Mar. 1, 1896 - Radioactivity is discovered by French physicist Henri Becquerel. He received the 1903 Nobel prize in physics for this work, along with Pierre & Marie Curie. The SI unit for radioactivity, the becquerel (Bq), is named after him, as are craters on the Moon and Mars.
Mar. 3, 1915 - The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) is founded as a U.S. agency to promote the development of aeronautical research. In 1958, NACA was dissolved and its resources transferred to the newly established NASA.
Feb. 28, 1930 - American physicist Leon Neil Cooper is born. Cooper won the 1972 Nobel prize in physics for his work in developing the BCS theory of superconductivity.
Feb. 26, 1935 - Robert Watson-Watt carries out the Daventry Experiment, which led to the development of RADAR in the United Kingdom.
Feb. 28, 1939 - Chinese physicist Daniel C. Tsui is born. Tsui won the 1998 Nobel prize in physics for his work in discovering the fractional quantum Hall effect.
Feb. 27, 1940 - The radioactive isotope carbon-14 is discovered by Martin Kamen & Sam Ruben, which went on to lead to the development of radiocarbon dating.
Feb. 28, 1948 - American physicist Steven Chu is born. Chu's research in using laser-cooling methods to trap atoms resulted in the 1997 Nobel prize in physics.
Mar. 4, 1997 - Comet Hale-Bop flied 1.04 astronomical units above the sun. Hale-Bop was visible in the skies for 18 months, generating more comet panic than had been seen in generations. The Heaven's gate cult committed a mass suicide to coincide with the comet's passage.
Feb. 28, 2006 - American physicist Owen Chamberlain dies. He received the 1959 Nobel prize in physics for his work in discovering the antiproton.
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