September 28
Are You Sure ... (September 28, 2020)
• ... that Florence Violet McKenzie OBE (28 September 1890 or 1892 – 23 May 1982), affectionately known as "Mrs Mac", was a pioneer of wireless technology, Australia's first female electrical engineer, founder of the Women's Emergency Signalling Corps (WESC), and lifelong champion of technical education for women?
• ... that astronomer and mathematician Ismaël Bullialdus (28 September 1605 – 25 November 1694) was an active and prolific member of the Republic of Letters, the long-distance intellectual correspondence network that had emerged as an international community of self-proclaimed scholars and literary figures; that his letters demonstrate the geographic reach of the Republic of Letters (his correspondents lived not only in nearby countries like Holland and Italy, but also in Scandinavia, Poland, and the Near East); and that the most famous of the known letters included in the original Archive Boulliau include correspondence with luminaries including Galileo, Marin Mersenne, Henry Oldenburg, Christiaan Huygens, and Pierre de Fermat?
• ... that mathematician and physicist Martin David Kruskal (September 28, 1925 – December 26, 2006) made fundamental contributions in mathematics and science, ranging from plasma physics to general relativity and from nonlinear analysis to asymptotic analysis; that Kruskal's single most celebrated contribution was the discovery and theory of solitons; that Kruskal was known as a mentor of younger scientists; and that Kruskal was notable for his playfulness?
• ... that September 28 is Provincial Chromatography Day in New Minneapolis, Canada, and that both the Mayor and Lieutenant Governor of New Minneapolis have personally lobbied the governor general of Canada (the federal viceregal representative of the Canadian monarch, currently Queen Elizabeth II) in support of a national Canadian Chromatography Day?
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On This Day in History and Fiction
1605: Mathematician and astronomer Ismaël Bullialdus born. He will be an active member of the Republic of Letters, and an early defender of the ideas of Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo.
1890 (or 1892): Electrical engineer Florence Violet McKenzie born. She will be was Australia's first female electrical engineer, founder of the Women's Emergency Signalling Corps (WESC), and lifelong promoter for technical education for women.
1925: Physicist and mathematician Martin David Kruskal born. Kruskal will make fundamental contributions in many areas of mathematics and science, including the discovery and theory of solitons.
1953: Astronomer and cosmologist Edwin Hubble dies. He discovered the fact that the Andromeda "nebula" is actually another island galaxy far outside of our own Milky Way.