Sunday, December 2, 2007
[1859 - Georges Seurat, painter, born in Paris]
[1863 - Charles Ringling (Rungeling), circus producer, born near Pikes Peak, Iowa]
[1914 - Adolph Green, Tony Award-winning songwriter, lyricist and playwright, born in the Bronx]
[1923 - Maria Callas (Calogeropoulous), opera soprano, born in New York City]
[1942 - Atomic Age begins under stands of University of Chicago Stagg Field]
Critical Mass
In 1942 the critical mass phenomenon was demonstrated by the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Enrico Fermi, who achieved the first sustained atomic chain reaction in a tent on a squash court under the bleachers of Stagg field at the University of Chicago. It is but a small step to understand how this physical concept applies in other disciplines and human endeavors, but it surely does.