Each day is a new leaf in our life. While we steadily progress towards tomorrow, enjoying a slice of today, we should always address the privilege we are at today because of the past. There are countless achievements across the world, that open opportunities for us today. It is also because of that, we are capable of dreaming big, and bigger. Today, we bring to you the achievements of our ancestors on March 1. Read on!
1890 1st US edition of Sherlock Holmes’ first story “A Study in Scarlet” by Arthur Conan Doyle published
The Chronicles of Sherlock Holmes have part of our lives at some point in our time. We cannot imagine the crime-thriller genre without mentioning him, and the genius of Arthur Conan Doyle once. Sherlock started wooing people with his smartness today, back in the year 1890. Arthur started writing stories when he was in medical college and published his first story. But, ‘A Study in Scarlet’ was his second book, and it took him 8 years to finish and publish it.
1896 Henri Becquerel discovered radioactivity
Henri Becquerel found uranium salts are affected by light, while he was investigating X-rays in the year 1896. The Uranium salts that emit radiation are tracked and registered on a photographic plate. But, people confused this with this X-Ray radiation. Later, it was confirmed this is a different phenomenon and named radioactivity. Henri received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 for this discovery.
1909 1st US university school of nursing established, University of Minnesota
The school of nursing founded on March 1, 1909, is the nation’s first continuously operated university-based school of nursing. Before this, the norm was schooling inside the hospitals. 1129 hospital-based nursing schools, was there then. Initially, the school offered a three-year program. There were only four students in the first-ever batch. This changed into a 5-year program in 1919.
1961 US President JFK establishes the Peace Corps
The United States government runs a volunteer program, Peace Crops. This program provides international social and economic development assistance to the state. John F Kennedy established this through his Executive Order 10924. American citizens are trained and sent abroad to work as volunteers, preferably someone with a degree. They target non-profit organizations, non-government organizations, and entrepreneurs in education, youth development, community health, and more.
2002 The Envisat environmental satellite successfully launched
Envisat is the world’s largest civilian Earth observation satellite, operated by the European Space Agency. It is currently largely inactive still in orbit. The satellite reached an orbit 800 kilometers (500 miles) above the Earth on its 11th launch, carrying the heaviest payload to date at 8500 kilograms. But, the ESA lost contact with ESA on 8 April 2012, and they formally announced the end of Envisat’s on 9 May of the same year. Sentinel has taken over the radar duties of Envisat in 2014.
2016 Gene for grey hair (IRF4) discovery announced by Scientists from University College London in “Nature Communications”.
On March 1, 2016, scientists have established that grey hairs occur possibly because of genes, and are hereditary. Thus, opening up possibilities to get rid of grey hairs, and cure them forever to gene manipulation. Chromosome six contains the particular gene. Although it might not be the only reason for grey hairs, it opens the world to multiple future kinds of research on this. This gene, IRF4 regulates natural hair, skin, and the eye pigment, melanin.
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