Rontgen Born: X-Ray Pioneer Who Shared His Discovery
Wilhelm Röntgen discovered X-rays on November 8, 1895, by accident — he noticed fluorescence on a screen across the room from a cathode ray tube covered with cardboard. He spent six weeks confirming what he'd found before publishing. The first X-ray image he made was of his wife Anna's hand; you can see the bones and her wedding ring. He called the rays 'X' because their nature was unknown. He won the first Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901. He donated the prize money to his university. Born March 27, 1845, in Lennep, Germany. He died February 10, 1923, from colon cancer. He refused to patent X-ray technology, believing it should belong to humanity. The first medical X-ray examination of a human patient happened within months of his paper.
March 27, 1845
181 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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