1914 Historical Events April 24 3 sources

The Franck–Hertz experiment, a pillar of quantum mechanics, is presented to the German Physical Society

The Franck–Hertz experiment, a pillar of quantum mechanics, is presented to the German Physical Society.

On April 24, in the year 1914, The Franck–Hertz experiment, a pillar of quantum mechanics, is presented to the German Physical Society. This event is recorded as a Historical Events event in the history of April 24, a notable event in this corner of history.

The Franck–Hertz experiment was the first electrical measurement to clearly show the quantum nature of atoms. It was presented on 24 April 1914, to the German Physical Society in a paper by James Franck and Gustav Hertz. Franck and Hertz had designed a vacuum tube for studying energetic electrons that flew through a thin vapour of mercury atoms. They discovered that when an electron collided with a mercury atom, it could lose only a specific quantity of its kinetic energy before flying away. This energy loss corresponds to decelerating the electron from a speed of about 1.3 million metres per second to zero. A faster electron does not decelerate completely after a collision, but loses precisely the same amount of its kinetic energy. Slower electrons merely bounce off mercury atoms without losing any significant speed or kinetic energy.

Key Facts

  • This event took place on April 24, 1914 (AD era).
  • It is categorised as a Historical Events event in recorded history.
  • Referenced in 3 Wikipedia articles.
  • Wikipedia source last updated on 25 March 2026.

On This Date in History

Type Year Date Event
Historical Events 2025 Apr 24 A mass stabbing at a school in Nantes, France, leaves one person dead and three others wounded
Notable Deaths 2025 Apr 24 Roy Phillips, British musician (born 1941)
Notable Deaths 2024 Apr 24 Bob Cole, Canadian sports announcer (born 1933)
Notable Deaths 2024 Apr 24 Terry Hill, Australian rugby league player (born 1972)
Notable Deaths 2024 Apr 24 Donald Payne Jr
Notable Deaths 2024 Apr 24 Mike Pinder, British musician (born 1941)
Notable Deaths 2023 Apr 24 Wang Xiaolong, Chinese Coast guardsman (born 1995)
Notable Deaths 2022 Apr 24 Andrew Woolfolk, American saxophonist (born 1950)
Notable Deaths 2017 Apr 24 Robert Pirsig, American author and philosopher (born 1928)
Notable Deaths 2016 Apr 24 Tommy Kono, American weightlifter and coach (born 1930)
Notable Deaths 2015 Apr 24 Władysław Bartoszewski, Polish journalist and politician, Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs (born 1922)
Notable Deaths 2014 Apr 24 Hans Hollein, Austrian architect, designed Haas House (born 1934)
Notable Deaths 2014 Apr 24 Sandy Jardine, Scottish footballer and manager (born 1948)
Notable Deaths 2014 Apr 24 Shobha Nagi Reddy, Indian politician (born 1968)
Notable Deaths 2014 Apr 24 Tadeusz Różewicz, Polish poet and playwright (born 1921)
Historical Events 2013 Apr 24 A building collapses near Dhaka, Bangladesh, killing 1,134 people and injuring about 2,500 others
Historical Events 2013 Apr 24 Violence in Bachu County, Kashgar Prefecture, of China's Xinjiang results in death of 21 people
Selected Events 2013 Apr 24 A building in the Savar Upazila of Dhaka, Bangladesh, collapsed, killing 1,134 people, making it the deadliest accidenta
Historical Events 2011 Apr 24 WikiLeaks starts publishing the Guantanamo Bay files leak
Notable Deaths 2011 Apr 24 Sathya Sai Baba, Indian guru and philanthropist (born 1926)
Selected Events 2011 Apr 24 Secret documents relating to detainees at the United States' Guantanamo Bay detention camp were released on WikiLeaks an
Notable Deaths 2008 Apr 24 Jimmy Giuffre, American clarinet player, and saxophonist, and composer (born 1921)
Historical Events 2006 Apr 24 Bombings in the Egyptian resort city of Dahab kill 23 people and injure about 80
Notable Deaths 2006 Apr 24 Brian Labone, English footballer (born 1940)
Notable Deaths 2006 Apr 24 Moshe Teitelbaum, Romanian-American rabbi and author (born 1914)
Historical Events 2005 Apr 24 Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is inaugurated as the 265th Pope of the Catholic Church taking the name Pope Benedict XVI
Notable Deaths 2005 Apr 24 Ezer Weizman, Israeli general and politician, 7th President of Israel (born 1924)
Notable Deaths 2005 Apr 24 Fei Xiaotong, Chinese sociologist and academic (born 1910)
Historical Events 2004 Apr 24 The United States lifts economic sanctions imposed on Libya 18 years previously, as a reward for its cooperation in elim
Notable Deaths 2004 Apr 24 José Giovanni, French-Swiss director and producer (born 1923)
Notable Deaths 2004 Apr 24 Estée Lauder, American businesswoman, co-founded Estée Lauder Companies (born 1906)
Notable Deaths 2003 Apr 24 Nüzhet Gökdoğan, Turkish astronomer and mathematician (born 1910)
Selected Events 2003 Apr 24 A backhoe breached a pipeline in Toronto, Canada, which caused a gas explosion that killed seven people
Notable Births 2002 Apr 24 Olivia Gadecki, Australian tennis player
Notable Deaths 2002 Apr 24 Lucien Wercollier, Luxembourgish sculptor (born 1908)
Notable Deaths 2001 Apr 24 Josef Peters, German racing driver (born 1914)
Notable Deaths 2001 Apr 24 Johnny Valentine, American wrestler (born 1928)
Notable Births 1999 Apr 24 Ziyu He, Chinese violinist
Notable Births 1999 Apr 24 Jerry Jeudy, American football player
Notable Births 1998 Apr 24 Ryan Newman, American actress
Notable Births 1997 Apr 24 Lydia Ko, New Zealand golfer
Notable Births 1997 Apr 24 Veronika Kudermetova, Russian tennis player
Notable Deaths 1997 Apr 24 Allan Francovich, American director and producer (born 1941)
Notable Deaths 1997 Apr 24 Pat Paulsen, American comedian and activist (born 1927)
Notable Deaths 1997 Apr 24 Eugene Stoner, American engineer, designed the AR-15 rifle (born 1922)
Historical Events 1996 Apr 24 In the United States, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 is passed into law
Notable Births 1996 Apr 24 Ashleigh Barty, Australian tennis player
Notable Births 1995 Apr 24 Kehlani, American singer-songwriter
Notable Deaths 1995 Apr 24 Lodewijk Bruckman, Dutch painter (born 1903)
Historical Events 1994 Apr 24 A Douglas DC-3 ditches in Botany Bay after takeoff from Sydney Airport

This article draws on content from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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