The year 1976 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Astronomy and space exploration

* March – Faber–Jackson relation presented by astronomers Sandra M. Faber and Robert Earl Jackson. * June 18 –

Gravity Probe A Gravity Probe A (GP-A) was a space-based experiment to test the equivalence principle, a feature of Einstein's theory of relativity. It was performed jointly by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the National Aeronautics and Space Adm ...

, a satellite-based experiment to test

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein (14 March 187918 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who is best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum mechanics. His mass–energy equivalence f ...

's theory of

general relativity General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity, and as Einstein's theory of gravity, is the differential geometry, geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current description of grav ...

, is launched. * July 20 –

Viking program The ''Viking'' program consisted of a pair of identical American space probes, ''Viking 1'' and ''Viking 2'' both launched in 1975, and landed on Mars in 1976. The mission effort began in 1968 and was managed by the NASA Langley Research Cent ...

: The ''

Viking 1 ''Viking 1'' was the first of two spacecraft, along with '' Viking 2'', each consisting of an orbiter and a lander, sent to Mars as part of NASA's Viking program. The lander touched down on Mars on July 20, 1976, the first successful Mars lan ...

'' lander successfully lands on

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...

. * July 31 –

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

releases the famous '

Face on Mars Cydonia (, ) is a region on the planet Mars that has attracted both scientific and popular interest. The name originally referred to the albedo feature (distinctively coloured area) that was visible from earthbound telescopes. The area borders ...

' photograph, taken by ''

'' * August 7 –

: ''

Viking 2 The ''Viking 2'' mission was part of the American Viking program to Mars, and consisted of an orbiter and a lander essentially identical to that of the '' Viking 1'' mission. ''Viking 2'' was operational on Mars for sols ( days; '). The ''V ...

'' enters into orbit around Mars. * August 22 –

Luna program The Luna programme (from the Russian word " Luna" meaning "Moon"), occasionally called ''Lunik'' by western media, was a series of robotic spacecraft missions sent to the Moon by the Soviet Union between 1959 and 1976. The programme accompli ...

Luna 24 ''Luna 24'' was a robotic probe of the Soviet Union's Luna programme. The 24th mission of the Luna series of spacecraft, the mission of the ''Luna 24'' probe was the third Soviet mission to return lunar soil samples from the Moon (the first t ...

successfully makes an unmanned landing on the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

, the last for 37 years. * September 3 –

: The ''

'' spacecraft lands at

Utopia Planitia Utopia Planitia ( Greek and Latin: "Utopia Land Plain") is a large plain within Utopia, the largest recognized impact basin on Mars and in the Solar System with an estimated diameter of . It is the Martian region where the '' Viking 2'' lander t ...

on Mars and takes the first close-up color photographs of the planet's surface. * September 17 – Space Shuttle ''Enterprise'' rolled out. * ''

Universe The universe is all of space and time and their contents. It comprises all of existence, any fundamental interaction, physical process and physical constant, and therefore all forms of matter and energy, and the structures they form, from s ...

'', a

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds ...

film produced by

Lester Novros Lester Novros (January 27, 1909 – September 10, 2000) was an American artist, animator, and teacher. Early life Lester Novros was born in Passaic, New Jersey, on January 27, 1909. Novros studied painting at the National Academy of Design in ...

for

, is released.

Aviation

* January 21 –

Concorde Concorde () is a retired Anglo-French supersonic airliner jointly developed and manufactured by Sud Aviation and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Studies started in 1954, and France and the United Kingdom signed a treaty establishin ...

begins commercial flights. * December 8 – First flight of production

General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is an American single-engine supersonic Multirole combat aircraft, multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superio ...

