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Scientists Watch an Atom’s Nucleus Flip in Real Time for the First Time


Artist’s Impression of Atomic Nuclear Spin Fluctuations
Artist’s impression, based on actual measurement data, of the nuclear spin of an atom flipping between distinct quantum states. The flipping was observed as a fluctuation in the electrical current passing through the atom on a timescale of seconds. Credit: Scixel

Researchers at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands have observed the magnetic nucleus of an atom flipping between states in real time.

Researchers at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands have succeeded in observing the magnetic nucleus of a single atom switching between states in real time. They measured the nuclear “spin” by detecting its influence on the electrons of the same atom using the needle of a scanning tunneling microscope. Unexpectedly, the spin remained stable for several seconds, opening new possibilities for precise control of nuclear magnetism. The study, published in Nature Communications, represents progress toward quantum sensing at the atomic level.

A scanning tunneling microscope (STM) is equipped with an atomically sharp needle capable of detecting individual atoms on a surface and creating images with atomic-scale detail. More specifically, STM senses the electrons that surround an atomic nucleus. Both the electrons and the nucleus act as tiny magnets, each carrying a property known as “spin,” the quantum equivalent of magnetic orientation.

About ten years ago, scientists first succeeded in tracking the spin of a single electron with an STM. Building on this, the Delft team led by Professor Sander Otte asked whether the same method could be used to observe nuclear spin over time, thereby probing the second magnetic component of the atom.

Reading out the nuclear spin

The STM is not sensitive to nuclear spins directly, so the team had to use the electron to read out the nuclear spin indirectly. “The general idea had been demonstrated a few years ago, making use of the so-called hyperfine interaction between electron and nuclear spins,” Otte explains. However, these early measurements were too slow to capture the motion of the nuclear spin over time.”

Graphical Summary of Nuclear Spin Measurement Experiment
Graphical summary of the experiment. A voltage signal is sent via the STM needle to an atom carrying a nuclear spin. The frequency of this signal matches the energy of only 1 out of 8 quantum states the nuclear spin can occupy. Over time, current passing through the atom switches between a higher value (red) and a lower value (grey), respectively indicating that the nuclear spin resides in the selected quantum state or in any of the other 7 states. The spin can be seen to stay in the same state for a significant fraction of a second. In a more controlled version of the experiment, the nuclear spin was found to be stable up to 5 seconds. Credit: Sander Otte

Rapid measurements

First authors Evert Stolte and Jinwon Lee set out to perform rapid measurements on an atom known to carry a nuclear spin. To their excitement, they observed the signal switching between two distinct levels in real time, live on their computer screen.

“We were able to show that this switching corresponds to the nuclear spin flipping from one quantum state to another, and back again,” Stolte says. They determined that it takes about five seconds before the spin changes, much longer than many other quantum systems available for the STM. For instance, the lifetime of the electron spin in the same atom is only around 100 nanoseconds.

Single-shot readout

Since the researchers could measure nuclear spin state faster than it flips and (mostly) without causing a flip by the measurement itself, they achieved so-called ‘single-shot readout’. This opens up exciting experimental possibilities for controlling the nuclear spin.

Furthermore, fundamental progress in the readout and control of an on-surface nuclear spins could, in the long term, assist in applications like quantum simulation or quantum sensing at the atomic scale. Stolte: “The first step in any new experimental frontier is being able to measure it, and that is what we were able to do for nuclear spins at the atomic scale.”

Reference: “Single-shot readout of the nuclear spin of an on-surface atom” by Evert W. Stolte, Jinwon Lee, Hester G. Vennema, Rik Broekhoven, Esther Teng, Allard J. Katan, Lukas M. Veldman, Philip Willke and Sander Otte, 21 August 2025, Nature Communications.
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-63232-5

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Seshat: Goddess of Astronomy Aligned Sacred Monuments To The Stars Long Before Imhotep


Ellen Lloyd – AncientPages.com – Known for her extensive knowledge of astronomy, the Lady of the Stars, the goddess Seshat, played a vital role in the construction of sacred Egyptian buildings. She assisted the pharaoh in the Stretching of the Cord ritual, aligning sacred monuments with the stars. This mysterious ritual dates back to ancient times and was performed by Egyptian priests long before Imhotep built the Sakkara pyramid.

Seshat: Goddess of Astronomy Aligned Sacred Monuments To The Stars Long Before Imhotep

Imhotep was renowned for his intelligence and wisdom. Known as “he who comes in peace,” he was an ancient Egyptian genius and the architect of the world’s first monumental stone building, the Step Pyramid at Sakkara. There is no doubt that Imhotep was a mastermind; yet, it remains unknown from whom he acquired his vast knowledge of astronomy and stone masonry.

One possibility is that Imhotep was a member of the mysterious Shemsu Hor, followers of Horus. The Shemsu Hor were semi-divine kings in predynastic Egypt.

Seshat was also known as the Lady of Builders and the patron of sacred books and libraries. As a divine timekeeper, she recorded calendar events by observing the cycles of the stars. Much of her knowledge was considered so sacred that it was never shared beyond the highest professionals, such as architects and certain scribes.

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Mysterious Shemsu Hor – Followers Of Horus Were Semi-Divine Kings And Keepers Of Sacred Knowledge In Predynastic Egypt

Secret Knowledge Revealed: Mastermind Imhotep’s Connection To The Mysterious Shemsu Hor – The Followers of Horus

Ancient Cosmic Secrets – Mystery Of The ‘Four Sons Of Horus’ And Their Connection To Stars In The Ursa Major Constellation

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Lost in the Kennedy Files


On 18 March 2025 the US government began to make good on Donald Trump’s promise to release all federal records related to the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert, and Martin Luther King. ‘People have been waiting decades for this’, Trump said on the day of the files’ release; as a biographer of both Kennedy and King, I was among them. But although the decision to make the files public is intriguing, it should also be regarded with a dose of cynicism: if JFK was killed by the CIA in an elaborate plot that used Lee Harvey Oswald as a distraction and allowed  the actual hitman to escape, would the same personnel be likely to meticulously preserve evidence of their guilt?

 

Probably not, but that does not mean that there are no interesting things to learn from the released records. The US National Archives has pulled them together so that they are available online as PDF files. This has happened relatively quickly because of previous investigations. The 1964 Warren Commission Report, which concluded that a lone gunman, Oswald, shot Kennedy in Dallas on 22 November 1963, left multiple volumes of evidence. The House Committee on Assassinations probed both the Kennedy and King murders between 1976 and 1979, and much of the recently released material came originally in response to its congressional subpoenas. The Committee suspected organised crime figures who felt that the Kennedy brothers had not kept their side of a bargain that involved mobsters helping to swing the 1960 election in return for favours once Kennedy won the White House. Unfortunately, key witnesses tended to die (often violently) before they could testify, so the Committee’s final report, published in January 1979, concluded that, while there was a conspiracy, they could not say definitively who was behind it. Many of the newly released records are memos from the FBI or CIA confirming that someone’s file has been made available to the Committee. Frustratingly, they don’t include the file itself.

The new release also includes documents previously made available to the JFK Assassination Records Review Board, which was established by the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, itself a response to Oliver Stone’s film JFK. The Act stated that all records relating to the murder should be made public no later than 2017. Stone’s film argued that Kennedy was killed by CIA agents who feared that he would not endorse a hardline stance in Vietnam because he had failed to sufficiently back the Agency’s efforts to topple Fidel Castro in Cuba. Stone, a Vietnam veteran, also believed that the war had been fought to enrich the corporate moguls of the military-industrial complex. The Records Review Board employed professional historians to determine whether a document related to the JFK case and therefore should be released.

Obstacles

The National Archives can be frustrating. The federal government has literally miles of files and unless you can define your enquiry precisely you will get an avalanche of material. From a sceptical perspective, it seems that efforts to investigate a sensitive topic can be delayed by overloading the would-be researcher with thousands of documents. To narrow your search you need names, since most files are held under these descriptors. Obviously, the name ‘Lee Harvey Oswald’ will produce lots of hits, but if you think others were involved, you need their names, too.

Another obstacle is the practice of redaction, where words are blacked out, usually to protect an employee’s identity or to conceal Agency activities from malicious parties. Trump’s initial JFK release was mostly documents that had been released before, but with redactions. The hurried new release ran into trouble because, without redactions, it publicised both names and social security numbers, a move that made those still alive vulnerable to identity theft. This mistake led to a partial and less trumpeted recall. It was also obvious that many documents were about CIA operations more generally. Here, the unredacted documents identified people in other countries who had assisted American intelligence. In some places, this might cause embarrassment, but in others it could have very serious consequences.

In a similarly hurried process, the July release of more than 243,000 documents, nominally related to the King assassination, actually included many related to JFK’s murder. They also confirmed how carefully the CIA had managed access to materials for the Assassinations Committee, and subsequently to the JFK Assassination Records Review Board. A benign interpretation of such wariness would be that the CIA recognised the information could inadvertently do harm, and did not want to jeopardise personnel, or, indeed, future operations. Who would agree to cooperate in a future secret operation if others had been exposed? A more hostile interpretation would be that the Agency had something to hide. For those convinced of the CIA’s complicity in JFK’s death, any withheld information is suspicious; and so, too, is burying material in thousands of documents supposedly relating to a different assassination.

