June 5

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  1646: Mathematician and philosopher Elena Cornaro Piscopia born. She will be one of the first women to receive an academic degree from a university, and the first to receive a Doctor of Philosophy degree.

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  1756: Chemist, physician, agronomist, industrialist, statesman, educator, and philanthropist Jean-Antoine-Claude Chaptal born.

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  1900: Physicist and engineer Dennis Gabor born. He will invent holography, for which he will receive the 1971 Nobel Prize in Physics.

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  1910: Short story writer O. Henry, known for his surprise endings, dies.

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  2012: Science fiction writer and screenwriter Ray Bradbury dies. The New York Times calls Bradbury "the writer most responsible for bringing modern science fiction into the literary mainstream".