Chemistry

* May –

Marion M. Bradford Marion Mckinley Bradford (October 28, 1946 - May 3, 2021) was an American scientist who developed and patented the Bradford protein assay, a method to quickly quantify the amount of protein in a sample. His paper describing the method is among t ...

publishes the

Bradford protein assay The Bradford protein assay (also known as the Coomassie protein assay) was developed by Marion M. Bradford in 1976. It is a quick and accurate spectroscopic analytical procedure used to measure the concentration of protein in a solution. The reac ...

method. * Oberlin, Endo and Koyama publish evidence of the creation of

carbon nanotube A carbon nanotube (CNT) is a tube made of carbon with a diameter in the nanometre range ( nanoscale). They are one of the allotropes of carbon. Two broad classes of carbon nanotubes are recognized: * ''Single-walled carbon nanotubes'' (''S ...

s using a vapor-growth technique.

Computer science

* January – The

Cray-1 The Cray-1 was a supercomputer designed, manufactured and marketed by Cray Research. Announced in 1975, the first Cray-1 system was installed at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1976. Eventually, eighty Cray-1s were sold, making it one of the ...

, the first commercially developed

supercomputer A supercomputer is a type of computer with a high level of performance as compared to a general-purpose computer. The performance of a supercomputer is commonly measured in floating-point operations per second (FLOPS) instead of million instruc ...

, is released by

Seymour Cray Seymour Roger Cray (September 28, 1925 – October 5, 1996)
– was an American

Cray Research Cray Inc., a subsidiary of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, is an American supercomputer manufacturer headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It also manufactures systems for data storage and analytics. Several Cray supercomputer systems are listed i ...

. Model 001 is installed at

Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos National Laboratory (often shortened as Los Alamos and LANL) is one of the sixteen research and development Laboratory, laboratories of the United States Department of Energy National Laboratories, United States Department of Energy ...

in the United States. * March –

Peter Chen Peter Pin-Shan Chen (; born 3 January 1947) is a Taiwanese-American computer scientist and applied mathematician. He is a retired distinguished career scientist and faculty member at Carnegie Mellon University and Distinguished Chair Professor E ...

's key paper on the

entity–relationship model An entity–relationship model (or ER model) describes interrelated things of interest in a specific domain of knowledge. A basic ER model is composed of entity types (which classify the things of interest) and specifies relationships that can e ...

is published, having first been presented at a conference in September 1975. * April 1 –

Apple Computer Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Computer Co ...

Company is formed by

Steve Jobs Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American businessman, inventor, and investor best known for co-founding the technology company Apple Inc. Jobs was also the founder of NeXT and chairman and majority shareholder o ...

and

Steve Wozniak Stephen Gary Wozniak (; born August 11, 1950), also known by his nickname Woz, is an American technology entrepreneur, electrical engineer, computer programmer, philanthropist, and inventor. In 1976, he co-founded Apple Inc., Apple Computer with ...

in California and on April 11 they launch their first computer, the

Apple I The Apple Computer 1 (Apple-1), later known predominantly as the Apple I, is an 8-bit personal computer designed by Steve Wozniak and released by the Apple Computer Company (now Apple Inc.) in 1976. The company was initially formed to ...

, for the U.S. hobbyist market. * November 26 – Little-known company

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

is officially registered with the Office of the

Secretary of State of New Mexico The secretary of state of New Mexico is a constitutional officer in the executive branch of government of the U.S. state of New Mexico. Twenty-six individuals have held the office of secretary of state since statehood. Since 1923, every elected ...

. * December – Release of

Electric Pencil Electric Pencil, released in December 1976 by Michael Shrayer, was the first word processor program for home computers. Despite its initial market dominance, alternatives like WordStar and Magic Wand surpassed its popularity some time later. H ...

(originated by Michael Shrayer), the first

word processor A word processor (WP) is a device or computer program that provides for input, editing, formatting, and output of text, often with some additional features. Early word processors were stand-alone devices dedicated to the function, but current word ...

for home computers.