File 00398011

Specific documents present their own difficulties. The July MLK release has a file labelled ‘00398011’. It was previously released to the Assassination Records Review Board in 1998 when its original classification number was ‘104-10014-10071’. Confusingly, you now have two reference numbers for the same document. Its readers immediately face a multiple disclaimer. You are told it is an unredacted portion of a much larger document, previously examined in its entirety for the Records Review Board by historian William Joyce, who died in 2021. Joyce concluded that only this portion was relevant to the JFK assassination. The full document originated from a foreign government ‘that does not wish to be identified’. While we are informed that the document is a translation, we are not told from which language. Were it Spanish or French, it might come from many countries, but if it were Russian – well, that might be a giveaway. Since it is a foreign government’s document, the CIA warns that it cannot guarantee its accuracy.

Professor Joyce helpfully notes that the last two paragraphs on page five of the five-page document were a later addition to the entire document and thus alerts the reader that they did not previously appear immediately after the four-page section he had selected for release. The document reports that there has been a KGB disinformation campaign to promote JFK assassination conspiracy theories using sympathetic United Nations’ contacts and others, especially in New York. It specifically identifies Mark Lane, an early critic of the Warren Commission, and Genrikh Borovik, a Soviet journalist who encouraged Lane’s continuing efforts to shift the blame from Oswald to the CIA. Some $2,000 has been funnelled indirectly to Lane, we learn, but at the same time, his efforts to visit the Soviet Union were blocked to protect his credibility.

The document goes on to claim that other ‘assassination buffs’ have also been supplied with money and ‘circumstantial evidence’ to bolster their claims of ‘a well-concealed political conspiracy’. In 1975 this so-called ‘Arlington Project’ generated a fake document purportedly from Oswald to former CIA agent Howard Hunt, who, by that stage, had been convicted for his part in the Watergate scandal. They used phrases from letters written by Oswald from Minsk between 1959 and 1960 after his defection to the Soviet Union, and even some paper obtained from Oswald’s home in Texas, all designed to thwart verification tests.

A covering note reports that a copy of the letter had previously been sent to the then FBI director Clarence Kelly, anticipating a public outcry when he denied having it. Copies were also sent to other Kennedy conspiracy theorists, and the success of the operation by 1977 was gauged by press coverage and particularly the decision to extend Congress’ investigation by a further two years due to ‘new evidence received’. The document notes that based on this success, the Kremlin reauthorised the project.

Should we therefore conclude that for half a century we have been misled by a KGB disinformation campaign? We know that disinformation remains a feature of Russian intelligence operations. However, we also know that the CIA and other intelligence agencies realise that ‘every significant world event’ can be reinterpreted, as the document phrases it, ‘through its own prism’. The document the CIA presented to Professor Joyce may just as well have been their own disinformation effort.

Distractions

President Trump seldom gives the sense that he enjoys life’s little ironies. Hence, my guess is that he would not take kindly to the suggestion that by making the above document available, he is either extending the success of a KGB campaign or enabling the CIA to use its dark arts to protect the past actions of the ‘deep state’. More pertinent, perhaps, one can observe the contrast between Trump’s actions in 2017 and 2025. The start of his first term in 2017 coincided with the deadline for the release of all documents under the 1992 Act, and Trump had promised to publish them while on the campaign trail. Instead, he accepted Agency advice that there were operational reasons not to do so. But Trump in 2025 has ordered not just the JFK files, but those related to the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King to be published at once. The resulting avalanche will keep supporters happy, scholars busy, and distract from other matters; and the last may be Trump’s recurring priority.

 

Peter Ling is Emeritus Professor of American Studies at the University of Nottingham.



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The Unexpected Material That Could Build Our First Mars Colony


Mars Base Colony
Scientists are finding ways to turn Martian dirt into usable metals. This breakthrough could make it possible to build settlements on Mars without bringing everything from Earth. Credit: Shutterstock

Swinburne and CSIRO researchers have successfully produced iron in Mars-like conditions, opening the door to metal production beyond Earth.

The vision of establishing settlements on Mars has captured the imagination of billionaires, government space programs, and space exploration advocates.

However, building such colonies requires vast amounts of material, and transporting it all from Earth is not practical. To put it in perspective, sending NASA’s one-ton Perseverance Rover to Mars cost around US$243 million.

Clearly, unless we plan to build a settlement fit only for ants, far more resources will be necessary. The challenge then becomes: how do we obtain them?

For CSIRO Postdoctoral Fellow and Swinburne graduate Dr Deddy Nababan, the solution may lie in Mars’s own soil, known as regolith.

Scientists Make Iron Under Mars Like Conditions
Swinburne and CSIRO researchers have successfully made iron under Mars-like conditions, opening to door to off-world metal production. Credit: Swinburne University of Technology

“Sending metals to Mars from Earth might be feasible, but it’s not economical. Can you imagine bringing tonnes of metals to Mars? It’s just not practical,” Dr Nababan says.

“Instead, we can use what’s available on Mars. It’s called in-situ resource utilization, or ISRU.”

More specifically, Dr Nababan is looking at astrometallurgy — making metals in space.

Building an off-world foundry

As it turns out, Mars has all the ingredients needed to make native metals. This includes iron-rich oxides in regolith and carbon from its thin atmosphere, which acts as a reducing agent.

Swinburne University of Technology astrometallurgist, Professor Akbar Rhamdhani, is working with Dr Nababan to test this process with regolith simulant – an artificial recreation of the stuff found of Mars.

Spoonful of Regolith Simulant
The researchers used a regolith simulant that mimics the materials found at Gale Crater on Mars. Credit: Swinburne University of Technology

“We picked a simulant with very similar properties to that found at Gale Crater on Mars and processed them on Earth with simulated Mars conditions. This gives us a good idea of how the process would perform off-world,” he says.

The simulant is placed inside a chamber at Mars surface pressure and heated at increasing temperatures. The experiments showed pure iron metal formation around 1000°C, with liquid silicon-iron alloys produced around 1400°C.

“At high enough temperatures, all of the metals coalesced into one large droplet. This could then be separated from liquid slag the same way it is on Earth,” Professor Rhamdhani says.

Along with Dr Nababan, Prof Rhamdhani is collaborating with CSIRO’s Dr Mark Pownceby to further advance the process. They’re particularly focused on making metals with zero waste, where the byproducts of the process are used to make useful items.

If you can’t ship it, make it

In space exploration, in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) is becoming increasingly important because every kilogram launched aboard a rocket adds to the cost and complexity of a mission. Although launch costs are gradually decreasing, the scale of resources needed to support human exploration remains enormous.

Significant progress is already being made, including the first off-world demonstration of ISRU. NASA’s MOXIE experiment, carried by the Mars Perseverance rover, successfully generated breathable oxygen from nothing more than the carbon dioxide in Mars’s atmosphere.

Metal production is the next giant leap. Prof Rhamdhani hopes Mars-made alloys could be used as shells for housing or research facilities, and in machinery for excavation.

Researcher Placing Regolith Simulant Into Laboratory Furnace
The regolith simulant is placed in a furnace that recreates Martian conditions and heated, producing iron. Credit: Swinburne University of Technology

“There are certainly challenges. We need to better understand how these alloys would perform over time, and of course, whether this process can be recreated on the real Martian surface,” Prof Rhamdhani says.

But in the meantime, Swinburne and its partners are doubling down. Prof Rhamdhani, together with Dr Nababan and Dr Matt Shaw, another CSIRO researcher and Swinburne alum, recently delivered a 4-day bespoke workshop on astrometallurgy in South Korea. The feedback was promising.

“We’re starting to see increased interest in this field globally as the world gets serious about Mars exploration,” he says.

“To make it happen, we’re going to need experts from many fields — mining, engineering, geology, and much more.”

For Dr Nababan, the benefits go beyond exploration. He hopes their research will also drive more efficient metallurgy here on Earth.

“By doing this, I wish that I can help the development of space exploration, and at the end it will bring good to human life here on Earth.”

References:

“Iron (alloy) extraction on Mars through carbothermic reduction of regolith: a thermodynamic assessment and experimental study” by Deddy C. Nababan, Mark I. Pownceby, Aaron Torpy and M. Akbar Rhamdhani, 5 May 2025, Acta Astronautica.
DOI: 10.1016/j.actaastro.2025.05.005

“Metals extraction on Mars through carbothermic reduction: Mars regolith simulant (MGS-1) characterization and preliminary reduction experiments” by Deddy C. Nababan, Mark I. Pownceby and M. Akbar Rhamdhani, 23 April 2025, Acta Astronautica.
DOI: 10.1016/j.actaastro.2025.04.050

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This Common Sleep Aid May Also Protect Your Brain From Alzheimer’s


Doctor Examining Brain Hologram Close
A familiar, FDA-approved sleep aid restored healthier sleep and blunted tau-driven brain damage in Alzheimer’s-model mice, pointing to sleep circuits as a lever against neurodegeneration. By blocking orexin signaling, the drug reduced abnormal tau and inflammation, an approach that could complement anti-amyloid therapies. Credit: Shutterstock

Lemborexant and similar sleep medications show potential for treating tau-related disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease.

