Portrait of Paul Ulrich Villard

Birthday profile

Paul Ulrich Villard

Paul Ulrich Villard, French chemist and physicist (died 1934)

Born
September 28, 1860
Died
January 13, 1934
Zodiac sign
Libra
Birth year
1860

About Paul Ulrich Villard

Paul Ulrich Villard was a French chemist and physicist. He discovered gamma rays in 1900 while studying the radiation emanating from radium. At the time when he discovered what we now call gamma rays, Villard was working in the chemistry department of the École Normale Supérieure rue d'Ulm, Paris. Villard was a modest man and he did not suggest a specific name for the type of radiation he had discovered. In 1908, Villard pioneered the use of an ionization chamber for the dosimetry of ionizing radiation.

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

Paul Ulrich Villard timeline

  1. He discovered gamma rays in 1900 while studying the radiation emanating from radium.
  2. In 1908, Villard pioneered the use of an ionization chamber for the dosimetry of ionizing radiation.

The world when Paul Ulrich Villard was born

Paul Ulrich Villard was born in 1860. 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.

Headlines and milestones

  • Top headlineAbraham Lincoln elected — South Carolina secedes
  • Technology milestonePony Express mail service begins
  • World population~1.4B

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderJames Buchanan
  • U.S. population31.4M

1860 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Paul Ulrich Villard's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure18602026
Population31.4M341 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, 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.