Cryptography

* November – An asymmetric-key cryptosystem is published by

Whitfield Diffie Bailey Whitfield 'Whit' Diffie ForMemRS (born June 5, 1944) is an American cryptographer and mathematician and one of the pioneers of public-key cryptography along with Martin Hellman and Ralph Merkle. Diffie and Hellman's 1976 paper ''New Dire ...

and

Martin Hellman Martin Edward Hellman (born October 2, 1945) is an American cryptologist and mathematician, best known for his invention of public-key cryptography in cooperation with Whitfield Diffie and Ralph Merkle. Hellman is a longtime contributor to the ...

who disclose the

Diffie–Hellman key exchange Diffie–Hellman (DH) key exchangeSynonyms of Diffie–Hellman key exchange include: * Diffie–Hellman–Merkle key exchange * Diffie–Hellman key agreement * Diffie–Hellman key establishment * Diffie–Hellman key negotiation * Exponential ke ...

method of public-key agreement for

public-key cryptography Public-key cryptography, or asymmetric cryptography, is the field of cryptographic systems that use pairs of related keys. Each key pair consists of a public key and a corresponding private key. Key pairs are generated with cryptographic alg ...

History of science and technology

* October 3 – Opening of the Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology at the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

National Museum of History and Technology National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

Jean Gimpel Jean Gimpel (10 October 1918 – 15 June 1996) was a French historian and medievalist. Gimpel was one of three sons of a French father, the art dealer René Gimpel, and an English mother, Florence, the youngest sister of Lord Duveen. Gimpel was ...

's ''The Medieval Machine'' is published.

Mathematics

* July 11 –

Keuffel and Esser The Keuffel and Esser Co., also known as K&E, was an American drafting instrument and supplies company founded in 1867 by German immigrants Wilhelm J. D. Keuffel and Hermann Esser. It was the first U.S. company to specialize in these products. ...

manufacture the last

slide rule A slide rule is a hand-operated mechanical calculator consisting of slidable rulers for conducting mathematical operations such as multiplication, division, exponents, roots, logarithms, and trigonometry. It is one of the simplest analog ...

in the United States. *

Imre Lakatos Imre Lakatos (, ; ; 9 November 1922 – 2 February 1974) was a Hungarian philosopher of mathematics and science, known for his thesis of the fallibility of mathematics and its "methodology of proofs and refutations" in its pre-axiomatic stage ...

' '' Proofs and Refutations: the Logic of Mathematical Discovery'' is published posthumously. * The

four color theorem In mathematics, the four color theorem, or the four color map theorem, states that no more than four colors are required to color the regions of any map so that no two adjacent regions have the same color. ''Adjacent'' means that two regions shar ...

is proved by

Kenneth Appel Kenneth Ira Appel (October 8, 1932 – April 19, 2013) was an American mathematician who in 1976, with colleague Wolfgang Haken at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, solved the four-color theorem, one of the most famous problems ...

and

Wolfgang Haken Wolfgang Haken (; June 21, 1928 – October 2, 2022) was a German American mathematician who specialized in topology, in particular 3-manifolds. Biography Haken was born on June 21, 1928, in Berlin, Germany. His father was Werner Haken, a phys ...

, the first major

theorem In mathematics and formal logic, a theorem is a statement (logic), statement that has been Mathematical proof, proven, or can be proven. The ''proof'' of a theorem is a logical argument that uses the inference rules of a deductive system to esta ...

to be proved using a computer. *

Andrei Suslin Andrei Suslin (, sometimes transliterated Souslin) was a Russian mathematician who contributed to algebraic K-theory and its connections with algebraic geometry. He was a Trustee Chair and Professor of mathematics at Northwestern University. He ...

and

Daniel Quillen Daniel Gray Quillen (June 22, 1940 – April 30, 2011) was an American mathematician. He is known for being the "prime architect" of higher algebraic ''K''-theory, for which he was awarded the Cole Prize in 1975 and the Fields Medal in 1978. Fr ...

independently prove the

Quillen–Suslin theorem The Quillen–Suslin theorem, also known as Serre's problem or Serre's conjecture, is a theorem in commutative algebra concerning the relationship between free modules and projective modules over polynomial rings. In the geometric setting it is ...