New research from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis shows that a commonly used sleep medication can restore normal sleep patterns and shield mice from the brain damage linked to neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease. The drug, lemborexant, blocks the buildup of an abnormal form of the tau protein in the brain, thereby reducing the inflammation and cellular injury that tau typically causes in Alzheimer’s.

The findings indicate that lemborexant, along with other medications that act in a similar way, could hold promise for treating or preventing tau-related damage in several neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease, progressive supranuclear palsy, corticobasal syndrome, and certain forms of frontotemporal dementia.

The study was recently published in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

Linking sleep loss and tau buildup

“We have known for a long time that sleep loss is a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease,” said senior author David M. Holtzman, MD, the Barbara Burton and Reuben M. Morriss III Distinguished Professor of Neurology at WashU Medicine. “In this new study, we have shown that lemborexant improves sleep and reduces abnormal tau, which appears to be a main driver of the neurological damage that we see in Alzheimer’s and several related disorders. We are hopeful this finding will lead to further studies of this sleep medication and the development of new therapeutics that may be more effective than current options either alone or in combination with other available treatments.

“The antibodies to amyloid that we now use to treat patients with early, mild Alzheimer’s dementia are helpful, but they don’t slow the disease down as much as we would like,” he added. “We need ways to reduce the abnormal tau buildup and its accompanying inflammation, and this type of sleep aid is worth looking at further. We are interested in whether going after both amyloid and tau with a combination of therapies could be more effective at slowing or stopping the progression of this disease.”

Testing lemborexant in mouse models

Holtzman and his colleagues were among the first to demonstrate that poor sleep is a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease, closely linked to the buildup of proteins such as amyloid and tau. In earlier studies using mice genetically predisposed to develop these protein deposits, they showed that sleep loss accelerates this buildup. Their newest research revealed that improving sleep in these mice with lemborexant reduced tau tangles and lowered the level of nerve cell death typically associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

Cross Sections of Mouse Brain Tissue With and Without Lemborexant Treatment
A new study by WashU Medicine researchers suggests that lemborexant and sleep aids that work the same way could help treat or prevent damage caused by harmful buildup of the protein tau in multiple neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s. Shown are cross-sections of brain tissue from two mice genetically prone to tau accumulation. Treatment with lemborexant (right) results in larger volume in the hippocampus (central purple spiral), important for memory, and a smaller gap in brain tissue (white space) compared with no treatment (left). Credit: Samira Parhizkar/WashU Medicine

Tau protein accumulates in the brain in several neurological disorders, including Alzheimer’s, where it triggers inflammation and the degeneration of neurons. Holtzman’s team, with Samira Parhizkar, PhD, as first author, investigated lemborexant partly because it targets brain regions especially vulnerable to abnormal tau buildup. Importantly, it does not interfere with motor coordination, an issue often raised when considering sleep medications for people with dementia.

Mechanism of action and comparisons

Lemborexant belongs to a class of three FDA-approved sleep medications that act as orexin receptor antagonists. Orexins are small proteins that regulate sleep by binding to receptors on cell surfaces. By blocking both orexin receptor types (1 and 2), lemborexant disrupts orexin activity, influencing the sleep-wake cycle and related processes such as appetite regulation.

The pharmaceutical company Eisai provided lemborexant for these studies as part of a research collaboration with WashU Medicine focused on developing innovative treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and other neurodegenerative diseases.

In mice genetically prone to harmful tau buildup, lemborexant reduced brain damage compared with control mice. For example, those receiving lemborexant showed 30% to 40% larger volume in the hippocampus — a part of the brain important for forming memories — compared with control mice and those receiving a different sleep drug, zolpidem, which belongs to a different class of drugs. Zolpidem increased sleep but had none of the protective effects against tau accumulation in the brain that were seen with lemborexant, suggesting that the type of sleep aid — orexin receptor antagonist — is key in producing the neuroprotective effects. The researchers also found that the beneficial effects were only seen in male mice, which they are still working to understand.

Normal tau is important in maintaining the structure and function of neurons. When healthy, it carries a small number of chemical tags called phosphate groups. But when tau picks up too many of these chemical tags, it can clump together, leading to inflammation and nerve cell death. The authors found that by blocking orexin receptors, lemborexant prevents excess tags from being added to tau, helping tau maintain its healthy roles in the brain.

Holtzman said his team is continuing to explore the reasons lemborexant treatment’s neuroprotective effects were seen only in male mice. He speculated that the sex discrepancy could be due to the observation that female mice with the same genetic predisposition to tau accumulation developed less-severe neurodegeneration compared with male mice. With less damage to begin with, potential beneficial effects of the drug could have been smaller and more difficult to detect.

Reference: “Lemborexant ameliorates tau-mediated sleep loss and neurodegeneration in males in a mouse model of tauopathy” by Samira Parhizkar, Xin Bao, Wei Chen, Nicholas Rensing, Yun Chen, Michal Kipnis, Sihui Song, Grace Gent, Eric Tycksen, Melissa Manis, Choonghee Lee, Javier Remolina Serrano, Megan E. Bosch, Emily Franke, Carla M. Yuede, Eric C. Landsness, Michael Wong and David M. Holtzman, 27 May 2025, Nature Neuroscience.
DOI: 10.1038/s41593-025-01966-7

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), grant numbers P01NS074969, RF1NS090934 and RF1AG061776; the JPB Foundation; the Alzheimer’s Association, grant number AARF-21-850865; the Rainwater Foundation, and a COBRAS Feldman Fellowship.

Holtzman is an inventor on a patent licensed by Washington University to C2N Diagnostics on the therapeutic use of anti-tau antibodies. Holtzman cofounded and is on the scientific advisory board of C2N Diagnostics.

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9,200-Year-Old Cave Find Challenges Theories on Farming’s Origins


The 2019 Excavations in Toda Cave
The 2019 excavations in Toda Cave. Credit: Robert Spengler

A discovery in Uzbekistan shows that the roots of farming stretched far beyond the Fertile Crescent.

The emergence of agriculture during the Neolithic marked a turning point in the development of human culture. While scholars agree that farming practices arose independently in several regions, including Africa, the Americas, and eastern Asia, the origins of staple crops such as wheat, barley, and legumes have long been traced to the Fertile Crescent. There, a group known as the Natufians began harvesting wild grains around 10,000 years ago.

A recent interdisciplinary study now shows that by at least 9,200 years ago, communities as far north and east as southern Uzbekistan were also harvesting wild barley with sickle blades. This finding indicates that cultural practices leading toward agriculture were more widespread than previously recognized, challenging the idea that farming began solely as a response to climate pressures or population growth.

View of the Surkhandarya Valley
The view of the Surkhandarya Valley, where Toda Cave is located in southern Uzbekistan. Credit: Robert Spengler

Excavations at Toda Cave

The discovery comes from excavations at Toda Cave in the Surkandarya Valley of southern Uzbekistan. The work was carried out by an international team led by Xinying Zhou of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing, under the guidance of Farhad Maksudov, director of the Institute of Archaeology in Samarkand. From the cave’s oldest layers, the researchers recovered stone tools, charcoal, and preserved plant remains.

Archaeobotanical analysis, directed by Robert Spengler of the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, confirmed that the inhabitants collected wild barley from nearby valleys. Additional plant remains included pistachio shells and apple seeds. Examination of the tools—mostly limestone blades and flakes—revealed wear patterns consistent with cutting grasses and other plants, paralleling evidence from sites associated with early agricultural activity.

Specimen of Wild Barley
A modern specimen of wild barley with the individual grains naturally shattering off as they become ripe. Credit: Robert Spengler

Rethinking the transition to farming

“This discovery should change the way that scientists think about the transition from foraging to farming, as it shows how widespread the transitional behaviors were,” says Xinying.

“These ancient hunters and foragers were already tied into the cultural practices that would lead to the origins of agriculture,” Spengler adds. “A growing body of research suggests that domestication occurred without deliberate human intent, and the finding that people continually developed the behaviors which lead to agriculture supports this view.”

The research team will continue to investigate how commonplace these behaviors were in Central Asia during this time period. Additionally, the team is further exploring the possibility that these grains represent an early example of cultivation using morphologically wild barley. If the grains were cultivated, it could mean that a sperate origin of farming was being experimented with or that the tradition form the Fertile Crescent spread eastward much earlier than previously recognized. In either case, future research is likely to fill in many gaps in our understanding of the human narrative.

