aug 19, 1895 - Otto Hahn (1879 - 1968)

Description:

Discovered nuclear fission
1938, Hahn and Strassmann, while looking for transuranic elements in a sample of uranium that had been irradiated with neutrons, found traces of the element barium. This discovery, announced in 1939, was irrefutable evidence, confirmed by calculations of the energies involved in the reaction, that the uranium had undergone fission, splitting into smaller fragments consisting of lighter elements.

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