Rosalind Franklin was born on 25 July 1920 in Notting Hill. A British chemist and X-ray crystallographer, Franklin made important contributions to the understanding of the structure of DNA, coal, graphite and viruses. At King's College London in 1952 she and her student Raymond Gosling produced the X-ray diffraction image known as Photo 51, which showed the helical structure of DNA. Her data were shared with James Watson and Francis Crick without her knowledge, and they were important to their model of the double helix. She died of ovarian cancer before the Nobel Prize was awarded to Watson, Crick and Maurice Wilkins. Her role was long underrecognized, and later scholarship has given her fuller credit.
Before and after
- from 28 April 1920 to 18 October 1991Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic
- 18 May 1920Birth of John Paul II
- 4 June 1920Treaty of Trianon
- 14 June 1920Death of Max Weber
- 25 July 1920Birth of Rosalind Franklin
- 10 August 1920Treaty of Sèvres
- 16 August 1920Birth of Charles Bukowski
- 18 August 1920The 19th Amendment gives American women the vote
- 22 August 1920Birth of Ray Bradbury
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