Reference: “9,000-year-old barley consumption in the foothills of central Asia” by Xinying Zhou, Robert N. Spengler, Bahediyoh Sayfullaev, Khasanov Mutalibjon, Jian Ma, Junchi Liu, Hui Shen, Keliang Zhao, Guanhan Chen, Jian Wang, Thomas A. Stidham, Hai Xu, Guilin Zhang, Qingjiang Yang, Yemao Hou, Jiacheng Ma, Nasibillo Kambarov, Hongen Jiang, Farhod Maksudov, Steven Goldstein, Jianxin Wang, Dorian Q. Fuller and Xiaoqiang Li, 25 August 2025, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2424093122

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Unique copper alloy ingot found in Sweden – The History Blog


A copper alloy ingot from the from the Scandinavian pre-Roman Iron Age that emerged from Särdal on the west coast of Sweden, in 2022 is the first of its kind ever found in Sweden. An analysis of its composition has found it is also a metallurgic twin to metal hoards from the same period found in Poland.

It was actually discovered almost 50 years ago by the Pedersen family when they were digging a fence post hole in their garden. No other objects were found with it or in the immediate area. They didn’t recognize it as a prehistoric artifact and stored it in their workshop for night on five decades until a friend of the family who was an amateur historian suggested that they show it to archaeologists at the Halland Museum of Cultural History.

It is a plano-convex ingot, a disc-shaped artifact with a flat topside and curved underside manufactured by open casting into a shallow mould or cavity in the ground. Also known as bun ingots or casting cakes, the pog-shaped ingots have been found across the Mediterranean area and continental Europe, with numerous examples found on Bronze Age and Iron Age shipwrecks.

Studies have shown that even though Scandinavia is rich in copper ore, it was not mined in the Bronze Age. Instead, all copper was imported from as far away as southern Europe, and the volume of trade was enormous. Researchers estimate that literal tons of foreign copper were imported into Scandinavia each year going back as far as the 3rd and 2nd millennium B.C. As essential raw materials, ingots are an important source of information about how metal was sourced and traded from the Bronze Age and later into the pre-Roman and Roman Iron Age.

Lead isotope and elemental analysis of copper alloy archaeological artifacts can pinpoint the geographic origin and chronology of the ore. The Särdal ingot emerged just as researchers at the University of Gothenburg. were running a new investigation into Bronze Age metal use in western Sweden, and since the plano-convex shape and dimensions of the ingot were typical of Bronze Age pieces, they incorporated this unique find into their study.

Much to their surprise, the analyses revealed that the ingot was of much later date, composed of copper-zinc-tin-lead alloy typical of the Iron Age. Information sharing with Polish archaeometallurgy researchers led to another surprise discovery: the Särdal ingot shared almost the exact same metallurgic composition two hoards of metal rods found in Poland between 2013 and 2015.

The source of the copper for all of the objects in the study, including the Särdal ingot and Polish rod ingots, were the zinc-rich copper ores occur of southwest Spain.

Iberian copper becomes a dominant ore source for Scandinavia already during the Late Bronze Age. Data from the subsequent Iron Age are not abundant, but the Iberian mines are intensely exploited during this period as well […]. Additionally, the quaternary alloys individuated in all the studied material is increasingly common in the Mediterranean since the 1st millennium BCE […], largely replacing the Bronze Age typical binary copper-tin alloy. Studies from the Baltic regions, which were intensely networking with West Sweden and southern Scandinavia during the pre-Roman Iron Age […], indicate that Cu-Sn-Zn-Pb alloy of the type from Särdal and the Iława Lakeland was present in the area already during the second half of the 1st millennium BCE […]. We propose therefore that the plano-convex ingot from Halland and the rod ingots from Poland can be both considered the outcome of maritime trade in metal connecting Scandinavia and the Baltic Sea to the Iberian Peninsula during the period corresponding to the Scandinavian pre-Roman Iron Age, following ancient routes in use since the Late Bronze Age.



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Famous Deaths on September 6


  • 394 Eugenius, Roman teacher of rhetoric and Western Emperor of Rome (392-94), beheaded after losing the Battle of Figidus
  • 952 Suzaku, 61st Emperor of Japan (930-46), dies at 30
  • 957 Liudolf, Duke of Swabia
  • 972 John XIII Crescentii, pope (965-72), dies
  • 1032 Rudolf III, last independent King of Burgundy, dies at about 62
  • 1276 Vicedomino de Vicedominis, Cardinal-Bishop of Palestrina and dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals (b. ca. 1215)
  • 1511 Ashikaga Yoshizumi, 11th Japanese shōgun of the Ashikaga shogunate (1493-1508), dies at 30
  • 1625 Thomas Dempster, Scottish historian (b. 1579)
  • 1635 Adrian Metius, Dutch astronomer and fort architect, dies at 63
  • 1649 Famiano Strada, Italian jesuit (bello belgico decades duae), dies at 77
  • 1649 Robert Dudley, English navigator and writer (Arcano del Mare), dies at 75
  • 1708 Sir John Morden, English merchant and philanthropist (b. 1623)
  • 1748 Edmund Gibson, English jurist (b. 1669)

  • 1782 Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson, wife of Thomas Jefferson (b. 1748)
  • 1783 Carlo Bertinazzi, Italian actor and writer (commedia dell’arte), dies at 72
  • 1808 Louis-Pierre Anquetil, French historian, wrote “A History of France” for Napoleon, dies at 85
  • 1811 Julien-Amable Mathieu, French composer, dies at 77
  • 1819 Georg Druschetzky [Jiří Družecký], Czech composer, oboist, and timpanist, dies at 74
  • 1831 Friedrich Wollank, German composer, dies at 49
  • 1863 Lucius March Walker, Confederate brigadier general, dies of his wounds in a duel at 33
  • 1868 Pierre Adolphe Rost, Louisiana judge, Confederate commissioner and plantation owner (b. 1797)
  • 1869 John Aaron Rawlins, American Union army general and Secretary of War under Ulysses S. Grant, dies of tuberculosis at 38
  • 1902 Frederick Able, English chemist and inventor (cordiet), dies at 75
  • 1902 Philip James Bailey, English poet (Universal hymn), dies at 86
  • 1903 Charles Ammi Cutter, American librarian (Expansive classification), dies at 66
  • 1919 Charles Beresford, British admiral and politician who opposed Admiralty reforms, dies at 73
  • 1919 Pier Pander, Dutch sculptor, dies at 55
  • 1924 Archduchess Marie Valerie of Austria, 4th and last child of Franz Joseph I of Austria and Elisabeth of Bavaria, dies at 56
  • 1926 Harriet Williams Russell Strong, American inventor, agricultural entrepreneur (created dams and reservoirs in California) women’s rights activistb, dies at 82 [1]
  • 1927 Lafayette “Lave” Cross [Vratislav Kriz], American MLB baseball infielder, 1892-1907 (Philadelphia Phillies, Philadelphia Athletics, and 5 other teams), dies of a heart attack at 61
  • 1937 Henry Kimball Hadley, American composer (Bianca; Streets of Pekin), and conductor (San Francisco Symphony, 1915-18), dies of cancer at 65
  • 1938 John Stuart Hindmarsh, British auto racer (24 Hours of Le Mans 1935), dies in a flying accident at 30
  • 1939 Arthur Rackham, English book illustrator (Grimm’s Fairy Tales, Rip van Winkle), dies of cancer at 71
  • 1941 Hugo Loudon, Dutch businessman and co-founder of Royal Dutch Shell, dies at 81
  • 1944 Robert Lejour, Belgian lawyer and resistance fighter, murdered
  • 1945 John S. Mccain Sr., US admiral, (WW II-Pacific Ocean), dies of a heart attack at 61
  • 1947 Paul Guthnick, German astronomer, dies at 76
  • 1948 Brooklyn Supreme, Belgian stallion and once the heaviest known horse at 1,450 kg (3,200 lb), dies at 20 [1]
  • 1948 Gerrit Hendrik Kersten, Dutch vicar and founder (Calvinist Party), dies at 66
  • 1950 Olaf Stapledon, British philosopher and sci-fi writer (Star Maker), dies at 64
  • 1951 James W. Gerard, American jurist and diplomat, dies at 84
  • 1951 Joe Falcaro, American bowler (National Match Game champion 1929-33), dies at 55

English actress (Mimi, Rembrandt) and musical performer, dies of liver and abdominal cancer at 54

  • 1952 Jose Forns y Cuadras, Spanish composer and teacher, dies at 54
  • 1956 Felix Borowski, British-American composer, educator (Chicago Musical College, 1896-1925), and musicologist (Chicago Symphony, 1908-56), dies at 84
  • 1956 Michael Ventris, English architect who deciphered Linear B, dies in a car accident at 34
  • 1959 Edmund Gwenn, English actor (Miracle on 34th Street), dies at 81
  • 1959 Kay Kendall [Justine McCarthy], British actress (Genevieve, The Constant Husband, Les Girls), dies of leukemia at 32
  • 1960 Jimmy Savo, American comedian (Through the Crystal Ball), dies at 65
  • 1962 Hanns Eisler, Austrian composer (East German National Anthem), dies at 64
  • 1962 Seiichiro Kashio, Japanese tennis player (b. 1892)
  • 1963 Margarita Sierra, Spanish-American actress (Surfside 6 – “Cha Cha”), dies after heart surgery at 27
  • 1965 (Ernest) “Red” Ingle, American jazz and novelty saxophonist, songwriter, arranger and vocalist (Ted Weems; Spike Jones and His City Slickers; The Natural Seven), dies of an internal hemorrhage at 58
  • 1965 Konstantin G. Mostras, Russian composer, dies at 79
  • 1966 Hendrik Verwoerd, South African Prime Minister (1958-66), assassinated at 64 by Dimitri Tsafendas
  • 1966 Luigi Perrachio, Italian pianist, composer (Nove Poemetti; 25 Preludi), and pedagogue (Liceo Musicale Torino), dies at 83

