February 14th
1878 Julius Nieuwland, known as the "Father of Acetylene Chemistry" and discoverer of neoprene, was born.
1917 Herbert A. Hauptman, who developed methods for the determination of crystal structures, was born. He won the Nobel Prize (1985) with Jerome Karle for their outstanding achievements in the development of direct methods for the determination of crystal structures.
1961 Lawrencium was produced at University of California, Berkeley.