In December 1912 the lawyer and amateur archaeologist Charles Dawson and Arthur Smith Woodward of the British Museum presented fragments of a skull and jaw supposedly found in a gravel pit at Piltdown in Sussex, claimed to be the 'missing link' between apes and humans. The find, which pleased British nationalism since it showed an early Briton with a large brain, misled researchers for four decades. In 1953, fluorine dating and microscopy showed that it was a forgery, made from a medieval human skull and an orang-utan jaw stained to look old. The perpetrator was never positively identified.
Before and after
- 1912Founding of Russia men's national football team
- 1912Construction of Atatürk Airport
- 1912Rise of vorticism
- 1912Henrietta Leavitt finds the period-luminosity law
- 1912The Piltdown Man is announced
- 6 January 1912Alfred Wegener proposes continental drift
- 28 January 1912Birth of Jackson Pollock
- 1 March 1912Founding of World Tennis
- 23 March 1912Birth of Wernher von Braun
More in Civilizations & archaeology
- from 1760 to 1820Industrial Revolution
- 6 February 1819Founding of modern Singapore
- from 1839 to 1876Tanzimat
- 3 May 1841Founding of New Zealand
- 1891Discovery of Gundestrup cauldron
- 17 December 1907Founding of Bhutan
The era
This moment belongs to the Industrial era (1760 CE to 1914 CE), steam, factories and revolutions. You can also browse everything in the 20th century.