An Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis. Freud is best known for his theories of the unconscious mind and the mechanism of repression, and for creating the clinical method of psychoanalysis for investigating the mind and treating psychopathology. He died on this day in 1939. Tell me about your mother.
Neil Armstrong – No. 147
An American aviator and former NASA astronaut best known as the first person to set foot on the Moon. The first Moon walk occurred exactly 42 years ago today. Armstrong served as commander of the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing mission, which fulfilled U.S. President John F. Kennedy’s goal of reaching the Moon before the Soviet Union by the end of the 1960s.
Benjamin Franklin – No. 100
One of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America and inventor of the lightning rod and bifocals. Now he is on the $100 bill, so I’m making him my 100th 8-bit character. It’s all about the benjamins.
In mostly unrelated news, I launched my first website exactly 14 years ago today.
Albert Einstein – No. 82
German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity and revolutionized physics. He’s a popular model for depictions of mad scientists and absent-minded professors.
Louis Pasteur – No. 306
A French chemist and microbiologist remembered for his remarkable breakthroughs in the causes and preventions of diseases. He created the first vaccines for rabies and anthrax and is best known for inventing a method to stop milk and wine from causing sickness, a process now known as pasteurization. He was born on this day in 1822.
When I was a kid, a memorable book for me was The Value of Believing in Yourself: The Story of Louis Pasteur (1977) by Spencer Johnson. I refuse to believe that Louis Pasteur did not look like a bizzaro Uncle Sam.