Uhlenbeck, electron spin
1925: Enrico Fermi, statistics of electrons
1926: Gilbert Lewis, first use of the term photon
1926: Oskar Klein, Kaluza-Klein theory
1926: Wolfgang Pauli, derivation of spectrum of hydrogen atom by matrix methods
1926: Erwin Schroedinger, the particle wave equation
1926: Erwin Schroedinger, derivation of spectrum of hydrogen atom using the wave equation
1926: Eckart, Pauli, Schroedinger, equivalence of wave equation and matrix mechanics
1926: Max Born, probability interpretation of wave function
1926: Albert Einstein, "God does not play dice"
1926: Paul Dirac, distinction between bosons and fermions, symmetry and anti-symmetry of wave function
1926: Dirac, Jordan, canonical transformation theory for quantum mechanics
1926: Klein, Fock and Gordon, relativistic wave equation for scalar particles
1926: Ralph Fowler, suggests that white dwarf stars are explained by the exclusion principle
1926: Born, Heisenberg, Jordan, model of a quantised field
1926: Wolfgang Pauli, momentum and position cannot be known simultaneously
1926: Werner Heisenberg, the uncertainty principle
1927: Davisson, Germer, Thomson, verification of electron diffraction by a crystal
1927: Jan Oort, observation of galactic rotation and spiral shape of our galaxy
1927: Niels Bohr, principle of complementarity
1927: Paul Dirac, quantisation of electromagnetic field, bosonic creation and anihilation operators, virtual particles, zero point energy
1927: Eugene Wigner, conservation of parity
1927: Friedrich Hund, quantum tunneling
1927: Heitler and London, quantum theory can explain chemical bonding
1927: Fritz London, electromagnetic guage is phase of Schroedinger equation
1927: Georges Lemaitre, models of an expanding universe
1927: Niels Bohr, Copenhagen interpretation of Quantum Mechanics
1928: Condon, Gamow, Gurney, alpha emission is due to quantum tunnelling
1928: Paul Dirac, relativistic equation of the spin-half electron
1928: Willem Keeson, phase transition in liquid Helium
1928: Jordan, Pauli, quantum field theory of free fields
1928: Rolf Wideroe, first prototype high energy accelerator
1928: Heisenberg, Weyl, group representation theory in quantum mechanics
1929: quartz crystal clock
1929: Ernest Lawrence, cyclotron
1929: Robert van de Graaff, Van de Graaff generator
1929: Heisenberg, Pauli, interacting quantum field theory and divergences
1929: J. Robert Oppenheimer, divergence of electron self-energy
1929: Paul Dirac, electron sea and hole theory
1929: Edwin Hubble, first measurement of Hubble's constant leading to the conclusion that the Universe is expanding
1929: Bothe, Kolhorster, cosmic rays are charged particles
1930: Clyde Tombaugh, Pluto
1930: Becker, Bothe, observed neutral rays later identified as neutrons
1930: Paul Dirac, systematic canonical quantisation
1930: Arthur Eddington, Einstein's static universe is unstable
1930: Hartree and Fock, multi-particle quantum mechanics
1931: Dirac, Oppenheimer, Weyl, prediction of anti-matter
1931: Albert Einstein, discard cosmological constant, oscillating cosmology
1931: Georges Lemaitre, the primeval atom as origin of the universe
1931: Isidor Rabi, principle of population inversion
1931: Wolfgang Pauli, neutrino as explanation for missing energy and spin in weak nuclear decay
1931: Eugene Wigner, symmetry in quantum mechanics
1931: Paul Dirac, magnetic monopoles can explain quantum of charge
1932: Raman and Bhagavantam, Verification that photon is spin one
1932: Einstein, De Sitter, Flat expanding cosmology
1932: James Chadwick, identified the neutron
1932: Knoll and Ruska, electron microscope
1932: Carl Anderson, positron from cosmic rays
1932: Cockroft and Walton, linear proton accelerators to 700 keV and verification of mass/energy equivalence
1932: Karl Jansky, first radio astronomy
1932: Dmitri Iwanenko, Neutron as a constituent of nucleus
1932: Richard Tolman, thermodynamics of oscillating cyclic universe
1932: Vladimir Fock, Fock space
1932: Urey, Brickwedde, Murphy, Washburn, deuterium
1932: Werner Heisenberg, Nucleus is composed of protons and neutrons
1932: Lev Davidovich Landau, proposed existence of neutron stars
1933: Paul Ehrenfest, theory of second order phase transitions
1933: Blackett and Occhialini, electron-positron creation and annihilation
1933: Esterman, Frisch and Stern, measurement of proton magnetic moment
1933: Baade and Zwicky, collapse of a white dwarf may set off a supernova and leave a neutron star
1933: Fritz Zwicky, dark matter in galactic clusters
1933: Arthur Milne, cosmological principle of large scale homogeneity
1933: Harlow Shapley, observation of structure in galaxy distribution
1934: Pavel Cherenkov, Cherenkov radiation
1934: Chadwick and Goldhaber, precise measurement of neutron mass
1934: Chadwick and Goldhaber, measurement of nuclear force
1934: Francis Perrin, neutrino is massless
1934: Grote Reber, discrete radio source in Cygnus
1934: Joliot and Curie-Joliot, induced radioactivity
1934: Enrico Fermi, Fermi theory of weak interaction and beta decay