American nurse, birth control proponent and feminist, dies at 86

  • 1968 Karl Rankl, Austrian-born British composer and conductor (Covent Garden Opera Company), dies at 69
  • 1969 Arthur Friedenreich, Brazilian football player, dies at 77
  • 1971 Phil Edwards, Canadian-Guyanese athlete (5 x Olympic bronze 1928, 32, 36), dies of heart disease at 63
  • 1973 William Henry Harris, English composer, dies at 90
  • 1974 Olga Baclanova, Russian-American actress (Freaks, Docks of NY), dies at 75
  • 1974 Otto Kruger, American actor (Lux Video Theater), dies on 89th birthday
  • 1977 Guido Pannain, Italian composer and musicologist, dies at 85
  • 1977 Paul Burkhard, Swiss composer, dies at 65
  • 1978 Adolf Dassler, German entrepreneur (founder sportswear company Adidas), dies at 78
  • 1978 Tom Wilson, American record producer (Sun Ra; Bob Dylan; Simon & Garfunkel; Mothers of Invention; Velvet Underground), dies of a heart attack at 47
  • 1979 Ronald Binge, British composer (Elizabethan Serenade, Sailing By), dies at 69
  • 1981 Christy Brown, Irish painter and autobiography writer (My Left Foot; Down All the Days), dies from choking during a meal at 49
  • 1981 Joseph Yasser, Russian-American composer, dies at 88
  • 1981 Maria Palmer, Austrian-American actress (Days of Glory, Web), dies at 64
  • 1984 E. J. Andre, American actor (Eugene Bullock-Dallas), dies at 74
  • 1984 Ernest Tubb, American country musician (“Walking the Floor Over You”), dies of emphysema at 70
  • 1985 Eurreal “Little Brother” Montgomery, American jazz, boogie-woogie and blues pianist, singer, and composer (“Crescent City Blues”), dies at 79
  • 1985 Jane Frazee [Mary Jane Frehse], American actress, singer, and dancer (Beautiful But Broke, Beulah), dies at 70 of pneumonia
  • 1985 Johnny Desmond [Giovanni De Simone], American radio and big band singer (Bob Crosby; Gene Krupa; Your Hit Parade; Glenn Miller’s Army Air Forces Orchestra), dies of cancer at 65 [1]
  • 1985 Leon Orthel, Dutch pianist and composer, dies at 79
  • 1986 Blanche Sweet, American actress (DW Griffith movies), dies at 90
  • 1988 Leroy Brown [Roland Daniels], American professional wrestler, dies after a stroke at 37
  • 1990 Issan Dorsey, American founder of the Hartford St Zen Center in San Francisco, dies of AIDS at 57
  • 1990 Len Hutton, English cricket batsman (79 Tests, 19 x 100, HS 364, BA 56.67; Yorkshire CCC), dies at 74
  • 1991 Bob Goldham, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1922)
  • 1991 Donald Henry “Pee Wee” Gaskins, American serial killer (claimed to have murdered over 100 people), executed in the electric chair at 58
  • 1992 Pat Harder, American NFL fullback (Cardinals, Lions), dies at 70
  • 1993 Josephine Rich Corday, American vaudevillian, dies of kidney failure at 79
  • 1994 Duccio Tessari, Italian director, dies of cancer at 67
  • 1994 Max Kaminsky, American jazz trumpeter and bandleader (Max Kaminsky Orchestra), dies at 85

British rock session pianist (Rolling Stones (1967-75); The Who – “Getting In Tune”; The Kinks – “Sunny Afternoon”; Beatles – “Revolution”; John Lennon – “Jealous Guy”; Quicksilver Messenger Service), dies after surgical complications at 50

  • 1994 Wolf Donner, Austrian movie historian/festival director, dies at 55
  • 1995 Buster Mathis, American boxer (World Super Heavyweight title 1972), dies from heart failure at 52
  • 1995 Italo Valenti, Italian sculptor, dies at 83
  • 1997 P. H. Newby, British author and BBC radio director (b. 1918)
  • 1997 Philippe Rossillon, French civil servant and French language advocate, dies at 66

Japanese director and screenwriter who was posthumously named “Asian of the Century” in the “Arts, Literature, and Culture” category (Rashomon, Drunken Angel, Seven Samurai, Ran), dies of a stroke at 88

  • 1999 René Lecavalier, French Canadian sportscaster (b. 1918)
  • 2000 Abdul Haris Nasution, Indonesian army general, dies at 81
  • 2000 Breanna Lynn Bartlett-Stewart, American stillborn child – first to have cause of their stillborn solved by Kleihauer-Betke test (b. 2000)
  • 2000 Desmond Wilcox, English broadcaster (BBC, ITV), dies at 69
  • 2001 Carl Crack, German musician (Atari Teenage Riot) (b. 1971)
  • 2003 Harry Goz, American musical theatre actor and voice actor, dies at 71
  • 2003 Mohammad Oraz, Iranian mountain climber, dies after being caught in an avalanche climbing Gasherbrum I (b. 1969)
  • 2005 Hasan Abidi, Pakistani journalist and Urdu poet, dies at 76
  • 2007 Alex, African Grey parrot “student” of Dr. Irene Pepperberg (b. 1976)

Italian operatic tenor (Oh Giorgio; The Three Tenors), dies at 71

  • 2007 Madeleine L’Engle, American writer of young adult fiction, novelist, and poet (Wrinkle in Time and sequels; Ilsa; Lines Scribbled on an Envelope), dies at 88
  • 2007 Percy Rodriguez [Rodrigues], Canadian actor (Star Trek, Planet of the Apes, Brainwaves), dies of kidney failure at 89
  • 2008 Anita Page, American silent screen actress (Our Dancing Daughters), dies at 98
  • 2008 Sören Nordin, Swedish harness racing driver and trainer (b. 1917)
  • 2010 Richard Bilderback Hervig, American composer, dies at 92
  • 2011 Wardell Quezergue, American jazz, blues, and funk composer, arranger, record producer, and bandleader, known as the “Creole Beethoven”, dies at 81
  • 2012 Jake Eberts, Canadian film producer (Chariots of Fire, Dances with Wolves), dies from cancer at 71
  • 2013 Cameron Rusby, British Royal Navy officer (Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic in WWII), dies at 87
  • 2015 Martin Milner, American actor (Route 66, Adam 12), dies at 83
  • 2016 Lewis Merenstein, American record producer (Miriam Makeba; Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks; Glass Harp), dies of pneumonia at 81
  • 2016 Raymond Hide, British geophysicist (geomagnetism, meteorology, geodesy and oceanography), dies at 87
  • 2017 Derek David Bourgeois, British composer, conductor and educator (National Youth Chamber Orchestra), dies of cancer at 75
  • 2017 Jim McDaniels, American basketball forward (All American 1971; Western Kentucky Uni; No. 1 overall pick ABA Draft 1971; ABA All-Star 1972; Carolina Cougars), dies from diabetes complications at 69
  • 2017 Kate Millett, American feminist and author (Sexual Politics), dies at 82
  • 2018 Alan Oakman, English cricket all-rounder (2 Tests; Sussex CCC), dies at 88

American actor (Deliverance, Evening Shade, Strip Tease, Cannonball), dies of cardiac arrest at 82

  • 2018 Claudio Scimone, Italian conductor (I Solisti Veneti), dies at 83
  • 2018 Diane Leather, British athlete (first woman to run sub-5 minute mile), dies of a stroke at 85
  • 2018 Evelyn Anthony, English historical writer (Poellenberg Inheritance), dies at 92

American businessman who co-founded Amway, dies at 92

Pakistani cricket spin bowler (67 Tests; 236 wickets; best 9/56 1987), dies of cardiac arrest at 63

Zimbabwean revolutionary, Prime Minister of Zimbabwe (1980-87) and 1st black President of Zimbabwe (1988-2017), dies at 95

  • 2020 Kevin Dobson, American actor (Kojak, Knots Landing, Shannon), dies at 77

American Baseball Hall of Fame outfielder (6 × MLB All-Star; World Series 1964, 67; 8 × NL stolen base leader; St Louis Cardinals), dies from multiple myeloma at 81

  • 2020 Mike Sexton, American poker player (World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions 2006; Poker Hall of Fame) and commentator (WPT), dies from prostate cancer at 72
  • 2020 Mister Satan [Sterling Magee], American blues guitarist, singer, and percussionist (Satan & Adam), dies of COVID-19 complications at 84 [1]
  • 2020 Tom Jernstedt, American Basketball Hall of Fame administrator (NCAA 1972-2010), dies at 75
  • 2021 Adlai Stevenson III, American politician (U.S. Senator from Illinois, 1970-81), dies at 90

