Portrait of Svante Arrhenius

Birthday profile

Svante Arrhenius

Svante Arrhenius, Swedish physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1927)

Born
February 19, 1859
Died
October 2, 1927
Zodiac sign
Pisces
Birth year
1859

About Svante Arrhenius

Svante August Arrhenius (19 February 1859 – 2 October 1927) was a Swedish scientist. Originally a physicist, but often referred to as a chemist, Arrhenius was one of the founders of the science of physical chemistry. In 1903, he received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, becoming the first Swedish Nobel laureate. In 1905, he became the director of the Nobel Institute, where he remained until his death. Arrhenius was the first to use the principles of physical chemistry to estimate the extent to which increases in the atmospheric carbon dioxide are responsible for the Earth's increasing surface temperature. His work played an important role in the emergence of modern climate science. In the 1960s, Charles David Keeling reliably measured the level of carbon dioxide present in the air showing it was increasing and that, according to the greenhouse hypothesis, it was sufficient to cause significant global warming. The Arrhenius equation, Arrhenius acid, Arrhenius base, lunar crater Arrhenius, Martian crater Arrhenius, the mountain of Arrheniusfjellet, and the Arrhenius Labs at Stockholm University were so named to commemorate his contributions to science. At the age of three, Arrhenius taught himself to read without the encouragement of his parents and, by watching his father's addition of numbers in his account books, became an arithmetical prodigy.

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

The world when Svante Arrhenius was born

Svante Arrhenius was born in 1859. 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 1859

  • Best-selling bookOn the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin

Headlines and milestones

  • Top headlineJohn Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry
  • Technology milestoneEdwin Drake drills first successful oil well (Pennsylvania)
  • World population~1.39B

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderJames Buchanan
  • U.S. population29.2M

1859 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Svante Arrhenius's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure18592026
Population29.2M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

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