History of Physics and Astronomy

This version sorts the important events by name. The lifetimes of people are highlighted in blue, important people are in bold blue.

P

Pallas - second asteroid discovered - Heinrich Olbers 1802
Palomar 200" reflector completed and goes into operation 1948
Parabolic mirrors – free from spherical aberration 1629
Parallax measurement of distance of 61 Cygni – Bessel, Henderson, Struve 1838
Parity violation in weak decays - Chien-Shiung Wu 1957
Pascal 1623-1662
Pathfinder – first roving robot on Mars 1997
Pauli 1900-1958
Pauli – Nobel prize for Physics 1945
Pauli exclusion principle 1925
Pearl, Reines – Nobel prize for Physics 1995
Pendulum clock – Huygens 1656
Pendulum theory – Galileo (?1582)1581
Pentode 1929
Perrin, Jean – Perrin tube 1870-1942
Perrin – Nobel prize for Physics 1926
Phase contrast microscope – Zernike 1934
Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society first appeared 1665
Photocell – selenium 1873
Photoelastic effect - Brewster 1816
Photoelectric effect discovered - Hallwachs 1887
Photoelectric cell 1905
Photoelectric equation – Millikan 1916
Photoelectricity 1839
Photography 1814
Photometer – wax block photometer 1884
Photometric source – standard – melting platinum 1939
Photomultiplier tube 1947
Photon theory for photoelectric effect - Albert Einstein 1905
Phototelegraphy – Abbe Caselli 1862
Pi meson discovered 1947
Piezo electric effect – P and J. Curie 1880
Pioneer 4 - orbit round the Sun 1959
Pisa - weights dropped from the tower by Galileo (?)1591
Plague and fire of London 1665-1666
Planck 1858-1947
Planck – Nobel prize for Physics 1918
Planck's constant - measurement by Millikan 1912
Planetary model of the atom proposed - Hantaro Nagaoka 1904
Plate glass invented in Normandy 1688
Plato 427-347 BC
Pliny – watching gladiators through an emerald 77
Pluto - New Horizons mission launched on January 19th 2006 at 19:00 UT 2006
Pluto discovered 1930
Plutonium bomb – USSR 1949
Plutonium discovered 1942
Poincare 1854-1912
Polarisation – rotation of plane of polarisation in a magnetic field 1845
Polarisation by reflection – Etienne Malus 1808
Polarisation in Iceland spar – double refraction - Bartholinus 1669
Polarisation of light Huygens 1678
Polarisation of starlight by interstellar dust observed 1949
Polarisation using Herapathite 1852
Polaroid invented – Land 1932
Polonium discovered 1898
Pope Sylvester III labels beads in the abacus 99
Positive and negative electricity - Franklin 1740
Positive ray analysis – neon isotopes 1913
Positron discovered – Anderson 1932
Positronium 1951
Potential in electricity - Green 1828
Potentiometer - Poggendorff 1841
Powell – Nobel prize for Physics 1950
Prevost's theory of exchanges – heat 1792
Principia published 1687
Principle of unitary symmetry 1964
Printing invented 1450
Printing press - Caxton 1476
Proton – name suggested by Rutherford 1920
Prototype calculating machine - Charles Babbage 1822
Ptolemy 70-147
Pulleys 900 BC
Pulsar – first optical identification in Crab nebula 1969
Pulsars – Bell and Antony 1967
Pythagoras 572-492 BC