#OTD in 1846.
William T. G. Morton administers ether anesthesia during a surgical operation, by the use of inhaled ether.
A month after this demonstration, a patent was issued for "letheon", although it was widely known by then that the inhalant was ether. The promotion of his questionable claim to have been the discoverer of anesthesia became an obsession for the rest of his life.
#OTD in 1843.
William Rowan Hamilton invents quaternions, a 3D system of complex numbers.
Important precursors to this work included Euler's four-square identity (1748) & Olinde Rodrigues' parameterization of general rotations by 4 parameters (1840), but neither of these writers treated the four-parameter rotations as an algebra. Carl Friedrich Gauss had discovered quaternions in 1819, but this work was not published until 1900.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quaternion
English poet and novelist Letitia Elizabeth Landon died #OTD in 1838.
Her first major breakthrough came with The Improvisatrice and thence she developed the metrical romance towards the Victorian ideal of the Victorian monologue, influencing fellow English writers such as Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Browning, Alfred Tennyson and Christina Rossetti.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letitia_Elizabeth_Landon
Books about Letitia Elizabeth Landon at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/56166
#OTD in 1858.
The farce Our American Cousin by the English playwright Tom Taylor is first performed at Laura Keene's Theatre in New York City, with the American Joe Jefferson in the title rôle and the English actor Edward Askew Sothern as Lord Dundreary.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_American_Cousin
Our American Cousin at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/3158
#OTD in 1892.
The first collection of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories from The Strand Magazine (June 1891–June 1892), The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, is published by George Newnes in London; it includes Doyle's favourite, "The Adventure of the Speckled Band", which was originally published in February.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Sherlock_Holmes
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/1661
Swiss chemist Nicolas Théodore de Saussure was born #OTD in 1767.
His book Recherches chimiques sur la Végétation (1804) was the first summation of the fundamental process of photosynthesis and a major contribution to the understanding of plant physiology. In contrast to some of his predecessors in the field of photosynthesis research, Saussure based his conclusions on extensive quantitative data that he had collected.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas_Th%C3%A9odore_de_Saussure
#OTD in 1926.
The children's book Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne first appears, published by Methuen in London.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnie-the-Pooh_(book)#
Winnie-the-Pooh's entrance into the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2022 was noted by several news publications, generally in the context of a greater Public Domain Day article.
https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2022/#fn6text
Winnie-the-Pooh at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/67098
"Call me Ishmael."
#OTD in 1851.
Herman Melville's Moby-Dick is first published as The Whale by Richard Bentley of London.
In the October 1851 issue of Harper's New Monthly Magazine "The Town Ho's Story" was published, with a footnote reading: "From 'The Whale'. The title of a new work by Mr. Melville, in the press of Harper and Brothers, and now publishing in London by Mr. Bentley."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moby-Dick
Moby-Dick at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/15
#OTD in 1911.
German novelist Hans Fallada, kills his best friend in a suicide pact staged as a duel.
Fallada made a pact with a friend, Hanns Dietrich von Necker, to stage a duel to mask their suicides, feeling that the duel would be seen as more honorable. However, because of both boys' inexperience with weapons, it was a bungled affair. Dietrich missed Fallada, but Fallada did not miss Dietrich, killing him.
Hans Fallada at Projekt Gutenberg-DE
https://www.projekt-gutenberg.org/autoren/namen/fallada.html
#OTD in 1771.
Premiere in Milan of the opera Ascanio in Alba, composed by Mozart at age 15.
This is a pastoral opera in two parts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Giuseppe Parini. It was commissioned by the Empress Maria Theresa for the wedding of her son, Archduke Ferdinand Karl, to Maria Beatrice d'Este on 15 October 1771.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascanio_in_Alba
https://imslp.org/wiki/Ascanio_in_Alba,_K.111_(Mozart,_Wolfgang_Amadeus)
Books about Mozart at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=mozart&submit_search=Go%21&start_index=26
Lise Meitner died #OTD in 1968.
She is known for her part in the discovery of nuclear fission. Among physicists she had been known for many years as one of the early pioneers in the study of radioactivity. Einstein nicknamed her ‘the German Madame Curie’.
"The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself."
#OTD in 1847.
Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre is published (as "an autobiography, edited by Currer Bell") in London by Smith, Elder & Co. in 3 volumes.
The first American edition was published the following year by Harper & Brothers of New York.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Eyre
Jane Eyre at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/1260
#OTD in 1917.
