May 24

© 1997, 1998 by Paul A. Schons

May 24, 1686

It was on May 24, 1686 that the German physicist, Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit was 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 As the name indicates he also invented the Fahrenheit temperature scale (now outdated in most of the world, but still used in the U. S.) In other work Fahrenheit is noted as the one who discovered that water can remain liquid below its freezing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.

May 24, 1810

Birth of Abraham Geiger in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Geiger was a Rabbi at Wiesbaden, Breslau, Frankfurt and Berlin. His most noted work is Übersetzung der Bibel in ihrer Abhängigkeit von der innern Entwicklung des Judentums (1857). Geiger was highly influential in his times in Reform Judaism. He influenced the simplification of ritual, use of the vernacular in liturgy and the return to prophetic teachings. He worked to de-emphasize the importance of a return to Israel.

May 24, 1816

Birth of Emanuel Leutze in Schwäbisch-Gmünd, Germany. Leutze came to America with his family as a youngster. In 1841 he returned to Germany to study at the art academy in Düsseldorf. He remained in Germany for 20 years, but was dedicated to painting a series of works on American history. His most known painting is "Washington Crossing the Delaware". He returned to the United States in 1859 and in 1860 was commissioned to decorate a stairway in the Capitol Building. The name of his composition there is "Westward the Course of Empire Takes its Way".

May 24, 1824

Justus von Liebig is appointed außerordentlicher Professor at the University of Giessen, Germany at age 21.

May 24, 1848

Germany's first parliament in Frankfurt elects a committee consisting of 30 people to draft a constitution.

May 24, 1848

Annnete von Droste-Hülshoff dies in Meersburg, Germany. She is one of the leading writers of the 19th Century. She is most noted for her poetry, Gedichte (1838) and Das geistliche Jahr (1851). Her novella, Das Judenbuche (1842) is also highly respected.

May 24, 1854

Birth of Louis Alexander, Prince of Mountbatten (born Battenberg) in Graz, Austria. Mountbatten became the British admiral of the fleet and worked with Churchill to mobilize the British fleet in World War I. He was born in Austria, the son of Fürst Alexander of Hessia. He had been naturalized as a British subject in 1868. He was a leader of several significant British naval campaigns from 1882 through the time of World War I. Despite his service he was forced to resign as First Sea Lord on October 29, 1914 due to his German origins. In 1917 he renounced all of his German titles, took on the new name, Mountbatten and was given the title Marquess of Milford Haven. He was married to Princess Victoria of Hesse-Darmstadt. Their grandson was Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh who would marry Queen Elizabeth II.

May 24, 1872

Death of Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld in Dresden, Germany. Schnorr was a painter associated with the Lukasbund. He went to Italy to learn wall painting and after his return to Germany was commissioned by Bavarian king, Ludwig I, to bring the art of wall painting to Munich.