Articles by Steven Gilchrist

Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev (1834 – 1907) was a Russian chemist.   Mendeleev is credited with formulating the Periodic Law and he also established a version of the periodic table of elements.   Mendeleev also helped create the first oil refinery in Russia.   Mendeleev claimed to have seen his “Periodic System” in a dream: “I saw in a dream a table where all elements fell into place as required.   Awakening, I immediately wrote it down on a piece of paper, only in one place did a correction later seem necessary.”   In 1869, Mendeleev became one of the founders of the Russian Chemical Society.

Irving F. Morrow (1884 – 1952) was an American architect who was best known for designing the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California.  In 1906, Morrow graduated from the architecture program at the University of California at Berkeley.  In addition to designing the Golden Gate Bridge, Morrow designed banks, hotels, schools, and theaters. In 1930, engineer Joseph Strauss hired Morrow to design the Golden Gate Bridge.  In 1919, prior to beginning work on the bridge, Morrow wrote about the potential for building a bridge in San Francisco: "The narrow strait is caressed by breezes from the blue bay throughout the long golden afternoon, but perhaps it is loveliest at the cool end of the day when, for a few breathless moments, faint afterglows transfigure the gray line of the hills."   At the time of its opening on May 27, 1937, the Golden Gate Bridge was the longest and tallest suspension in the world, spanning 4,200 feet.

On January 4, 2011, President Barack Obama signed the Food and Drug Administration Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).   This legislative act was designed to better protect the nation’s food supply.   FSMA gives the FDA improved enforcement capabilities in preventing foodborne diseases.   One of the goals of the FSMA is to build a revised system for food safety.  It will create a food tracking system to identify the source of foodborne outbreaks. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about 48 million Americans become ill, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die each year from foodborne diseases.   Another component of the FSMA is that it will provide the FDA with greater oversight of food products entering the United States.   About 15% of the U.S. food supply is imported; including 50% of fresh fruits, 20% of fresh vegetables, and 80% of seafood. The FSMA is considered to be the most significant revision in U.S. go...

The Employment Act of 1946 is a federal law in the United States.   President Harry S. Truman signed the bill into law on February 20, 1946. The act legislated that it is the responsibility of the federal government to: “coordinate and utilize all its plans, functions, and resources… to foster and promote free competitive enterprise and the general welfare; conditions under which there will be afforded useful employment for those able, willing, and seeking to work; and to promote maximum employment, production, and purchasing power.” Originally, the bill was named the Full Employment Bill of 1945.   The bill was introduced in the House of Representatives as HR 2202 and in the Senate as S. 380.   The Act requires the President to establish an annual economic report within ten days of submitting a national budget that forecasts the future state of the economy.   The Act also created the Council of Economic Advisers – an appointed board that advises the Presi...

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 term...

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 benevol...