1962 - William Coblentz died.

Library of Congress

Coblentz was an American physicist who contributed greatly to the studies of infrared spectroscopy and radiometry. He was the first to experimentally verify Planck's law relating radiance frequency and temperature of a blackbody. He also discovered many chemical functional groups absorbed infrared wavelengths. His infrared studies of the planet Mars discovered a large day/night temperature difference which implied a thin atmosphere.