In case you were wondering about notable science events that happened the week of April 25th…
|photo credit: Ethan Hein|
Crime just doesn’t pay. But don’t lose your head over it. On April 25th, 1792, highwayman Jaques Nicolas J Pelletier became the first person to be executed by guillotine. Beheading by guillotine became the only legal execution method of France in March of that same year, and remained the only legal method until the abolition of the death penalty in 1981.
Can you hear me now? On April 27th, 2002 NASA made its last successful reception of telemetry with space probe Pioneer 10 before the signal was lost. The space probe was launched in 1972, and sent back the first close up images of Jupiter in 1973. In 1983, the probe drifted past the orbit of the last planet in our solar system (which happened to be Neptune at the time).
|photo credit: geishaboy500|
Does anybody really know what time it is? According to the Gregorian calendar, at 10:40 A.M. on April 28th of 1902 the world experienced its one billionth minute since the year zero. Where does the time go?
On April 30th, 1993, CERN opened the internet to the world at large, stating that it would be free to the public.
On May 1st, 1955, a polio vaccine was made available to the public for the very first time. Developed by Jonas Salk, this vaccine put an end to the crippling disease that plagued infants throught the late 19th and early 20th centuries.