Portal:History of science/Selected anniversaries/August 31

August 31:

• 1663 - Birth of Guillaume Amontons, French physicist and instrument maker (d. 1705)

• 1772 - Death of William Borlase, English naturalist (b. 1695)

• 1869 - Death of Mary Ward, Irish scientist, first automobile accident victim (b. 1827)

• 1897 - Thomas Edison patents the Kinetoscope, the first movie projector

• 1949 - Birth of H. David Politzer, American physicist, Nobel laureate

• 1985 - Death of Frank Macfarlane Burnet, Australian biologist, Nobel laureate (b. 1899)

• 2002 - Death of George Porter, English chemist, Nobel laureate (b. 1920)

• 2005 - Death of Joseph Rotblat, Polish-British physicist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1908)