September 16

© 1997, 1998 by Paul A. Schons

September 16, 1736

Death of Daniel Fahrenheit in The Hague, Netherlands (born in Danzig, Germany (now in Poland). Fahrenheit was the inventor of the alcohol thermometer and the mercury thermometer (1714). As the name indicates he also invented the Fahrenheit temperature scale (now outdated in most of the world, but still used in the U. S.) So now when someone asks you the great Minnesota question this summer, "Is it hot enough for you?" you'll know who gave us the tools to know how hot it is. In other work Fahrenheit is noted as the one who discovered that water can remain liquid below its freezing point and the boiling temperature of water can vary depending on air pressure.

September 16, 1853

Birth of Albrecht Kossel in Rostock, Germany. Kossel won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1910 for his work on nucleic acids and proteins. Kossel also discovered histidine, thymic acid and agmatine.

September 16, 1876

Fritz Henkel founds Henkel & Cie in Aachen. (Moved to Düsseldorf in 1878.)

September 16, 1885

Birth of Karen Horney in Hamburg, Germany. She earned her M.D. from the University of Berlin. After several years of practice in psychiatry she immigrated to the U. S. She challenged many of Freud's ideas, holding that neuroses are caused by problems in interpersonal relationships. She was primarily disturbed by Freud's concepts of libido, the death wish and penis envy. She founded the Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis.

September 16, 1887

Birth of Hans Arp in Strassburg.

September 16, 1889

Birth of Mercedes Jellinek in Austria. In Germany, Gottlieb Daimler had invented the automobile and was manufacturing and selling the Daimler. Emil Jellinek, an Austrian banker, was an enthusiastic Daimler owner and investor in the company. In a sweetheart deal he placed a large order for cars, obtained distribution rights and insisted that the car be named after his little girl, Mercedes. Today the car and the company are known more by that little girl's names than the inventors of the automobile and founders of the company that makes the car, Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz.

September 16, 1891

Birth of German Admiral, Karl Dönitz, in Grünau bei Berlin. Dönitz served as a submarine officer in WWI. In defiance of the Treaty of Versailles he rebuilt a submarine fleet after the war. In 1943 he was appointed commander of the German navy. After Hitler's death, Dönitz assumed the leadership of the nation for a few days, long enough to surrender. The Nürnberg court sentenced him to 10 years in prison, a term which he actually served.

September 16, 1892

Birth of Werner Bergengruen in Riga, Germany (at that time).

September 16, 1943

Birth of Oskar Lafontaine in Saarlouis, Germany.

September 16, 1983

The Austrian body building champion, movie actor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, becomes a U. S. citizen.