December 29th

On this day - 29th December 1959 - The birth of  nanotechnology 

Richard Feynman held a lecture titled "There's plenty of  room at the bottom" in the American Physical Society in December 1959. This is considered to be the birth of  the field "Nanotechnology". Feynmans lecture did not create any huge attention at the time, and it wasn't until the 1980s that nanotechnology again was rediscovered and the 1990s before it became a research field. Feynman and his lecture is none the less considered the inspiration for nanotechnology. Feynman received the Noble price in Physics in 1964, although not for his ideas related to nanotechnology. Feynman died in 1988 at the age of 69 years old.

Feynman was also an author and he became known for his easier-to-read books on physics, but also for his more entertaining semi-biographies.