("Serre's conjecture") about the triviality of algebraic

vector bundle In mathematics, a vector bundle is a topological construction that makes precise the idea of a family of vector spaces parameterized by another space X (for example X could be a topological space, a manifold, or an algebraic variety): to eve ...

s on

affine space In mathematics, an affine space is a geometric structure that generalizes some of the properties of Euclidean spaces in such a way that these are independent of the concepts of distance and measure of angles, keeping only the properties relat ...

Paleontology

* Fossil footprints of bipedal

hominini The Hominini (hominins) form a Tribe (biology), taxonomic tribe of the subfamily Homininae (hominines). They comprise two extant genera: ''Homo'' (humans) and ''Pan (genus), Pan'' (chimpanzees and bonobos), and in standard usage exclude the gen ...

from 3.6M years BP are found at

Laetoli Laetoli is a pre-historic site located in Enduleni ward of Ngorongoro District in Arusha Region, Tanzania. The site is dated to the Plio-Pleistocene and famous for its Hominina footprints, preserved in volcanic ash. The site of the Laetoli footp ...

in Tanzania by Andrew Hill when visiting

Mary Leakey Mary Douglas Leakey, Fellow of the British Academy, FBA (née Nicol, 6 February 1913 – 9 December 1996) was a British paleoanthropologist who discovered the first fossilised ''Proconsul (mammal), Proconsul'' skull, an extinct ape which is now ...

Physiology, medicine and psychology

* July 27 – Delegates attending an

American Legion The American Legion, commonly known as the Legion, is an Voluntary association, organization of United States, U.S. war veterans headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. It comprises U.S. state, state, Territories of the United States, U.S. terr ...

convention at

The Bellevue-Stratford Hotel The Bellevue-Stratford Hotel is a landmark building at 200 S. Broad Street at the corner of Walnut Street in Center City Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Constructed in 1904 and expanded to its present size in 1912, it has continued as a well-know ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, US, begin falling ill with a form of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an Inflammation, inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as Pulmonary alveolus, alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of Cough#Classification, productive or dry cough, ches ...

: this will eventually be recognised as the first

outbreak In epidemiology, an outbreak is a sudden increase in occurrences of a disease when cases are in excess of normal expectancy for the location or season. It may affect a small and localized group or impact upon thousands of people across an entire ...

Legionnaires' disease Legionnaires' disease is a form of atypical pneumonia caused by any species of ''Legionella'' bacteria, quite often ''Legionella pneumophila''. Signs and symptoms include cough, shortness of breath, high fever, myalgia, muscle pains, and headach ...

and will end in the deaths of 29 attendees. * August 26 – The

Ebola virus ''Orthoebolavirus zairense'' or Zaire ebolavirus, more commonly known as Ebola virus (; EBOV), is one of six known species within the genus ''Ebolavirus''. Four of the six known ebolaviruses, including EBOV, cause a severe and often fatal vira ...

first emerges in outbreaks of

viral hemorrhagic fever Viral hemorrhagic fevers (VHFs) are a diverse group of diseases. "Viral" means a health problem caused by infection from a virus, " hemorrhagic" means to bleed, and "fever" means an unusually high body temperature. Bleeding and fever are comm ...

Yambuku Yambuku is a small village in Mongala, Mongala Province in northern Democratic Republic of the Congo. It was the center of the first documented outbreak of Ebola, Ebola virus disease, in 1976, with the World Health Organization identifying a man fr ...

Zaire Zaire, officially the Republic of Zaire, was the name of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1971 to 18 May 1997. Located in Central Africa, it was, by area, the third-largest country in Africa after Sudan and Algeria, and the 11th-la ...

, followed by outbreaks in

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

. * October 1–December 16 – Program of mass

vaccination Vaccination is the administration of a vaccine to help the immune system develop immunity from a disease. Vaccines contain a microorganism or virus in a weakened, live or killed state, or proteins or toxins from the organism. In stimulating ...

in the United States against the

1976 swine flu outbreak In 1976, an outbreak of the swine flu, influenza A virus subtype H1N1 at Fort Dix, New Jersey caused one death, hospitalized 13, and led to a mass immunization program. After the program began, the vaccine was associated with an increase in repo ...