The 51-year-old poet W. B. Yeats marries 25-year-old Georgie Hyde-Lees at Harrow Road register office in London, with Ezra Pound as best man, a couple of months after Yeats' proposal of marriage to his ex-mistress's daughter, Iseult Gonne, is rejected.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._B._Yeats#Marriage_to_Georgie_Hyde-Lees
Books by W. B. Yeats at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/1719
Polish composer and virtuoso pianist Frédéric Chopin died #OTD in 1849.
To this day, Chopin's music remains one of the most widely performed, and an indispensable part of the universal piano repertoire. Along with Franz Liszt, he is the father of modern piano technique and influenced a whole line of modern composers, including Claude Debussy, Alexandre Scriabine, Maurice Ravel and Sergei Rachmaninov.
Books by or about Frédéric Chopin at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric+Chopin&submit_search=Go%21
"Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own."
Irish writer Jonathan Swift died #OTD in 1745.
Swift is remembered for works such as A Tale of a Tub, An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity, Gulliver's Travels, & A Modest Proposal. He originally published all of his works under pseudonyms—including Lemuel Gulliver, Isaac Bickerstaff, M. B. Drapier—or anonymously.
Books by Jonathan Swift at PG
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/326
Argentinian poet and author Alfonsina Storni died #OTD in 1938.
Her first book, La inquietud del rosal, brought her recognition from the literary circles in Buenos Aires; but it was her volume El dulce daño that won her popular success.
Dutch author and poet Isabelle de Charrière, known as Belle van Zuylen, was born #OTD in 1740.
She is now best known for her letters and novels, although she also wrote pamphlets, music and plays. She took a keen interest in the society and politics of her age, and her work around the time of the French Revolution is regarded as being of particular interest.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabelle_de_Charri%C3%A8re
Books by Isabelle de Charrière at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=Isabelle+de+Charri%C3%A8re&submit_search=Go%21
French pianist and composer Georges Bizet was born #OTD in 1838.
Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death, Carmen, become one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertoire.
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar was born #OTD in 1910. He established an upper limit on the mass of stable white dwarf stars, and made numerous contributions to astrophysics and relativity.
Above the Chandrasekhar Limit – about 1.44 solar masses – electron degeneracy pressure cannot prevent a stellar remnant’s gravitational collapse into a neutron star or black hole.
Photo: Stephen Lewellyn / AIP
#OTD in 360.
Pappus of Alexandria, Greek philosopher, observes an eclipse of the Sun and writes a commentary on The Great Astronomer (Almagest).
In his commentary on the Almagest he calculates "the place and time of conjunction which gave rise to the eclipse in Tybi in 1068 after Nabonassar". This works out as 18 October 320, and so Pappus must have been active around 320.
American archaeologist and anthropologist Zelia Maria Magdalena Nuttall was born #OTD in 1857.
She discovered two forgotten manuscripts of pre-Columbian manuscripts in private collections, one of them being the Codex Zouche-Nuttall. She decoded the Aztec calendar stone and was one of the first to identify and recognise artefacts dating back to the pre-Aztec period.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zelia_Nuttall
Books by Zelia Nuttal at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/35649
German novelist and translator Dorothea von Schlegel was born #OTD in 1764.
She met the poet & critic Friedrich von Schlegel in the salon of her friend Henriette Herz in 1797, after which Dorothea divorced Simon Veit in 1799.
"Art is at least in part a way of collecting information about the universe. "
The Strange Necessity: Essays and Reviews (1928)
~Rebecca West, born #OTD in 1892.
About Rebecca West:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca_West
Swiss illustrator Eugène Grasset died #OTD in 1917.
Grasset was an engraver, poster artist, decorator and architect, representative of the Art Nouveau movement. He exercised his talent in all areas of the decorative arts: architecture, decoration, illustration, graphics, furniture, jewelry, stained glass...
"Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin."
Opening lines.
#OTD in 1925.
Winnie-the-Pooh first appeared by name in a children's story in the London Evening News for Christmas Eve.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnie-the-Pooh
Winnie-the-Pooh at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/67098
![Isabelle de Charrière by Jens Juel, (1777), Bibliothèque publique et universitaire de Neuchâtel.
Jens Juel - http://www.charriere.nl/images/juel.htm [1]
Isabelle de Charrière, born Isabelle Agneta Elisabeth van Tuyll van Serooskerken, known as Belle de Zuylen (1740-1805)](/proxy/post_attachment/470413/260ec83c54e04b801bd0236782cc429a.gif "Isabelle de Charrière by Jens Juel, (1777), Bibliothèque publique et universitaire de Neuchâtel.
Jens Juel - http://www.charriere.nl/images/juel.htm [1]
Isabelle de Charrière, born Isabelle Agneta Elisabeth van Tuyll van Serooskerken, known as Belle de Zuylen (1740-1805)")
