On this Day

In 1932 the neutron was discovered. English physicist James Chadwick was later awarded the Nobel Prize for his discovery. Sir James Chadwick, CH, FRS was an English physicist who was awarded the 1935 Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of the neutron in 1932. In 1941, he wrote the final draft of the MAUD Report, which inspired the U.S. government to begin serious atomic bomb research efforts. He was the head of the British team that worked on the Manhattan Project during the Second World War. He was knighted in England in 1945 for his achievements in physics.

In 2010 A massive earthquake strikes Chile. The tremor measured 8.8 on the Richter scale and left more than 500 people dead and thousands injured. The 2010 Chile earthquake occurred off the coast of central Chile on Saturday, 27 February at 03:34 local time, with intense shaking lasting for about three minutes. It was felt strongly in six Chilean regions, that together make up about 80 percent of the country's population.
The earthquake was felt in the capital Santiago.Tremors were also felt in many Argentine cities, including Buenos Aires and Córdoba. and tremors were felt as far north as the city of Ica in southern Peru.

In 1807 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born. He was the most widely known and best-loved American poet of his lifetime. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow achieved a level of national and international prominence previously unequaled in the literary history of the United States.
The poem "Paul Revere's Ride," became a mainstay of national culture, long remembered by generations of readers who studied it in school. He is one of the few American writers honoured in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey, and believed to be the first (his bust was installed there in 1884).

In 2002 Spike Milligan died.

At birth he was named Terence Alan Milligan and was a British-Irish comedian, writer, musician, poet, playwright and actor. The son of an Irish father and an English mother, his early life was spent in India where he was born. The majority of his working life was spent in the United Kingdom. He disliked his first name, and began to call himself "Spike" after hearing a band on Radio Luxembourg called Spike Jones and his City Slickers.

Milligan was the co-creator, main writer and a principal cast member of the groundbreaking British radio programme, The Goon Show, performing a range of roles including the popular Eccles and Minnie Bannister characters. He was the earliest-born, longest-lived and last surviving member of the Goons.
Milligan wrote and edited many books, including Puckoon and his seven-volume autobiographical account of his time serving during the Second World War, beginning with Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall.

He is also noted as a popular writer of comical verse; much of his poetry was written for children, including Silly Verse for Kids (1959). After success with The Goon Show, Milligan translated this success to television with Q5 which was a surreal sketch show which is credited as a major influence on the members of Monty Python's Flying Circus.