The year 1896 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Mathematics

• The prime number theorem on the distribution of primes is proved.^[1]
• Charles L. Dodgson publishes the first part of Symbolic Logic.
• Karl Pearson publishes significant contributions to correlation and regression.^[1]

Microbiology

• Ernest Duchesne discovers the antibiotic properties of penicillin as part of his doctoral research, but this is not followed up at this time.

Physics

• March 1 - French physicist Henri Becquerel discovers the principle of radioactive decay when he exposes photographic plates to uranium.

Physiology and medicine

• Antoine Marfan first describes the symptoms of Marfan syndrome.^[2][3][4]
• An improved sphygmomanometer, for the measurement of blood pressure, is described by Scipione Riva-Rocci.^[5]

Technology

• Thomas Ellis Brown produces an innovative design of rolling bascule bridge for Brooklyn.^[6]
• Gottlieb Daimler produces the first truck.^[7]
• December 11 - William Preece introduces Guglielmo Marconi's work in wireless telegraphy to the general public at a lecture, "Telegraphy without Wires", at the Toynbee Hall in London.

Awards

• Copley Medal: Karl Gegenbaur
• Wollaston Medal for geology: Eduard Suess

Births

• January 3 - Jay Laurence Lush (died 1982), American livestock geneticist.
• February 2 - Kazimierz Kuratowski (died 1980), Polish mathematician.
• February 14 - Arthur Milne (died 1950), English space physicist.
• March 29 - Wilhelm Ackermann (died 1962), German mathematician.
• June 1 - Shintaro Uda (died 1976), Japanese electrical engineer.
• July 16 - Otmar von Verschuer (died 1969), German eugenicist.
• August 15 - Gerty Cori (n e Radnitz) (died 1957), Prague-born winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Deaths

• June 23 - Joseph Prestwich (born 1812), English geologist.
• July 13 - Friedrich August Kekul von Stradonitz (born 1829), organic chemist.
• August 10 - Otto Lilienthal (born 1848), aviation pioneer.
• September 18 - Hippolyte Fizeau (born 1819), physicist.
• October 21 - James Henry Greathead (born 1844), British civil engineer.
• November 3 - Eugen Baumann (born 1846), chemist.
• November 22 - George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr. (born 1859), American civil engineer.
• December 10 - Alfred Nobel (born 1833), inventor.

References

fr:1896 en science he:1896 mk:1896 no:Vitenskaps ret 1896 nn:Vitskap i 1896 pt:1896 na ci ncia sv:Vetenskaps ret 1896