, suspended due to public fears over side-effects. * October 28 – British evolutionary biologist

Richard Dawkins Richard Dawkins (born 26 March 1941) is a British evolutionary biology, evolutionary biologist, zoologist, science communicator and author. He is an Oxford fellow, emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford, and was Simonyi Professor for the Publ ...

' book ''

The Selfish Gene ''The Selfish Gene'' is a 1976 book on evolution by ethologist Richard Dawkins that promotes the gene-centred view of evolution, as opposed to views focused on the organism and the group. The book builds upon the thesis of George C. Willia ...

'' is published, introducing the term

memetics Memetics is a theory of the evolution of culture based on Darwinian principles with the meme as the unit of culture. The term "meme" was coined by biologist Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book '' The Selfish Gene'', to illustrate the principle that h ...

. *

Dementia with Lewy bodies Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is a type of dementia characterized by changes in sleep, behavior change (individual), behavior, cognition, movement, and dysautonomia, regulation of automatic bodily functions. Unlike some other dementias, mem ...

is first described by Japanese psychiatrist and neuropathologist

Kenji Kosaka was a Japanese politician. Biography Kosaka was born in the city of Nagano in Nagano Prefecture, on 12 March 1946. His father is Zentaro Kosaka, also a politician. Kenji Kosaka received a law degree from Keio University in 1968. He worked i ...

. * The term ''

Münchausen syndrome by proxy Factitious disorder imposed on another (FDIA), also known as fabricated or induced illness by carers (FII), medical child abuse and originally named Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MSbP) after Munchausen syndrome, is a mental health disorder i ...

'' is first coined by

John Money John William Money (8 July 1921 – 7 July 2006) was a New Zealand American psychologist, sexologist and professor at Johns Hopkins University known for his research on human sexual behavior and gender. Money advanced the use of more accur ...

and June Faith Werlwas. * Norman F. Dixon publishes ''

On the Psychology of Military Incompetence ''On The Psychology of Military Incompetence'' is a work by Norman F. Dixon, first published in 1976, which applies insights from psychology to military history. After case studies of military and naval disasters from the preceding 120 years, mo ...

''.

Technology

* The first

laser printer Laser printing is an electrostatic digital printing process. It produces high-quality text and graphics (and moderate-quality photographs) by repeatedly passing a laser beam back and forth over a Electric charge, negatively charged cylinder call ...

is introduced by

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

(the IBM 3800).

Awards

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...

s **

Physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

–

Burton Richter Burton Richter (March 22, 1931 – July 18, 2018) was an American physicist. He led the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) team which co-discovered the J/ψ meson in 1974, alongside the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) team led by S ...

Samuel C. C. Ting Chao Chung Ting (, born January 27, 1936), also known by his English name Samuel, is a Taiwanese-American physicist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1976 with Burton Richter for discovering the Subatomic particle, subatomic J/ψ par ...

Chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

– William N. Lipscomb **

Medicine Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...

– Baruch S. Blumberg,

Daniel Carleton Gajdusek Daniel Carleton Gajdusek ( ;Holley, Joe (December 16, 2008) "D. Carleton Gajdusek; Controversial Scientist", ''The Washington Post'', p. B5. September 9, 1923 – December 12, 2008) was an American physician and medical researcher who was the co ...

Turing Award The ACM A. M. Turing Award is an annual prize given by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) for contributions of lasting and major technical importance to computer science. It is generally recognized as the highest distinction in the fi ...

–

Michael O. Rabin Michael Oser Rabin (; born September 1, 1931) is an Israeli mathematician, computer scientist, and recipient of the Turing Award. Biography Early life and education Rabin was born in 1931 in Breslau, Germany (today Wrocław, in Poland), th ...

