Articles by Steven Gilchrist

Fred Toyosaburo Korematsu (January 30, 1919 – March 30, 2005) was a Japanese American civil rights leader.   Korematsu was convicted of evading internment during World War II when Japanese Americans were forced into internment camps.   Korematsu is known for petitioning against his internment.   In Korematsu v. United States the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the legality of the government’s order to bring Korematsu and other Japanese Americans to internment camps.   Executive Order 9066 signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the government to take people of Japanese ancestry living on the West Coast from their homes and place them into internment camps.   Korematsu challenged this order and eventually his case was brought before the Supreme Court.   Years after the conclusion of World War II, the U.S. government acknowledged the injustice of interning Japanese Americans. In 1976, President Gerald Ford signed a proclamation officially terminating Executive Order 9066.

Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen (March 27, 1845 - February 10, 1923) was a German mechanical engineer and physicist.  In 1869, he earned a Ph.D. from the University of Zurich.  Rontgen is most well-known for creating X-rays.  For this creation, Rontgen was awarded the first Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901.  For his scientific research, Rontgen is known as the father of diagnostic radiology – the medical specialty which uses imaging to diagnose diseases.  There is a collection of Rontgen’s papers at the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland.  Rontgen Peak in Antarctica is named after Wilhelm Rontgen.  In 2004, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) named element 111, roentgenium, after Wilhelm Rontgen.

Benjamin Banneker (November 9, 1731 – October 9, 1806) was born in Baltimore County, Maryland.   Banneker’s mother was a free black and his father was a freed slave from Guinea.   Although Banneker had little formal education he became well-known for his knowledge of astronomy and his political correspondence with Thomas Jefferson. Banneker’s greatest accomplishment was being a member of the team that surveyed the original borders of Washington, D.C.   This team was led by Major Andrew Ellicott.   Banneker’s astronomical knowledge helped him to write a series of almanacs.   Banneker’s almanacs were printed in Baltimore; Philadelphia; Wilmington, Delaware; and Richmond, Virginia. On August 19, 1791, Banneker wrote a letter to Thomas Jefferson.   In the letter, Banneker advocated for the abolishment of slavery in the American colonies.   Banneker wrote: “Sir, how pitiable is it to reflect, that although you were so fully convinced of the benevolence of the Father of mankind, and