1996 In Science

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1996 In Science

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The year 1996 in Science and Technology consisted of many events, including those below.

ASTRONOMY AND SPACE EXPLORATION

January 30 - Comet Hyakutake was discovered.

February 17 - NEAR Shoemaker Spacecraft launched. The spacecraft landed on the Asteroid 433 Eros in 2001 .

May 20 - First naked eye observation of Comet Hale-Bopp .

November 7 - NASA launches the Mars Global Surveyor .

The second 9.8 m Reflecting Telescope opens at Keck Observatory , Mauna Kea , Hawaii .

BIOLOGY

July 5 - Dolly The Sheep , the first Mammal to be successfully Clone d from an adult cell, is born.

August 6 - NASA announces that the ALH 84001 Meteorite thought to originate from Mars , contains evidence of primitive life-forms.

The Yeast '' Saccharomyces Cerevisiae 's'' Genome is sequenced, it is the first eukaryotic genome to be fully sequenced.

COMPUTER SCIENCE

January 23 - The first version of the Java Programming Language is released.

February 10 - Deep Blue defeats Chess grand-master Garry Kasparov for the first time.

Lov Grover , at Bell Labs , published the Quantum Database Search Algorithm .

IRCNet is founded.

EXPLORATION

May 23 - Swede Göran Kropp reaches Mount Everest Summit alone without Oxygen after having Bicycle d there from Sweden .

METEOROLOGY

January 7 - A large Blizzard hits the Eastern United States , killing more than 100.

May 13 - Severe Thunderstorm s and a Tornado in Bangladesh kills 600.

July 18 - 21 - Storms provoke severe Flood ing on the Saguenay River in Quebec , in one of Canada 's most costly Natural Disaster s.

TECHNOLOGY

Zenith introduces the first HDTV -compatible front projection TV in the United States. Broadcasters, TV & PC manufacturers set industry standards for digital HDTV.

APS Film Format is introduced.

Successful demonstration of Magnetic Refrigeration .

AWARDS

Nobel Prize

--- , Douglas D. Osheroff , Robert C. Richardson

--- , Sir Harold Kroto , Richard Smalley

--- , Rolf M. Zinkernagel

BIRTHS

July 5 - Dolly The Sheep (d. 2003 ), the world's first Clone d Mammal .

DEATHS

January 12 - Bartel Leendert Van Der Waerden (b. 1903 ), Mathematician .

March 26 - David Packard (b. 1912 ), Engineer .

June 17 - Thomas Kuhn (b. 1922 ), Philosopher of Science .

August 1 - Tadeus Reichstein (b. 1897 ), Nobel Prize -winning Chemist .

September 20 - Paul Erdős (b. 1913 ), Mathematician .

December 20 - Carl Sagan (b. 1934 ), Astronomer .