French actor (Breathless; Casino Royale; Magnifique), dies at 88

  • 2021 Jean-Pierre Adams, French soccer centre-back (22 caps; Nîmes, Nice, Paris Saint-Germain), dies after 39 years in a coma at 73
  • 2022 Dan Schachte, American ice hockey linesman (Canada Cup 1991; World Cup of Hockey 1996; Winter Olympics 2002; Stanley Cup Finals 1997, 98, 2000, 01, 02), dies from diabetes complications at 64
  • 2022 Guy Morriss, American football coach (Kentucky, Baylor, Texas A&M–Commerce) and guard (Philadelphia Eagles, New England Patriots), dies from Alzheimer’s disease at 71
  • 2023 Larry Chance [Figueiredo], American doo-wop vocalist (The Earls – “Remember Then”; “I Believe”), dies at 82
  • 2023 Marc Bohan, French fashion designer, dies at 97
  • 2023 Richard Davis, American jazz double bassist described as “the greatest bass ever heard on a rock album” (Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks), dies at 93
  • 2023 Robyn Broughton, New Zealand netball coach (Coca Cola Cup 1999, 2000, 01; National Bank Cup 2002, 03, 04, 07 Southern Sting; assistant coach NZ Silver Ferns 2000-02), dies at 80
  • 2024 Horst Weigang, German soccer goalkeeper (12 caps East Germany; Lokomotive Leipzig, Rot-Weiß Erfurt), dies at 83
  • 2024 Lucine Amara [Armaganian], American concert and opera soprano (Metropolitan Opera, 1950-91), dies at 99 [1]
  • 2024 Mark Moffatt, Australian guitarist, songwriter, and record producers (The Monitors; Tim Finn), dies of pancreatic cancer at 74 [1]
  • 2024 Paul Goldsmith, American auto and motorcycle racer (USAC stock car champion 1961-62; 127 NASCAR starts, 9 wins), dies at 98
  • 2024 Will Jennings, American Grammy and Academy Award-winning lyricist (Celine Dion – “My Heart Will Go On”; Steve Winwood – “Higher Love”; Eric Clapton – “Tears in Heaven”), dies at 80

September 6 Highlights

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Famous Birthdays on September 6


  • 1535 Emanuel van Meteren, Flemish merchant and historian, born in Antwerp (d. 1612)
  • 1620 Isabella Leonarda, Italian religious composer, born in Novara, Duchy of Milan (now Italy) (d. 1704)
  • 1627 Pierre Verdier, French composer working in Sweden, born in Paris, France (d. 1706)
  • 1633 Sebastian Knupfer, German composer, born in Asche, Lands of the Bohemian Crown (now Aš, Czech Republic) (d. 1676)
  • 1644 Juan Bautista Jose Cabanilles, Spanish organist and composer, born in Algemesí, Spain (d. 1712)
  • 1648 Johann Schelle, German composer, born in Geising, Electorate of Saxony, Holy Roman Empire (d. 1701)
  • 1656 Guillaume Dubois, French cardinal and statesman, born in Brive-la-Gaillarde, France (d. 1723)
  • 1697 Willem Gideon Deutz, Amsterdam regent, banker and merchant, born in Amsterdam (d. 1757)
  • 1702 Heinrich Nikolaus Gerber, German composer, born in Wenigenehrich, Imperial County of Reuss, Holy Roman Empire (now Germany) (d. 1775)
  • 1711 Henry Muhlenberg, German-born founder of the U.S. Lutheran Church, born in Einbeck, Germany (d. 1787)
  • 1729 Moses Mendelssohn, German Jewish enlightenment philosopher (Haksalah), born in Dessau, Principality of Anhalt (d. 1786)
  • 1732 Johan Wilcke, Swedish physicist, born in Wismar, Germany (d. 1796)

American patriot and French revolutionary, born in Chavaniac, France

  • 1762 Theodorus Frederik van Capellen, Dutch naval officer (Bombardment of Algiers), born in Nijmegen, Dutch Republic (d. 1824)

English physicist and chemist who developed the atomic theory of matter and researched colour blindness, born in Eaglesfield, England

  • 1781 Anton Diabelli, Austria publisher and composer, born in Mattsee, Austria (d. 1858)
  • 1788 Friedrich Wilhelm von Schadow, German painter (Modern Vasari), born in Berlin (d. 1862)
  • 1795 Frances Wright, Scottish writer and lecturer, born in Dundee, Scotland (d. 1852)
  • 1797 William “Extra Billy” Smith, American lawyer, politician (Governor of Virginia, 1846-49 and 1864-65; US Representative from Virginia, 1853-61), and oldest General in the Confederate Army, born in Marengo, Virginia (d. 1887)
  • 1802 Alcide d’Orbigny, French naturalist, born in Couëron, France (d. 1857)
  • 1805 Horatio Greenough, American neo-classical sculptor and writer (Form & Function), born in Boston, Massachusetts (d. 1852)
  • 1808 Emir Abdelkader, Algerian political and military leader, born in Mascara, Algeria (d. 1883)
  • 1811 James Melville Gilliss, American astronomer and Founder of Naval Observatory in Washington, born in Georgetown, Washington (d. 1865)
  • 1811 Johanna D Courtmans-Berchmans, Flemish author (Rozeken Pot), born in Auderghem, Belgium (d. 1890)
  • 1814 George-Étienne Cartier, French Canadian politician (joint Prime Minister of Canada 1858-62), born in Saint-Antoine-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, Canada (d. 1873)
  • 1815 St. John Richardson Liddell, American Civil War Confederate General, born in Wilkinson County, Mississippi (d. 1870)
  • 1816 Francis Stebbins Bartow, Confederate colonel, born in Chatham County, Georgia (d. 1861)
  • 1817 Alexander Tilloch Galt, Canadian politician, a father of Canadian Confederation, born in Chelsea, England (d. 1893)
  • 1819 Carl Ferdinand Pohl, German-Austrian music historian and composer, born in Darmstadt, Grand Duchy of Hesse by the Rhine, German Confederation (d. 1887)
  • 1819 Nicolae Filimon, Romanian writer and critic (Ciocoii Vechi Si Noi), born in Bucharest, Romania (d. 1865)
  • 1819 William Starke Rosecrans, American inventor, politician and US Army General (Union Army), born in Delaware County, Ohio (d. 1898)
  • 1826 Vladimir Nikitich Kashperov, Russian composer, born in Chufarovo, Russia (d. 1894)
  • 1827 John Morrison Oliver, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), and lawyer, born in Penn Yan, New York (d. 1872)
  • 1829 Marie Zakrzewska, Polish physician, born in Berlin, Germany (d. 1902)
  • 1838 Samuel Arnold, Lincoln conspirator, born in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. (d. 1906)
  • 1850 Louis Apol, Dutch painter, etcher and literary, born in The Hague, Netherlands (d. 1936)
  • 1855 Ferdinand Hummel, German composer, born in Berlin, Prussia (now Germany) (d. 1928)
  • 1857 Zelia Nuttall, American Mexican archeologist and historian (Codex Nuttall), born in San Francisco, California (d. 1933) [1]

American pacifist, social activist, feminist, author, co-founder of ACLU (Nobel Prize for Peace, 1931), born in Cedarville, Illinois [1]

  • 1863 Rodolfo Lenz, German-Chilian linguist (El Papiamento), born in Halle, Province of Saxony, Kingdom of Prussia (now Germany) (d. 1938)
  • 1868 Heinrich Häberlin, Swiss politician, member of the Federal Council, born in Weinfelden, Switzerland (d. 1947)

Austrian author (Bambi, a Life in the Woods), born in Budapest, Austria-Hungary

  • 1869 Walford Davies, English composer, born in Oswestry, Shropshire, England (d. 1941)
  • 1876 John Macleod, Scottish-Canadian physiologist (Nobel 1923), born in Clunie, Dunkeld, Scotland (d. 1935)
  • 1876 Willem Adriaan Bonger, Dutch criminologist (Race & Crime), born in Amsterdam (d. 1940)
  • 1877 Charles “Buddy” Bolden, African-American jazz cornetist, born in New Orleans, Louisiana (d. 1931)
  • 1877 Petar Stojanovic, Serbian composer, born in Budapest (d. 1957)
  • 1879 Joseph Wirth, German politician (5th Chancellor of the Weimar Republic, 1921-22; Member of Reichstag, 1920-33), and Stalin Peace Prize winner (1955), born in Freiburg im Breisgau, German Empire (d. 1956)
  • 1879 Max Schreck, German stage, silent and sound screen actor (Nosferatu – “Count Orlock”), born in Berlin, Germany (d. 1936)
  • 1879 Neal Rev Dodd, American actor (You Belong to Me), born in Fort Madison, Iowa (d. 1966)
  • 1880 Jean-Louis Pisuisse, Dutch cabaret singer and comedian (“M’n Eerste” – “My First”; “The French Governess”), born in Vlissingen, Netherlands (d. 1927)
  • 1881 Charlie Dell, American actor and comedian (Pickle in the Middle), born in New York City (d. 1971)
  • 1882 John Powell, American pianist and composer, born in Richmond, Virginia (d. 1963)
  • 1884 Emerson Whithorne, American composer, born in Cleveland, Ohio (d. 1958)
  • 1885 Franz Theodor Csokor, Austrian author (Writings on the Wall), born in Vienna, Austria (d. 1969)
  • 1885 Otto Kruger, American actor (Lux Video Theater, High Noon), born in Toledo, Ohio (d. 1974)

