Portrait of C. T. R. Wilson

Birthday profile

C. T. R. Wilson

Charles Thomson Rees Wilson, Scottish physicist and meteorologist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1959)

Born
February 14, 1869
Died
November 15, 1959
Zodiac sign
Aquarius
Birth year
1869

About C. T. R. Wilson

Charles Thomson Rees Wilson was a British meteorologist and physicist who shared the 1927 Nobel Prize in Physics with Arthur Compton for his invention of the cloud chamber. In 1895, Wilson discovered that at a large enough expansion, ratio supersaturated water vapour condensates even without dust which he removed by previous condensations, contrary to the previous research by John Aitken. He then won a scholarship to attend Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he became interested in physics and chemistry. Wilson became particularly interested in meteorology, and in 1893 he began to study clouds and their properties.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

C. T. R. Wilson timeline

  1. Wilson became particularly interested in meteorology, and in 1893 he began to study clouds and their properties.
  2. In 1895, Wilson discovered that at a large enough expansion, ratio supersaturated water vapour condensates even without dust which he removed by previous condensations, contrary to the previous research by John Aitken.

The world when C. T. R. Wilson was born

C. T. R. Wilson was born in 1869. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1869

  • Best-selling bookWar and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Headlines and milestones

  • Top headlineTranscontinental Railroad completed at Promontory Summit
  • Technology milestoneSuez Canal opens
  • World population~1.49B

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderUlysses S. Grant
  • U.S. population35.6M

1869 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in C. T. R. Wilson's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure18692026
Population35.6M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Library of Congress, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.