December 17th
1778 English chemist Sir Humphry Davy was born in Penzance.
1818 John Lawrence Smith, a researcher in toxicology and mineralogical chemistry, was born.
1832 Michael Faraday announced the first law of electrolysis. "Chemical power like magnetic force, is in direct proportion to the absolute quantity of electricity which passes."
1908 Willard F. Libby, who developed carbon-14 dating, was born.
1938 Discovery of neutron-induced nuclear fission of uranium by Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann, Berlin.