Dana Scott Dana Stewart Scott (born October 11, 1932) is an American logician who is the emeritus Hillman University Professor of Computer Science, Philosophy, and Mathematical Logic at Carnegie Mellon University; he is now retired and lives in Berkeley, C ...

Births

* July 27 –

Demis Hassabis Sir Demis Hassabis (born 27 July 1976) is a British artificial intelligence (AI) researcher, and entrepreneur. He is the chief executive officer and co-founder of Google DeepMind, and Isomorphic Labs, and a UK Government AI Adviser. In 2024, Ha ...

, British artificial intelligence researcher. * November 19 –

Jack Dorsey Jack Patrick Dorsey (born November 19, 1976) is an American businessperson, who is a co-founder of Twitter, Inc. and its CEO during 2007–2008 and 2015–2021, as well as co-founder, principal executive officer and chairman of Block, Inc. (deve ...

, American web developer.

Deaths

* January 19 –

Hidetsugu Yagi was a Japanese electrical engineer from Osaka, Japan. When working at Tohoku Imperial University, he wrote several articles that introduced a new antenna designed by his assistant Shintaro Uda to the English-speaking world. The Yagi-Uda ant ...

(b.

1886 Events January * January 1 – Upper Burma is formally annexed to British rule in Burma, British Burma, following its conquest in the Third Anglo-Burmese War of November 1885. * January 5–January 9, 9 – Robert Louis Stevenson ...

), Japanese

electrical engineer Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

. * February 1 **

Werner Heisenberg Werner Karl Heisenberg (; ; 5 December 1901 – 1 February 1976) was a German theoretical physicist, one of the main pioneers of the theory of quantum mechanics and a principal scientist in the German nuclear program during World War II. He pub ...

(b.

1901 December 13 of this year is the beginning of signed 32-bit Unix time, and is scheduled to end in January 19, 2038. Summary Political and military 1901 started with the unification of multiple British colonies in Australia on January ...

), German

theoretical physicist Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain, and predict natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental physics, which uses experi ...

. **

George Whipple George Hoyt Whipple (August 28, 1878 – February 1, 1976) was an American physician, pathologist, biomedical researcher, and medical school educator and administrator. Whipple shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1934 with George ...

(b.

1878 Events January * January 5 – Russo-Turkish War: Battle of Shipka Pass IV – Russian and Bulgarian forces defeat the Ottoman Empire. * January 9 – Umberto I becomes King of Italy. * January 17 – Russo-Turkish War: ...

), American

pathologist Pathology is the study of disease. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when used in the context of modern medical treatme ...

, winner of the

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine () is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, acco ...

1934 Events January–February * January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established. * January 15 – The 8.0 1934 Nepal–Bihar earthquake, Nepal–Bihar earthquake strik ...

. * April 5 –

Wilder Penfield Wilder Graves Penfield (January 26, 1891April 5, 1976) was an American-Canadian neurosurgeon. He expanded brain surgery's methods and techniques, including mapping the functions of various regions of the brain such as the cortical homunculus. ...

(b.

1891 Events January * January 1 ** A strike of 500 Hungarian steel workers occurs; 3,000 men are out of work as a consequence. **Germany takes formal possession of its new African territories. * January 4 – The Earl of Zetland issues a ...

), American-Canadian

neurosurgeon Neurosurgery or neurological surgery, known in common parlance as brain surgery, is the medical specialty that focuses on the surgical treatment or rehabilitation of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system including the brain, ...

. * April 21 –

Carl Benjamin Boyer Carl Benjamin Boyer (November 3, 1906 – April 26, 1976) was an American historian of sciences, and especially mathematics. Novelist David Foster Wallace called him the "Gibbon of math history". It has been written that he was one of few histor ...

(b.

1906 Events January–February * January 12 – Persian Constitutional Revolution: A nationalistic coalition of merchants, religious leaders and intellectuals in Persia forces the shah Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar to grant a constitution, ...