1934: Esterman and Stern, magnetic moment of neutron
1934: Fermi and Hahn, fission observed
1934: Paul Dirac, polarisation of the vacuum and more divergence in QED
1935: Yukawa, Stueckelberg, theory of strong nuclear force and the pi-meson
1935: J. Robert Oppenheimer, spin statistics
1935: Enrico Fermi, hypothesis of transuranic elements
1935: Robertson, Walker, most general homogenious isotropic universe
1935: Einstein, Podolsky, Rosen, EPR Paradox of non-locality in quantum mechanics
1935: Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, calculation of mass limit for stellar collapse of a white dwarf star
1935: Erwin Schroedinger, quantum cat paradox
1935: Robert Watson-Watt, radar
1936: Niels Bohr, compound nucleus
1936: Anderson and Neddermeyer, muon in cosmic rays
1936: Leon Brillouin, theory of wave guides
1936: Breit and Coll, isotopic spin
1936: Alan Turing, computability
1937: Pyotr Kapitza, superfluidity of helium II
1937: Perrier and Segre, element 37, technetium, first element made artifically
1937: Majorana, symmetric theory of electron and positron
1937: Julian Schwinger, Neutron spin is half
1937: Blau, Wambacher, photographic emulsion as particle detector
1937: Bloch and Nordsieck, operator normal ordering
1937: John Wheeler, S-matrix theory
1938: Oppenheimer and Serber, there is an upper mass limit for stability of neutron stars
1938: Bethe, Critchfield, von Weizsacker, stars are powered by nuclear fusion CN-cycle
1938: Isador Rabi, Magnetic Resonance
1938: Hahn, Strassman, fission induced with neutrons
1938: Oskar Klein, new field equations from higher dimensional Kaluza-Klein theory
1938: Fritz Zwicky, clusters of galaxies
1938: Ernest Stueckelberg, suggests baryon number conservation
1938: Hendrick Kramers, mass renormalisation
1938: Frisch and Meitner, theory of uranium fission
1939: Joliot and Curie-Joliot, Szilard, theory of nuclear chain reaction
1939: Oppenheimer and Snyder, a collapsing neutron star will form a black hole.
1939: Bohr, Wheeler, Khariton, Zel'dovich ..., theory of U235 fission and chain reaction.
1939: Bloch and Alvarez, measurement of the neutron magnetic moment
1939: Rossi, Van Norman, Hilbery, Muon decay
1939: Teller, Szilard, Einstein, warning letter to Roosevelt
1939: Peierls and Frisch, critical mass and theory of A-Bomb
1939: Marguerite Perey, element 87, francium
1940: MacMillan, Abelson, element 93, neptunium, first transuranian elements
1940: Corson, MacKenzie, Segre, element 85, astatine synthesised
1941: MacMillan, Kennedy, Seaborg, Wahl, element 94, plutonium, second transuranian elements
1941: Lev Davidovich Landau, theory of superfluids
1941: Rossi and Hall, Muon decay used to verify relativistic time dilation
1941: Mckellar and Adams, Cosmic cyanogen observed to be at temperature of CBR, but significance not recognised
1941: "Manhatten Project" is founded to develop atomic bomb
1942: Enrico Fermi, the first self sustaining fission reaction
1942: Grote Reber, radio map of the sky
1943: Ernest Stueckelberg, renormalisation of QED
1943: Sakata, Inoue, theory of pion decay to muons
1944: Lars Onsager, general theory of phase transitions
1944: Seaborg, James, Morgan, Ghiorso, Thompson, elements 95; americium, 96; curium
1944: Leprince-Ringuet and Lheritier, the K+ found in cosmic rays
1945: Robert Oppenheimer et al, atomic bomb
1945: first electronic computer ENIAC
1946: James Hey Discovery of radio source Cygnus A
1946: George Gamow Cold big bang model
1946: Bloch and Purcell Nuclear magnetic resonance
Richard Feynman
1947: Claude Shannon, information theory
1947: Conversi, Pancini, Piccioni, indication that the muon is not the mediator of the strong force
1947: Hartmut Kallman, scintillation counter
1947: Denis Gabor, theory of holograms
1947: Powell, Occhialini, negative pion found
1947: Willis Lamb, fine structure of hydrogen spectrum, the Lamb shift
1947: Hans Bethe, renormalisation of Lamb shift calculation
1947: Kusch and Folley, measurement of the anomolous magnetic moment of the electron
1947: Hartland Snyder, quantised space-time
1948: Tomonaga, Schwinger, Feynman, renormalisation of QED
1948: Alpher, Bethe and Gamow, explain nucleosynthesis in hot big bang
1948: Alpher and Herman, prediction of cosmic background radiation
1948: Bondi, Gold, Hoyle, steady state theory of the universe
1948: Goldhaber and Goldhaber, experimental proof that beta particles are electrons
1948: Richard Feynman, path integral approach to quantum theory
1948: Bardeen, Brattain, Shockley, semi-conductors and transistors
1948: Snell and Miller, Decay of the neutron
1948: Freeman Dyson, Equivalence of Feynman and Schwinger-Tomonaga QED
1948: Hendrik Casimir, Theory of Casimir force
1949: Leighton, Anderson, Seriff, Muon is spin half
1949: Seaborg, Ghiorso, Thompson, element 97, berkelium
1949: Haxel, Jensen, Mayer, Suess, nuclear shell model
1949: Fred Hoyle, first use of the term "big bang"
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