American businessman, diplomat and father of JFK, RFK and Teddy, born in Boston, Massachusetts

  • 1888 Red Faber, American Baseball HOF pitcher (World Series 1917; AL ERA leader 1921, 22; Chicago White Sox 1914-33), born in Cascade, Iowa (d. 1976)
  • 1889 Sarat Chandra Bose, Indian activist for independence, born in Howrah, British India (d. 1950)
  • 1890 Clara Kimball Young, American actress (Return of Chandu), born in Chicago, Illinois (d. 1960)
  • 1890 Manfred Gurlitt, German composer, born in Berlin, Germany (d. 1973)
  • 1892 Edward Victor Appleton, English physicist (Nobel Prize 1947), born in Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire, England (d. 1965)
  • 1893 Claire Chennault, American aviator and military leader (Flying Tigers), born in Commerce, Texas (d. 1958)
  • 1893 Irving Bacon, American actor (Branded Men, Fort Ti), born in St Joseph, Missouri (d. 1965)
  • 1896 Mario Praz, Italian literary critic and scholar (La carne, la morte, e il diavolo), born in Rome, Italy (d. 1982)

American theatrical producer (Diamond Horse Show), born in New York City

  • 1900 Julien Green, American-French writer (Frere Francois), born in Paris (d. 1998)
  • 1900 W.A.C. Bennett, Canadian politician (Premier of British Columbia, 1952-72), born in Hastings, New Brunswick (d. 1979)
  • 1901 John Erik Jonsson, American businessman and Mayor of Dallas, born in New York City (d. 1995)
  • 1902 Morgan Beatty, American news anchor (Du Mont Evening News), born in Little Rock, Arkansas (d. 1975)
  • 1904 Arvi Kivimaa, Finnish writer (Groenende Cross), born in Hartola, Finland (d. 1984)
  • 1904 Lyubomir Pipkov, Bulgarian pianist, composer, music educator, and (with his father) Antarctic glacier namesake, born in Lovech, Bulgaria (d. 1974)
  • 1906 Alexander Bodon, Hungarian-Dutch architect (RAI, Dollywood), born in Vienna, Austria (d. 1993)
  • 1906 John Meulenhoff, Dutch publisher, born in Amsterdam (d. 1978)
  • 1906 Raymond Keane, American actor (Midnight Sun, Love Eagle), born in Denver, Colorado (d. 1973)
  • 1907 Elizabeth Ferrars, British crime writer, born in Yangon, Myanmar (d. 1995)
  • 1907 Johnny Kelly, American marathon runner (Berlin 1936, Boston 1935..1991), born in Medford, Massachusetts (d. 2004)
  • 1908 Anthony Wagner, English Officer of Arms at the College of Arms and author on heraldry, born in London (d. 1995)
  • 1908 Louis Essen, British physicist (time measurement, speed of light determination), born in Nottingham, England (d. 1997)
  • 1908 Paul Lavalle, American bandleader (Cities Service Band of America), born in Beacon, New York (d. 1997)
  • 1909 John Ridgely, American actor (Northern Pursuit, They Died with Their Boots On, Air Force), born in Chicago, Illinois (d. 1968)
  • 1910 Frank Fidler, English artist, born in London (d. 1995)
  • 1911 Bentley Bridgewater, British Museum secretary, born in Vancouver (d. 1996)
  • 1911 Harry Danning, American baseball player, born in Los Angeles, California (d. 2004)
  • 1912 Stephen Murray, English actor (Alice in Wonderland), born in Partney, England (d. 1983)
  • 1912 Vince DiMaggio, American baseball center fielder (MLB All Star 1943-44; Pittsburgh Pirates), born in Martinez, California (d. 1986)
  • 1912 Wayne Barlow, American composer, born in Elyria, Ohio (d. 1996)
  • 1915 Franz Josef Strauss, German politician, Minister of Defense (1956-62), born in Munich, Germany (d. 1988)
  • 1917 George Mann, English cricketer, born in Byfleet, Surrey, England (d. 2001)
  • 1917 Philipp von Boeselager, German Wehrmacht officer, failed assassin of Adolf Hitler, born in Bonn, Germany (d. 2008)
  • 1919 Wilson Greatbatch, American engineer and pioneering inventor (cardiac pacemaker), born in Buffalo, New York (d. 2011)
  • 1921 Carmen Laforet, Spanish author, born in Barcelona, Spain (d. 2004)
  • 1921 Norman Joseph Woodland, American co-inventor of the barcode, born in Atlantic City, New Jersey (d. 2012) [1]
  • 1923 Peter II Karadjordjevic, last King of Yugoslavia (1934-45), born in Belgrade, Serbia (d. 1970)
  • 1923 William Kraft, American timpanist, percussionist (Los Angeles Percussion Ensemble), conductor, and composer (The Demise of Suriyodhaya; Avalanche), born in Chicago, Illinois (d. 2022)
  • 1924 John Melcher, American politician (Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Montana), born in Sioux City, Iowa (d. 2018)
  • 1925 Andrea Camilleri, Italian author (Inspector Montalbano novels, born in Porto Empedocle, Italy (d. 2019)
  • 1925 Eddie Duran, American jazz guitarist (Vince Guaraldi; Cal Tjader; Benny Goodman), born in San Francisco, California (d. 2019)
  • 1925 Jimmy Reed, American blues singer (Soulin’, Big Boss Man), born in Dunleith, Mississippi (d. 1976)
  • 1926 Arthur William Oldham, English composer, born in London (d. 2003)
  • 1926 Claus von Amsberg, husband of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, born in Hitzacker, Germany (d. 2002)
  • 1927 Keith Humble, Australian composer, born in Geelong, Australia (d. 1995)
  • 1927 Margaret Keane, American painter whose husband claimed credit for her work (Big Eyes paintings), born in Nashville, Tennessee (d. 2022) [1]
  • 1928 Evgeny Svetlanov, Russian conductor (USSR State Symphony, 1965-2000; Residentie Orchestra 1992-2000), pianist, and composer (Siberian Fantasy), born in Moscow, USSR (d. 2002)
  • 1928 Fumihiko Maki, Japanese architect who won 1993 Pritzker Prize, designed 4 World Trade Center, born in Tokyo, Japan (d. 2024) [1]
  • 1928 Robert M. Pirsig, American author (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance), born in Minneapolis, Minnesota (d. 2017)
  • 1928 Rudolf Plyukfelder, Soviet light heavyweight lifter (Olympic gold 1964), born in Novoorlivka, Ukraine
  • 1929 Dow Finsterwald, American golfer (PGA Championship 1958; PGA Player of the Year 1958), born in Athens, Ohio (d. 2022)
  • 1929 Hsu Tsang-Houei, Taiwanese composer, born in Changhau, Taiwan (d. 2001)
  • 1930 Andre Beullens, Flemish painter, born in Brussels, Belgium (d. 1976)
  • 1930 Bernie Winters [Weinstein], British comedian, actor, and TV presenter (The Big Top Variety Show), born in London, England (d. 1991)
  • 1931 Sander Levin, American politician (Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Michigan), born in Detroit, Michigan
  • 1932 Gilles Tremblay, Canadian composer, ondes Martenot player, and educator, born in Saguenay, Quebec (d. 2017) [1]
  • 1934 Jody McCrea, American actor (Ben Matheson-Wichita Town), born in Los Angeles, California (d. 2009)
  • 1934 Ragaa al-Gedawy, Egyptian actress (The Stranger), born in Ismailia, Egypt (d. 2020)
  • 1935 Bob Bouber [Boris Blom], Dutch singer (ZZ & Masks) and actor, born in Amsterdam (d. 2019)
  • 1935 Jock Wallace, Scottish soccer manager (Berwick Rangers, Rangers, Leicester City, Motherwell, Sevilla), born in Wallyford, Scotland (d. 1996)
  • 1937 Brigid Berlin, American actress (Andy Warhol films), born in New York City (d. 2020)
  • 1937 Irina Solovyova, Russian cosmonaut, born in Tula Oblast, Soviet Union
  • 1937 Jo Anne Worley, American comedienne (Laugh-in), born in Lowell, Indiana
  • 1937 Sergio Aragonés, Spanish-Mexican cartoonist (Groo the Wanderer), born in Sant Mateu, Spain
  • 1938 Alan Charles Downes, British founder member of Independent Television News and cameraman, born in Enfield, Middlesex (d. 1996)
  • 1938 Henry Diltz, American music photographer (Woodstock; Monterey Pop Festival; album covers), born in Kansas City, Missouri
  • 1938 Joan Tower, American composer (Breakfast Rhythms), born in New Rochelle, New York
  • 1939 Dan Cragg, American soldier and author, born in Rochester, New York
  • 1939 David Allan Coe, American country musician (“Mona Lisa Lost Her Smile”; Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy), born in Akron, Ohio
  • 1939 Susumu Tonegawa, Japanese molecular biologist (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1987), born in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan
  • 1940 Elizabeth Murray, American abstract expressionist painter, and printmaker known for her use of shaped canvases, born in Chicago, Illinois (d. 2007)
  • 1940 Jackie Trent, English singer-songwriter (“Neighbours” theme) and actress, born in Newcastle-under-Lyme (d. 2015)
  • 1941 Michael “Micky” Waller, British blues and rock drummer (Long John Baldry; Jeff Beck Group), born in Hammersmith, London, England (d. 2008)
  • 1941 Monica Mason, British ballerina and arts administrator (Director of the Royal Ballet, 2002-12), born in Johannesburg, South Africa
  • 1941 Willibrord Frequin, Dutch television reporter, born in Arnhem, Netherlands
  • 1942 Dave Bargeron, American jazz-rock trombonist and tuba player (Blood, Sweat & Tears), born in New York City
  • 1942 Mel McDaniel, American country singer (“Baby’s Got Her Blue Jeans On”), born in Checotah, Oklahoma (d. 2011)
  • 1943 Richard J. Roberts, English biochemist and molecular biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, born in Derby, England
  • 1944 Aubrey Mokoape, South African political anti-apartheid activist and leader (Pan-African Congress and Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa), born in Johannesburg, South Africa
  • 1944 Donna J. Haraway, America scholar, feminist and author (The Cyborg Manifesto), born in Denver, Colorado
  • 1944 Gordon DeMarco, American writer and activist, born in Akron, Ohio (d. 1995)
  • 1944 Linda Kaye Henning, American actress (Betty Joe-Petticoat Junction), born in Los Angeles, California
  • 1944 Swoosie Kurtz, American actress (Slap Shot, Garp, Sisters), born in Omaha, Nebraska
  • 1945 Larry Lucchino, American baseball executive (President/CEO Boston Red Sox; World Series 2004, 07, 13), born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (d. 2024)
  • 1945 Petr Novák, Czech musician (George and Beatovens, Flamengo), born in Prague, Czechoslovakia (d. 1997)
  • 1946 Bryan D. O’Connor, U.S. Marine Corps colonel and astronaut (STS 61B, STS 40), born in Orange, California
  • 1946 Buizen Beernd [Bennie Jolink], Dutch singer and musician (Normal), born in Hummelo, Netherlands
  • 1947 Bruce Rioch, Scottish footballer and coach, born in Aldershot, England