), American historian of mathematics. * May 31 –

Jacques Monod Jacques Lucien Monod (; 9 February 1910 – 31 May 1976) was a French biochemist who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1965, sharing it with François Jacob and André Lwoff "for their discoveries concerning genetic control of e ...

(b.

1910 Events January * January 6 – Abé people in the French West Africa colony of Côte d'Ivoire rise against the colonial administration; the rebellion is brutally suppressed by the military. * January 8 – By the Treaty of Punakha, t ...

), French

biochemist Biochemists are scientists who are trained in biochemistry. They study chemical processes and chemical transformations in living organisms. Biochemists study DNA, proteins and Cell (biology), cell parts. The word "biochemist" is a portmanteau of ...

, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in

1965 Events January–February * January 14 – The First Minister of Northern Ireland and the Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland meet for the first time in 43 years. * January 20 ** Lyndon B. Johnson is Second inauguration of Lynd ...

. * August 18 –

Shintaro Uda was a Japanese inventor, and assistant to Professor Hidetsugu Yagi at Tohoku Imperial University, where together they invented the Yagi–Uda antenna in 1926. In February 1926, Yagi and Uda published their first report on the wave projector ...

(b. 1886), Japanese electrical engineer. * October 5 –

Lars Onsager Lars Onsager (November 27, 1903 – October 5, 1976) was a Norwegian American physical chemist and theoretical physicist. He held the Gibbs Professorship of Theoretical Chemistry at Yale University. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemist ...

(b.

1903 Events January * January 1 – Edward VII is proclaimed Emperor of India. * January 10 – The Aceh Sultanate was fully annexed by the Dutch forces, deposing the last sultan, marking the end of the Aceh War that have lasted for al ...

), Norwegian American

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a graduated scientist trained in the study of chemistry, or an officially enrolled student in the field. Chemists study the composition of ...

. * September 16 –

Bertha Lutz Bertha Maria Júlia Lutz (São Paulo, August 2, 1894 – Rio de Janeiro, September 16, 1976) was a Brazilian zoologist, politician, and diplomat. Lutz became a leading figure in both the Americas, Pan American feminist movement and human rights m ...

(b.

1894 Events January * January 4 – A military alliance is established between the French Third Republic and the Russian Empire. * January 7 – William Kennedy Dickson receives a patent for motion picture film in the United States. * Ja ...

), Brazilian

herpetologist Herpetology (from Ancient Greek ἑρπετόν ''herpetón'', meaning "reptile" or "creeping animal") is a branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians (including frogs, salamanders, and caecilians (Gymnophiona)) and reptiles (in ...

and women's rights campaigner. * September 26 –

Pál Turán Pál Turán (; 18 August 1910 – 26 September 1976) also known as Paul Turán, was a Hungarian mathematician who worked primarily in extremal combinatorics. In 1940, because of his Jewish origins, he was arrested by History of the Jews in Hun ...

(b.

), Hungarian

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

. * November 5 –

Willi Hennig Emil Hans Willi Hennig (20 April 1913 – 5 November 1976) was a German biologist and zoologist who is considered the founder of phylogenetic systematics, otherwise known as cladistics. In 1945 as a prisoner of war, Hennig began work on his th ...

(b.

1913 Events January * January – Joseph Stalin travels to Vienna to research his ''Marxism and the National Question''. This means that, during this month, Stalin, Hitler, Trotsky and Tito are all living in the city. * January 3 &ndash ...

), German

entomologist Entomology (from Ancient Greek ἔντομον (''éntomon''), meaning "insect", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study") is the branch of zoology that focuses on insects. Those who study entomology are known as entomologists. In ...

and pioneer of

cladistics Cladistics ( ; from Ancient Greek 'branch') is an approach to Taxonomy (biology), biological classification in which organisms are categorized in groups ("clades") based on hypotheses of most recent common ancestry. The evidence for hypothesiz ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1976 In Science 20th century in science 1970s in science