On 26 February 1935, in a field near Daventry in England, the Scottish scientist Robert Watson-Watt and his assistant Arnold Wilkins showed to an Air Ministry committee that radio waves reflected from a Handley Page Heyford bomber, flying through the beam of a BBC short-wave transmitter, could be detected with a receiver, proving that aircraft could be located by radio. Within months the team was developing the system and in 1936 started to build the Chain Home line of radar stations along the British coast. In the Battle of Britain in 1940 the radar network gave the RAF's Fighter Command warning of the approach of German aircraft, and was a crucial advantage.
Before and after
- 1935Child mortality falls below 30% worldwide
- 8 January 1935Birth of Elvis Presley
- 16 January 1935Establishment of Rapa Nui National Park
- 31 January 1935Birth of Kenzaburō Ōe
- 26 February 1935Watson-Watt demonstrates radar at Daventry
- 1 April 1935Founding of Reserve Bank of India
- 14 April 1935Black Sunday and the Dust Bowl
- 14 May 1935Founding of Griffith Observatory
- 20 May 1935Birth of José Mujica
More in Science & technology
- 11 January 1922Insulin is first used to treat diabetes
- 1925Quantum mechanics is formulated
- 1927Hubble–Lemaître law
- 1927Uncertainty principle
- 1936Alan Turing defines the universal machine
- from 1939 to 1946Manhattan Project
The era
This moment belongs to the Modern era (1914 CE to 1945 CE), world wars and a changing world. You can also browse everything in the 20th century.