1947 American actress (SNL: Kate & Allie; 3rd Rock From the Sun), born in Cambridge, Massachusetts

American singersongwriter (“Do Ya Wanna Funk”), born in Watts, Los Angeles, California

  • 1948 Claydes Charles Smith, American guitarist (Kool & The Gang), born in Jersey City, New Jersey (d. 2006)
  • 1948 Jo Baker, American blues-rock vocalist (Elvin Bishop), born in Brockton, Massachusetts (d. 1996)
  • 1949 Jimmy Litherland, English rocker (Mitarbeit), born in Salford, Lancashire, England
  • 1949 Mhlabunzima Maphumulo, South African Kwazulu chief (first President of Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa, born in Maqongqo district of Kwazulu-Natal (d. 1991)
  • 1951 Barry Troyna, English educational sociologist and author (Racism, Education and the State), born in London (d. 1996)
  • 1952 (Steven) “Buddy” Miller, American folk and country singer-songwriter, born in Fairborn, Ohio
  • 1952 Jack Waldman, American jazz and rock keyboardist and avant garde composer, born in Perth Amboy, New Jersey (d. 1986)
  • 1953 Katherine Cannon, American actress (Father Murphy, Survivors), born in Hartford, Connecticut
  • 1953 Mohamed Kedir, Ethiopian 10k runner (Olympic bronze 1980), born in Ethiopia
  • 1954 Banner Thomas, American rock bassist (Molly Hatchet), born in Orange Park, Florida (d. 2017)
  • 1954 Carly Fiorina, Former CEO of Hewlett-Packard and political (R) candidate, born in Austin, Texas
  • 1954 Jon Erikson, American swimmer and 1st to triple cross the English Channel in 1981, born in Chicago, Illinois (d. 2014) [1]
  • 1954 Patrick O’Hearn, American rock bassist (Missing Persons), born in Los Angeles, California
  • 1955 Anne Henning, American 500m speed skater (Olympic gold 1972), born in Raleigh, North Carolina
  • 1955 Carl E. Walz, American NASA astronaut (STS 51, 65, 79), born in Cleveland, Ohio
  • 1956 Bill Ritter, American politician (41st Governor of Colorado), born in Denver, Colorado
  • 1957 Gwyn Evans, Welsh rugby union fullback (12 caps Wales, 2 caps British & Irish Lions; Maesteg RFC) and coach (Italy 1977-78), born in Maesteg, Wales
  • 1957 Joe Smyth, American country singer (“Betty’s Bein’ Bad”), born in Portland, Maine
  • 1957 José Sócrates, Prime Minister of Portugal (2005-11) indicted for corruption, born in Porto, Portugal
  • 1957 Michaëlle Jean, 27th Governor-General of Canada, born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti
  • 1957 Paul Harrhy, Welsh actor and opera singer (Intelligence Park), born in South Wales (d. 1996)
  • 1958 Buster Bloodvessel [Douglas Trendle], English singer (Bad Manners), born in London
  • 1958 Jeff Foxworthy, American comedian (Jeff Foxworthy-The Jeff Foxworthy Show), born in Atlanta, Georgia
  • 1958 Michael Winslow, American actor and comedian (Police Academy), born in Spokane, Washington
  • 1958 Nigel Westlake, Australian musician and composer (Missa Solis – Requiem for Eli), born in Perth, Australia
  • 1959 David Tickle, British audio engineer and record producer (Split Enz; Four Non-Blondes), born in Guildford, Surrey, England
  • 1961 Pal Waaktaar, Norwegian rock guitarist and vocalist (A-ha), born in Oslo, Norway
  • 1961 Scott Travis, American drummer (Judas Priest), born in Norfolk, Virginia
  • 1961 Simon Reeve, Australian TV presenter and host (Million Dollar Minute), born in Perth, Australia

1962 American Republican politician, Governor of New Jersey (2010-18) and presidential candidate, born in Newark, New Jersey

  • 1962 Doug Boyle, English guitarist and composer (Robert Plant; Nigel Kennedy), born in Buckhurst Hill, Essex, England
  • 1962 Elizabeth Vargas, American TV journalist (20/20), born in Paterson, New Jersey
  • 1962 Kevin Willis, American basketball center (NBA C’ship 2003 SA Spurs; NBA All-Star 1992 Atlanta Hawks; one of 15 players 16,000+ career points & 11,000+ rebounds), born in Los Angeles, California
  • 1963 Alice Sebold, American novelist (The Almost Moon), born in Madison, Wisconsin
  • 1963 Bryan Simonaire, American politician (Maryland State Senator), born in Baltimore, Maryland
  • 1963 Geert Wilders, Dutch politician (Party for Freedom leader), born in Venlo, Netherlands
  • 1963 József Kiprich, Hungarian soccer player (Feyenoord), born in Tatabánya, Hungary
  • 1963 Mark Chesnutt, American country singer (Too Cold at Home), born in Beaumont, Texas
  • 1963 Pat Nevin, Scottish soccer winger (28 caps; Chelsea, Everton, Tranmere Rovers), born in Glasgow, Scotland
  • 1964 Rosie Perez, American actress (Do the Right Thing, White Men Can’t Jump), born in Brooklyn, New York
  • 1965 Christopher Nolan, Irish handicapped writer (Under Eye of Clock), born in Mullingar, Ireland (d. 2009)
  • 1965 John Polson, Australian actor (The Sum of Us) and film director, born in Sydney, Australia
  • 1966 Joan Guetschow, American biathlete (Olympics 1994), born in Akron, Ohio
  • 1967 Macy Gray [Natalie McIntyre], American R&B and soul singer-songwriter (“I Try”), born in Canton, Ohio
  • 1968 Christopher Brookmyre, Scottish writer (Quite Ugly One Morning), born in Glasgow, Scotland
  • 1968 Gene Patrick, American actor (Gemini: Twin Stars), born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  • 1968 Pat Meares, American baseball infielder (Minnesota Twins), born in Salina, Kansas
  • 1968 Paul Rea, American TV and web journalist, born in Clarkesville, Georgia
  • 1969 Aaron Pierce, American NFL halfback (NY Giants), born in Seattle, Washington
  • 1969 Ben Finegold, American chess player, born in Detroit, Michigan
  • 1969 CeCe Peniston, American singer (Finally) and beauty queen (Miss Black Arizona 1989), born in Phoenix, Arizona
  • 1969 Helen Labdon, English model (page 3), born in Bracknell, England

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