Chemist and inventor Helen Murray Free dies. Together with her husband Alfred, she developed the first dip and read test strips for use in diagnostic tests

The Ghana Space Science and Technology Institute (GSSTI) officially opens to research astrophysics, remote sensing, natural resource management or weather prediction

The zoologist Iliá (Elie) Méchnikov is born. A pioneer in the fields of immunology and gerontology, he laid the foundations of the probiotic concept and the relationship between health, intestinal microbiota and diet

Entomologist Maria Matilde Principi is born. She studied neuropteroid insects, including antlions, which prey on smaller insects

The first railway in continental Europe is inaugurated in Belgium: the Brussels-Malines line

Engineer Wifredo Ricart is born. He worked in the design and manufacture of both, aviation engines and trucks and automobiles, such as the legendary Pegaso Z-102 sports car

Physicist Allan MacLeod Cormack dies. Together with Godfrey Newbold Hounsfiel, he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1979 for the development of computed axial tomography (CAT)

Physician Flora Murray is born. Together with her partner Louisa Garrett Anderson, she founded her own women’s hospital organization to care for soldiers injured in the First World War

The CSIC creates the Margarita Salas Medal. Since then, this award annually recognizes the best career in the supervision or management of research personnel

Physicist Jean Augustin Fresnel is born. He had a key role in the acceptance of the wave theory of light and invented the Fresnel lens, very useful in lighthouses, traffic lights and televisions

Academic Hubertine Rose Éholie dies. Specializing in chemistry, she is known for her efforts to reduce the gender gap in academia

NASA announces the cultivation of plants in regolith, a type of lunar soil that was brought to Earth by astronauts during the Apollo missions

Seismologist Inge Lehmann is born. She discovered the discontinuity that separates the outer core from the inner core which is named in her honor: Lehmann discontinuity

The doctor Magnus Hirschfeld is born. He argued that sexual orientation is innate and not a choice, and that the scientific understanding of sexuality fosters tolerance toward sexual minorities

Geneticist and statistician Helen Alma Newton Turner is born. She was a leading authority on sheep breeding and applied quantitative genetics to improve the quality and production of merino wool

Physicist Johannes Georg Bednorz is born. Together with Karl Alexander Müller, he received the Nobel Prize in Physics for his discoveries in the field of superconductivity of ceramic materials

Botanist Sebsebe Demissew is awarded the Smithsonian Institution’s Cuatrecasas Medal for Excellence in Tropical Botany for his work conserving diverse Ethiopian flora

The theoretical computer scientist Christopher Strachey dies. Among others, he developed one of the first music computer programs

Mary Louisa Willard is born. Specializing in microchemistry, she introduced hair and blood analysis to identify suspected murder weapons. She was known as Lady Sherlock

The discovery of 3.3 million-year-old stone tools in Turkana (Kenya) is published. The Western Turkana Archaeological Project (WTAP) has researched the origins of humanity since 1996

Rayyanah Barnawi has become Saudi Arabia’s first female astronaut. On the International Space Station, she studied the behavior of stem cells in zero gravity

International 22q11 Syndrome Day. Its objective is to raise awareness about this rare disease and promote research and advances in its diagnosis and treatments

Malacologist Myra Keen is born. Her research focused on mollusk systematics, marine mollusk paleontology and the marine mollusk fauna of the Panámica province

A Silenced Woman, by Antonina Rodrigo, is published. It narrates the life and exile of the scientist María Teresa Toral, who studied the determination of the atomic weights of chemical elements

Plant pathologist Louise Jensen Stakman is born. She investigated imperfect fungi that are pathogens of cereals, among others

Entomologist and environmental activist Thomas R. Odhiambo dies. He researched the control of insect disease vectors and founded the International Center for Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE)

​​Chemist Sibyl Taite Widdows is born. She investigated the composition and secretion of human milk

Linguist Joseph Greenberg is born. He focused on classifying languages and searching for linguistic universals. He proposed a classification of the languages of Africa into four phylogenetic units

The mathematician and astronomer Ibn al-Samh dies. He invented the equator, an astronomical instrument used to determine the positions of the Sun, Moon and planets on the horizon

Linguist Louis Hjelmslev dies. Together with Hans Jørgen Uldall, he developed glossematics, which focuses on the scientific study of glossaries, akin to mathematical calculations

Inventor and businessman Angelo Moriondo dies. He is recognized for patenting what is regarded as the first modern espresso machine