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Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof and Esperanto, the Universal International Language

Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof and Esperanto, the Universal International Language

Tabea Tietz
On November 24, 1887, the first German translation of Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof‘s ‘Unua Libro‘, the first book to describe the artificial universal language esperanto was published. Esperanto is a constructed international auxiliary language. It is the most widely spoken constructed language in the world. “Esperanto was a very useful language, because wherever you went, you found someone to speak with.” — George Soros “How Do You Say ‘Billionaire’ in Esperanto?” [5]  Ludwig…
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medical science
Leopold Auenbrugger discovered Diagnosis by Percussion

Leopold Auenbrugger discovered Diagnosis by Percussion

Harald Sack
On November 19, 1722, Austrian physician Leopold Auenbrugger was born. Auenbrugger invented percussion – the art of striking a surface part of the body with short, sharp taps to diagnose the condition of the parts beneath the sound – as a diagnostic technique. On the strength of this discovery, he is considered one of the founders of modern medicine. Auenbrugger invented the method of auscultating the patient‘s chest in 1754, while the…
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philosophy
Albertus Magnus and the Merit of Personal Observation

Albertus Magnus and the Merit of Personal Observation

Harald Sack
On November 15, 1280, German scholar, Dominican friar, Catholic bishop, and Catholic Saint, Albert, Count von Bollstädt a.k.a Abertus Magnus, Albert the Great passed away. As a philosopher Albertus Magnus championed Aristotle‘s philosophy, but adapted it to the medieval outlook, and held that there was merit in the addition of personal observation. He often is referred to as the greatest German philosopher and theologian of the Middle Ages. Even more so than…
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physics
Edmond Halley besides the Eponymous Comet

Edmond Halley besides the Eponymous Comet

Harald Sack
On November 8, 1656, English astronomer, geophysicist, mathematician, meteorologist, and physicist Sir Edmond Halley was born. Of course everybody has heard of Halley’s comet. We too already had an article on that topic [1]. But, Edmond Halley did much more than calculating the orbit of the eponymous comet. He compiled a catalogue of the stars of the Southern hemisphere, he also improved the sextant, and made observations about the ocean and the…
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engineering
Cornelis Drebbel and the first navigatable Submarine

Cornelis Drebbel and the first navigatable Submarine

Tabea Tietz
On November 7, 1633, Dutch innovator and inventor Cornelis Jacobszoon Drebbel passed away. Drebbel contributed to the development of measurement and control systems, optics and chemistry, but he is best known for having built the first navigatable submarine in 1620. Cornelis Drebbel was born in Alkmaar, Holland in 1572. After some years at the Latin school in Alkmaar, around 1587, he attended the Academy in Haarlem, also located in North-Holland.There, Drebbel became…
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cinematography
Godzilla – The Most Recognizable Icon of Post War Japanese Culture

Godzilla – The Most Recognizable Icon of Post War Japanese Culture

Tabea Tietz
On November 3, 1954, the very first of a series of 28 Godzilla films premiered. The film focuses on Godzilla, a prehistoric monster resurrected by repeated nuclear tests in the Pacific, who ravages Japan and reignites the horrors of nuclear devastation to the very nation that experienced it first-hand. Since his debut, Godzilla has morphed into a worldwide cultural icon. The Most Recognizable Symbol of Japanese Culture Godzilla belongs to the most recognizable…
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computer science
The Pentium FDIV Bug

The Pentium FDIV Bug

Harald Sack
On October 30, 1994, Thomas Nicely, a professor of mathematics at Lynchburg College, published his findings about a serious bug in the arithmetic unit of Intel’s latest Pentium processor, known as the Pentium FDIV Bug. Because of the bug, the processor can return incorrect decimal results, an issue troublesome for the precise calculations needed in fields like math and science. The Pentium FDIV bug is the most famous (or infamous) of the…
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explorer
Ludwig Leichhardt’s Australian Expeditions

Ludwig Leichhardt’s Australian Expeditions

Tabea Tietz
On October 23, 1813, Prussian explorer and naturalist Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Leichhardt was born. He is most famous for his exploration of northern and central Australia. Leichhardt went to Australia in 1842 to study the rocks and wildlife in Queensland and the Northern Territory. In 1846 he left on an expedition with nine men to find a route from Moreton Bay (Brisbane) to Perth, rather poorly equipped. The party disappeared, leaving a mystery as to…
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chemistry
Georg Ernst Stahl and the Phlogiston Theory

Georg Ernst Stahl and the Phlogiston Theory

Tabea Tietz
On October 22, 1659, German chemist, physician and philosopher Georg Ernst Stahl was born. Stahl developed the phlogiston theory of combustion and of such related biological processes as respiration, fermentation, and decay. Combustible objects, he said, were rich in phlogiston, and during combustion is lost. The remaining ash, now having no phlogiston, could no longer burn. Until the late 18th century his works on phlogiston were accepted as an explanation for chemical…
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architecture
The Sydney Opera House

The Sydney Opera House

Tabea Tietz
On October 20, 1973, the Sydney Opera House was formally opened by Queen Elizabeth II. It is identified as one of the 20th century’s most distinctive buildings. Designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon in a modern expressionist design, it features a series of large precast concrete roof “shells”, each composed of sections of a sphere of 75.2 metres radius. Planning for the opera house started in the 1940s when the director of…
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